[TC] Best Cargo/Preformance Drone

Lx7 · Post by **Lx7** » Wed, 6. Oct 10, 16:40

I was designing a military grade complex and amazingly got to the production point that I had a lot of extra loop space.. witch does not happen vary often. There is room for 24 military grade factories and I was thinking that I could make them drone factories.

I was just imagining being in a xenon sector and having a aran full of drones spill out all over the place. The thing I need to know is what type of make-able drone is the most effective for its cargo space it takes up.

AN ARAN FULL OF DRONES!!

Infekted · Post by **Infekted** » Wed, 6. Oct 10, 16:57

Mk2 fighter drones.

StarTroll · Post by **StarTroll** » Wed, 6. Oct 10, 17:04

I'd say the Kerris is best cargo wise / fighting capacity, but I never tested it, it takes 3 cargo space. I personnally use Fighter Drones MKII and they are already quite powerful, and take 4 cargo space.
You also make much more Kerris Drones per hour than Fighter Drones MKII.

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Wed, 6. Oct 10, 17:31

By stripping out all equipment which takes space from the Aran, you have the ability to launch 60,000 of the basic drone, 30,000 MkII drones, and 40,000 Keris.

Any option is enough to kill most computers. And certainly enough to stomp all over the Xenon. Repeatedly.

40,000 Keris would take 67 hours to fill your Aran with.
30,000 MkII drones requires 334 hours.
60,000 Basic drones takes 92 hours.

Lx7 · Post by **Lx7** » Wed, 6. Oct 10, 17:32

StarTroll wrote:I'd say the Kerris is best cargo wise / fighting capacity, but I never tested it, it takes 3 cargo space. I personnally use Fighter Drones MKII and they are already quite powerful, and take 4 cargo space.
You also make much more Kerris Drones per hour than Fighter Drones MKII.

Hmm maybe a mix of the because mk2s are for slower bigger stuff and kerrises are for fighters.

What are the damage amounts anyways?

stealthhammer · Post by **stealthhammer** » Wed, 6. Oct 10, 17:43

MKI (Basic) seems to be for fighters (Impulse Ray Emiter) - Light damage

Keris for me don't seem to hit much and are slow as sargum. Armed with Electromagnetic Plasma Cannon - Medium damage

MKII seem to be the best I think Armed with a two PACs and decent speed and seems to deal good damage all around.

Also this is my opinion all the drones.

Infekted · Post by **Infekted** » Wed, 6. Oct 10, 18:00

I would also recommend not releasing an Aran full of drones whilst IS... Unless you like your processor melting its way out of your computer

Lx7 · Post by **Lx7** » Wed, 6. Oct 10, 18:08

I'm thinking MK2.. I looked at the stats and even know the keris would stay alive longer I think the MK2 would be the better choose.

Lx7 · Post by **Lx7** » Wed, 6. Oct 10, 18:12

Infekted wrote:I would also recommend not releasing an Aran full of drones whilst IS... Unless you like your processor melting its way out of your computer

Maybe a aran is too much.. it would be 30000 mk2s.. Maybe a hyperion with 100-200 maybe 300 max MK2s might be a nice in sector show.

Infekted · Post by **Infekted** » Wed, 6. Oct 10, 18:27

A few weeks ago I went into a Xenon sector and dropped 1000 mk1 fighter drones. I have a very nice computer but was experiencing significant lag... 1 or 2 frames per second...

StarTroll · Post by **StarTroll** » Wed, 6. Oct 10, 19:48

For those with weak rigs like mine, 100 drones might be enough to get 0.5 FPS, so it's not always very playable, but with a very good rig on low graphics and nothing in space except you and your enemy, you might be able to unleash a few thousand...maybe

Laden Swallow · Post by **Laden Swallow** » Wed, 6. Oct 10, 22:16

When you consider the size of the fighter drone and ergo its ability to survive incoming fire, a speed that is just about right for an AI to handle and incredible manoeuvrability it can engage in large numbers. Then combine the fact that the enemy is able to engage very few fighter drones at most (and usually only 1 at a time), you quickly find that fighter drones are exceptionally powerful (even the most basic variant).

Afterall, if suppose 1 fighter drones can do say 100kJ of damage before being destroyed, and the enemy can only engage one fighter drone at a time, then 2 fighter drones can deal 300kJ of damage, ..., 50 fighter drones can deal 127.5MJ of damage. Then add the fact that each fighter drone will cause the enemy to go evasive to try to avoid taking incoming fire, they increase the survivability of each other fighter drone.

When I was playing a harmless game (no personal kills taking you above 0% harmless), then 50 fighter drones could eliminate any group of targets (the largest I encountered was a respectably large group of M3s at the start of the player headquarters plot), and with a TM nearby you can order them to protect the TM and if there are no enemies left in the sector they will attempt to redock at the TM, if the TM is in the sector next door, they can all simultaneously redock and find you have taken almost no losses. Even better, if you transfer yourself to a TM, then there is a hotkey to get all fighter drones to 'protect me' and then just transfer yourself to another ship and send the TM to the next sector.

In the same game I would carry 8 laser towers, 200 fighter drones, 10 marines in a Boron Angel and went to capture an Aran. Due to the low fight rank, the enemies involved were minimal, but my assets were able to protect me without me personally firing a shot.

My latest idea is to use a freight drone to drop all the fighter drones, but as I've started again it will take me a little while before I'm willing to test this (if I can equip and use a jumpdrive in a freight drone then it will have so many applications - minelayer (either kamikaze close to enemy capital ships to drop and arm the mines, or to dump a whole load by a gate just prior to taking a station defense mission and in principle taking out the entire armada), drone launcher, or laser tower dumper all in a tiny little package).

Lx7 · Post by **Lx7** » Thu, 7. Oct 10, 00:20

I have never used a freight drone but does it store more space then it takes up? and can it still hold all its freight even after in your ship?

Post by **Nanook** » Thu, 7. Oct 10, 00:58

A freight drone takes up 3 cargo units, and can, when deployed, hold 800 cargo units. When brought back aboard a ship, it releases its cargo to the ship and once again becomes cargo itself.

zazie · Post by **zazie** » Thu, 7. Oct 10, 09:23

Now get your Aran filled with Freight Drones filled with Fighter Drones

StarTroll · Post by **StarTroll** » Thu, 7. Oct 10, 12:35

The easier way would be to fill an Aran with drones, with TSs with drones, with an Aran with Drones, with TSs with Drones...well you know what's following.

Lx7 · Post by **Lx7** » Fri, 8. Oct 10, 06:06

Nanook wrote:A freight drone takes up 3 cargo units, and can, when deployed, hold 800 cargo units. When brought back aboard a ship, it releases its cargo to the ship and once again becomes cargo itself.

what about a ship having 3 cargo units left and you dock a full drone at it? will its cargo just go poof?

vincentf563 · Post by **vincentf563** » Fri, 8. Oct 10, 06:34

This is really funny. Last week I had 200 MKII's i didn't know what to do with. So why not dump them in 427 and see what happens. They took out 3 Q's and a K before they went tits up. And that not from being shot but from over reaching their power limit. That being said, a power of ten increase in numbers would be quite wasteful.

vincentf563 · Post by **vincentf563** » Fri, 8. Oct 10, 06:37

StarTroll wrote:The easier way would be to fill an Aran with drones, with TSs with drones, with an Aran with Drones, with TSs with Drones...well you know what's following.

Well...why not a Mobile Mining Base Ship times two using the transporter device. I likes manual cuz alls ya gotta do is punches in the numbereses.

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[TC] Best Cargo/Preformance Drone

[TC] Best Cargo/Preformance Drone