How can I recall my drones?

[Eloking]

So, basically in all my previous game I used M.A.R.S. mod which got some custom shortcut for drones. But now that I'm tried to play the game unmodified, I've not found any way to recall my drones. The only way I've found is to tell the drone to stop one by one and collect them manually.

What am I missing? That can't be the only way.

[kurush]

Order them to protect a ship with an available docking bay. If there are no enemies around, they will dock. This can be done via a broadcast command.

[Eloking]

And if I'm piloting a Vidar....?

[kurush]

And if I'm piloting a Vidar....?

Jump in another ship with a docking port...

[Bill Huntington]

Eloking, you are not missing anything. That is the standard way to collect drones. One thing to do after combat is finished is to do shift -9, telling them to protect you. That will bring them close to you. Then you tell them to stop, and pick them up, one by one. If you have an open docking bay, that is a bonus.

After a few tries, I usually got all or most of them.

[perkint]

Have a spare TM sat around. When you need drones collecting, jump him IS and order the drones to protect him. You head OOS for a bit till they are docked then jump the TM to you. Get your drones back and also stock up on ecells/missiles/anything else you need from his cargo.

Couple this with a CLS pilot set to keep the TM stocked with any goodies you often need more supplies of and you have a useful and (almost) automatic resupply ship

Tim

[Eloking]

You got to be f***ing kicking me.......

Each time I want to send my drone, I either have to pick them one-by-one, or wait for a TM to pick them up one-by-one each time I wanna change sector? Damn, resisting the *modified* tag just got way harder.......

[Alan Phipps]

Or just think of them as being expendable - just like missiles. If you needed to use them to save your backside then consider having to buy a few more afterwards being a small price to pay for your survival.

[Gazz]

Each time I want to send my drone, I either have to pick them one-by-one, or wait for a TM to pick them up one-by-one each time I wanna change sector? Damn, resisting the *modified* tag just got way harder.......

You think you owe vanilla X3 anything? What has it ever done for you?
Come on, kid, the first one's free! =P

[Mad_CatMk2]

Each time I want to send my drone, I either have to pick them one-by-one, or wait for a TM to pick them up one-by-one each time I wanna change sector? Damn, resisting the *modified* tag just got way harder.......

You think you owe vanilla X3 anything? What has it ever done for you?
Come on, kid, the first one's free! =P

Lies! First one isn't free.

It's a scam!!

[LowkeeDragon33]

Damn, resisting the *modified* tag just got way harder.......

It's true. I wouldnt be able to play Vanilla just for the placement of certain stations. Some are in the flight path between gates, so I have made a little script that makes [THIS] move 5km down. I am thinking about doubling the X,Y,Z positions for every object in the game, just to make space a whole lot spacier.

For fighter drones, a small script may be to destroy them all and then re-create the same amount as a flying ware. This way at least manual collection would go much faster, and any ship with SpecialCS would be able to get them again.

[stealthhammer]

I use MARS just for the drone recovery scripts built in I CANNOT play X3TC with out it because of that

[Eloking]

I use MARS just for the drone recovery scripts built in I CANNOT play X3TC with out it because of that

Yeah...and that's without forgetting the cargo recovery of drone, of the highly efficient turret management.

It is really hard to come back to X3:TC vanilla

[stealthhammer]

Yip I know, and I love MARS and The Ring Of Fire.

[garv222]

damn... I can never EVER go back to vanilla. Complex cleaner alone is a strong argument for me to never go vanilla.