[AP] Effective use of freight drones

Goldfinch · Post by **Goldfinch** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 02:51

Never used these before, and the automated freight transfer command seems to only work with ships and stations I own. The only way I could find to use them to buy things was to eject them all and issue them orders one by one. Is there a more efficient way I'm missing?

goslin · Post by **goslin** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 03:37

Nope, they are way way less useful than they should be.

Only possible use I can think is loading a TL from one of your factories it can't dock at. Even then, they aren't smart enough to make multiple trips so unless you have 999999 drones you wouldnt be able to fill your TL with one command, so your better off manually telling a large cargo transporter like a Sturgeon do the transfer (in one of several ways).

So, nevermind, that was the one possible use I could think of, they are useless.

kurush · Post by **kurush** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 04:00

There is also "transfer freight with drones" command that works reasonably well.

goslin · Post by **goslin** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 05:42

... if you read the OP he already knows about that, and I just described how crappy it is, and how that one thing can be done better other ways... so... i dissagree, that command is trash.

goslin · Post by **goslin** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 05:47

Anyway if your goal is to buy wares from NPC factories and put them into a TL which cant dock at it, I would reccomend having a really large cargo space TS follow it around. Then when you get to such a station, move your TL within trasporter range of where the TS will undock from the station. Then you take control of the TS and dock-buy-undock-transfer in as few trips as possible.

Generally I only need to do this to resupply my jumpdrive energy on my TLs. For this purpose I keep an idle Sturgeon with a jumpdrive full of energy docked somewhere I can order to jump to me then go back home or wherever afterwards (and i always put transporters on TLs).

Goldfinch · Post by **Goldfinch** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 13:42

Yeah, in Reunion and TC I used a mod to dock a TS with my TL for convenience, but I'm trying to play vanilla for a while this time. I'll just have a TS I can jump in when I need supplies.

ConCorDian · Post by **ConCorDian** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 14:04

i actually find them useful...

for 1. all of my Griffons, Astraeus, Cerberus, Panthers, and Megalodons have anywhere from 1-4 onboard... it works well for me because i have a lot of SPP dotted around the galaxy which means i can tell my freight drones to transfer ECells from those stations to my ship for jump fuel.

for 2. it can be handy for transfering equipment to new ships. i store most of my weapons/sheilds etc in Elephants... i simply put 10 Freight drones in each and when i buy a ships such as Titans etc i can just transfer over what wares i want.

for 3. because i build quite a few complex's rather than 1 huge super complex i need to get them kickstarted... so i have a Mammoth for doing just that... its got 60 Freight Drones which means i can either transfer over 48k ECells with 1 command or 12k Crystals if it has its own SPP(s) which gives it a good kick start and then i can setup my CLS/CAGs to supply it from then on in.

AL'42 · Post by **AL'42** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 14:09

goslin wrote:... if you read the OP he already knows about that, and I just described how crappy it is, and how that one thing can be done better other ways... so... i dissagree, that command is trash.

I have 60 freight drones (=48,000 cargo) on my TL and find it very useful for transferring large quantities of wares between complexes, especially when building a new complex. Also for refuelling the TL. The global command to all drones ‘transfer freight with drones’ works extremely well, takes seconds.

Your comment about needing 999999 drones shows how little you know about the subject.

Goldfinch · Post by **Goldfinch** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 14:24

Yeah, they might be handy when I have a lot of infrastructure built up. But right now I'm still reliant on NPC stations for most of what I need, and it's easier to order a TS to pick stuff up than a load of freight drones.

gbjbaanb · Post by **gbjbaanb** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 17:13

not necessarily. Eject a drone, press esc, you get a freight transfer window for the drone. press esc again and you're in the command window. Tell it to 'buy wares' as you'd do with a freighter.

When it's docked, it pops a message for you. You open the command window and tell it to return home.

that's not so bad compared to getting freighters to buy wares, follow the TL and transport cargoes. Sure, it could be made easier (like the # runs could be fixed and it could return home automatically).

AL'42 · Post by **AL'42** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 17:39

Upto M6 you dock at the station, right. Where the freight drones would shine is on capitals buying large amounts from NPC stations, but you don’t want to do it ordering one drone at a time !! Hence the OPs post.

Maybe its not simple to script for NPC stations, take 50,000 ecells, the 1st drone would pay 12c, the last drone 19c, plus the delay between transactions, queuing and so on.

Goldfinch · Post by **Goldfinch** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 17:39

The problem is having to order the drones individually when you want them to buy wares, as far as I can tell. When a TS can carry as much as 10-20 freight drones, it's less effort to keep one stocked with ecells that can jump in when I need it.

martimus · Post by **martimus** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 17:56

goslin wrote:Anyway if your goal is to buy wares from NPC factories and put them into a TL which cant dock at it, I would reccomend having a really large cargo space TS follow it around. Then when you get to such a station, move your TL within trasporter range of where the TS will undock from the station. Then you take control of the TS and dock-buy-undock-transfer in as few trips as possible.

Generally I only need to do this to resupply my jumpdrive energy on my TLs. For this purpose I keep an idle Sturgeon with a jumpdrive full of energy docked somewhere I can order to jump to me then go back home or wherever afterwards (and i always put transporters on TLs).

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=3374275

That shows an easy way to automate refueling TLs with E-Cells without having to worry about it. I use it and it works great.

ConCorDian · Post by **ConCorDian** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 18:59

AL'42 wrote:Maybe its not simple to script for NPC stations, take 50,000 ecells, the 1st drone would pay 12c, the last drone 19c, plus the delay between transactions, queuing and so on.

couldn't that be solved by the Ordering if it was to be scripted, have it that if it "trades with freight drones" (in other words the drones carrier does the buying not the drones themselves) you order x amount of ecells at buying price (say 3200) but when your transaction is complete then your ship sends out the Freight Drones in order to collect the wares... if you only had 2 Freight drones then they would both automatically make a double trip!

OOZ662 · Post by **OOZ662** » Tue, 6. Mar 12, 19:03

The main use of freight drones really is empire ware management and capital ship refueling. I don't have any SPPs yet, but I still use freight drones to mooch ECells from my tech and missile factories in my Shrike. The things that bug me are the apparent inability to dock with a playership and cloning; when running the command remotely, they dock like a fighter and work fine. Run from my Shrike, they hover next to me for so long I have to SETA past it and occasionally I end up with more freight drones than I started with in my cargo.

goslin · Post by **goslin** » Thu, 8. Mar 12, 00:56

I just found one good use of freight drones... transfering PBC's from lasertowers to your M7s without having to destroy your lasertower and roll the dice if it drops one '-p

Goldfinch · Post by **Goldfinch** » Thu, 8. Mar 12, 01:11

Interesting.. I'm sure that will be gone with the next patch but I'll have some fun with lasers in the meantime.