Drones + Me = Fail. What am I doing wrong.

scooter14 · Post by **scooter14** » Wed, 11. Jul 12, 12:41

Ok. I searched through the Google on drones and X3TC / X3AP and how to use them. The consensus (from links to this site) was you basically drop them in space and they do their thing.

Didn't work so much for me.

I have a bunch of camera drones and fighter drones that I looted / salvaged and have been trying to figure out. I've dumped them in space and given them the gentle push to go forth and be wicked, to no avail.

Can anyone point me to a tutorial on what type of cpommand software, hardware, and maybe even ship type i need to get my little kamikaze buddies off and buzzing?

Thanks in advance.

Signed,

Looking for Drone Love.

Master of the Blade · Post by **Master of the Blade** » Wed, 11. Jul 12, 13:03

Camera drones shouldn't be available in vanilla AFAIK, but with fighter drones, you eject them from cargo, then broadcast a general command to go kill through their command console. IIRC they default to protecting your ship on ejection, so won't do anything unless you're attacked.

Kirlack · Post by **Kirlack** » Wed, 11. Jul 12, 13:05

IIRC there's default hotkeys for drones. Shift+8 and Shift+9. One is 'Drones attack my target' and the other is 'Drones protect me' but I'm not sure which way round it goes.

Merkadis · Post by **Merkadis** » Wed, 11. Jul 12, 13:10

You can just open sector map right click one of em and give command thru the menu.
I also recommend MKII they tear stuff apart in packs, especially large ones.

ninth · Post by **ninth** » Wed, 11. Jul 12, 19:35

I grabbed some freight drones once; but I couldn't figure out how to recall them. they just flew around my ship for a while then all ran out of energy. "return home" apparently means "fly in circles around me; then chose an arbitrary direction to fly off in till you hit an asteroid"

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Wed, 11. Jul 12, 19:50

@ ninth: The freight drone needs a free ship docking slot to dock by itself and even then, if it is your own ship or you are IS, the collision detection versus the likely indirect docking approach means that they faff around for ages doing it or just stop and give up.

They are best used by a ship with a free dock while you are OOS.

brucewarren · Post by **brucewarren** » Wed, 11. Jul 12, 19:54

For fighter drones I just use "Broadcast to my ships in the sector" under
comms menu and select option 7 sector fighter drones and set the little
blighters on target of choice.

Freight drones have to be run over to pick them up again, unless you are
flying a ship with a free hangar in which case they can be commanded to dock.

I don't think you need any special s/w for any of them.

glenmcd · Post by **glenmcd** » Sun, 15. Jul 12, 15:51

"camera drones" were mentioned above would that be "recon drones"? They're sold in Queens Harbour and in latest Albion Prelude update are functional. Eject and then command it. It flies faster than a Kestrel, can map out sectors and fly through gates, plus the usual fly to sector etc. I happened to buy one too many today, ejected it and to my surprise it flew instead of turning into a crate!

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Drones + Me = Fail. What am I doing wrong.

Drones + Me = Fail. What am I doing wrong.