Drone Defence

[Kessica]

I have finally got my Advanced Discoverer (X3TC) and in the freight bay there are a couple of MkII Fighter Drones. I cannot find any way to deploy them or recall them. I haven't been in any fights yet in this Disco, but the question is how are they controlled? Do I need any special upgrades ?

Thanks Kess

[X2-Illuminatus]

You simply throw them out of your cargo bay and they will protect you/attack enemies. Once thrown out, you can also give them a small amount of commands. They have a certain life time after which they explode and are lost for ever. To reuse them, give them the 'None' command and fly over them. Then they will be placed in your cargo bay again.

[oddible]

Just toss em out the back. Hit F for freight and eject them, they immediately start flying around you protecting you. You can issue commands to them individually (they're listed in the sector map) or you can go into your command console and issue a command to all ships in sector and specify drones (you get some finer options if you do it individually - like target shields when you start boarding ops - but the issue all commands work just fine for most situations). Seriously though you don't usually need to issue any commands - they are on 'Protect' duty when you eject them until they run out of energy - they you just scoop them up like any floating cargo and they recharge immediately in your hold.

[Kessica]

Ahhhh, great! and many thanks for such fast replies! So I guess any ship can carry and use them. I had always given them a miss through lack of knowledge, but perhaps they can be useful when up against a Khaak Cluster, something which I have yet to master.

I am still using the Adv Eclipse which I really enjoy. The Blastclaw Proto seems to be better, but to do any real damage you have to keep ammo on board and restocked, which is a pain. I have 4 HEPT and 4 EBC on the Eclipse which I have configured in various combinations depending on what I am up against. Its getting tough now so I am thinking of either spending my 30M on either an M6 and full kit, or start building a few stations and delay moving onto capitals until I have mastered complexes.

I think that by having a few Drones on board the Eclipse will make a few missions and encounters a little easier.

Thanks again

Kess

[oddible]

A handful of responses to what you just posted (based on my newbly 200h of gameplay and yet to get an M7).

For Khaak Clusters during early game, hit them with a missile before they launch their fighters - or use an aoe missile.

Always check out the projectile speed when mixing weapons in the same bank. EBCs are about 1/3 faster projectile than the HEPT so you're guaranteed to only be hitting with one of them when firing on moving enemies (You do have Fight Software Mk1 & 2 right?). The Blastclaw doesn't require you to use ammo-based weapons (EBC), you can equip them with several others, including PACs which are a nice balance of damage / energy use. But yes, HEPTs / EBC on your Eclipse are a hard punch.

I'm not super familiar with the Blastclaw but with 4 main guns you'll have more trouble with larger ships but with 4 turrets you should be cleaning up scouts / M4s like flies (easier to kill those Khaak Clusters). The Eclipse 8 forward facing guns just make things evaporate if they get in front of you. A lot of people prefer the Nova M3s (particularly the Raider) because they're considerably faster than the Eclipse.

As far as your upgrade path goes, remember that the larger ships (M6 aren't capitals) can cost quite a bit in terms of upkeep if you are going to keep them armed with missiles / drones. So having the passive infrastructure to back them is quite nice - that said your earning potential increases as you get bigger ships. The biggest step I encountered was getting my first TL (I bought an Elephant). Not as my personal ship, but to start doing Infrastructure (station building) missions. 2-15mil per station.

As far as M6s go, there is a ton of variety. I started with a Dragon - fast - and loved it. Tried the Vidar, powerhouse but slow. And eventually, like most people on these forums, ended up in a Springblossom (do more plot missions if you don't have access to a Springblossom yet). Haven't tried the Hyperion Vanguard yet - that's another darling of the forums here.

I unfortunately am a complex junkie however so every time I hit the 60mil mark I build another complex instead of buying an M7 (but I'm also knee deep in The Hub mission, so I have an excuse). Got my eye on the Shrike as my first M7.

[Mousse9]

The Blastclaw Prototype is awesome with Plasma Burst Generators (PBG) in its main guns. Provided you can GET PBG's. They're pirate weapons so you have to make nice with the pirates, or get a lucky Station Hack, so you can dock at PBG Forges and buy PBG's.

Now for a bit more indepth info.

How are you making your credits? Doing missions, and some trading, right?

A very good way to make credits without constantly having to do everything by yourself, is to get some trader ships (TS), install Trading Software Mk3, and make em into Sector Traders. Mistrals (not the Super Freighter variants) make excellent Sector Traders.
A small fleet of Sector Traders is a reliable, passive way of income. Just keep them in safe areas, far away from pirates and Xenon.

After that, a TL to build stations, and then on to complexes and bigger ships.

Build Station missions can get you millions of credits, especially with a high Trade Rank. Made MUCH better/faster when you have your own TL, since you can then use its jumpdrive.
There's two small things you have to watch out for though. Once I accepted a Build Station mission, and found out my Reputation wasn't high enough with the race I needed to buy the station from.
So, keep in mind whether your Reputation is high enough before accepting the mission.
The second one is credits. Since you have to buy the station, you want to have enough credits to be able to buy it in the first place.

[Kessica]

I have basically been running combat missions (defend stations and patrols) which I quit enjoy But I also have 5 Sector Traders running around the more secure side of the map.

I'm currently at the top end of Master Chief with regards to combat and the Average difficult missions are getting really hard now, where as before I just loved the very hard missions. So this is a bit of decision time now.

My Split rep is now maxed out, no more levels left to gain, so now working on the others. It is surprising how much the STs make in the course of a session... OK it is not amazingly fast, but it trickles in without having to do much, and allows me to investigate other parts of the game, which I have to admit is a super fine replacement while waiting for Rebirth to have it's anomalies fixed

I have to admit, it never occurred to me to buy an TL and do some of the missions, It is down to around 17m in Split space, so I think it would be a good investment. both of you have made some good suggestions, but I think Oddible's one about the build missions is perhaps where I might branch to and see how it goes.

I'm sorry for high-jacking my own thread and going off topic, but hey, one thing always leads to another

Thanks for some great advice and ideas

[ancienthighway]

With the difficulty of your missions increasing, a cheaper alternative to an M6 would be a TM with four matching fighters. I've used Nova Raiders on them it the past, but have switched to Nova Vanguards this go around, favoring the weapons generator over the additional speed. The Yaki Tenjin is a beast if you haven't trashed your rep with them, and the Yaki TM, Chokaro, is a nice mission ship. I can't decide which M3 is more of a beast, the Tenjin or OTAS Venti. For a cheaper option, the OTAS Solano has the shields of an M3, but as everything else is M4, Mass Drivers are a must.

Do the Terran Plot and get your Terran rep up to level 6. You'll get several fast Rapiers good for mapping sectors. A nice M3 once you can get the guns for it, a couple of Scabbards full of marines, and most importantly, the M6 Vidar, which is, IMO, the strongest M6, when mounting 10 forward M/AMLs. All for the low, low cost of doing the plot. It's a combat ship, not a mission ship, but since you like the fight missions, it may be right up your alley. Even mounting EMPCs initially, it's a powerful ship.

[Nanook]

...
I'm sorry for high-jacking my own thread and going off topic, but hey, one thing always leads to another ...

{To the tune of "It's My Party"}

It's your thread and you can hijack if you want to.