Is there a difference between the different Drone Carriers?

[bounty_hunter66]

Hello,

Is there a difference between them? Can they all do the same things? Or are some better at a particular task than others?

[Jimmy C]

They all have different stats, hull, shields, speed and all that. The one with the largest carrier capacity is the Paranid Ariadne at 25 ships. Beyond that, the true functionality lies in the drones. Move the drones to a different drone carrier(must be another M7D!) and that carrier can use the special functionality of the drone.
I have to go. I'm sure someone else will be happy to detail what each drone type can do.

[Cycrow]

Like all different race ships, there are a difference in their stats, IE speed, cargo bay, hangar, etc.

the Biggest difference is in the Drones themselves, each race drone has a different ability on top of the generic commands you can use. Any drone can be used with any drone carrier, but when buying a drone carrier, it will come with a set of matching drones and the plans to build more

[fireanddream]

The biggest thingy is just you get a drone of that race when buying/capping an M7C of that race. Other than that they only differ in their stats.

[bounty_hunter66]

Thanks, but my question still remains. Are drones from one race better at something than others? Like are some that are better at repairs for example?

[Agimar]

At least, the Boron/Atreaus-Drones are very special, cause they have 3(!) repair-lasers, so they'll repair anything three times faster.

[bounty_hunter66]

Thank you

I need to grab me some Guppy's.

[Cycrow]

Argon and Terran drones can carry marines and come preinstalled with life support. This can be used to distribute marines between TP's and your boarding ships.

Boron Drones have additional repair lasers for faster repairs

Teladi Drones have Mining Lasers/Ore collector to allow them to mobile mine

Paranid Drones can use Disruptor missions to disrupt ships shields, speed and steering

Yaki drones have freight scanners that can be used to to scan ships.

Split drones have additional weapons that can be used as a missile defence screen

[Agimar]

WELL!!! That's an answer!

But I wonder, how you'll use some of these abilities practically:
- why should I use drones to carry marines
- why should I use drones to scan ships
??

[bounty_hunter66]

Thanks for the detailed answer.

Now I wonder if it's possible to combine the best of both worlds and use drones and carriers from different races? Like, use boron drones on Ariadne for example. I'm just now starting to get the blueprints for them so I haven't had the chance to test this yet.

Has anyone tried this?

[Jimmy C]

Like, use boron drones on Ariadne for example.

Yes you can, I do that. It's the best combination. An Ariadne with 6 Boron drones in a shipyard sector efficiently maximizes your ship sales. I like leaving the other bays empty in case I want them to hold on to some captured fighters.

Ordering drones around is a bit tricky because they're not standard fighters. First off, you cannot give drones on an M7D orders directly like standard fighters. You can command them to use their special functions via the Drone Carrier commands on the M7D's command panel. To be able to order an individual drone directly, you must first go to the M7D's Carrier Management menu and remove the drone from the ship's control. Then you can order the drone around like a fighter. You can use this to transfer drones from one M7D to another. One point, after doing this to a drone and ordering it to dock to another M7D, it may still retain the the dock order even though it has already docked! If you see that this is the case, end the order. Otherwise, the drone will not follow orders issued via the Drone Carrier commands.

Drones you built at the HQ will behave like standard fighters until they dock to an M7D.

[BrigandPhantos77]

WELL!!! That's an answer!

But I wonder, how you'll use some of these abilities practically:
- why should I use drones to carry marines
- why should I use drones to scan ships
??

Use drones to carry marines for boarding?
Scan ships? There is a mission that requests you to scan NPC ships to look for value to steal. Given the drones speeds, that could be very handy.

[Agimar]

WELL!!! That's an answer!

But I wonder, how you'll use some of these abilities practically:
- why should I use drones to carry marines
- why should I use drones to scan ships
??

Use drones to carry marines for boarding?
Scan ships? There is a mission that requests you to scan NPC ships to look for value to steal. Given the drones speeds, that could be very handy.

Ok, they really can be used for boarding? That'll be cool. Maybe.

[kar dragon]

WELL!!! That's an answer!

But I wonder, how you'll use some of these abilities practically:
- why should I use drones to carry marines
- why should I use drones to scan ships
??

Use drones to carry marines for boarding?
Scan ships? There is a mission that requests you to scan NPC ships to look for value to steal. Given the drones speeds, that could be very handy.

Ok, they really can be used for boarding? That'll be cool. Maybe.

Kinda? They transfer the marines to the ship doing the boarding from what I understand, but got no confirmation on my question thread. The documentation of how things work really needs improvement.

[BrigandPhantos77]

A little behavior note on the Drones. When you dock a drone 'the ship it docks with will try to add it automatically to it's command package. For me at least, it always fails the first attempt. Meaning the carrier ship will not control it. But it will still take control away from you. As a work around you have to remove it from the control under carrier management and re-add it. They key to this and know if it is working, is the homebase ships will adjust to show it as part of it's (homebased)fleet.

If you have the rep, you can buy the boron Extended drones in:

Spoiler

Show

Ocean of Fantasy gamma from the Atreus Shipyard.

Those come in soo handy when an npc tomahawk practically explodes in your face. Just don't sit still while they repair you, they will crash into you sometimes. Especially when seta is running. Had one do that in Light of Heart while trying to return to dock. Slammed into a station it couldn't avoid. And at 2 million a pop, wasn't an amusing thing.

Oh, and the transport drones, it'd definitely come in handy when hitting Xenon ships and your boarding ship can't hold enough to capture it. But personally, I'd use a disposable TP using a transporter to get the marines off of that your ok losing if it get's popped. Keep exactly what you need.

I got lucky in my latest game. I have a J sitting in Brennan's Triumph beta. Every once in a while I make an attempt at it. Haven't found the sweet spot personally, but it doesn't jump out or leave the system, ever. It's stuck in there.