Carrier Drones: Not Quite There

[Drjones013]

I decided to play a really quick runthrough on a sandbox AI just to see how effective the drones are. The increased damage output is nice but the big problem is targeting. The MLRS drones barely live long enough to take out more than two targets (watching them take on a Zenith Bombard was like pulling teeth) and targeting additional targets while trying to manage a fleet in the background is going to be really bad (I can't set the drones to a number because they keep dying).

Would it be possible to build a special kind of Neinzul instead, one that only lives in the carrier and swarms opponents who approach it? If they attack hostiles within x of the carrier then the only unit that needs to 'target' is the carrier (by movement). The Neinzul could be adapted with human tech as they are now and only live for 15 seconds outside the carrier before they need to return (and only to the carrier). All of those units would die when the carrier is destroyed. The drones as they are now are difficult to manage because of the auto-death feature.

[keith.lamothe]

Simply giving the enclave starship a build-loop with drones and an FRD-move order to the point where you want the drones to "base" from should suffice for them to fight effectively.  They'll autotarget (mostly by picking up the target list of a nearby drone of the same type and mark) and fire away.

I wouldn't suggest trying to take out kiting units (raptor, bombard, sniper, etc) with drones unless you can sandwich them somehow.

If you really want the drones under manual control on a number, assign that number to the enclave and all units it produces should have that number when they come out.

[chemical_art]

nenzul younglings + drones = hilarity.

Thanks for the laughs Keith!

[Drjones013]

Will give that a try and see what happens. Working mornings over the summer while the live-in fiancee works nights has been murder for my gaming social schedule life.

Thanks as always for being on top!

[PokerChen]

It might be just my micro freaking out, but it is rather complicated to include drones in my fleet. I can't think of a way to tell my enclaves "Okay, you can stop making drones now and return to reinforcing the fleet" and vice versa.

http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=8875

[keith.lamothe]

It might be just my micro freaking out, but it is rather complicated to include drones in my fleet. I can't think of a way to tell my enclaves "Okay, you can stop making drones now and return to reinforcing the fleet" and vice versa.

http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=8875

Including both drones and normal ships in the build queue should achieve a decent distribution; perhaps going 5/5/5/5/1/1/1/1 with the four drone types and then four fleet ship types.

You could also bring two enclaves, one on fleet ships, one on drones.

[TechSY730]

It might be just my micro freaking out, but it is rather complicated to include drones in my fleet. I can't think of a way to tell my enclaves "Okay, you can stop making drones now and return to reinforcing the fleet" and vice versa.

http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=8875

Including both drones and normal ships in the build queue should achieve a decent distribution; perhaps going 5/5/5/5/1/1/1/1 with the four drone types and then four fleet ship types.

You could also bring two enclaves, one on fleet ships, one on drones.

That's what I do. One does the split build, the only does only drones. Both are in "looping queue" mode. Works out pretty well.
I would agree that the power off button and hotkey should not be disabled just because other things got added to the control group. Also, the "inheretance" of control groups makes it really tricky to maintain just a control group of the enclaves. (that suggestion for marking a control group as exclusive comes to mind...)