So what it all boils down to is that if you warp in on top of frigs, you're probably going to lose a few lights taking them out due to drone aggro.

If you warp in and the frigs are at a distance, the mechanics don't change. They're probably the first to go with your sentries. The other will be the ability to burn things down quickly before they fall in range to do any serious damage to them.

Consider signature radius. A Hobgoblin II (light Gallente drone) has 25 sig. The Algos, a ship capable of fielding 5 of these, and holding 12, has a sig of 72. Think about it. Sig radius of 3 drones put together is larger than sig radius of a ship containing 12 of such drones? Does this make any sense to you?

So the first situation - where frigs are right next to you, under your guns - is the ONLY reason why all battleships have drone bays. It's a flawed mechanic within the game itself, a very poor and antiquated design choice. And yet, it is currently necessary, because it's the only way to deal with frigs, which will web and scramble you.

Now, on top of that older poor design choice (arguably, missions themselves, relying on huge waves of enemies are also a poor design choice), now they added another poor choice - those frigs now, plus all other craft, can and will aggro drones. Drones that are necessary to deal with those frigs if they spawn too close. Results in a double-whammy screwup.

This also explains why drone boats are so seldom used. Look at EVEKill.net, and top 20 most used ships. Any drone boats there? Nope. And there haven't been any for at least the past 5 years or so. Why? Because drones are poorly designed, poorly implemented and have a poor UI to boot. Did you know that to fire all your guns you need just 1 click? But to launch a specific flight of drones and see their HP while they're fighting takes 5 clicks? If you assume 5 clicks take 5x longer than 1 click, and realistically it's WAY longer than that because you need to move the mouse quite a bit in between clicks, drones are obviously RIDICULOUSLY inefficient weapons. And if you factor in travel time before the damage is applied? LUDICROUSLY inefficient.

They need a review. Period. No ifs, no buts.

Also, let's look at the ships that are purpose-built to solo L4 missions: the Marauders. If a Marauder cannot run an L4 solo, then that's a bleeping signal flare that something is broken.

I ran some missions on the test server in a Vargur, and it didn't really give me any trouble. Most of the time I'm able to pop small targets before they get under my guns. In the rare case that one or two manage to get close, my drones are able to finish them off. I did lose a drone or two in the process, but they got the job done.

If too many small targets get close, another tactic that I didn't get a chance to test... target small ships, launch small drones and send them after a distant target, pop small ships when they take off after drones and drop their angular velocity.

Antiquated design choice?
That bigger ships have trouble shooting at smaller things?
So from now on, PvP should be done with capitals only?

I thought the Myrm pops up ton EVEkill.net from time to time.
But this is a mission topic, so why bring in PvP?

people who PvE don't really care about choosing strongest/optimal/most efficient ship/weapon system/etc.

Solution is very simple, Make drones Extremely cheep to manufacture (20K for small T2) etc.

Tada!

Just wanted to provide some feedback on the drones situ. I've run my first 2 missions since the update and so far have lost 5 Hammerhead II's, despite recalling drones as soon as they take damage.

Understandably CCP wants to provide players with more interaction and challenge in the game, however the hatred of drones by NPCs is just ridiculous. Thank god I don't fly a drone boat.

The NPC aggression towards drones needs to fixed pronto.

As a side note, recommend speculating on tech II drones in the mean time, prices will be shooting up!

WTF is wrong with all you people?

Sensor boosters and remote reps, I mean WTF!?!?
You should thank your lucky stars they aren't neuting YET.

I ran an ishtar just now for an hour and other than a brain fart during damsel in distress haven't lost a drone.

Train your drone support skills!

Theres a reason to train drone durability now :)

There is so much wrong with this statement, I'm fumbling at how to express my emotions when his face is so physically far from my fist.

Nothing wrong with the statement. Nothing at all. Not everyone plays the same way.

I know plenty of guys (those who usually hang out in Missions channel to chat) who really don't care about ISK/hr, their PvE fits are very inefficient cap-stable semi-AFK fits. And while running missions they chat, watch videos, do other stuff. Lots of people do that.

In fact, I myself spent some time doing more or less that too. I just needed some low/no-stress gameplay. EVE was actually superior to every other MMO out there, because it's the only one where you can farm semi-AFK, no other MMO I know of allows that. As such, my fit had just 2 requirements - cap stable and huge tank so I could at any point in any mission walk away for 20+ minutes and not come back to a capsule.

Solution is very simple, Make drones Extremely cheep to manufacture (20K for small T2) etc.

Tada!

Nothing wrong with the statement. Nothing at all. Not everyone plays the same way.

WTF is wrong with all you people?

Sensor boosters and remote reps, I mean WTF!?!?
You should thank your lucky stars they aren't neuting YET.

I ran an ishtar just now for an hour and other than a brain fart during damsel in distress haven't lost a drone.

Train your drone support skills!

WTF is wrong with all you people?

Sensor boosters and remote reps, I mean WTF!?!?
You should thank your lucky stars they aren't neuting YET.

I ran an ishtar just now for an hour and other than a brain fart during damsel in distress haven't lost a drone.

Train your drone support skills!