Because you fail at piloting.

/discussion

DERP goes the troll.

Okay, more specifically, why can heavy drones track interceptors with an AB, 33 sig radius at 1700ms

Because drones of a pilot with good drone skills flies close to those speeds, so instead of orbiting they follow you and therefore their angular velocity towards your ships is actually small. This allows them to reliably hit you and their high damage output compensates for the lack in hit quality. That or some kind of pilot error.

Have you tried turning your MWD off and on again?

If you're scrammed and webbed they'll track you np. If you're orbiting at long range with MWD on they won't be able to keep up with you.

They just won't..

Maybe they hit alright if you're double webbed but Heavies just generally do ****.

Not on a Dominix or Navy Vexor. Those two ships get tracking bonuses for drones.

On my Navy Vexor... Beserker drones have a tracking speed of 0.708... which is MUCH better than my "Derptron" Atron with Neutron Blasters (which tracks at around 0.474).
Plus the drones have a MWD speed close to 2000 m/sec (thanks to the Navy Vexor's ship bonuses) and have roughtly the same amount of EHP as the aforementioned Atron. Each.

And this is before drone mods and rigs too!!!

So yeah... if you're in a frigate (even an interceptor) and you see a Navy Vexor of Dominix... just fly away.

Because you fail at piloting.

/discussion

omg the bad in this response is overwhelming.

They shouldn't hit often if you are moving that fast. If they are then you aren't being honest with yourself.

Not on a Dominix or Navy Vexor. Those two ships get tracking bonuses for drones.

On my Navy Vexor... Beserker drones have a tracking speed of 0.708... which is MUCH better than my "Derptron" Atron with Neutron Blasters (which tracks at around 0.474).
Plus the drones have a MWD speed close to 2000 m/sec (thanks to the Navy Vexor's ship bonuses) and have roughtly the same amount of EHP as the aforementioned Atron. Each.

And this is before drone mods and rigs too!!!

So yeah... if you're in a frigate (even an interceptor) and you see a Navy Vexor of Dominix... just fly away.

omg the bad in this response is overwhelming.

They shouldn't hit often if you are moving that fast. If they are then you aren't being honest with yourself.

Heavy drones can't track a cruiser. If they are tracking your interceptor- you are either not moving, scrammed / webbed. So don't do those things.

Not on a Dominix or Navy Vexor. Those two ships get tracking bonuses for drones.

On my Navy Vexor... Beserker drones have a tracking speed of 0.708... which is MUCH better than my "Derptron" Atron with Neutron Blasters (which tracks at around 0.474).
Plus the drones have a MWD speed close to 2000 m/sec (thanks to the Navy Vexor's ship bonuses) and have roughtly the same amount of EHP as the aforementioned Atron. Each.

And this is before drone mods and rigs too!!!

So yeah... if you're in a frigate (even an interceptor) and you see a Navy Vexor of Dominix... just fly away.

Mate.. Mate.. You are ignoring weapon signature.. That is sort of a big deal..

I remain extremely sceptical of this ogre's killing inties without dual/tripple webs thing.

Because drones of a pilot with good drone skills flies close to those speeds, so instead of orbiting they follow you and therefore their angular velocity towards your ships is actually small. This allows them to reliably hit you and their high damage output compensates for the lack in hit quality. That or some kind of pilot error.

1700m/s is about perfect mwd speed for berserkers. They'll follow you since they have similar agility and since they are moving at almost the same speed will have very little angular velocity and hit you for full damage.

The way to avoid heavy drones is to use your MWD.

Scrubs these days don't know how to fly intys -_-

The drones following my orbit and cutting my angular makes a little sense. Not sure why heavies have such a high orbit velocity but I suppose that's a different discussion.

I attempted the same thing with an MWD, the heavy drones from the domi still hit for about the same as with the AB, though I was going about 3k m/s in my orbit of the Domi.

I still don't like it, but it is what it is.

The way drones attack is actually quite stupid. There's a sour spot with drones which are fast versus foes which are going between their orbit and MWD speeds.

What they do is get launched.

Then they sit there, often for a full second or two after you tell them to attack (I have a programmable nerd mouse so this is a thumb-click to circumvent the DUMBASS dating sim drone interface).

Then they run at full speed towards the target at 100% MWD speed. Wheeeee!

When they get to the target, they slow down to their orbit velocity. They then try to shoot the foe with their tracking vs the foe's sig, vs their angular velocity.

This works really well for drones attacking something big, slow and sig-bloated. Attacking something way faster than their orbit velocity throws up an anomaly.

In this case they scream in to the target at 100% MWD speed and enter orbit...which is often slower than their foe's speed...so they fall out of orbit with their enemy...at which point, when out of orbit, they begin following at 100% speed again. Wheeeee!

Etcetera etcetera ad infinitum.

If you don't believe me, try,
a) drone nav rigs on a Dragoon and get your Warrior II's to attack a Dramiel or something fast, but nowhere near as fast as the 8.75km/s drones you now have
b) entering a C4 Black Hole and try getting your drones to attack anything which is way too slow for them. Or try recalling them. They will orbit you in spastic rubber-band orbits until you tell them to return and orbit, and then return to drone bay (which causes them to slow down enough to dock with you).
c) doing same with Dragoon in Black Hole. 24km/s Warriors are...utterly munted.

The same will happen, incidentally, if you are going somewhere between the Berserker's max and orbit velocities.

This is also, I have pointed out incessantly to the devs, why web drones are absolutely useless. They are too slow to catch their foes and if they do, they get slower still and don't slow their foes enough to keep their foes with them. So they are forever hitting their sour spot and making themselves look idiotic.

This is also, I have pointed out incessantly to the devs, why web drones are absolutely useless. They are too slow to catch their foes and if they do, they get slower still and don't slow their foes enough to keep their foes with them. So they are forever hitting their sour spot and making themselves look idiotic.

well of course if you orbit like a moron, you're bound to circle around back into the drones' optimals before long.

If you orbit people when flying an inty you're doing it wrong.

It's not tackling "A BS" you are tackling a dominix with heavy drones.

And being in the drone's optimal while orbiting with MWD on has EVERYTHING to do with them being able to hit you.

Eventually you will circle around while the drones are chasing you and your trajectories will line up and they will volley you nicely.

Also let me guess: you have a MSE on your inty.

As mentioned by others, if your flying at a speed between the orbit velocity, and max velocity of a drone, they are following you, not orbiting. You either need to slow down, or speed up. Same as if it were a ship, if your velocity is 1.7k, and your orbiting a ship with a velocity of 1.6, they are going to have a very easy time with tracking.

Seems to answer your question, I did not see your reply to this.

Also, WHY so Seri0Us? It's just pixels right?

Actually yeah him and another guy answered my question. It's a messed up mechanic but it makes sense. I suppose at this point I am responding to trolls / tards.

Then my next question is: why hasn't this been addressed by CCP? It is clearly a flawed mechanic.

Actually yeah him and another guy answered my question. It's a messed up mechanic but it makes sense. I suppose at this point I am responding to trolls / tards.

Then my next question is: why hasn't this been addressed by CCP? It is clearly a flawed mechanic.

Not sure I agree it is flawed, now that you understand why, can't you come up with a counter?

I admit I am no expert but it seems after reading this thread you should be using a MWD in this situation as the sig penalty will not be as great as the speed difference in the tracking equation.

Drone programing:

Can I maintain orbit based off targets speed?
YesOrbit and shut off MWD
NoApproach and leave MWD on

Where is the bug? How could you program it differently?

Because that's not what's actually happening from what I have gathered in this post. It seems that drones will MWD towards you, reach orbit range and attempt to orbit at their "orbit velocity" listed under show info.

What is actually happening is that if your speed is higher than their orbit velocity listed under show info, they will match your speed (whatever it is) and follow you at the same speed you're traveling at, Not at their MWD speed, or orbit velocity. These should be their only two options as far as velocity, but it appears they do something funky, and take the third option of following you by matching your speed, thus negating any tracking requirements.

That's what I've gathered from the previous posts on pg 2.

Heavy drones can't track a cruiser. If they are tracking your interceptor- you are either not moving, scrammed / webbed. So don't do those things.

Man, it's like people don't even read before responding with idiocy.

I WAS USING AN AFTERBURNER WITH A SIG RADIUS OF 33, ORBITING AROUND 3-4KM, GOING ABOUT 1600 MS. Maybe since it's in all caps and in bold you might actually read it.

And no, optimal has nothing to do with tracking. I don't believe heavies should be able to track the way they do, even if it's specifically from a Dominix. Lights, of course, mediums....sure, heavies, wtf?

I don't care if they can hit me once because my angular lines up, I care that they can hit me with every single shot, popping me in about 3 - 4 volleys.

1700m/s is about perfect mwd speed for berserkers. They'll follow you since they have similar agility and since they are moving at almost the same speed will have very little angular velocity and hit you for full damage.

The way to avoid heavy drones is to use your MWD.

Please, learn to read and comprehend.

Having read this thread leads me to a surprising conclusion, to negate the damage of the heavy drones you should actually lower your velocity to like 400 m/s, that's when they orbit you and are going to have them tracking issues.

Would be interesting to test that theory.