I've been noticing drones misbehaving more than usual lately too.

They seem to loose aggro alot, though I have had them set to agressive.
It also takes for the rats to be within very short distance (10-18 km ish) before the drones even realize I'm under attack.

Yep, that is how it looks to me as well. In addition occasionally (even if the drones are keeping up with the target) drones will forget about a very fast target. I.E. there seems to be some bug with loosing lock on a fast target.

It appears that while doing a mission drones become confused as to what target they are tracking.

For example, if a target is destroyed, or I issue a new attack order on a different target. All five drones will respond and approach the new target to get into firing range. Sometimes between 1 to 5 drones will drop out of attack mode.

What I think is happening is that, some of the drones are still in coldown on their turrets. So when the drone comes out of cool down the turrets are still looking at the old target, even though a new target was specified. The turrets attempt to fire at the old target, which no longer exists. So no target, a stop order is issued by the server and the drones go into a ready state.

So 5 drones are attacking target, 3 have just fired weapons and popped the target, I issue a new attack order, all five drones respond. As drones head into range on new target, 3 come out of turret cool down and realize the target no longer exists. This is interperted as the new target no longer exists, those three go into standby, the other two continue on to attacking new target. Or those three may travel back and attack the old target if it stil exists if I issued a new target while they are in turret cooldown.

That is how it appears to me.

Launch drones, engage target, kill target, immediately on killing said target send the drones after another target. After the time frame it would normally take to pick a new target on their own, they will pick a new target over-riding your orders.

Ok, so the three things I'm seeing repeatedly are:

* Drones picking their own targets/going idle (based on aggressive/passive setting I'm assuming) after a fairly consistent delay once you've issued a command
* Drones failing to focus fire
* Drones catching a fast target, dropping to normal speed and immediately getting left behind

Am I missing something or are those the major problems?

It appears that while doing a mission drones become confused as to what target they are tracking.

For example, if a target is destroyed, or I issue a new attack order on a different target. All five drones will respond and approach the new target to get into firing range. Sometimes between 1 to 5 drones will drop out of attack mode.

What I think is happening is that, some of the drones are still in coldown on their turrets. So when the drone comes out of cool down the turrets are still looking at the old target, even though a new target was specified. The turrets attempt to fire at the old target, which no longer exists. So no target, a stop order is issued by the server and the drones go into a ready state.

So 5 drones are attacking target, 3 have just fired weapons and popped the target, I issue a new attack order, all five drones respond. As drones head into range on new target, 3 come out of turret cool down and realize the target no longer exists. This is interperted as the new target no longer exists, those three go into standby, the other two continue on to attacking new target. Or those three may travel back and attack the old target if it stil exists if I issued a new target while they are in turret cooldown.

That is how it appears to me.

Message to CCP Greyscale

I use an AC Fit Myrm w/ HH II drones, chain runnin L3 for faction/corp standing increases.

Drone settings as follows: Focus Fire = True; Agressive = True

The lack of focus fire is tied to issue of the drone choosing a target other than the instructed target. Setup for reproduction is this:

w/ multiple hostiles on the field at the same or mixed ranges
1. Launch Drones send after target (mix HH II and Warrior II)
2. Let drones choose next target
3. After several targets instruct drones to engage a specified target **problem begins here**
3.1 - due to flight times and lock/aquire cycle times (happens more often if you mix drone types (HH II and warrior II works well for this bug), the warriors will often aquire and go after a target on their own, the HH with longer lock/aquire cycle will go after the target you've given them.
Notes on 3.1: The lack of focus fire appears to be a result of the issue of target acquisition. Because the warriors are acquiring their targets faster they tend to go after the target they choose where as the HH go after the target i designate. THis causes a split in focus fire. The focus fire issue is a result of the conflicting target designations. After they are split, they tend to take several target changes to re-converge on a single target, as the targets tend to die at different intervals.

I am on it... please just understand we have been through a very difficult time.

Team BFF are working on defects for these issues, they are *not* by design and we are investigating the causes.

I fully expect it to be ignored/forgotten... mostly because I have yet to see CCP deliver on their words... ( and ofc that I am a little negative in general :D, better to expect nothing and be happy when you get something then expect something and never get it )
Its 3 days since CCP's confirmation about these issues and not a single word from Affinity, Greyscale or Frellicus.

And even if they resolv the issues that patch itself will most likely not be released until something else is.
Despite that these fixes should have been out long ago :P
Its "nice" to see them fix the overview issues so fast when the drones issues are just as big but way WAY down the list :P

Wow that was fast!
Looks like you may have done that a few times before..

Also, Affinity only has 30 something likes. THIS MUST BE FIXED!!!!

Everyone like all of her posts :-D

I've been looking into this for the past few days. Thanks to a great video from Grey Stormshadow, I've managed to get a simple reliable repro for the case where mining drones go idle shortly after a roid pops and they are assigned to a new one. I'm working through a couple of possible solutions, and also trying to figure out how this applies to combat drones.

Fear not - When they go on SISI I will let you all know so you can help me test the fixes ;)