Posted - 2011.08.01 18:42:00 - [2]

 

Passive, no. In passive mode, they simply sit there and wait until you give them a command. Upon executing that command, they return to orbit your ship and await their next command.

Posted - 2011.08.01 19:23:00 - [4]

 

Edited by: Hwong Jian on 01/08/2011 19:23:21
I'm not sure which button you're talking about.

However, when you right click on the Drones in Space dropdown, there should be an option for either Settings or Drone Behavior. In that sub-menu, you should be able to choose between Passive and Aggressive.

And, just a few quick notes on what Aggressive means:

- The drones will engage until destroyed anything that attacks you AFTER you launch them.
- The drones will respond to Attack Commands as normal.
- The drones will attack all hostile targets that are attacking you, once they have been engaged in combat.
- While there is an option to Focus Fire, on occassion, your drones will split between two targets.

Your drones WILL NOT attack ships that "red boxed" you before your drones were launched. If all targets have you red boxed before you launch your drones, you will still need to target a ship and command your drones to engage.

Again, though, any ship that red boxes you while the drones are circling you will cause your speedy little friends to zip out and start shooting away at that ship.

Posted - 2011.08.01 19:50:00 - [6]

 

Edited by: Myfanwy Heimdal on 01/08/2011 19:53:24
Thanks, I guess that when I had to sort out a Real World medical issue my little friends decided to slip back into Passive Mode.

I wish that when once set that the setting would stay set.

Thanks for that explanation. I am going to have a look at seeing what fits I can have to replace what I have lost. I may even take a few days break whilst I get Mining V completed so that I can have a better boat.

edit. But I wish that setting would 'stick'. I can't see any reason as to why it would sometimes move to the Passive setting.

Posted - 2011.08.01 20:27:00 - [8]

 

Edited by: Vincent Athena on 01/08/2011 20:27:05
Agressive mode does stick. To figure out what the button looks like when "on" click back and forth between the two options a few times until you see the difference.

Posted - 2011.08.01 20:49:00 - [10]

 

The problem with drones, as far as I can tell from the outside, is the presence of race conditions.

I'll give you an example, and you can find the rest similarly yourself:
1) You have 5 (passive or active, focused or otherwise - doesn't matter) drones attacking a battleship.
2) The battleship dies from the first three in the 'group'.
3) Half the drones go idle immediately, the rest set themselves to idle in a few seconds.
4) You see the battleship die and quickly tell the 5 drones to attack a cruiser (before the rest of the drones go idle).
5) The five drones attack the cruiser - verify by hovering over the drone icon on your target.
6) The drones that set themselves to idle disengage from the cruiser and become idle like clockwork.

This behaviour is even more pronounced when melting frigates with T2 Sentries. There are often three or more drones affected by their own idle timers. It's bloody awful and needs to get fixed.

And 'Focus Fire' would be nice if it actually worked but, unfortunately, I suspect it's this same sort of race condition that is pulling them away into multiple groups (say, by setting a timer to attack a target prior to focus fire code telling them all to attack a certain target, and then the timer condition taking effect so they switch).

There is no excuse for a drone to retain any sort of action list after I tell it to attack a certain target. And no excuse for a drone to retain any sort of priority target after being told to focus on a given target.

GRR!

Posted - 2011.08.01 21:03:00 - [12]

 

Drone work just fine....

if you are at the keyboard.

Mr Epeen

Posted - 2011.08.02 01:34:00 - [14]

 

could we get blue reply somewhere that this issue is noted and in list of stuff to be fixed.

Posted - 2011.08.02 11:30:00 - [16]

 

Originally by: Acac Sunflyier

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I suggest making a key bind for drone attack. Mine is ctrl+shift+a

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... and spam it several times.

Drones will disregard your given commands and go after their own target quite often. You have to keep reminding them who is in charge.

Damn kids.