Drones

Drones

How do I control drones?

Here are some tips on how to use and command drones.


Equipping drones

You equip your ship with drones by putting them in your drone bay. To open the bay, right click the ship while docked in a station and select "open drone bay", then drag your drones into it.

Launching drones

To launch your drones you need to right click on the desired drones within the 'Drones in Bay' section of the overview and select 'Launch Drones'. Warning: you cannot launch more drones than your ship bandwidth allows you to. To know your ship's bandwidth, right-click on it, click the "show info" button and select the "attributes" tab.

A small sized drone requires 5 bandwidth to be launched, while medium needs 10 and heavy 25.

Note that your Drones skill level also dictates the maximum amount of drones you can have out at any time, you can deploy one drone per skill level you have trained in this skill.

Creating Groups

To create groups of drones within 'Drones in Bay' you simply select a drone and chose 'move'. From there you can create a group or move to an existing group.

Commanding drones

When you launch your drones, you'll see on your overview that they are now considered 'Drones in Space'. If you expand that folder you can monitor your drones' health.

To command one drone you select it and right click to get the command menu. If you want to command multiple drones at the same time, right click the 'Drones in Space' folder and select the command.

The commands available are:

• Scoop to Cargo
  With this command you will scoop the drone to your cargo hold. Be careful, though, as you will not be able to launch the drone from there. Use this if your drone bay is full and you want to salvage a drone.
  
• Scoop to Drone Bay
  Choose this command when you want your drones to re-dock in your drone bay (You can re-launch them at any time). Before you can command them to dock, however, you need to have them close to your ship. This is achieved with the "Return and orbit" command.
  
• Return to Drone Bay
  This has the same effect as Scoop to Drone Bay, with the added feature that the drones will automatically return to your ship if too far away to be scooped.
  
• Return and Orbit
  This command will tell the drones to stop doing what they are doing and return to your ship, where they will orbit.
  
• Mine (mining drones only).
  This command is used if you want the drones to mine one load of ore.
  
• Mine repeatedly
  If you command your drones to mine repeatedly, they will mine ore and bring it to your ship continuously until you stop them or the asteroid is depleted.
  
• Attack - scout and heavy drones only
  This command tells the drones to attack the currently selected target.
  
• Abandon
  Drones can sometimes become stuck and unable to return to their controller drone bay. In such cases, abandoning them to be able to launch a new wave could be a wise decision. Warning: Drones are automatically incapacitated and abandoned if the controller is passing through a POS force field.
  
• Assist
  This command allows you to assign your drones to one of your gang members. The drones will then engage automatically any object the gang member attacks. The gang member can't control them directly. Warning: if the gang member commits an aggression in high-security space triggering CONCORD to intervene, your ship will be targeted and destroyed as the drone owner is responsible for their behavior.
  
• Guard
  When guarding a gang member, drones will automatically retaliate on any threat attacking that person. Note that the gang member in question can't control them directly.
  

Configuring drone behavior

The default drone behavior may be modified to match your needs. Left-click the little white arrow in the drone overview to configure their attacking mode.

• Passive (by default)
  When set to passive, drones won't automatically attack back if launched when their owner is being aggressed by another entity. They will continue to orbit and idle until told otherwise.
  
• Aggressive
  In this mode, drones will attack anyone engaging their controller in combat. Notice they have to be launched before the attack occurs for this setting to apply.