can drones be put into fleets ?

[PvK]

I've seen several battles where drones were decisive. Sure they take research and are expensive, but they're not expensive in the long run since they have zero maintenance cost. They can also give you the crucial element of surprise, single a single ship, even a transport, can launch many drones, and many people are not expecting drones. They can be good for scout and suicide missions because losing them doesn't give enemy experience nor your own empire a happiness hit. Etc. They are a bit tricky to take good advantage of, and you can certainly waste a lot of time/energy/resources/research doing inefficient things with them, but they can be used to good effect.

PvK

[Alneyan]

I will admit I prefer fighters for the same effect, as the fighter technology gives other useful components (many small components, which work for troops as well, such as the small DUC and perhaps the small shield generators), they are cheaper than drones, and you don't actually lose all your fighters in a single assault.

Above all, Fighters I gives the very nice Light Carrier, roughly on par with the Light Cruiser. (The former has decent transport abilities, some extra protection thanks to its fighter bays, while the latter has a defence bonus and 20kt more space) These hulls are very versatile, and your opponent is left guessing about the contents of these carriers, which may be loaded with direct fire weaponry or fighters instead. I would expect the Other Side to be surprised if they saw a strong fighter complement to these previously empty carriers.

Obviously, it is most useful if you do have the time to produce a good amount of fighters, but they can be built rather quickly if you have the spare resources and some idle planets for mass production. On the other hand, I have found drones to be slow to build because of their higher cost, and I would rather use kamikaze fighters instead of drones for the same purpose.

So I am not laughing at these units, but merely discarding drones for fighters instead. Granted, I am too much addicted to these fighters swarms and their Light Carriers.

[Baron Munchausen]

The combination of being very fast and having no 'cost' associated with loss (no morale hit, etc.) makes drones excellent 'surprise' weapons. You can use them to strike at some fleet or out-of-the-way planet that would have taken a lot of trouble to attack by ships. If it works, your enemy has gotten a nasty surprise and possibly been thrown off balance while your fleets haven't had to even move, if it doesn't work (powerful defenses were waiting for them) you haven't lost nearly as much as if you'd sent a fleet of actual ships. As a corrolary to this, yeah, they also make good scouts. Just send them in, heck send ONE in, and use combat replay to see what it witnessed before it was smoked.

[PvK]

Yeah, fighters have some good uses too, and are better in the ways you mention Alneyan, though not in all ways. Fighters and drones are good in different ways, and can be good used together, too. For example, several drones set to Max Range with range-5 weapon and strong shields and ECM, can soak up the enemy PD to protect fighters, as can other drone designs. Drones that launch seekers can also overwhelm PD. Drones that don't ram can be re-used. In one case, including about 100 drones in a fleet won me a major fleet battle and then also served to guard the fleet while it repaired after the battle.

Good points too, Baron.

PvK

[se5a]

actualy, they are not that fast. a BC with a sail and full engines are speed 12.
a large drone with full engines (cant use sail on them) is speed 12 also

[Baron Munchausen]

You are using a modded game to get a BC to move at 12. The Solar Sail only gives +3 movement in the stock game, and a BC can only move at 6 max with full engines, so it should only get to a top speed of 9 in the unmodded game.

[Alneyan]

The nice Quantum Engines do give another +3 to movement speed however, so a Battlecruiser has 6 basic movement and 6 bonus movement. (Not that it makes much sense though) The Battlecruiser is the biggest ship with six engines, as the Battleship has only five engines, the Dreadnought four (if memory serves) and the Baseship two.

As for drones, using them to draw PDC fire would be indeed very nice. Their lack of fleet training doesn't matter much in this case, and they can be much stronger than a fighter. I will consider using them with this purpose in mind, as I tend to have too many research points at my disposal. It should be very nice with a few seekers thrown in for good measure and an armada of fighters as backup. *Smirks*