Recovering Drones

[solops]

I do not seem to be able to recover drones. My drone "carrier" is based on a BB hull. The drones were created as "units". If this question has come up before, as I am sure it has, I could not find it.

help?

[ October 27, 2002, 20:01: Message edited by: solops ]

[Baron Munchausen]

Drones are not recoverable. That's the way they were intended to work.

[solops]

OoooooooooH....that is interesting....if you know someone has a large number of drone carriers moving in a contested system, you could hit him with throw-away forces and causeing the drones to be deployed (simultaneous combat) before the carriers reach their intended destinations, right?

[Hotfoot]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
Drones are not recoverable. That's the way they were intended to work.

This presents a bit of a problem then. In the latest patch, it would seem that if given the opprotunity to do so, ships capable of launching drones can launch all of their drones in one turn, regardless of how many they're supposed to be able to launch per game turn. So if a ship disgorges all of its drones in combat, it can't ever pick them up again. I guess this means limited the drone launcher to having only a few drones on board when you don't intend on using them, and then loading them up with tons of drones from cargo ships right before they hit their intended target.

[Skulky]

FINALLY a use for supply ships, i've always wanted the need for massive hulking cargo ships to resupply my drone fleets, now off to reinventing "Drone Wars", it'll be gr8 when im dun

[Hotfoot]

Originally posted by Skulky:
FINALLY a use for supply ships, i've always wanted the need for massive hulking cargo ships to resupply my drone fleets, now off to reinventing "Drone Wars", it'll be gr8 when im dun

Finally? Heck, I've found plenty of uses for dedicated cargo ships in my fleets. Everything from carrying additional troops/fighters/sats/mines to resupply your losses in the field to picking up/transporting the population of a conquered planet to a more appropriate location.

While the inclusion of drones was an obvious next step, I'm not particularly very happy that it has to be included as the result of what is most likely a bug.

[Phoenix-D]

"I'm not particularly very happy that it has to be included as the result of what is most likely a bug."

Drones are not recoverable by design.

EDIT: check out vehiclesize.txt if you don't belive me. Lots of comments on how things work. Some of them are out of date, but drones not being recoverable is mentioned. Also notice that the abilities for drone launchers say "Can launch drones into space. 1 drone can be launched per combat turn and 4 drones can be launched per game turn."

Nothing about recovery. Fighter bays, by contrast:
"Can launch and recover fighters from space. 1 fighter can be launched per combat turn and 4 fighters can be launched per game turn."

The ability names are similar. "Launch/Recover Fighters" and "Launch Drones"

Phoenix-D

[ October 28, 2002, 04:38: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]

[Hotfoot]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
"I'm not particularly very happy that it has to be included as the result of what is most likely a bug."

Drones are not recoverable by design.

I'm referring to the ability of ships with drone-launching components to launch all of the drones they have in storage in the first round of combat, regardless of how many they are supposed to be able to fire. That I see as a bug, not the fact that drones are not recoverable by design.

Take, for example, the following scenario. I've planned a ship that can only launch four drones per round of tactical combat. For the sake of arguement, let's say it can hold 240 light drones, enough for two full tactical combats, assuming that the combat Lasts a full 30 turns (30 * 4 = 120). This ship could possibly engage in three or four combats before running out of drones to launch if the drone launching bay worked as it should.

However, as it is right now, that ship will disgorge all 240 drones in the first round of the first combat it is a part of. Not only can this be massively unfair for the recipient of the attack (it allows for abuse where only 1 drone launcher component is required, the rest cargo bays/other more useful components), but it can also be unfair for the person delivering said attack, as now all the drones have been launched prematurely.

EDIT: check out vehiclesize.txt if you don't belive me. Lots of comments on how things work. Some of them are out of date, but drones not being recoverable is mentioned. Also notice that the abilities for drone launchers say "Can launch drones into space. 1 drone can be launched per combat turn and 4 drones can be launched per game turn."

Except that the "1 drone per combat turn" doesn't work properly. I've replicated this in strategic and tactical combat. All drones on board are launched on the first turn of combat.

[Hotfoot]

To further illustrate my point:

I had created a starbase with 25 drone launchers. That means 100 per game turn and 25 for combat turn is what I should expect to see. This starbase also had some 15mT storage space, which translated into 107 small drones. I should be able to launch drones for 5 turns in tactical combat.

Prosecution would like to offer Exhibit A, a rather large image (over 100K). It show that quite clearly, this starbase, with only 25 drone launchers, was quite capable of launching more than 25 drones per combat turn. It did precisely the same thing in Strategic, as well.

I asked myself, "Self, why does this happen? It is most curious and distressing to me."
"Self," I said, "I do not know the ultimate reason, not being clairvoyant and such, but I imagine that it is tied to the fact that the launch units window does not stop you from using "launch" more than once. It says that you can only launch 25 per turn, but yet, after launching 25, I am able to launch another 25, and after that another. The computer seems quite fond of doing this in Strategic as well."
"Oh dear, this is most distressing," I said with a small sigh to myself.
"Yes, but worry not, for it is but a small bug, and will be dealt with most swiftly," I replied to myself. "I'm certain that Aaron will squash it quite handily in an upcoming patch."

[Skulky]

nice work sherlock, but did you just say "self,......" dude! my Chem teacher says that: "self, if i had mole of Mg and a mole of HCl which would be the limiting reagent?)