How to use defence drones?

[Pagru]

So, this is half rage post, half cry for help.

I very rarely use drones but at the time they where perfect fit for mantis c.

In my first fight using them, enemy attack drone 1 kept shooting them down.

Second fight, drone killed by a burst laser before a missile ruined my drone control.

In a later fight it neglected to shoot down a missile (it's attention must've wandered)

My second from last fight it died to a burst laser as a missile wrecked my shield... second burst laser got the drone control

Final fight my drone shot down a combat drone in a fit of jealous rage (instead of the incoming missile)
The fat lady sang.

Question is, are defence drone really that lackluster? Did I have a really unlucky time? Or am I doing something wrong?
Maybe I should have two defence drone schematics loaded up?

[Treamayne]

I would say it was ca combination of both. One of the simple facts of FLT seems to be that defense drones are magnets for lasers (and higher difficulties seems to increase this). That said, I generally get decent mileage out of my Defense Drones (best guess, one in three fights it will get blown up and once or twice a game two or more will get destroyed in a single fight, on average of course. Bad runs happen).

In my experience:

- Attack Drones have a higher likelihood of shooting down a defense drone, simply because of fire rate and the way their movement is randomized
- Some ships have rooms that are more susceptible to missiles being missed by a defense drone. I haven't played Mantic C enough to be sure for that layout, but examples include Federation A and Mantis B - the ships is so long that most missiles coming from the (player's) right will hit the Weapons/Drone Control before they can be shot. This seems to be because those rooms are often targeted and are so close to the line where hit/miss is decided and the defense drone reaction time to aim and fire is too slow. This means some ships seem to get better benefits from the defense drones (like all the nice, compact Engi ships)
- With larger missiles you can watch the "lights" as it powers up, and deploy the first drone just before or at launch, to minimize the time for the drone to take a stray shot before the first missile fires.
- If you do use two defense drones, you want 180 degrees of separation between them to improve the chances of coverage. Conversely, you could deploy one, and only deploy the second if the first is destroyed to close the gap time with no drone deployed (I choose which method based on enemy's number of missile weapons and their size and how many drone parts I have).

Hope that helps, and maybe others with more experience can weigh in.

[stylesrj]

It's no secret that defence drones are programmed to defend against missiles by using their face as a shield. Especially against Leto or Artemis missiles which can fire again before you can get a replacement.
I wonder who's bright idea was it that anti-drone drones though should use crappy ion weapons that destroy all your drones instantly but leave enemy drones intact and firing again shortly after being stunned.

Basically, don't rely on Defence Drones to actually do their job. This is the main reason why I tend to forgo Drone Control in favour of things like Cloaking and Hacking.

[Pagru]

That's tremendously helpful. What ruined the run was the second time the drone took a mk 2 burst laser which let a massive missile cripple my shield.
I never thought to wait for the missile :-/

I was thinking of having two schematics, one active at a time so the controller would only need 2 power.
I figured having two up at once they'd panic n both shoot the same missile... or each other... or my ship :-p

[Pagru]

It's no secret that defence drones are programmed to defend against missiles by using their face as a shield. Especially against Leto or Artemis missiles which can fire again before you can get a replacement.
I wonder who's bright idea was it that anti-drone drones though should use crappy ion weapons that destroy all your drones instantly but leave enemy drones intact and firing again shortly after being stunned.

Basically, don't rely on Defence Drones to actually do their job. This is the main reason why I tend to forgo Drone Control in favour of things like Cloaking and Hacking.

This was a real corner case for me, I'm terrible with drones so I rarely buy them. But mantis c only has lockdown bomb and stun bomb so taking a missile offline takes a while. Couldn't get a better solution than drones at that time :-p

[stylesrj]

This was a real corner case for me, I'm terrible with drones so I rarely buy them. But mantis c only has lockdown bomb and stun bomb so taking a missile offline takes a while. Couldn't get a better solution than drones at that time :-p

Lock down Weapons, teleport crew in, tank missiles.
Or get Hacking for that double lockdown effect and being able to perhaps delay missiles long enough to prevent them firing.

Honestly though, I'm not a big fan of the Mantis C so I can't suggest a good strategy.

[Braxbro]

This was a real corner case for me, I'm terrible with drones so I rarely buy them. But mantis c only has lockdown bomb and stun bomb so taking a missile offline takes a while. Couldn't get a better solution than drones at that time :-p

Lock down Weapons, teleport crew in, tank missiles.
Or get Hacking for that double lockdown effect and being able to perhaps delay missiles long enough to prevent them firing.

Honestly though, I'm not a big fan of the Mantis C so I can't suggest a good strategy.

Micromanage the drones. Turn the defense ones off when enemies haven't fired anything. Same with Anti-Combats when no enemy drones are deployed. It allows you to use power elsewhere, and when the enemy unleashes missiles, you depower a shield layer or two and power up your defense drones, as shields are useless for blocking missiles anyway.