Damage ratio of Combat Drone Mark I vs II

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Catburglar
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Damage ratio of Combat Drone Mark I vs II

Postby Catburglar » Sat Jan 28, 2017 3:35 pm

Does anyone know how the fireing-rate of these 2 Drones compare against each other? The wiki gives these stats:

Combat Drone Mark I
Powerful drone that continually attacks the enemy ship.
Continually attacks the enemy ship with a single laser blast; slower than normal shield recharge.
Can be given for free upon installation of Drone Control system.
Speed: 15
Power: 2
Rarity: 2
Cost: 50

Combat Drone Mark II
Powerful drone that continually attacks the enemy ship. Moves and shoots faster than Mark I.
Increased rate of fire and speed of maneuvering.
Speed: 28
Power: 4
Rarity: 5
Cost: 75

What does "Speed" relate to? How fast it moves around when being deployed? That would be a sort of a redundant information since (I suspect) these Drones fly around rather randomly and don't seem to be intent on avoiding enemy weapons-fire.
There's also no mentioning on the actual damage output or rate of fireing. The question is whether 2*Mark I will do more damage than a single Mark II?
Arthur Dent
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Re: Damage ratio of Combat Drone Mark I vs II

Postby Arthur Dent » Sat Jan 28, 2017 5:54 pm

Speed should relate to both the movement speed AND the firing speed.

I suspect that a Mk2 is roughly as powerful as two Mk1. However, with a Mk2, you have an extra drone slot at your disposal, this may be worth a consideration. Especially (but not exclusively) if your ship only allows 2 drones to be fitted and you want to have a defense drone. Also, the increased speed of Mk2 may make it harder for anti-drone drones to hit and disrupt it. I'm not sure on that one, however.

I have to say, though, that I don't often use combat drones, unless my ship starts with one. If I have any spare scrap in the game, I'd rather get myself a beam drone. The advantage of a beam drone is that it ALWAYS hits, which makes it more useful against Zoltan/Supershields (think Boss fight #3). Still, it is also a matter of how well your drones combine with your other weapons. For example, if you have a beam weapon, you may be more interested in a dron that can help pierce the opponent's shield (ie a combat drone - a beam drone cannot pierce shields), so you can do more damage with one well timed beam strike.
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Catburglar
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Re: Damage ratio of Combat Drone Mark I vs II

Postby Catburglar » Sun Jan 29, 2017 1:50 pm

Yeah the extra slot is actually a must-have, I felt that the 3*3 layout of the Engi-ship was better than the 4*2 of that starting vessel. Upgradeing the weaponsystem is very expensive when it comes to the last perks.

I usually try to have one fast fireing Ion to take care of shields. However, has some rampup time so it's also nice to have a Burst Laser + Combat Drone which together should be able to take down a Level2-3 shield for that, at least, the Burst Laser can have a single shot at whatever system I need to disrupt (usually weapons or engines if enemy starts to make a run for it...)

I agree that it depends heavily on the setup. Haven't tried out any Beam Drones yet. It's hard for me to tell which version will do the most damage. There's too many factors chimeing in here, and I don't even get to see enemy ships evasion value. I feel that in the early sectors it's not that high but later on becomes increasingly a problem so I usually go after engines once shields are down and weapons suffered at least a single hit. Around 50% of all vessels want to jump away from combat.

What's your observed experience with Beam or Fire Drones so far? Does the AI target pathing always hits rooms or does it occassionally shoot over void structure? Will it target randomly or try to put the Beam to places where it will touch the max amount of rooms thus maximizing damage. The Combat Drones seem to prefer to target undamaged systems which is a great way to have the AI crew disassemble from one room to another loosing precious time for walking instead of repairing.

What I wonder is if a Combat Drone II has a fast enough fireing rate to deplete a manned shield station of its bubbles and occasionally land a hit on a hull'?
Arthur Dent
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Re: Damage ratio of Combat Drone Mark I vs II

Postby Arthur Dent » Sun Jan 29, 2017 6:21 pm

Catburglar wrote:Yeah the extra slot is actually a must-have, I felt that the 3*3 layout of the Engi-ship was better than the 4*2 of that starting vessel. Upgradeing the weaponsystem is very expensive when it comes to the last perks.


Dunno, I almost never use drones that extensively. To me, a Defense Mk1 is a must have, but other drones are optional. The advantage of weapons is - you can control what to target. Also, drones are expensive in the long run. Unless you have a drone recovery system of course, but that thing is expensive and not always available.

Naturally, it's also always a matter of what you have and what you can buy. If you have a powerful beam weapon, but not enough force to tear down these shields, then a combat drone may come very handy (whereas a beam weapon would be useless for this purpose).

I agree that it depends heavily on the setup. Haven't tried out any Beam Drones yet. It's hard for me to tell which version will do the most damage. There's too many factors chimeing in here, and I don't even get to see enemy ships evasion value. I feel that in the early sectors it's not that high but later on becomes increasingly a problem so I usually go after engines once shields are down and weapons suffered at least a single hit. Around 50% of all vessels want to jump away from combat.


Yes, that's a problem with beam drones. They are VERY useful to tear down supershields (Zoltan, Boss enemy #3, shield drone), but other than that, you need some means to tear down the shields - ion weapons or hacking - or else the beam drone is completely useless. And even then, you cannot do the targeting. The Cerenkov (Engi Cruiser C) starts with such a setup. Interesting to play, but unless you are lucky enough to get that drone recovery system, you definitely want to get rid of your dependency of the beam drone asap. "Normal" Beam weapons are better as they can be timed - fire them in the exact moment your lasers have brought down the shields, and you get damage done. With a Halberd Beam, you cause damage even with one shield standing. Glaive even 2 shields.


What's your observed experience with Beam or Fire Drones so far? Does the AI target pathing always hits rooms or does it occassionally shoot over void structure?


It always hits rooms, it is certain to do damage if the shields are down as it fires. (And it is also certain to tear down Zoltan shields). The problem being, of course, to tear down these shields in the first place.

BTW, the Beam Drone II will do 1 damage, but hit a wider area, usually 2, seldom even more rooms, whereas the other drones will usually only damage 1 room, occasionally 2. It will also tear down supershields at the double speed of other drones, which makes it very useful in the Boss Fight #3. Although whether it is worth the scrap it costs always depends of your situation.

Will it target randomly or try to put the Beam to places where it will touch the max amount of rooms thus maximizing damage. The Combat Drones seem to prefer to target undamaged systems which is a great way to have the AI crew disassemble from one room to another loosing precious time for walking instead of repairing.


For all I know, all drones, combat drones included, target entirely at random. It stands to reason, in any case, that Combat I targets like Beam I and Compat II like Beam II.

What I wonder is if a Combat Drone II has a fast enough fireing rate to deplete a manned shield station of its bubbles and occasionally land a hit on a hull'?


Depends of the shield strength of the enemy. It definitely works against one single shield. Not sure if you have a chance against 2 shields as well.
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I_am_person
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Re: Damage ratio of Combat Drone Mark I vs II

Postby I_am_person » Sun Jan 29, 2017 11:51 pm

Well I mean for a litteral comparison mk II has 28 speed and mk I has 15 speed so I would presume that the mk II has that small difference in fire rate of 2 compared to two mk Is.
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Catburglar
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Re: Damage ratio of Combat Drone Mark I vs II

Postby Catburglar » Mon Jan 30, 2017 2:37 pm

Arthur Dent wrote:Depends of the shield strength of the enemy. It definitely works against one single shield. Not sure if you have a chance against 2 shields as well.


Well, if it is able to take one bubble down + land a hit on a hull [which id did on my current game] it should [theoretically] be possible to plow through any type of multi-shielding because the burst which in my test did damage the hull would take instead another bubble and keep doing that until all shield would've been depleted. However, that would take a very long time. That Mk. II Drone's recharge time is only slightly faster than the recharge of a shield, it needs several volleys to reach through for one level. If an enemy ship has the Shield-Augmentation or an experienced crewmember monitoring the shield-station it may not even work, suffice to say that maybe even an unexperienced crew will become better during said process because it takes so many attempts.

I also have to say that the 4 energy requirements are quite severe - it lacks elsewhere. At least in my current game I haven't been able to use it as often than I planned although I got the Drone very early on.

There's another point to think about: If one launches 2*Combat Drone Mk. 1 at the very same time then their fireing rate should be aligned: it would do 1 damage versus a 1 shielded hull with every shot, or, take completely down a 2 bubbled shield giving a short periodical timeframe in which your shiplasers/beams could do full damage. In other words it would work like as a flying Burst Laser.
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Catburglar
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Re: Damage ratio of Combat Drone Mark I vs II

Postby Catburglar » Tue Jan 31, 2017 3:25 pm

just had a Combat Mk. I Drone against me and it was occassionaly able to do hull damage even though it was the only weapon that could detract from shields (he only had a Beam weapon on his ship additionally). me only having 1 bubbled shield but it seems to me that a Drones fireing rate isn't constant.

only a guess now on my part, but could it be that a Drone is going to jump from one position to another in a somewhat random fashion and always fire at the end, ie when the spot has actually been reached + the Drone turned itself into fireing position. Now if these places are random than the length of the path will differ constantly and together with the Drone's runspeed will actually determine how often a Laser is blast off. Could that be true? Because, if it is like this then synching 2*Mark I will most likely be not stay synched for a long time....
Arthur Dent
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Re: Damage ratio of Combat Drone Mark I vs II

Postby Arthur Dent » Tue Jan 31, 2017 9:39 pm

You're right about Combat II being expensive. In fact, I've never bought this thing, only used when I found it and happened to have level 4 drones. But generally speaking, this thing is mostly for my enemies to annoy me, not vice versa.

Not sure about your theory about Mk1. I don't know if I've ever used 2 Combat 1 at the same time. You may, of course, be right.
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stylesrj
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Re: Damage ratio of Combat Drone Mark I vs II

Postby stylesrj » Tue Jan 31, 2017 9:50 pm

I'm sure there are modded ships that start with 2 Combat-1 Drones.
I know I made one called the Scrin Carrier which had two Drones. It's a glorious sight to watch the two drones tear apart enemy ships.

Combat drone movements are randomised. The best you can hope for is that the drone flies near the peak of the shield bubble and after firing, it immediately jumps across the shield bubble and gets a second shot before the shield recharges.
A Combat Drone II has a higher chance of it happening due to how fast it moves but honestly, I'd go with two Combat Drones over a single MK.II, just like a Defense Drone I is better than the II as it only shoots projectiles that are a threat.
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Catburglar
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Re: Damage ratio of Combat Drone Mark I vs II

Postby Catburglar » Wed Feb 01, 2017 3:40 pm

Somehow I go the impression that especially Drones are somewhat unbalanced, don't you think?
--> The added functionality of Defense II makes it apparently less attractive
--> Anti-Drone Drones, do they get used actually? Oftentimes when the AI uses Combat Drones against me they won't be able to pierce through my shields. Usually I take out shields/weapons ASAP, which sorts of guarantees my own shield is up and running ta full strength. But even if there would be 2*Combat Drone against me supported by Ion Bomb or Pulsar etc one shot against the Drone Control (inbetween shots against their other weapons) buys usually enough time to finish the vessel before Drones are up again.
--> I never were in a situation where I thought I had to launch a Repair Drone or an Anti-Personnel Drone. I did have them ready for a few times just to test them out but they are awfully slow. I usually try to have a full crew so whenever hull damage or an invadeing party comes over etc I can fix that very swiftly because, at least, 2-3 crewmen will be already very close to the situation. So in about 50% of all cases these shipdrones will arrive too late. There's an Augment for that but is it really worth it?

The Defense Drone II should loose its ability to fire at incoming Lasers. And the Defense I its abilities to fire at incoming Boarder Drones/ Hacking. That would make the Defense II superior to I like you would naturally think that an upgrade in Tier gives something better.
Maybe combine Repair & Anti-Personnal Drone into a single unit, perhaps double its energy requirements.
The Anti-Drone Drone should have a way to also deal with Boarding Drones, perhaps also stunning them or perhaps a guaranteed prevention of intrusion if they're up when the hostile drone comes flying near the target ship. It boggles my mind when I see that a Defense Drone is actually equally good at this when the targets are indeed Drones, so the Anti-Drone should be more qualified to do that, isn't it?