I ran into this myself about two weeks ago, and taught myself how to alter drone behavior through repeated and painful testing.
Drones are entirely governed, XML wise, as follows (code snipped from one of my own drones):
Code: Select all
<droneBlueprint name="PDD_CM">
<type>DEFENSE</type>
<level>1</level>
<title>Point Defense Counter-Missile Drone</title>
<short>PDCM</short>
<desc>Advanced Khadarin design, using revolver feed-tech.</desc>
<power>2</power>
<cooldown>400</cooldown> <!--- Shooting cooldown for shooting at asteroids/missiles, in ms -->
<dodge>8</dodge>
<speed>6</speed> <!--- Superficial change.. just makes it fly faster -->
<cost>300</cost>
<bp>6</bp>
<droneImage>drone_countermissile</droneImage>
<!---- WEAPON INFO --->
<weaponBlueprint>D_COUNTERMISSILE</weaponBlueprint>
<!----- -->
<rarity>0</rarity>
</droneBlueprint>
The <type> param governs if this drone defends or attacks. Obviously, it must be in allcaps, just like with weapons.
<level> governs whether it can shoot down only MISSILE weapons or every projectile (non-beam, non-bomb) weapon.
<title> is the full name, given in the ship manager (non-combat only) screen.
<short> is the name given in the drone bay section of your UI. Try to keep this short.
<cooldown> is the parameter where how many milliseconds it takes for a drone to shoot down an incoming projectile. Unlike what the comments say, it also governs the rate of fire for Level 2 drones against other projectiles as well.
<power> is pretty damn obvious
<dodge> I believe this is a drone's chance to evade weapons fire, x10%. Not too certain.
<speed> governs how fast a defense drone orbits your ship or moves around in general. Unlike what the comments say, keeping all your defense/attack drones moving together helps you synchronize attacks and maintain an optimal defensive coverage.
<cost> is obvious.
<bp> I believe like the weapons <bp> parameter, this is a obsolete chunk of code.
<droneimage> governs which set of drone images a drone must use. The Drone Image tutorial has already covered how to use said images and the required naming scheme, so I'll point you there.
<weaponBlueprint> governs which weapons system a drone will use. The weapon system will not be displayed on the drone, instead being replaced by <droneimage>'s chosen turret, but it's weapons fire, logic, and animations will still be similar. Keep in mind that beams and bombs do not appear to work on defense drones, and there is no known way of making drones fire multiple shots per charge or use ammunition.
<rarity> if you didn't know, this governs rarity. 1 - 5 is a sliding scale of rarity, with 1 being common and 5 being incredibly rare. 0 = does not appear on randomly spawned stuff or shops.
Anyways, for Defense Drone behavior, larger and faster projectiles seem to have a higher chance to hit the missile, while small slow projectiles may not intercept an incoming shot before it smashes into your ship's hull. And obviously, faster rate of fire is a good thing for the defender.
Just keep in mind balance.
Once I finish banging out the problems with Requiem's campaign, I'll write a balance guideline document. Unfortunately, writing this has consumed my free time tonight, and I'll be even busier the rest of this week : /
Also: Consider asking questions in the questions thread I posted.
