Let's Discuss Drones!

[wolverine848 13,097]

1 hour ago, TheCongoSpider said:

you can drop the flag, and then when you automatically pick it up again, the Drone will activate and give you a repair kit (and supplies if you need it).

Holy loophole!   What's the term Diesel uses for this???

[Dhikr 132]

5 minutes ago, wolverine848 said:

Holy loophole!   What's the term Diesel uses for this???

LOL, "Holy loophole!".xddd

[FrozenRailgun 1,771]

2 hours ago, TheCongoSpider said:

you can drop the flag, and then when you automatically pick it up again, the Drone will activate and give you a repair kit (and supplies if you need it). Same for Rugby, you can throw the ball against a wall or something and when you pick it back up, the drone will activate and give you a repair kit (and supplies if you need it).  

WTH???!!! Then Sprinter's ability can get abused! 

[FrozenRailgun 1,771]

On 1/24/2020 at 9:33 PM, TheCongoSpider said:

This is what happens when you protection someone with the Saboteur Drone. 

You mean protect someone, not protection someone.

[FrozenRailgun 1,771]

On 1/22/2020 at 3:49 PM, Potdindy said:

Anyone using Brutus drones?

I have it. But I don't use it. Not until 20/20.

On 1/22/2020 at 7:26 PM, TheCongoSpider said:

I would rather a strong effect + 5% attack and defense than just +10% attack and defense. 

Not me. I would rather 10% damage and defence permamently. Strong effect is no use.

[Tidebreaker 1,669]

3 minutes ago, FrozenRailgun said:

I have it. But I don't use it. Not until 20/20.

Not me. I would rather 10% damage and defence permamently. Strong effect is no use.

I'm curious, though. How does the battery consumption work exactly on Brutus? Is it actually per minute instead of activations?

[FrozenRailgun 1,771]

Just now, Tidebreaker said:

I'm curious, though. How does the battery consumption work exactly on Brutus? Is it actually per minute instead of activations?

Per minute? I don't use drone. Only in Test Server.

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

On 1/29/2020 at 9:23 PM, FrozenRailgun said:

You mean protect someone, not protection someone.

Yeah. I only realised that yesterday. Don't think I wanna change it though. 

 

On 1/29/2020 at 9:32 PM, Tidebreaker said:

I'm curious, though. How does the battery consumption work exactly on Brutus? Is it actually per minute instead of activations?

It's passive, there is nothing to activate. And it's the regular 1 per minute. 

Edited February 1, 2020 by TheCongoSpider

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

On 1/29/2020 at 7:39 PM, DieselPlatinum said:

If there was a feature that allows me to do so, I'd give you 18k of my speed boosts, so you could make full use of your new toy.

Doesn't suit my playstyle. 

 

On 1/29/2020 at 7:39 PM, DieselPlatinum said:

The part where you get a free repair kit if you pick up a ball or flag is a really cool mechanic that I didn't thought about.

I initially expected it to take my repair kits upon each activation but it didn't. Pretty nifty. 

 

On 1/29/2020 at 7:31 PM, Dhikr said:

This actually sounds like a well-priced drone that is worth purchasing if you have, as you said, speed boosts, as well as some extra crystals to dish out. If one use's it to it's maximum potential, I could see it becoming a super useful drone that I might consider purchasing. Thanks for the insight.

Tried some more testing. There's this one scenario that requires a lot of concentration and memory to confirm, which is scenarios with supply cooldowns. Haven't perfected it yet. As for the other scenario (using random numbers as examples):

 

If your DA is at 6 seconds, DD at 18 seconds, and SB at 22 seconds, then if your Drone is at 0/20 and it activates, only the DA will be set to 10 seconds while the other 2 will continue as normal because their remaining timers are >10 seconds. 

 

It'll become pretty useful at 20/20. 

[Tidebreaker 1,669]

22 minutes ago, TheCongoSpider said:

It'll become pretty useful at 20/20. 

The question is if something isn't useful at 20/20. Then that's a problem.

[DaringDeer 656]

Questions about battery consumption.  As far as I know and according to the wiki, drones are all supposed to use 1 battery per minute. 

 

Quote

Drones run on batteries, and they use them one at a time per minute, even if you're unwilling to use them. It is important to unequip a drone if you're not planning on using one, otherwise, they will waste your batteries!

 

On my account I have used drones for 297 hours which is 17,820 minutes.  I should have used roughly 17,820 batteries.  I understand that is minimum.  If I go into a battle with 6:01 left, I expect to use 7 batteries.  So reasonable worst case is that I use 7 batteries for every 6 minutes I play.  That is 17820 * (7/6) = 20,790 batteries used over lifetime of my account.  Now, compare that to the 45,990 batteries my profile says I have used.  

 

You can see this across all users.  For example, S-K-E-P-T-I-C is the biggest battery user according to @AbsoluteZero list.  He has used drones for 375 hours which should translate to roughly 22,500 batteries consumed but his profile says he has used 193,645 batteries.  That's 4.65 batteries per minute of drone usage. 

 

I keep track of user profiles in an application I have created.  Between 6/28/2019 and 2/3/2020 I played using drones for 9,684.60 minutes and consumed 27,234 batteries. 

 

I looked at the 500 users (friends, high efficiency players, and some e-sports players) I have tracked over that period and the average battery usage is 3.58 per minute of drone use.

 

 

Is there any explanation for this discrepancy?  How can we have used so many batteries in that period of time?

 

@Maf

 

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

7 minutes ago, DaringDeer said:

 

I believe the hours is the hours played for some drones is calculated differently depending on their effects. I believe one-time-activation drones show less time than the ones that run for long (Defender). 

 

Also, a battery is deducted every time you first spawn in a battle (including when you reload your game). The player could have simply left the battle deeming it unfit for their time, and that would have been a battery wasted. 

 

For self-clarification, you can ask your friends or the players you know to experiment with the Drones. Let each of their drones be idle in the battle for an extensive period of time and let them record the changes in the hours played after. That should, in theory, give you part of what you need to know of how hours played is calculated on certain Drones. 

 

Then again, I was testing something with the Sprinter Drone and stayed in a PRO battle for more than an hour, yet on my profile it says 0 hours played. Maybe it only works in MM battles. 

[Maf 32,300]

22 minutes ago, DaringDeer said:

 

 

Answer is pretty simple - the ratings don't display drone usage minutes accurately. From what I understand, drone usage (time and experience) only counts when the drone is active and ready to be used (i.e. not on cooldown, and flying over your tank), while the battery timer is counting down regardless of whether or not the drone is ready. So with that system, the only drone which accurately displays time and experience is Brutus, since has no cooldown and is always active. Other drones probably show around 5-50% of their usage depending on how effectively the player uses them.

My drone usage shows around 120 hours total, which can't be right because I played more than 120 hours in the last 2 years and used drones all the time since around September 2018.

[DaringDeer 656]

Are you saying that for Booster, which is active for 3 seconds and has 3 second cooldown currently, that each activation of the drone will only count for 3 seconds toward the time shown for Booster on the profile?  That seems impossible.  You can only get maybe 2 or 3 activations per minute unless you die constantly.

 

Or are you saying that profile is counting the full time that your DD is active (boosted and non-boosted part) which would be 30 seconds presuming you survive the whole time?

[The_Pakistani 16,768]

I see 50% modules are useless against many turrets due to drones

and I see drones give you more protection from turrets even without protection module against specific turret.

So buyers rule with batteries.

[coconuttree 519]

How feasible is it for a non buyer to use a drone?

I have 1600 batteries. How frequently will I be able to use my drone such that I don't run out of batteries? I play only for missions. I rarely play without missions.

[KamenRider 4]

Is defender drone good? How many upgrades does it require for it to be useful?

[wolverine848 13,097]

Just now, KamenRider said:

Is defender drone good? How many upgrades does it require for it to be useful?

Yes - it's almost impossible to kill target equipped with that unless you have something like Hornet-OD.

You probably want to have 8-10 MUs on it before you start using up batteries.

[Tidebreaker 1,669]

20 minutes ago, At_Shin said:

I have 4 drones-

Brutus level 0, Assault level 2,

Trickster level 3 and Blaster level 4.

I have almost never used anyone of these.

So I have got 6k batteries. Which do I upgrade this sale? And which is the best one?

I'd say Driver. It's relatively economical, and once upgraded is nothing short of an absolute game-changer. The other ones are fine but really don't need that much upgrading to be effective.

[DieselPlatinum 5,121]

2 hours ago, Tidebreaker said:

I'd say Driver. It's relatively economical, and once upgraded is nothing short of an absolute game-changer. The other ones are fine but really don't need that much upgrading to be effective.

 

1 hour ago, At_Shin said:

Alright! I guess I will tryout driver.

Not only that but if you're using a hull with a long OD charge like Viking and you have an OD mission to complete, driver helps out immensely.

[coconuttree 519]

What is the appeal of supplier? 5 seconds of extra supplies doesn't seem worth it. Especially with engineer giving 40 seconds extra of supplies

[coconuttree 519]

20 minutes ago, At_Shin said:

but that effect is limited by be number of teammates near the drop

Wiki says supplier shares with near by allies. Engineer shares with all allies.

[coconuttree 519]

2 hours ago, At_Shin said:

Wut? These drones have a area of effect mechanism for a reason. I am sure the engineer also shares it's picked up supplies only when allies are within it's area of effect.

"Significantly increases the duration of supply drops and shares the effect of the picked up supply box with all allies.", Says the wiki on engineer drone.

Also, supplier drone has a parameter called radius of effect. Engineer doesn't.

Edit: verified on test server. I shared supplies from drops to team mates across the map

Edited June 1, 2020 by coconuttree

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

4 hours ago, coconuttree said:

What is the appeal of supplier? 5 seconds of extra supplies doesn't seem worth it. Especially with engineer giving 40 seconds extra of supplies

If you like sticking close to teammates, Supplier helps them a lot. It's my favourite drone in this account. 

 

2 hours ago, At_Shin said:

Wut? These drones have a area of effect mechanism for a reason. I am sure the engineer also shares it's picked up supplies only when allies are within it's area of effect.

Engineer shares supplies only with allies that have already materialised when you pick up the drop box regardless of their distance away from you. Anyone still spawning won't get it.

 

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

30 minutes ago, At_Shin said:

OMD! (the 'd' stands for dog) 

I had no idea! So if a tanker with an engineer drone picks up a repair kit in juggernaut mode, will the juggernaut get the repair kit with it's extended time bonus even when the juggernaut is far away from the engineer tanker?

Yes, the Juggernaut would also receive a repair kit. But note this; I had tested it in Juggernaut mode recently and it doesn't look like the Juggernaut benefits from the repair kit having an extended uptime. I looked at it carefully, made sure they weren't attacked, and every time, the Juggernaut's healing stopped after 3 seconds. 

So that extra time that the repair kit takes with Engineer is a handicap and not a benefit.