Drone Countermeasures.

[Reilly Reese]

I also prefer to recess my turrets

 

[Loadout]

I think the only true countermeasures to drones consist of some combination of the following as generally one countermeasure seems to be met with a large amount of frustration when faced with a sizable number of drones;

• Stealth - if they can't target you, then they won't shoot you... seems simple enough. now we just need stealth turrets!
• Numbers Game - if theres 30 drones you better have about as many turrets. a 2 to 1 ratio would most likely be best given each turret will probably derp out at some point and target the same drone as another one.
• Moar Dronezz - fight drones with drones and let bobby ai sort em out.

Having said that my initial thoughts are stealth based. Using a stealth bomber to take out the drone ship before it can launch is probably the safest bet. If it can't see you to begin with then taking it out would potentially make it an easy task. This would require a good solid point blank effort though, as penetrating through shields and possibly several layers of armor to get at the drones would basically demand a strong pulse weapon not only for the massive alpha damage but also the stock punch effect (which leaves it open for Overdrive).

 

[Proxima_Centauri]

I have tried point defense turrets, but drones target them first and because ship shields don't extend to turrets, the drones make short work of them.

Not sure what kind of wimpy turrets you were using, but they shouldn't be losing. Drones need engines and turrets don't, after all.

Ways to combat drones:
-Stopping weapons on turrets
-Missile+Damage Beam weapons on turrets
-amc+amc+punch through weapons on turrets

That's really all you need

 

[Loadout]

Not sure what kind of wimpy turrets you were using, but they shouldn't be losing. Drones need engines and turrets don't, after all.

Ways to combat drones:
-Stopping weapons on turrets
-Missile+Damage Beam weapons on turrets
-amc+amc+punch through weapons on turrets

That's really all you need

STOP effect only keeps 1 from moving.
Missile + DB can be taken out by mass AMCs very quickly.
AMC + AMC is GREAT but only targets one drone at a time.

Individually this works. No doubt about it, a 100 mass drone vs a 12k mass turret, probably gonna lose 1:1.

The issue is the drones generally out number the turrets by a margin of about 20:1. Turrets just can't shoot fast enough, far enough, or hard enough to target that many ships at once.

Imagine having your turret deal with a multiple swarm missile capital ship by itself. 200+ missiles flying every which way, all doing around 5k damage, at it will usually take it out pretty quick. Same idea, except with drones the cost impact on the opponent is only about a 1/1000th to replace everything from scratch. Possible less.

 

[Spartan-228]

I feel that currently the best drone countermeasure is the missile+missile combo.
At this time you might have a little friendly fire, if you are doing a fleet action. You will have to decide if it is worth it or not.

 

[Reilly Reese]

I have an anti drone frigate using the heat seekers

They go flying in front of the fleet to decimate drones

 

[Yetimania]

If you put a turret inside a ship, don't the turret's shots just get stopped by the host ship?[DOUBLEPOST=1414183979,1414183709][/DOUBLEPOST]The main problem with turrets isn't their damage output, it's their turning speed. Turrets target the closest drone, not the drone that is closest to their reticle. This means that after killing one drone, they spend several seconds uselessly turning to fire at the drone directly behind them, etc.

The best solution I have is "turrets" that use fixed docking positions. They can't swivel, and only target enemies in their given field of fire. This leaves blind spots, so you'll need more turrets, but each gun is dramatically more effective. Drone shielding is generally minimal, so I use punch-through. One to two shots will kill any drone. The extra space on your gun, because you don't need a lot of DPS, should be used for shields.

Any solution should be supplemented with missile+missile, though the friendly fire can be prohibitive, especially if you use your own drones.

 

[Daffor]

The best solution I have is "turrets" that use fixed docking positions. They can't swivel, and only target enemies in their given field of fire.

How do you get around the limited orientation of ship docks?
Or is that not a thing anymore?

 

[Yetimania]

How do you get around the limited orientation of ship docks?
Or is that not a thing anymore?

You can't. You can basically only make forward and backward-firing weapons this way. Still, most incoming missiles will probably be coming from the front (assuming you're facing your enemy), so there's that. A mix of fixed guns covering the front (pretty effectively) and some turrets covering everything else (with dubious effectiveness) is about the best you can hope for

 

[FunnyBunny14]

You can also just rotate the computer to get a different orientation for your weapons.

 

[Daffor]

And is Bobby actually smart enough to hit with weapons not facing forward?

 

[K10wN]

And is Bobby actually smart enough to hit with weapons not facing forward?

In a fashion they will. I had some turrets on my base (they look like radar dishes) and they fire upwards in relation to their docking direction. When I had cannon+cannon on them, the turret would attempt to face the wrong direction and then fire (and of course miss because the cannon was facing the wrong way). It did however work great when I switched them over to missile+damage beam and missile+missile type weapons. The missiles fire upwards and head toward their targets. Missile+cannon would fire like cannon and cannon and not shoot the shot at the target.

It was v0.16-ish that i swapped them to missile. Don't know if this has been fixed.

I wasn't really attempting to get a useful weapon out of them. More so that they would move when an enemy came near and mimic a radar dish turning, which it did that perfectly.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

You can't. You can basically only make forward and backward-firing weapons this way. Still, most incoming missiles will probably be coming from the front (assuming you're facing your enemy), so there's that. A mix of fixed guns covering the front (pretty effectively) and some turrets covering everything else (with dubious effectiveness) is about the best you can hope for

I beg to differ, I have a ship with turrets facing out the side.

This is my Civilian Escort Gunboat Class "Bull Shark" I built it for Raibens Ship a day challenge as the turret ship.

 

[K10wN]

@Sven_The_Slayer : are they docked on turret modules (red) or ship modules (green)?

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

@Sven_The_Slayer : are they docked on turret modules (red) or ship modules (green)?

They are docked to a turret module (red) but it makes no difference, if I wanted them fixed I could dock them to hard points (green dock) and they would still face out the side like that.

The turrets are docked to the front and rear of a docked module (I called it a shield core. Basically just a power reactor, shields and some armor). The module is docked to the main ship with the dorsal of the module facing the ship and the ventral facing outward. This makes the turrets face away from a ship regardless of what module they are docked to.

 

[Mortiferum]

Drones stop being effective at greater than 3000m-4000m, since I think bobby derps out then.

Full reverse, then fly in a "Missile cruiser" and blast them with a large amount of heat seakers.

 

[K10wN]

They are docked to a turret module (red) but it makes no difference, if I wanted them fixed I could dock them to hard points (green dock) and they would still face out the side like that.

The turrets are docked to the front and rear of a docked module (I called it a shield core. Basically just a power reactor, shields and some armor). The module is docked to the main ship with the dorsal of the module facing the ship and the ventral facing outward. This makes the turrets face away from a ship regardless of what module they are docked to.

When I tried this, and an enemy came within range, the turret (docked on a red module) would face the front of the turret (front of the core) at the enemy, then try and shoot sideways at it. The shots would come out the right direction from the cannon+cannon system (the direction the computer was facing), but this was 90deg away from where the enemy was located and it wouldn't hit a thing. Maybe this has been fixed recently. I'll need to try it again.

 

[der_scheme]

You can't. You can basically only make forward and backward-firing weapons this way. Still, most incoming missiles will probably be coming from the front (assuming you're facing your enemy), so there's that. A mix of fixed guns covering the front (pretty effectively) and some turrets covering everything else (with dubious effectiveness) is about the best you can hope for

You can, using chain docking. In-depth clarifications here: http://starmadedock.net/threads/aut...xed-ai-controlled-guns-in-any-direction.3212/

 

[Lecic]

Drones stop being effective at greater than 3000m-4000m, since I think bobby derps out then.

Full reverse, then fly in a "Missile cruiser" and blast them with a large amount of heat seakers.

Good luck with that once we have thrust percentages. And you're already screwed if people deploy perma-EMP pulsars or drones with stop beams.

 

[Mortiferum]

Good luck with that once we have thrust percentages. And you're already screwed if people deploy perma-EMP pulsars or drones with stop beams.

Hmm.... drones are indeed a menace....

Perhaps combined turret coverage of multiple ships can take down drones with efficiency?

Or maybe we can only hope for buffs for either turrets, heatseekers or similar.