Which is better for drones? Size or quantity?

[Cody38]

I am making a carrier, and I haven't ever finished one before, but this time I have. I have a large space inside my ship which I'm going to fill with AI Drones, but I'm not sure which would be better: 48 ships that are smaller, and less powerful, or 16 ships with better capabilities? I feel like having better fighters would be the better choice, as well as having less of them would make it easier to re-dock them all. But the doubt in my mind is that more drones would make hostile turrets have a harder time, and the DPS would be spread over more ships so it would last longer in the face of a large, turret defended opponent.

So, I can't decide. Opinions? Help convince me what to do. Thanks, and sorry if there was a post like this before, I did search for one but didn't see it.

 

[Keptick]

http://starmadedock.net/threads/the-ultimate-drone-r-d-thread.3246/

Could you give mass estimates for the drones? As a rule of thumb, assuming that both drone swarms have the same total mass, the one with more drones will be better. However, that's not necessarily true once you reach really really small drone sizes, since the space taken up by weapon computers, AI block and faction block become significant.

And use drone racks, it eases the redocking process immensely. Here's a prototype , more recent versions have the "ejection module" (in this case beams with push effect) mounted directly on the ship to cheapen the rack.

 

[Cody38]

I am using logic and drone racks. The logic will move them out of the ship to be launched. I can either have
48 fighters with a max (unlikely to use all the space given)
30 L
20 H
16 W
or 16 fighters with
50 L
20 H
30 W
So as bricks of modules, those would be quite effective, but since looks matter I would be making decent looking ships, and I honestly don't know the mass. The post you linked is helpful and the tip is too. I think for my purpose since I'd be making larger than average drones, using the 16 with more power would be best. Then again if I can fit 48 drones with the same total mass, I probably should.

 

[Edymnion]

I say go for the smaller drones in higher numbers.

Drones are overkill on pirates unless you've got some crazy advanced custom pirates, so they're almost assuredly going to be going up against players. Players are going to have bigger guns that are going to do more damage than either of those sizes could possibly have shields to withstand, so you want numbers on your side.

If the other guy is going to one shot your drones either way, go with more drones that can rain more down on your opponent while he has to pick them off one by one.

 

[Cody38]

If the other guy is going to one shot your drones either way, go with more drones that can rain more down on your opponent while he has to pick them off one by one.

Yeah that's what I was thinking.

 

[PizzaPress]

More.
There was(pre-rail update) a rack that consisted of tiny target drones, which dispersed them. My guess is it would be pretty good.