+5 drones in space

How some players can deploy and control more than 5 drones at same time ? what skill need train to do ?

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Drone Assist.

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Just to clarify, Drone Assist is not a skill you can train that lets you deploy more drones, Drone Assist is having one player have his drones assist, and be controllable, by another player.

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Also there is one ship as far as I know which can field up to +5 drones in total due to a ship trait that adds +1 drone limit per skill level (so +5 at skill level V).

And when Uriel says one ship… he literally means one ship.

It is called the Guardian Vexor and it was given out as a prize years and years ago.

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Sooooooo… to answer the OP’s question directly:

  • There is no way for sub-capital ships to deploy more than 5 drones at any given time.

  • There is a way to control more than 5 drones at a time, but it requires another player being present. Said “other player” cannot leave the area while “lending” their drones to you.

  • Capitals and Supercapitals (Carriers and SuperCarriers specifically) can technically deploy more than 5 “drones” (they are actually “fighters” but they are functionally the same thing).
    However, those “drones” are grouped into “squads” and each capital can only field a certain number of “squads.”

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“But Fluffers… why was this done? Will the DEVs ever release a ship that can use more than 5 drones?”

Put simply: Drones use up server resources similar to a ship (albeit, simplified). They have mass, trajectory, skill affected stats, etc. That means the server needs to keep track of them in a manner similar to a ship.

How do we know the server suffers?
Way, way ,WAY back in the day, there used to be no limits on how many drones you could field (outside of your drone bay that is).
People began to abuse this and well… server performance began to suffer as many hamsters were crispified.

Even today a 50 on 50 person battle can get a little laggy when 5x drones per person are deployed.
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Now will the DEVs raise the limit? Probably not.
The trend we have seen over the years has been a “consolidation” of drones into more manageable groups.

But, never say never. I could be proven wrong. :wink:

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Yes that is what I wrote… literally. :wink:

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It is true that the number is limited by the possible overload on the server, this topic is interesting what happens that I thought I saw once someone driving both attack drones and salvager drones, all at the same time, I was probably dreaming then.

It is still plausible that you did see this.

It is a 2 step process.

  • Player 1 deploys Salvage drones.
  • Player 2 deploys combat drones and then directs his/her drones to assist/protect Player 1’s ship.

Player 1 can continue to use his/her Salvage drones while the drones from Player 2 will attack anything that aggresses Player 1’s ship.

edit: I should also add that both Player 1 and 2 have to be in the same Fleet with each other for this to work.

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My standard setup for Highsec belts is 2 light drones, 2 mining drones and one salvaging drone. Just in case some rats are coming close or fellow miners don’t care about their salvage. You can mix drones al gusto, bandwidth provided - up to 5.

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