I can send my drones to attack a ship that is 40 kms away. That is my skill limit (drone avionics).
Scenario I
Suppose my fleetmate is 70 kms away and a ship is attacking him/her (the enemy ship is at bumping range of my fleet mate), if I command my drones to assist this person will they do so? i.e. will they attack the enemy ship? As my drones are assigned to my fleet mate. If he/she locks the enemy ship and presses ‘F’ will my drones attack the enemy ship?
Scenario II
Both me and my fleetmate are near each other (in bumping range) and an enemy ship is 60 kms away. My fleet mate’s drone avionics is maxed out and he/she can control drones upto 81kms. Will my drones attack the enemy ship if my fleetmate locks the target and presses ‘F’ (my drones are assigned to him/her).
If the answer is yes then I don’t give a f*** about drone avionics or for that reason drone link augmentor and can put something else in my free high slot. Ofcourse the drone bunny in my fleet has maxed drone skills and a 10 bill ISK drone control implant so I don’t need to care about my shi*** skills.
Okay, it is my understanding that your drones will only attack stuff that is within your range. Range to the assisted/guarded ship is (probably/mostly) irrelevant*. Drone control skills of the assisted/guarded ship is irrelevant.
Assuming you have a 40k drone control range:
Example 1: you assist drones to a ship that is 60km away from you, but the ship he’s attacking is only 40k from you. The result is that your drones attack.
Example 2: you assist drones to a ship that is 40km away from you, but the ship he’s attacking is 60k away. The result is that your drones just sit around him doing nothing.
*Note that I don’t know if the ship has to be within your drone control range when you assign them. However, I do know that if he does move outside of your drone control range, your drones will still attack stuff as long as the target is within your drone control range. There is probably also some limit to how far a ship can be away for you to be able to assign drones to him, but I don’t know what that is (i.e. your drone control range, 250km, or what).
And on a side note, it’s probably good that things work this way or it would allow drone fleets to project damage vast distances as long as they can get their drone bunnies in range of the enemy fleet.
I think you are getting mixed up with fighters, you can hand over control of fighters to other players.
With drones you can set them to assist other players and if that player is in range they will travel to them and defend them but they are still under your control.
Your drones are affected by your skills only and not that of anyone else in your fleet.
