the guard/assist settings for drones no longer works on NPCs. It only works on human characters. So the function works some of the time, but not all of the time, and you will be scratching your head in frustration wondering why the dadgum thing isn’t working. I had a car like that. Way to go CCP (sarcasm intended). This is real life functionality.
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read the patchnotes
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I heard it was borked on human players too?
Is this a thing?
yes, I read the notes. I am expressing my dissatisfaction with a function that works some of the time, but not all of the time. Plus, I liked it the way it was. It would be nice if they explained why they changed this functionality. The drones setting says nothing about it working only in certain circumstances.
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I completely agree, such inconsistencies are unwanted. At least there needs to be a good explanation why the game functions one way in situation A, and a completely different way in situation B. Without explanation, I think many players would initially report such a thing as a game-breaking bug.
Don’t get me wrong though: I really do like it that CCP is reducing the earnings of (near-)afk gameplay. I just don’t like inconcistencies.
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Why don’t they just let the NPC’s to ALWAYS primary the drones first? Even if you set the drones behavior to Aggressive, they will not attack even if they are being hit by NPC’s. The only time drones attack the NPC’s is that if their own ship is being aggressed. Let’s see if afk ratting would still be a thing if they won’t have any drones left.
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It’s too easy to use your drones as tank.
@Op as far as I’m aware, CCP still haven’t said if this was intentional or not.
CCP is still trying to figure it out themselves! 
Edit; Can you imagine a CCP football team??? (not American football)
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Drones have always had the focus of a drunk puppy when were they ever reliable?
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Releases get known issues and general feedback threads. They are the appropriate place to post feedback and bugs concerning releases.
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There already is an explanation - NPC’s and actual Players are completely different entities.
Only those too stupid to read the helpfully-provided patch-notes…
Boo-hoo - I get missiles on one faction’s ships, drones on another, and guns on yet another - why does CCP allow these dreadful inconsistencies ?!
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Does this mean the VNI gets reverted back to its pagan ways?
It was changed due to use by afk / ‘botters’ I believe.?
Edit: Words
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CCP going the long way round. The fix is clear delay local, yes you will lose 40% of you nullsec playerbase, woopdeedo that 40% was afk or botting anyway & will not be missed other than CCP’s baseline which will recover & then some in 2/4’s.
If you feel bad about 1/4 revenue loss then have a massive sub sale just prior to unannounced blackout. Rinse the botters afkr’s on their way permanently out of the game.
Not sure what this topic had to do with blackout…
You can go live in trig or wh space if you love it that much.
They sure are. But that fact alone is not sufficient to explain a difference in drone behaviour, where ‘guard’ settings actually don’t let the drones guard against some targets, but do guard against others. It’s inconsistent.
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The ess & drone agro changes are one of ccps half assed anti bot & anti afk plays. Blackout killed 99% of botting dead, bring it back. Suck the sub losses & 1/4 hit.
If you want to play against bots, elite dangerous has a single player mode.
Someone on reddit said he petitioned it and the GM said it was intentional.
The poster did not seem to be someone who would just make this up for salt.
Also, regarding the OP …
It is wrong to say that it works only “some of the time”.
It works 100% of the time against players …
… and 0% of the time against NPCs.
For it to work only “some of the time”, it would need to work less than 100% against players …
… and more than 0% against NPCs.
UNLESS he’s talking about drones often kind of having a mind of their own, sometimes… then please disregard.
Then they could have drones switch to passive after a while of idling (like a couple mins) - that would be targeting afk-ers indeed. The current behavior change made doing combat sites/missions (when need to fight overwhelming numbers of NPC enemies) significantly more difficult for no reason having anything to do with afk playing
It’s actually an easy fix for consistency… make folks have to hit F for NPC and PC alike 
Turret ships and most missile ships already do this, why do you feel that you are owed an exception?