proper drone management right there. Will almost never lose drones doing it that way.
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Yup. You don’t have to be good at it, you just have to not suck.
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As in life. Sadly true.
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Rapid heavy misile launcher + rigs + guidance modules.
I understand these in principle. but when I wrap in a mission start, sometimes I get immediate aggro (10~20 boats all locking on me) and web scrambler / webber nearby. If I release the drones, wouldn’t they get eliminated before I get any usefulness out of them?
No, because if you are targeted, you drones will not be when they are launched- you have drawn the target lock, and your drones are different targets. The NPCs can occasionally switch targets, particularly frigates, but what you describe is exactly when and why drones are helpful.
It’s a matter of timing. There are different aggro triggers, and different aggro levels. Yellowbox mostly just means they’ve noticed (locked) you, redbox means they are attacking you. Aggro triggers refer to redbox and include initial aggro (what you get on warp in), proximity (if you get too close you can pick up aggro), and attacking (if you activate an aggressive module on an unaggressed target, they will aggro back in return.) Except under certain circumstances, once an NPC has aggro’d, it doesn’t go back to its initial state, and will keep shooting as long as it can. Aggro is usually on a group basis, NPCs that spawn clustered together are usually a group programmed to aggress together. NPCs also have a system where they’ll switch aggro. If they aren’t doing damage to their target, they’ll switch targets. Priority is decided by target size and modules fit. So yeah, small elite frigs will prioritize drones based on size, but will only switch targets to them after they’ve been shooting at your ship long enough to realize they aren’t going to kill it. Those same tackling ships will try to orbit you at around 10k, which is nearly always close enough for your drones to make it back safely as soon as the tacklers switch from redbox to yellowbox. Any time you notice things shifting from red to yellow, pull your drones in asap, the NPCs haven’t stopped shooting, they just aren’t shooting at you, and are in the process of positioning themselves to kill your drones. You do have a window of time between yellowbox and when your drones start to take damage, if you waste that time you’re probably going to lose drones, so keep an eye on drone health, but don’t use that as your main indicator that you should recall drones, because it’ll be too late.
As far as dealing with large numbers of aggro, keep moving, keep shooting. At extreme ranges, I start sniping (armor boat with turrets) at the frigates and will usually 1-shot most of them. It’s a matter of effectiveness per shot. If you can kill a smaller ship in a couple shots, kill them even if they aren’t technically the biggest threat on the field. There are more than a couple missions where I kill everything without even having to turn on my reps. Those missions where everything spawns close and hostile, start moving. Pick a piece of scenery, set a 20-30km orbit, and let the NPCs form a comet tail around you. Prioritize those elite frigs, keep an eye out for yellowboxing.
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I guess one more piece of advice while i’m thinking of it. You want your camera zoomed out to cover the whole battlefield or at least all the active hostiles, with the tactical overlay turned on. In addition to a general sense of situational awareness, the scene can hold more icons than the overview, so you should be able to spot yellowbox easier. Newer players tend to think they ought to be zoomed in enough to see their own ship. That’s a dangerous mistake.
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