Hello there,
bare with me, I only started playing again recently, I forgot a lot of stuff.
I will describe what happened:
I was returning from some Agent Mission in my Praxis to see some Autothysian Lancers hanging around some gate in HighSec. Not knowing what they are and thinking “what could possible go wrong?” I decided to shoot them. The all got aggro and I easily killed them.
After that, I (painfully slow 100m/s) creeped up on the wrecks to loot them. About 10min later suddenly some more hostile ships appeared out of thin air and targeted me immediately and opened fire, in the group was one “Drifter Cruiser” that had some blue shield ring.
As soon as that blue ring was gone, something happened and my Praxis left all shields, all armor and was down to the last third of structure. I managed to kill all of them and then left, can someone tell me what that blue ring was and how that ship managed to almost kill me instantly?
Encounters with these ships have revealed several unique mechanics related to them alone. One such mechanic is that of an “overshield” - an additional layer of shielding colored blue on the targeting display. When this blue shield has been depleted, target locks on the Drifter break, in the manner of ECM. Many have also reported that the Drifters’ weapons deal massive amounts of damage, difficult for any sub-capital ship to tank without a specialised fit. Even capital ships are not immune, with many carriers being lost to Drifters, many by players attempting to test their capabilities. Drifters drop blue loot and Antikythera Elements.
There are 3 different types of Drifter battleships:
The type flown by Apollo and Artemis features an overshield and a doomsday weapon, but has a relatively poor tank. It can be found in known space and in Drifter wormholes.
If I recall correctly what I’ve read in the long past is that you attack the overshield which absorbs damage and once it is filled to maximum level it releases the energy in one go in the form of a doomsday weapon. Though this was written by players so not sure how lore accurate it is.
Drifter are like the “big boss”, if you will. Typically, if you’re hunting Lancers, you want to align out so that when the Drifter shows, you can bail because it’s like the big boss. Drifters can show up in battleships or cruisers. Like Uriel said, they have an overshield that serves as both an extra shield (to absorb incoming damage) and a trigger for a superweapon (triggered when the overshield depletes). Good on you for being able to survive, but that was definitely a close call.
If a reinforcement wave does indeed appear, it may include Drifter battleships or cruisers. Make no mistake: for all practical purposes, the latter are only marginally less deadly than the former. Either will deliver very high damage outputs at very long ranges; point, web and neut at extreme distances; and enjoy an overshield which, in case of being depleted, will trigger a shot from a superweapon which will obliterate any subcapital ship other than a carefully crafted marauder. Under normal circumstances, the only way to survive such an encounter would therefore consist on being already aligned and immediately entering warp as they land.
Holy crap, it really seems I was just lucky! breaking in sweat even now
That explains why as soon as I started attacking the cruiser, some haulers targeted me. I guess they were watching what would happen to my ship…
Lesson learned, don’t stay and wait for more trouble to jump in!
Do those drifters kill my pod as well?
edit: omg, I just read on that linked page, that the will kill the pod. Never gonna touch them again
edit2: the more I read the more lucky I feel “[…]in case of being depleted, will trigger a shot from a superweapon which will obliterate any subcapital ship other than a carefully crafted marauder”
For those interested in the Praxis fit that made survive possible:
[Praxis, Simulated Praxis Fitting]
Dread Guristas Co-Processor
Ballistic Control System II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Capacitor Flux Coil II
Ballistic Control System II
Missile Guidance Computer II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Copasetic Compact Shield Boost Amplifier
Copasetic Compact Shield Boost Amplifier
Pith X-Type X-Large Shield Booster
Republic Fleet Large Cap Battery
‘Arbalest’ Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher I
‘Arbalest’ Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher I
‘Arbalest’ Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher I
‘Arbalest’ Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher I
‘Arbalest’ Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher I
‘Arbalest’ Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher I
Auto Targeting System II
Large Capacitor Control Circuit I
Large Capacitor Control Circuit II
Large Capacitor Control Circuit II
Republic Fleet Berserker x1
Salvage Drone I x5
Federation Navy Ogre x4
Missile Range Script x1
Nova Heavy Missile x9574
Mobile Tractor Unit x1
