When I simulate a Stratios with Hammerheads drones in the drone bay, when I look at the drone Damage Modifier attribute values it shows Stratios ship and Gallente Cruise skill as positive increases to the base value.
BUT…
When I simulate an Astero with Hobgoblin drones in the drone bay, when I look at the drone Damage Modifier it does NOT show Astero nor Gallante Frigate skill as an increase to the damage.
Is that a bug in the simulation screen?
A bug in the game (Astero not giving drone bonuses)
Or am doing something wrong with my Astero fit?
Asteros are known for being low dps but very high tank frigates. Gallente Frigate Racial skill gives the Drones extra HP, which fits the “defense” theme. Killing things while in an Astero takes time. And if you’re in an Astero vs Astero duel where you’re racing to kill each other drones first, better hope for friends or else you’re getting a 30 minute high APM battle on your hands.
I have killed things with a “combat” fit Astero, though I agree it is a risky attempt (especially with the locking delay after uncloaking, even with Cloak 5 skills).
NTL, my point is that an Astero is supposed to give a 20% damage bonus to drones per Gallente Frig skill level and I don’t see that shown for drone Damage Modifier, where as the Stratios gives a 10% bonus per Gallente Cruise skill and that I do see listed as a bonus enhancement.
Not a bug, you noticed correctly that the Astero, even though it’s a drone ship, has no drone damage bonuses.
No drone frigate* has a drone damage bonus, they’re all drone hitpoint or tracking bonuses.
Where the bigger specialised drone hulls (destroyers and upward like the Algos, Vexor, Dominix) all have drone damage bonuses, the drone frigates don’t, they only have drone tracking and hitpoint bonuses. After all, why should you give drone damage bonuses if you can simply give the ship more bandwidth? All of the drone frigates (Tristan, Ishkur, Astero, Imicus Navy Issue) simply have a lot of drone bandwidth for a frigate.
*The only exception is the Worm, as result of following the characteristics of the Gurista ship line: very limited bandwidth but much stronger drones. It has 300% drone damage with 10mbit/s, so it’s two light drones fight like 8.