Drones: Working As Intended?

[Roobarb]

Hey all.

I bought my mate a copy of ED the other day, and I've been helping him gain some money by buying stock and jettisoning it for him.

It's all been good. I've finally got him in a mining-capable Cobra, complete with collector drones.

The thing is, when I dropped about a dozen cannisters for him to sell for some upgrades for his swanky new ship, his drone went off and grabbed one okay, then exploded as soon as it transferred the can to his hold.

At first I thought it was because he had the can targeted, but in actual fact he hadn't. He wasn't moving or anything, and his cargo bay was deployed.

So he sent out another drone. This one collected all but one of the cans, then also exploded after transferring one.

Weird, I thought.

So I dropped a few more cans, and straight away, the drone he sent out exploded as soon as it transferred one. The next drone managed 3. The third, again only one.

So, questions:

Is this working as intended... ie. collecting cans with drones has some sort of random failure rate?

Any other Cobra pilots finding this problem?

If so, does it happen only when collecting cannisters, or does the problem recur when collecting ore too?

I ask because I fly a Python now, and have had no problems collecting ore, but I've yet to try grabbing cans.

Cheers.

 

[IronGremlin]

Hrm, I've had no trouble with drones on my type 6 - maybe this is connected to ship model. Any other players jad troubles or lack thereof in specific ships?

 

[GluttonyFang]

Hey all.

I bought my mate a copy of ED the other day, and I've been helping him gain some money by buying stock and jettisoning it for him.

It's all been good. I've finally got him in a mining-capable Cobra, complete with collector drones.

The thing is, when I dropped about a dozen cannisters for him to sell for some upgrades for his swanky new ship, his drone went off and grabbed one okay, then exploded as soon as it transferred the can to his hold.

At first I thought it was because he had the can targeted, but in actual fact he hadn't. He wasn't moving or anything, and his cargo bay was deployed.

So he sent out another drone. This one collected all but one of the cans, then also exploded after transferring one.

Weird, I thought.

So I dropped a few more cans, and straight away, the drone he sent out exploded as soon as it transferred one. The next drone managed 3. The third, again only one.

So, questions:

Is this working as intended... ie. collecting cans with drones has some sort of random failure rate?

Any other Cobra pilots finding this problem?

If so, does it happen only when collecting cannisters, or does the problem recur when collecting ore too?

I ask because I fly a Python now, and have had no problems collecting ore, but I've yet to try grabbing cans.

Cheers.

This is the notorious bug of collector drones I was talking about in my piracy thread earlier, that drones bug out when there is more than one player in an instance. It's most likely not your friend's or your fault.

 

[CMDR Hagglebeard]

Yep, having two people in an instance cripples collectors. Try it on an ASP, you'll want to kill yourself, one drone maximum works in area collect mode if the shields are off.

 

[Arjin]

I was going to say Ask Obama, but that would get me in trouble so what the CMDR's above have stated is correct.

 

[bend_r]

I, too, have found the collector drones to be bugged in different ships, when collecting cargo. Mining is ok, cargo not so much. I guess they never tested that.

 

[Jezzah]

They are generally rubbish at collecting cargo and are no use at all in combat scooping situations as you have to be immobile for them to work properly.

I hope FD go have a rethink about this aspect of collector drones. I'd really like them to go down the route of reuseable drones make them expensive but make them useful for all areas of the game.

 

[Roobarb]

I'd really like them to go down the route of reuseable drones make them expensive but make them useful for all areas of the game.

Agreed.

And some interesting replies, thanks peeps.

I'm hoping mining together will be more successful.