Drone questions.

[Dutchling (OP)]

-Do geo surveying but otherwise stationary dones use fuel?
-Will a drone automatically follow a planet when it revolves around the sun or does it need fuel for that?
-Is there anything you can do with the drone after it has reached its location and has done its geo survey?
-Does a ship need missile fire control or any other type of sensors to shoot drones at planets?
-Can you use multiple drones at the same time ?

Thanks in advance.

[Theokrat]

Yes
Yes
No
Not sure, but I think yes. (FCs, not snesors)
I think yes.

[Dutchling (OP)]

Are you sure I'd need a Fire Control for firing at planets? What would be the optimal resolution in that case?

edit: Oh, you aren't sure.

[Bgreman]

You do need a missile fire control to fire at planets (you create a waypoint on the planet and fire the missile at the waypoint).  However, the planet (and the waypoint) do NOT have to be within the range of the missile fire control, unlike regular targeting.

[Dutchling (OP)]

Ah, that makes sense.

edit: Wait you said a drone uses fuel when surveying. If this is true then geo survey drones are utterly useless. There simply isn't enough fuel in a drone to make it last for the days or even weeks it has the survey.

[sublight]

The missile survey theory says the drone is just the delivery platform, and a 2nd stage geosurvey buoy does the actual surveying.

[Nathan_]

drones need a firecontrol, but it doesn't have to be a particularly good one, minimal sized FC or the ICBM launch control both work fine. drones can deliver buoys, but you can also put an active/thermal/EM sensor on the drone itself so facilitate scouting out an interesting planet before going there with a ship. Finally Drones can't deliver mines yet, that doesn't work for some reason in this version.

[Dutchling (OP)]

How do I actually shoot at a planet?

[Nathan_]

Either use "launch missile at" from the f12 screen(ship will travel to the planet in question, this is okayish for dropping buoys but won't work for drones), or set a waypoint on the planet, and have the ship/PDC with the drone launchers target that waypoint and fire.

[Dutchling (OP)]

Would I not need a decent fire control for the waypoint thing?

Previously in this thread someone said you wouldn't need one.

edit: nevermind, I tried it and it works. Thank you all!

[Dutchling (OP)]

I set my second stage separation range at 900,000,000 km (900m km) but the drones keep getting released after 200m km.

Anyone have an idea what I could be doing wrong here?

[Nathan_]

The separation range is separate when you are within this distance of whatever target. If the drone is 200M km from the target it separates immediately with such a separation range.

[Dutchling (OP)]

Waypoints don't follow the planet when it orbits around the sun.

Anyone knows how to make a drone arrive at a planet?

[metalax]

From over on the DF forum aurora thread.

"Place a waypoint on the planet by clicking the planet in the system map, then opening the 'Waypoints' tab of the system map controls and hit 'last', which places a waypoint on the last body selected."

Just tested it to make sure and the waypoint created does move with the planet.

[Dutchling (OP)]

Thanks.