Destroying Drones

[Leonidas]

Is there any way to try to destroy enemy drones on purpose, or is it always a random byproduct of combat?

[Gorlom]

only way is to fight the boarding, antipersonnel and repair drones inside ships or shooting down the boarding drone with a defense drone afaik.

Someone had a theory bout using a beam weapon with a starting point inside the ship and an exit point outside it, No idea if that does anything or can even be timed properly enough to do it.

[Alblaka]

All projectile weapons can 'accidentally' hit drones. It appears the game is actually calculating every projectile's flight path for real...
Had a ludicrous event recently, when I showed the game to my brother: He bought his first drone system, launched a first drone, which decided to fire at the ship from it's front and rightout catched a laser-shot from the enemy Basic Defense Laser, lifetime < 2 seconds.

I've seen Defense, Anti-Ship and Hull-Repair drones being occasionally shot down. I'm pretty sure same applies to Beam Drones.
You cannot explicitely target drones and I'm not 100% sure whether every projectile coming in contact will cause a drone death. In-code, there's a 'dodge' value associated with drones, indicating there may is only a chance of drone and projectile connecting.

Overall it's a pretty random aspect.

[Retro]

All projectile weapons can 'accidentally' hit drones. It appears the game is actually calculating every projectile's flight path for real...
Had a ludicrous event recently, when I showed the game to my brother: He bought his first drone system, launched a first drone, which decided to fire at the ship from it's front and rightout catched a laser-shot from the enemy Basic Defense Laser, lifetime < 2 seconds.

I've seen Defense, Anti-Ship and Hull-Repair drones being occasionally shot down. I'm pretty sure same applies to Beam Drones.
You cannot explicitely target drones and I'm not 100% sure whether every projectile coming in contact will cause a drone death. In-code, there's a 'dodge' value associated with drones, indicating there may is only a chance of drone and projectile connecting.

Overall it's a pretty random aspect.

That's happened to me too. My Anti Ship drone I was appeared right in front of the enemy's weapon, right at the moment it fired. I didn't even see the drone appear, just the explosion. At least it stops the shot from getting through to you.

[Alblaka]

Actually it's a legit strategy... start your AS-drone and disable it when it comes close to in front of an enemy gun. If you time it right, the drone will intercept anything the cannon fires :3

[Retro]

Actually it's a legit strategy... start your AS-drone and disable it when it comes close to in front of an enemy gun. If you time it right, the drone will intercept anything the cannon fires :3

Hmm, nice! I'd have never thought of doing that

[Alblaka]

Actually it's a legit strategy... start your AS-drone and disable it when it comes close to in front of an enemy gun. If you time it right, the drone will intercept anything the cannon fires :3

Hmm, nice! I'd have never thought of doing that

Well, the main issue would be timing, given deactivated drones drift around ad infinitum ^^'

[Spleenling]

Similar thing also happens if a Missile/laser/Ion hits another Missile/laser/Ion

[LULZferBAKON]

I once had my defence drone shot down by a missle. How ironic is that?

[Leonidas]

So could you pull the same timing trick on an enemy drone? That is, hold your fire until the drone is directly in front of your weapon?