Drones[]
Drones are ships used to go back and forth between depots on other celestial bodies, EG: From a depot on mars to one on Io. They are not driven by any players and are piloted solely by computers. Drones are mainly used as a different option from junction chains.
Usage[]
Drones have no use besides picking up resources from depots on other planets like Mars or Venus and depositing them on moons and other planets without resources like metal, water, or usually natural gas, like Io or Ganymede. When activated Drones will fly to the first depot and pick up an amount of resources for about 5 or less seconds. Once it is finished collecting all the metal, rock, and natural gas, it will take off to the other depot. Once it arrives it will take another 5 or less seconds to deposit all the resources it has before going back to the first depot to repeat the process.
Players use drones to colonize planets that are lacking in resources needed to colonize.
Cons[]
Drones cannot be controlled or stopped after activating. This means that after activating it is near impossible to refuel the drone.
If your drone runs out of fuel it will be hard to refuel, especially if it manages to run out in the middle of space.
Cannot defend itself from threats such as other players, and aliens, making them susceptible to grief and other attacks.
They also have the ability to teleport to the delivering depot and back.
Creation[]
To create a drone is an easy task. There are many ways to create one, so I'll show how I create one.
You will need at least 1 Mill, 1 Station Mill, and 2 depots (1 on each planet or moon)
And you will also need to spawn in: 1 catwalk, at least 2 fuel drums, 1 computer, and 2 or 3 spike engines.
And before you begin construction, go to both depots to get their ID number.
Spawn in the catwalk and, then spawn in two fuel drums and connect them both to the catwalk, Spawn in the spike engines and put them on the back of the fuel drums.
Once you've finished adding your engines, spawn in the computer. Make sure the arrow is facing what you want to be the front of your ship.
Now before you activate it, push your drone to the depot you want it to pick up from. Now that it is close enough, click on the computer. Set the depots as: pick up from #
Deposit at #. Then, click on Transport resources.
Once set, the drone will ignite and will keep collecting and depositing resources until it runs out of fuel.