Drones (XR VR)

There are two main types of drone:

Player-Ship Drones

Player-Ship Drones are very small ships that can be equipped on the Skunk that serve to either expand your abilities or provide support.  There are two kinds of ability drone: Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) which you can control remotely, and Unmanned Ranging Vehicles (URVs) which are pre-programmed and operate entirely autonomously.

Note that these drones are not produced using economy resources, and are purchased from Drone Dealers.  They can be purchased remotely.

• ROVs
  • Assassin – remote-controlled combat drone
  • Beholder – scanning drone that enables a deeper scan than is possible from your ship
  • Trojan – hacking drone
  • Traitor – sabotage drone that enables the dropping of small limpet mines that attach to a target.  These limpet mines are triggered via remote detonation.
    
    
• URVs
  • Interceptor, Intrepid, Overrun – automated defence drones with varying flight characteristics and armament 

Non-Player-Ship Drones

These drones are all URVs that provide different functions for the ships and stations in which they are equipped.

The different kinds of Utility Drones enable particular functionalities, without which ships would not be able to engage in the activities that they enable.

Note that these drones are produced using economy resources.  As such, their availability is subject to market forces such as the availability of resources, the ease of flow of resources between stations, and market demand.

• Utility Drones
  • Cargolifter – transports cargo between ships and/or stations. Necessary for ship-to-ship, ship-to-station, and station-to-station trading
  • Construction – used by ships and stations to repair themselves, by shipyards to construct ships, and by Construction Vessels to construct stations
  • Surface Miner – used by big mineral mining ships to harvest solid resources such as the various Ores and Silicon
  • Scoop Collector – used by big gas mining ships to harvest non-solid resources such as Hydrogen and Plasma
    
    
• Combat Drones
  • Interceptor, Intrepid, Overrun – automated defence drones with varying flight characteristics and armament
    
    

It is very important to note that drones for the Albion Skunk are not compatible with other ships, and vice versa.  So Interceptor drones that are used in the Skunk and are purchased from Drone Dealers cannot be used with other ships.  Similarly, Interceptor drones that are used in capital ships and are purchased from Shipyards cannot be used with the Skunk.