Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Anyone try the new harvesting droid yet?
marxo777 wrote:Has anyone got one yet and if so does it harvest the same amount you can or is it a set amount? Does it use your rating or its own? Thx guys
It uses your harvesting rating, and then can modify it further. Basic tests show that the really high harvesting modules can harvest a little more than the user. Not by much, but every little bit counts.
Myonax wrote:I was wondering if it auto harvested, or you had to target corpses and give a command.. Auto harvesting would be cool. The description make sit sound as if you have to target corpses which is about as much work as doing it yourself.
You have to target the corpse, tell it to harvest, and then wait for it to come back before you can order it to harvest another mob. Ive also heard that you have to be within 45m of the corpse.
Harvest Module Test Results
Okay. I've done extensive testing of the Harvest Module and have come up with several observations that I'm going to share here.
First of all, the module does work. More or less as advertised. You have a droid with a harvest module and you have at least novice scout, you can send it off to harvest things while you keep killing more. And if it doesn't have an inventory of its own (storage module), it just dumps the resource into your own inventory. The droid does NOT automatically harvest, it follows your command to harvest, so as soemthing falls (becomes a corpse), you have to tell the droid 'Harvest' (or whatever you have it programmed as) and wait for it to start moving before you can change target. Or get your next attack started and then select the corpse and tell it to go.
As for the thought of these droids being bonuses to your own skill - this is where it gets confusing. I'll do my best to explain what I have observed.
First and foremost, this is not a straight up bonus like Veghash is. It is much more subtle than that. A +27 veghash will increase ANY person's harvest rate. A +27 droid will only increase, say, a Novice Scout's rate. Here are some numbers to help illustrate that.
Using Gurk Trackers to sample and a player with +45 Creature Harvest, we get 79 units of meat. With +27 veghash, that's pushed up to 89u. A +31 droid only increases it from 79 to 80. And a +16 actually DROPS it to 77. A Ranger coming in at +90 (not master, that'd be +100) harvests 97u. With the same veghash, that's pushed up to 115u. With a +31 droid, they FALL to 94u. And with the +16, their take is a pitiful 91u.
So, we've proven that the +XX droid does not have the same type of effect as +XX veghash. So how DOES it work? Well, it's a relationship of your skill to the droid's bonus. It seems like the 'break even point' is where the droid has 70% your skill, though to verify that I need the +90 ranger to use a +63ish droid. Anything above that point can bring in larger returns. Sort of. Here are two examples:
The +45 harvesting scout can bring in 79u. 91u with the +105 droid. 89u with Veghash. And 104u with Veghash AND droid. That means the 105 droid is a 15% gain over the player harvesting for himself. That's slightly better than the 13% boost the player gets from using the veghash. But the player on veghash sees an additional 17% boost using the droid, which means a total boost from no-veghash, no-droid of roughly 32%. Not insignificant.
Now, let's look at the +90 player, who brings in 97u without any help. 109u with the +105 droid. 115 with the +27 Veghash. And 122 with both Veghash AND droid. This player only sees a 12% boost using the droid, but a 19% boost using the veghash. And only a 6% gain using the droid on top of the veghash for a total boost from no help of 26%.
So, as you go up in skill, the bonus a droid can provide decreases. Furthermore, if your droid is too far below you in 'skill', it will actually hinder you. And the higher your own skill, the more outstanding the droid has to be to show any real gain for you.
Finally, it should be noted that droids with harvest modules act as the player when it comes to harvesting. The droid can harvest or you can harvest. Not both. And if you are grouped with another player, you take a 40% hit to your harvest rate, which the droid will then boost. The droid is not immune to grouping 40% penalty - it's only immune to getting hit with the penalty when it's grouped with you.
The big advantage to droids, really, is the ability to be harvesting WHILE you're fighting. In large groups, there's invariably someone who runs around harvesting while everyone else is fighting, which means that by the time everyone else is out of the combat, corpses are starting to disappear. With this droid module, everyone can harvest right away, fight or no fight, eliminating all the yelling at impatient players who harvest right away no matter how many times they're yell...reminded.
-V
Veldcath wrote:Harvest Module Test Results
-V
It looks like you are using a droid that only has one harvesting module in it. What you should try, if you are so inclined, is going back to the DE you got this from and ask for a R3 with 6 harvesting modules in it. Once you hit about 90 or so in functionality, it is supposed to be a bigger difference. Ive been unable to get one myself to try, but this is what I understand from reading the boards. If Im mistaken...well, it happens from time to time.
marxo777 wrote:
Has anyone got one yet and if so does it harvest the same amount you can or is it a set amount? Does it use your rating or its own? Thx guys
I bought one. I'm a master Ranger and it harvests appropriate to my ability. In fact, it seems like it was coded to use my characters instance of the harvesting code, meaning that anytime *I* can't harvest, neither can my droid.
It was coded to work precisely the same as if I walked over to the corpse to harvest it, only now I have to worry about droid batteries, whether I wrote the alias correctly for my droid command, and whether something is going to attack my droid while it tries to harvest.
marxo777 wrote:Thx for all the info guys. I bought one of these yesterday and love it. I got the adv probot with 5 modules in it. I get about 10% or so more hide than I do. The fact that I can have it extract while I'm shooting another creature is a huge time saver. These are going to sell like mad.
Well, it's nice and all that you enjoy it, but it would seriously slow me down if I got one. It's not like it takes me long to hit my current harvest macro, and droids are just too darn slow. My cats can keep up with a speeder, but my droids cant. Now, if they auto harvested, without me telling it, now that would be a time saver...