Doctor Archive

I am a Droid Engineer so no one lied to me, I was just checking to see if was just my droids, or were everyones pretty much useless. The name Surgical Droid implies that they should heal damage or wounds. Therefore they are 'broken' in my eyes.

Actually, I personally think that the name implies that the droid's most common function is medical related, much like a surgical mask is medical related. Both are tools used by a doctor.

Due to the setup of droids, modules are not restricted to various droid frames. This is one of the issues many DEs would like changed. This would make the surgical droid more of a surgical droid rather than just another frame into which you place medical modules.

Droids are best suited for assisting, especially in a game where you have to play nice with all the other professions. A droid which healed wounds all by itself would lessen the value of the medic profession. Who needs a medic when your droid can do it for you? Rather than remove from a profession, many of us believe that it is better to enhance a profession by giving them more abilities, and fewer restrictions when a droid with the appropriate modules is present.

This was taken directly from the database from Starwars.com.

2-1B (or Too-Onebee) is a medical and surgeon droid that was stationed with the core group of Rebel Alliance soldiers on Hoth's Echo Base. This humanoid mechanical aided Luke Skywalker twice during the events surrounding the Battle of Hoth. He revived Luke from a state of dormo-shock after the young commander suffered exposure to the Hoth elements. After Luke's confrontation with Darth Vader on Bespin, 2-1B affixed Luke with a cybernetic hand. 2-1B was assisted by an FX-7 droid. 2-1B is a humanoid droid with a skull like head, a transparent trunk, and numerous surgical appendages.

Like others of its class, this roughly humanoid-appearing droid has surgical manipulation appendages, a medical diagnostic computer and a treatment analysis computer. For detailed patient status information, 2-1B relies on medical instrumentation or useful analysis droids like FX-7.

The sturdy FX-7 medical assistant droid aids both live and droid doctors in medical procedures. The FX-7 is a cylindrical droid, with a number of retractable appendages.

What we have, then, is the wrong chassis if it doesn't heal on its own.

We all know what SoE thinks of the database at Starwars.com. Afterall, look at the probot. It's aprobe, not a combat droid.

Regardless, when taking something and turning it into a game, decisions must be made between 'realism' and 'gameplay'. In order for the medics to be a viable profession, surgical droids need to be downgraded from being full-fledged surgeons to assistants. Again, I say that droids with the ability to heal wounds would hurt the medical profession.Doing that, you may as well change them into a chemist profession and base it off the domestic arts line of artisan. All I'm really saying is that I can see the logic behind the way medical modules work as they are right now.

I do agree that the FX-7 would have been a better choice for them to give us as a chassis. But then instead of droidekas, people would be screaming for 2-1Bs.

I just don't know, Gorantoth. I personally think that you are giving too much credit to a droid that doesn't even exist yet.

Let me put it this way. If I take up novice medic, and three boxes besides, I can heal my own wounds and use Stimpack B's at least. Does that make me a group healer? Absolutely not. Am I taking away from the medical profession? Quite possibly, yes. But only because instead of buying the stimpacks and woundpacks, I can make them myself. But even still, I have not completely destroyed the medical profession. They can do it better. And I will always want a real one around.

I don't think that they could replace a human medic even if you loaded them with better stimpacks. Think about the HAM they have, how a single swipe from most creatures will instantly incap them. How the AI isn't that great anyway, and they would probably never heal at the right time to save you during battle.

Very few artificial limitations placed on them would render them almost worthless. If you let them use Stim B's and Woundpack A's, I am pretty sure a lot of peple would STILL declare them as trash. It is the few people who sit alone in a deserted medical center, or out in a camp 4km away from civilization that I am thinking of. Not the people who want to pwn PVP.

I think it is an insult to put a surgical droid chassis in the game and have it do what it does currently. Even more insulting is the Protocol droid, and the Binary Load Lifter. We all know about Probots. Game balance is game balance. We haven't been designed to work in the game yet.

I used to only sell Adv. Surgical droids with Medical Modules included to try and keep some of the atmosphere of Star Wars alive. I only includedmedical modules in other droids for specials order. Adv. Surgicals require clusters..ie 3 modules and only 2 modules work in Adv. Surgicals.. crafting station and a medical module. What does that mean, it means I'm making a sub-standard product, worse than any other because I know no other modules work in this type droid. So I don't make Adv. Surgicals now unless requested and fully disclaimed to the buyer, another notch on our Broken list.

Storage, Repair, Datapads don't work in Adv. Surgicals, so whats left to put in that cluster module?

/Sigh

---

Nailliar wrote:

IStorage, Repair, Datapads don't work in Adv. Surgicals, so whats left to put in that cluster module?

---

Is this confirmed? Sux if it is!

Sinjen, I couldn't agree with you more.

Storage, Repair, Datapads don't work in Adv. Surgicals, so whats left to put in that cluster module?

Its funny. I made a whole batch of these surgical and LE droids with modules that dont work in them. I'm tired of explaining to people that these combinations don't work. Let them complain to the devs...

I'll get a bad reputation? I've past the point of caring. The game is petering out anyways.

Sinjen, your argument is flawed since picking up novice medic makes you a part of the profession. You're spending skill points in order to have the ability to heal, just like every other medic. Having a droid perform this function means not having to spend any skill points to gainhealing abilities. Big difference.

Well, with that as a foundation for everything we add to the game, we could essentially keep lowering the bar indefinitely. If droids are only powerups for professions, then you could then start wondering if novices are stepping on the toes of masters. Then we would need certifications for everything we build. Oh, you are a medic? Then here is your standard issue surgical droid. You are a crafter? Here is your standard issue R5 for your level. Yeah, that's all fine and good, weaponsmiths work the same way. They don't make a general item that everyone can use. Rifles are for riflemen, swords are for swordsmen. Cut and dry. But those items aren't autonomous entities that are supposed to think and act on thier own.

I will concede that there should be a difference between spending skill points and obtaining items. Not that I think taking three skill boxes of medic makes me part of that profession if I intend on stopping there. Real novice medics are students of a higher goal. There are degrees of efficiency that make getting more than three boxes desirable. I have a Bounty Hunter buddy of mine that heals better than most novice medics I encounter. I don't consider him to be a medic, and he always wants a medic in the group when we go hunting.

Taking scout or TKA doesn't make me a medic either, but I can still heal wounds with those skills. I don't think they are unbalancing the game, because thought was put into how they were implemented. Droids can be implemented in the same way.

You can look at it as being a punishment for not taking skills, or you can look at it as a reward for picking them up. In a game environment, I would prefer the latter. Currently, it is the former. We can still have a fun game without punishment for every single thing we do. I always envisioned droids to be the helpers that took away tedium, and leveraged your time and money to even out the game's many punishments. That would make them invaluable, and you would see them everywhere. I think it would give it more of a Star Wars feel. But I guess that is just my opinion.

Yes it's confirmed, I spent a night and a crate or 2 of Adv. Surgical chassis to try out all the combinations for Adv. Surgical droids. Then I went stalking other droids around to see if the functions like repair might work even tho no command was available for it... DoA. You can Craft, you can Heal, you can't store, can't repair, can't data, the broken list is greater than the working list...color me Not surprised. .