Doctor Archive

"Combat droids are clearly something that's needed. Several of the things that DEs can do currently are somewhat obsolete, and there's a desire to have the droids do more (for example, have surgical droids that actually replace medics, as opposed to just enabling medics). Of course, each time we make a droid that replaces a player, we reduce group tactics and interdependence, and make the player profession less valuable in the game, so it's a tricky line to walk." --Ralph Koster

Saw this on the response to PMs thread. Rather than deal with the issues plaguing the healing classes around the expense of obtaining needed resources and no reliable way of being compensated; they are considering replacing us with a droid! We truly are the red-headed stepchild of SWG.

Well, the devs pretty much rendered the brawler professions near useless with the CH profession and faction reward system, in combination with the mind stat fallacy. Sounds like they may have bought a clue and are thinking it all through for once.

I think you're jumping the gun. I read that as a desire from the players to to have those droids, not a desire from the devs to create them.

What a RIDICULOUS overreaction to a developer comment. Shame on you. I am sick and tired of people twisting the developers' words just so they have something tomoan about.

Read it properly. He's saying there is a desire to make droids (and DEs) more worthwhile by having them actually able to heal, but they want to do it WITHOUT stepping on our toes as medics.

And his name is Raph,short for Raphael, not Ralph.

Ya but the devs tend to screw over the profs I pick. I sure as heck hope droids don't end up replacing medics.

People are desiring a lot of thigns in this game..does not mean will happen. Even if surgical droids are somehow able to replace medics and such in cities, they will hardly be replaced on the battle field. And as Docotrs get more advanced and players get more of a clue, they will learn the benefit of buffs..no droid can do that.

And is a Droid going to revive you when a creature does the old DB? Nope!

Eescik (Master Surgeon, Novice CombatMedic, NoviceGunfigter)

Starsider, Republic of Kinsmen-

Talus

Wish there was an edit function, oh well.....Raph, not Ralph.

Anyway, I guess this has me running scared on a number of levels. First and foremost: SOE appears to attend more to what impacts the masses and totally ignore underpopulated professions. Sorry, but that is definitely the impression I get. I wish they had an advocate devoted to each profession. These could be grouped: healer, artisan, etc. But that person would be charged with reading these forums for the professions they cover, actually playing the various professions to see how things play out in the field and being a voice to relay each profession's concerns to the team. If this is how things are actually organized, they need to talk to the person in charge of representing the healing professions about pursuing a different career path.

Rather than this advocate approach, what I see happening is attention being focused on the big classes and small classes like healers and, yes, droid engineers being ignored. The masses are annoyed because droids are so powerful, so droids are nerfed to the point it makes DE a useless profession. The masses are annoyed that there are fewer and fewer entertainers and medics to heal their wounds. Of course much of this is due to voluntary nature of doctor/entertainer compensation, but that fact does not seem to make it on the radar for most players. So I fear they are now looking for a way to placate the masses, with solutions such as a medical droid that can heal in the field. The funny thing is, players would not beef about buying such a droid, any more than they beef aboutpaying forthe newest, most powerful gun in the game. They walk off in a huff, however, if I insist on being compensated for the cost of the meds used to heal them....go figure.

Perhaps I did over react and misinterpret this post, but frankly SOE has me running scared about my decision to pursue the healing arts in SWG. They seldom post here. They never post on the Combat Medic forum. The CM correspondent quit over a month ago and they haven't made any effort to replace him. What fixes that do seem to go in (factorys) seem to go in more because they impact other large classes. Issues that impact only our small class don't seem to make the list, even though they are as simple as deleting a "1" from "13."

While I am about to start moving from CM to Doctor, if I have to totally rework my character to make her playable.....well then I am out of here...but I really don't want to leave. I am giving it some time, but the trends I see so far increasingly seem to marginalize the healing professions. I want to be a vital part of the combat team and I don't PvP. I thought I could do that as combat medic, but now that I am master CM, I find I cannot so now I am moving my skill points to Doctor. I did not choose these professions because I wanted to be a crafter or hang around doing charity work in the med center. I want to be out in the field, an important part of the team. Having a surgical droid that could replace me in the field would marginalize my reason for being in any team, but that is what the masses seem to want and that scares me, based on SOE's track record to date.

I wouldn't mind a surgical droid that heals, actually...

Think about it if they implement this in the following way:

A surgical droid can heal wounds in camps and in town, but ONLY using wound packs placed in its storage module, and only at the direction of its owner.

This way, we actually can MAKE some money on woundpacks, as it will open up a huge market for them.

As for xp...the droid should be giving out craftingUXP for using the crafted item, as well as a % of the med xp to the creator.

That's a solution that would benefit both sides in this situation. Although it certainly will make med centers nearly useless....

Umm, the Imperials (who are clearly in need of some good faction pets... :smileymad already have a medic droid. It is unreliable, heals for a couple hundred points to health and action, dies often, won't heal on command, and is pretty much worthless.

Let's make more med droids like this! It'll make people appreciate just how hard we have to work!

I always thought it would be cool to have a 2-1B droid do my healing for me as a doctor (before I got to play). I had envisioned something like a cert for using the 2-1B (like novice doctor, or master medic or something like that) and the droid would become an extension of your healing abilities . The med droid would then of course need to be programmable with a host of healing-specific commands (which you the owner would also need to possess in order to program/use)as well as some storage space for meds.

Yep....doctors are being outsourced....