Droid Engineer Archive

If you think these ideas are any good - then please keep this thread high (with a quick reply at the bottom) so that SOE & TH notice it. If you think they are REALLY good then harrass SOE & TH to read it

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Okay we have a multiway split on how to proceed based on the number of constraints:

- Keep it Star Warsy (droids everywhere, doing everything)
- Maintain game balance
- Make sure every class feels unique
- Try to keep the game interesting (no BH clones)
- Not too complex to implement to keep development costs down

This has been the only post I have been tempted to contribute to since starting this game in beta, as it looks like a CSR is looking for ideas.

I am involved in software development (and once game design) so will try and only suggest options that may be relatively simple to implement.



An observation from the movies:

Droids are everywhere, they do many things but they are not that powerful compared to creatures. Yes, the occasional one can go toe-to-toe with a Jedi but these have passed by like the Jedi by the time this game is set (Episode 4.5) When you needed truly powerful killer generally the reliance was on vehicles (AT-AT’s) and creatures (Rancor, Sarlac, etc).

So therefore I think the concept of powerful combat droids is a dead idea. Certainly they should be more powerful that what we have now, but always less powerful that the major CH ones. Otherwise we start to undermine the CH/BE class combo.

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The current droid implementation is a good start, they are versatile and if this was fixed would serve as a good basis to build from. I would never use a crafting station in a droid as its “average” – I would use always use a terminal. Market killed for DE. Therefore fix it and add other similar functions like the ability to add survey tools, other crafting stations… droids can build buildings!

Then do the survey droid – although this may be complex to do.

A simpler alternative would be to allow DEs to build a semi-autonomous survey platform, which is just a vehicle you can survey from and can be told to automatically “/follow” to the highest waypoint currently surveyed. You hit survey – it automatically heads towards the waypoint created. Great way of covering large areas and sure seller!

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Now back to combat droids. Each player has an effective “level” – that can we ascertained by their current skill set. Make this the certification to use a droid of that level (plus or minus a bit to keep balance with CH’s, etc). Therefore everyone can use a droid of their level and there will be a good buyer/seller market as people upgrade or downgrade. Even better if you say the droid certification is an Imperial edict to maintain control of powerful droids (i.e. like gun control law) and only leave them in the hands of those needing it for their line of work. I.e. Powerful bounty hunters = powerful droids. Novice Architects = less powerful droids.

No need for a hard certification path which could be abused more easily.

Okay now lets truly “blue sky” this concept a bit further – allow anyone to pull out any level of droid but if they pull out a droid of higher level they have immediately broken the law and become TEF’d to any Imperial wandering by (PC or NPC) as they are now openly using an illegal droid. This would happen even if you were Imperial Faction and would loose faction pointed by dying just like the rest.

This could fit in with the GCW and allow the developers to rebalance the “rebel swing” by the Imperial Laws being played slightly loosely with Imperial fractioned characters by letting them off with droids a few levels above what is normally allowed. An easily tweakable variable that would give the Imperials the edge and encourage more people to take Imperial status. (Not me though… I am a Rebel to the core and as such I think we should take these knocks every now and again)

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Longer term I would look to be able to make droid use macros like we can (with a few extra commands). So you could have a droid take care of your harvesters with something like:

/gotoCoordinates ####,####; ; WP of my harvester
/selectObject ##; ; my harvester object ID
/addpower ##; ; known command
/pause 1; ; known command
/depositmaintenance ##; ; known command
/pause 1; ; known command
/structurestatus mail; ; command enhanced to mail status to owner
/gotoCoordinates ####,####; ; WP of home garage
/mail “Job Complete” ; send a mail back to owner
/shutdown ; Droid goes into standby for pickup

Then that whole brain/advanced brain/quality thing comes into play – the number of commands it can hold. Can just see the market: 92% experimented advanced droid brains for sale (can hold 20 command macros). Perhaps “droid brains” could do simple steps and “advanced droid brains” can do “loops” and “if/then’s” within the macro language

If droids get stuck, then buy a better pathing algorithm or cheat… “if stationary for 5 mins teleport 100m closer”.

If this is going to lead to major server headaches then cheat the whole journey… let the client see the droid leave then just return them 30 mins later (dependent upon the quality of that drive system) once they have done the job.

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And the break for DE’s? Just allow them to control more droids at any one time including combat droids. As they are Master DE’s and this is regarded as a crafting class their droids will be not that powerful compared to the uber droids they make for other people who have “imperial certification to use level 39 droids”.

Just a few ideas, hopefully some of them will be appreciated.

And one last thing… For gods sake, if you do go ahead with a Droid Handler class DO NOT CALL IT “Droid Handler”. Droids do not need handlers, they need “operators” or “controllers”!


Frunk

COO – TentaGills Strip Mining Inc.
Phoenix Legion PA (Rebel and proud)
Citizen of Asylum, Naboo, Eclipse
Master DE, Master Artisan, part time Rifleman, Scout & Merchant

You might try re-formatting that

REPOSTED WITH FORMATTING!!!!

If you think these ideas are any good - then please keep this thread high (with a quick reply at the bottom) so that SOE & TH notice it. If you think they are REALLY good then harrass SOE & TH to read it

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay we have a multiway split on how to proceed based on the number of constraints:

- Keep it Star Warsy (droids everywhere, doing everything)
- Maintain game balance
- Make sure every class feels unique
- Try to keep the game interesting (no BH clones)
- Not too complex to implement to keep development costs down

This has been the only post I have been tempted to contribute to since starting this game in beta, as it looks like a CSR is looking for ideas.

I am involved in software development (and once game design) so will try and only suggest options that may be relatively simple to implement.

An observation from the movies:

Droids are everywhere, they do many things but they are not that powerful compared to creatures. Yes, the occasional one can go toe-to-toe with a Jedi but these have passed by like the Jedi by the time this game is set (Episode 4.5) When you needed truly powerful killer generally the reliance was on vehicles (AT-AT’s) and creatures (Rancor, Sarlac, etc).

So therefore I think the concept of powerful combat droids is a dead idea. Certainly they should be more powerful that what we have now, but always less powerful that the major CH ones. Otherwise we start to undermine the CH/BE class combo.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The current droid implementation is a good start, they are versatile and if this was fixed would serve as a good basis to build from. I would never use a crafting station in a droid as its “average” – I would use always use a terminal. Market killed for DE. Therefore fix it and add other similar functions like the ability to add survey tools, other crafting stations… droids can build buildings!

Then do the survey droid – although this may be complex to do.

A simpler alternative would be to allow DEs to build a semi-autonomous survey platform, which is just a vehicle you can survey from and can be told to automatically “/follow” to the highest waypoint currently surveyed. You hit survey – it automatically heads towards the waypoint created. Great way of covering large areas and sure seller!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now back to combat droids. Each player has an effective “level” – that can we ascertained by their current skill set. Make this the certification to use a droid of that level (plus or minus a bit to keep balance with CH’s, etc). Therefore everyone can use a droid of their level and there will be a good buyer/seller market as people upgrade or downgrade. Even better if you say the droid certification is an Imperial edict to maintain control of powerful droids (i.e. like gun control law) and only leave them in the hands of those needing it for their line of work. I.e. Powerful bounty hunters = powerful droids. Novice Architects = less powerful droids.

No need for a hard certification path which could be abused more easily.

Okay now lets truly “blue sky” this concept a bit further – allow anyone to pull out any level of droid but if they pull out a droid of higher level they have immediately broken the law and become TEF’d to any Imperial wandering by (PC or NPC) as they are now openly using an illegal droid. This would happen even if you were Imperial Faction and would loose faction pointed by dying just like the rest.

This could fit in with the GCW and allow the developers to rebalance the “rebel swing” by the Imperial Laws being played slightly loosely with Imperial fractioned characters by letting them off with droids a few levels above what is normally allowed. An easily tweakable variable that would give the Imperials the edge and encourage more people to take Imperial status. (Not me though… I am a Rebel to the core and as such I think we should take these knocks every now and again)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Longer term I would look to be able to make droid use macros like we can (with a few extra commands). So you could have a droid take care of your harvesters with something like:

/gotoCoordinates ####,####; ; WP of my harvester
/selectObject ##; ; my harvester object ID
/addpower ##; ; known command
/pause 1; ; known command
/depositmaintenance ##; ; known command
/pause 1; ; known command
/structurestatus mail; ; command enhanced to mail status to owner
/gotoCoordinates ####,####; ; WP of home garage
/mail “Job Complete” ; send a mail back to owner
/shutdown ; Droid goes into standby for pickup

Then that whole brain/advanced brain/quality thing comes into play – the number of commands it can hold. Can just see the market: 92% experimented advanced droid brains for sale (can hold 20 command macros). Perhaps “droid brains” could do simple steps and “advanced droid brains” can do “loops” and “if/then’s” within the macro language

If droids get stuck, then buy a better pathing algorithm or cheat… “if stationary for 5 mins teleport 100m closer”.

If this is going to lead to major server headaches then cheat the whole journey… let the client see the droid leave then just return them 30 mins later (dependent upon the quality of that drive system) once they have done the job.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the break for DE’s? Just allow them to control more droids at any one time including combat droids. As they are Master DE’s and this is regarded as a crafting class their droids will be not that powerful compared to the uber droids they make for other people who have “imperial certification to use level 39 droids”.

Just a few ideas, hopefully some of them will be appreciated.

And one last thing… For gods sake, if you do go ahead with a Droid Handler class DO NOT CALL IT “Droid Handler”. Droids do not need handlers, they need “operators” or “controllers”!

Frunk

COO – TentaGills Strip Mining Inc.
Phoenix Legion PA (Rebel and proud)
Citizen of Asylum, Naboo, Eclipse
Master DE, Master Artisan, part time Rifleman, Scout & Merchant

Wish there was a way of deleting that first post! Bah!

Sorry folks...

Told you I had not used these forums, much! Should have used the "preview"... dolt!

Frunk

Some good ideas in there - someone at one point came up with an entire droid programming language

The idea was to come up with a droid programming language that would require very little programming by the developers by utilising as much as they had already done.

Frunk - who is still getting the hang of this **edit** editor!

Just one comment... We are all worried about undermining the CH/BE class.... Well, how long have the rest of us been undermined by their profession???

Not saying we should go to that level, but they should not get uptight if droids come out with more success than their creatures.

Rather than complain about how droids can not be better than creatures...they and the DEVS should come up with a new system, which is better than existing CH system to make them more balanced and more star-warsy...

Either way...there is constant imbalance in the movies and in the games. A politician in the movies can not take on a BH. In the game, my Pistoleer can not take on a commando. There is constant imbalance. Why are we so worried about what droids will add? Every person has the ability to choose their profession. Should one choose a profession which is not as powerful than another, that is their choice.

I am not worried about undermining the BE/CH classes, its just to be different from them. That way they can feel unique and DE's can feel unique too.

If we have a droid that acts & does what a large creature does but looks different then there is no point.

So a way to combine the Droid Handle class, less powerful droids and Star Wars may be as follows...

In the movies, if you wanted a powerful droid, you just build lots of less powerful ones. And this is where the "Droid Handler" - (Ugh! hate the name). Could come in to play properly. They would have the ability to command a small army of droids and use those features like "wedge formation" to do something useful! Droids gunned down would be dead, coupled with a DE rubbing their greedy hands in anticipation

Therefore you get the Star Warsy feel without the need for "bigness".

Frunk

• Droid brains hold x number of program modules.


• when you access a droids brain you open up a datapad of the droid.


• a droid engineer can "program" datapad items that hold the macro on a chip. (They can then sell these for basic levels of income.)


• the owner of the droid opens up the droids datapad and inserts the datapad chip.


• The droid would then gain the chips I.D. on his radial menu and could be told when to do the specific macro from there.


• Give the chips X amount of uses before it burns out and needs to be replaced.

maybe have droid brains hold 1 datachip and advanced droid brains hold 2.

Here's another idea. It's new for me, but probably not for the old masters.

Why not have droids with 'sockets' that enhance player abilities like clothing? R2-D2 had sockets, or something like it since I remember Leah putting something in a slot to make R2 hotwire the Deth Star.

Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but droids *could* have sockets. DEs could make the 'disk' or whatever, and the appropriate 'elite' could program it.

Why not? I'd like a droid that could help me aim better by making recommendations on how to target. (Just give me a bonut 'to hit' would you?)

Thanks for listening!

O-Jen

First,

Frunk is without a doubt the most handsome fish droidbuilder I have ever seen, period.

Second,

Great ideas Frunk, especially the idea that stops Architects from being uber-murderers because they have a spiffy droid.

Third,

Frunk if you really want TH to see this thread you need to post it somewhere else. They hardly ever read the profession forums.

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frunk wrote:

REPOSTED WITH FORMATTING!!!!

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