Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droid Holocron information
DigitalOne wrote:
Yea, thats basicaly what i end up doing, i try and ask them what there profession is, and hook them up according to what they need. And i know there are plenty of good websites out there, but im arguing for an in game resource. People shouldnt always have to rely on secondary media, not everyone knows how to alt-tab, nor do alot of peoples computers allow that in terms of processing power. And alot of people expect thier droid asap, and arent the researching type. It be vastly superior to provide an in game expanation available to all, instantly.
On that point, my friend, I agree 100%.
DigitalOne wrote:We need a system of putting the knowledge out there, thats accessible to all, helps others understand what we do, and saves us the time and sanity when we do business.
Wait for it......
/pointat
(looks around)
Drashk wrote:
[....]
Atan wrote:
Drashk wrote:
[....]
But is sending up to 10 emails to every potential customer the right way?
Mass distribution of information, thats what the holocron is made for.
If we would just find a way to sneak your great guide into there
I agree that its a lot of info, but the difference with Droids and every other single crafted item in the game is that Droids aren't all that user friendly.
Not every customer will need every single email. At most, the initial customer will only need Section 2, Part 2 - Droid Modules. You can even cut down on my verbose nature, to conserve enough space to senda single email.
To be honest, I have never once used the Holocron in game, so I haven't an idea as to the extent of information that it shares.
I doubt that it covers, in any detail, any of the functions of other crafting professions. (I could be wrong). I agree that adding additional information would help us out, but consider this...
It has been stated a number of times by the devs, when the subject of information sharing comes up, that part of the player's function, in a crafting profession, is to learn the information themselves and pass it on. (Not exactly stated that way, but can betranslated to mean so). SWG is still an RPG. A crafter passing on the information of his/her craft to the customer is a part of what it takes to be a good crafter. If all of the information was provided, in game, and no one ever needed to ask a DE a question, what would it do to those that base their sales off of helping others. That may be an extreme example of adding information, but it helps to emphasize the point, I think.
When ever I am asked 'What do I think is the difference between a good DE and a great DE?' I answer the question, with a question of my own.... 'How many FAQs does he/she have ready to send out?' 
Drashk wrote:
Wait for it......
/pointat
(looks around)
Droid Engineering 101
Ok, now I don't mean to disregard the DE 101 thread. I have used it several times and have found it to be tremendously useful. I respect you and all the work you have done on it, as well as other contributers and theirs. It's an everyday tool for us, and I hope it stays that way.
However.
Droid 101 is not the be-all and end-all of Droidisms.
One of the biggest problems we face is that players simply don't know what we do aside from "Make droids". Every single other artisan-based crafting profession, people know what they make but more importantly what it DOES. And for those relatively rare instances where someone doesn't, the answer can be given in 1 or 2 sentences. That is not the case for us, by any stretch of the imagination.We have the single most complex crafting profession in the game, with BE as second. What sets us apart from BE is people can look at what they have and *know* what they're buying.
It's not even so much a matter of there being an ingame "read me" for droids, as it is having more accurate and descriptive information on droids and their deeds / datapad. Our end products are not nearly as intuitive upon viewing (naming for example - have had several people ask if I could name their droids because they thought only a DE can do it), and what descriptions and stats there arecan be cryptic (combat ratings), deceptive (armor ratings),or missing. There are many many people who simply won't read an e-mail explaining all of that if it's too long. They don't care enough, can't stand reading long e-mails,etc. Whatever the reason, e-mailing someone FAQ's and long e-mails is a negative. It takes much of the interaction out of the transaction. Especially with the character restriction on e-mails, the long ones will be broken down resulting in more.
People are lazy, well most of them anyways. It's a fact. They want to walk up to a DE, buy a droid with as little fuss as possible, and be on their way. They don't want to read lenghtly threads or e-mails. They'd rather not have to even leave SWG if they could help it. But if they are going to alt-tab out, they want it to be as quick and painless as possible.
After reading this response, I polled30 people. I asked if they were current forum readers. If they were, I stopped there (forum readers - both posters and lurkers - tend to not have issues with reading a long sticky as they likely have done so many times before). There were 2. Then,I asked if they had any knowledge of what droids do,more than just that they help docs buff, make flashy dancer lights, help pilots, and spam. There were 3, and I stopped there with them (they know droids to a greater extent, thus would have a likely biased opinion). So, of the last 25 I asked if they were interested in ordering a droid but had many questions, and the answers were likely to be rather long, how would they prefer the answers / explinations presented to them? I gave them the choices of several e-mails, direction to the complete guide about droids on the forums, or a graphical website that's point-and-click.
19 said a graphical website, 4 said e-mails, and 2 said a sticky. All of them asked why it all couldn't just be explained in chat.
Now, please don't get me wrong. I value DE 101 tremendously. I'd have been lost without it. But that's pretty much the point. DE 101 is valuable to *us*, the DE's, more than anything. It helps us daily, and even more so to new DE's just trying to get on their feet and understand as I once was. We've all been there to one degree or another. DE 101 helps forum surfers to get a better understanding of what we do, and what our products are capable of. These are likely people who are used to a forum layout, and either don't mind it or enjoy it. Essentially, they're already here. It does not, however, help those that just want to play and don't want to devote 1/2 hour to reading a post that they may or maynot understand anyways. I have talked with several people in the past that didn't want a droid because they didn't know anything about it so they didn't want to "mess" with it. They didn't even want to get the information.
This needs to change. People need a quick way to get information on what is otherwise a confusing and complicated profession / product.
I will disregard the fact, as insulting as it was,that you essentially said that you think I'm not, nor ever will be, a "great" DE because I don't and won't have FAQ's to send people aside from an alternate website.
[edits: fixed typos and added comment]
Message Edited by Jjiaah on 10-29-2004 04:02 AM
Message Edited by Fobok on 10-29-2004 04:06 AM
Jjiaah wrote:
All of them asked why it all couldn't just be explained in chat.
People need a quick way to get information on what is otherwise a confusing and complicated profession / product.
It all comes down to those two comments and it always will.
The only simple thing that one can say about Droids is- they aren't simple.
As more modules, chassis, and functions are added, as time goes on, Droid Engineering will simple become more complex. Unfortunately, it is the nature of the beast and the reason that most of us were attracted to being a DE in the first place.
Having the correct information on the deed will cut down on a fraction of the problems that we have; howeverI don't think that the larger part of the matter is actually the Droids themselves, but rather the Builders and Users.
The sad fact of the matter is that most people see a droid as nothing more then another useless pet, because they have never taken the time to explore other aspects of the game. Many DE are also to blame, since they haven't taken a proactive stance in the game to actually go out and sale their wares. People forget how 'simple' people can be, especially when it comes to game where most don't even consider taking the time to stop and think about other posibilities. How many of us have seen someone say 'Driods sux!1!'? Majority of the people that I have spoken to with that attitude are power gaming combat types that stick around for an average of 2-4 months of game time before they have solo'd all combat content in the game. I'm getting off track with this...../derail
Majority of the other Crafters have it easier then us, when it comes to helping customers. Most of their goods will sale themselves. Droid Engineers are different, because we simply have too many opitions going on, for most people to bother trying to understand. No amount of published information will every be written to help people understand what it is we do.
The only way that I know of that could completely reduce the number of questions that we recieve would be to remove the Modular function of droids totally and make each droid have a single function. Even then, we would still have to explain the single function of each droid. Its kind of a Catch 22.
Fobok wrote:
I have to say, I agree. The DE 101 thread is fantastically useful, but before I actually got in game and playing with the modules availableand grasp the concept, it was totally confusing and overwhelming. It is written for the Droid Engineers and obviously so. For the complexity of making droids, it has most if not all the necessary info. For buying, though? That Droidworx site mentioned earlier had a much better approach.
The question I have for you is what section(s) are you refering to.
Sections 1 - 6 are set up for Droid Owner purposes. Each of those sections go over everything that a Droid Owner would need to know on how to use a droid and its modules. All of the other sections are Droid Engineer Specific.
Maybe I've been a DE too long, but I think that the two seperate parts are set up in a way to help both types of people
Drashk wrote:
The question I have for you is what section(s) are you refering to.
Sections 1 - 6 are set up for Droid Owner purposes. Each of those sections go over everything that a Droid Owner would need to know on how to use a droid and its modules. All of the other sections are Droid Engineer Specific.
Maybe I've been a DE too long, but I think that the two seperate parts are set up in a way to help both types of people
Parts 1 to 6. Parts 7 + I wasn't even thinking of. And, that's just it, there's too much info all at once. It does has everything they'll need to know, but not in a way that's really accessible. It was good for me as a DE, since I could look at what I could make as I skill up, and look them up. It's a good reference once you understand. But coming in fresh, without knowing exactly what you want to look up, it's information overload. I'm used to reading long posts and manuals and I got this feeling, what do you think a player of the type who sees atwo paragraph post and replies 'that's too long to read' would feel?
It's fantastic if you know what you're looking up, but as an answer to 'what can droids do', it's not really accessible.
Edited to add: Not that I think there's any way to make the post better. Just saying an interactive approach like that web site works a bit better for explaining to a lot of people.
Message Edited by Fobok on 10-29-2004 05:22 AM