Droid Engineer Archive

What is a Droid Commander?

A droid commander has several purposes in the SWG environment. They are not simply a mechanical version of the CH profession. So, what is it that makes them different.

1)They give droids the ability to work as a unit in and out of combat. Unlike CH's that must give orders to all of their pets – the DC can designate one Droid as the Unit leader and program his droids to function as a squad. This would be a unique ability for the DC and would require special modules in the Unit Leader Droids (i.e. A Command Module)
2) A Droid Commander is not limited by a set number of droids – but rather the total levels of all his active droids. In other words, while a CH can only have 3 creatures out at a time, the DC could have as many as he/she wishes so long as the total level of all droids in play does not exceed his limit.
3)A Droid Commander is able to boost his droids performance in combat. No, not Droid buffs(besides that would be the DE's job anyway), rather a bonus to movement, to hit, etc. - much like a Squad Leader does for players.
4)A Droid Commander is more skilled at fighting other droids. Obviously this makes sense for several reasons. If a DC can boost his own droids combat abilities, he can use similar tactics to attack an enemy droid in combat. (i.e the DC would be the only class that could “bleed” droids – why? Because he knows exactly where to shoot to hit vital areas of other droids.)
5)A Droid Commander is less skilled at other forms of combat. They would take penalties to melee attacks, and would not receive bonus to defense and offense like other elite / hybrid combat professions.
6) A Droid Commander is more effective at healing / repairing droids while in combat than any one else.
7) A Droid Commander has the ability to craft upgrade kits and slice droids. Due to the nature of the profession they alone have the ability to convey temporary and permanent boosts to already crafted droids.

What do I need to become a Droid Commander and why?

A DC is a hybrid profession because no one starting profession would give you the skills you need to survive as a DC. Also it is not good for combining with other Elite/ Hybrid professions. This is due primarily for game balance reasons, but also because the path to Master Droid Commander should be for more advanced players.

1)Master Marksman – To be an effective DC you will need a very good understanding of ranged combat. Esp. since the vast majority of Droids use (or should use) ranged attacks. Also this will help for game balance in several key ways. It takes up 77 SP, making it harder to combine other advanced professions with DC. Also it gives the DC a means of defending himself and assaulting others without the aid of his droids – although droids should be his primary means of both defense and offense.
2)Artisan 4-0-4-4 – This chews up another 57 SP for game balance issues as well as adding 3 skill trees vital to the DC's chosen path. Engineering for obvious reasons, Surveying so the DC can acquire much needed resources to enhance and maintain his droids, and Business so the DC can sell moded droids and accessories.
3)Scout 4-0-0-0 – This takes up another 29 SP for game balance reasons, and provides the DC with a valuable terrain / burst run bonus for combat. It also explains how he can provide his / her droids with similar bonuses.

This is a total SP cost of 163 skill points – 9 higher than bounty hunter. Why does it take so much to become a DC – simple it will discourage min/maxers from even attempting combos, and it adds to the overall game balance. Ideally, I would like to see something coded in that once you get Novice Droid Commander you cannot even learn CH, and if you are already a CH you would have to give it up in order to receive your novice training. (I know this is possible because Jedi cannot use trainers and faction recruiters)

Okay, so I'm a Droid Commander – What does it do for me?

Droid Commander has 4 skill trees, they are :
Droid offensive control
Droid defensive control
Droid modification
Droid support abilities

How they work :
Please note items with a + denote a bonus to a skill or ability, items with a * denotes an ability, and items with a ^ denote a schematic that can be crafted, ~ denotes a certification for certain droid types.
Novice Droid Commander (6 SP) (Novice Droid Commander)
+10 controllable levels of droids
+5 Droid Terrain negotiation
+5 attack bonus for the DC when attacking droids
+5 defensive bonus from droid attacks
+20 droid mod assembly
+20 droid mod experimentation
+10 droid mod / slicing
^ Improved Droid Battery (lasts longer and has more charges than the regular battery)
^ Droid Upgrade Kit (allows a DC to mod / slice an existing droid)
^ Area Droid Repair Kit – A (like the ranged stimpack for CM's)
~Area Droid Repair Kit – A
~Droid Upgrade Kit

Intermediate Droid Offensive Control (5 SP)
+5 controllable levels of droids
~Control Unit Leader Droid
*Droid Charge (gives a temporary +10 to melee and ranged attack speed of all droids controlled by the DC) lasts for 120 secs

Advanced Droid Offensive Control (4 SP)
+10 controllable levels of droids

Expert Droid Offensive Control (3 SP)
+10 controllable levels of droids
+5 attack bonus to any droid under the DC's command
+5 attack bonus for the DC when attacking droids
*Droid Flanking (gives a +20 to all attacks from droids under the DC command) lasts for 60 secs

Master Droid Offensive Control (2 SP) (Droid Assault Leader)
+15 controllable levels of droids
+10 attack bonus to any droid under the DC's command
~Control Advanced Unit Leader Droid
*Droid Coordinated Assault (gives droids under the DC's command ability to Stun or KD their target) lasts for one attack
*Precision Droid Strike (causes extra damage, bleed, stun or KD to a droid) this ability is good for one shot and applies to the DC, not his droids

Intermediate Defensive Control (5 SP)
+5 controllable levels of droids
+5 ranged defense to all droids under the DC's command
*Droid Phalanx (+10 to melee and ranged defense for all droids under the DC's command) lasts for 180 secs

Advanced Defensive Control (4 SP)
+10 controllable level of droids
+5 melee defense to all droids under the DC's command

Expert Defensive Control (3 SP)
+10 controllable levels of droids
+5 ranged defense to all droids under the DC's command
*Droid Retreat (basically burst run for droids)

Master Defensive Control (2 SP) (Droid Defensive Coordinator)
+15 controllable levels of droids
+5 melee defense to all droids under the DC's command
~Droid Recovery Unit (this allows the DC to clear negative status effects from his droids)
~Area Droid Repair Kit – B

Intermediate Droid Modification (5 SP)
+10 droid mod assembly
+10 droid mod experimentation
+10 droid slicing / moding (provides a bonus to using the Droid Upgrade Kit)
^Droid armor booster (gives the droid a temporary armor bonus) this can be used by anyone

Advanced Droid Modification (4 SP)
+10 droid mod assembly
+10 droid mod experimentation
+10 droid slicing / moding
^Droid Power booster (gives a temporary boost to the amount of damage done by a droid) this can be used by anyone

Expert Droid Modification (3 SP)
+10 droid mod assembly
+10 droid mod experimentation
+10 droid slicing / moding
^Droid Recovery Unit(cures negative status effects)

Master Droid Modification (2 SP) (Battlefield Droid Engineer)
+20 droid mod assembly
+20 droid mod experimentation
+20 droid slicing / moding
^Area Droid Repair Kit – B

Intermediate Droid Support Abilities (5 SP)
+5 controllable levels of droids
+5 Droid Terrain negotiation
+5 attack bonus for the DC when attacking droids
+5 defensive bonus from droid attacks

Advanced Droid Support Abilities (4 SP)
+10 controllable levels of droids
+5 Droid Terrain negotiation
+10 attack bonus to any droid under the DC's command
+15 droid repair speed (decreases the amount of time needed to rest in between uses of repair, recovery and reconstruction kits)

Expert Droid Support Abilities (3 SP)
+10 controllable levels of droids
+5 Droid Terrain negotiation
+5 attack bonus for the DC when attacking droids
+5 defensive bonus from droid attacks
+20 droid repair speed (decreases the amount of time needed to rest in between uses of repair, recovery and reconstruction kits)

Master Droid Support Abilities (2 SP) (Droid Tactician)
+15 controllable levels of droids
+10 Droid Terrain negotiation
+25 droid repair speed (decreases the amount of time needed to rest in between uses of repair, recovery and reconstruction kits)
*Droid Kamikaze Strike (explodes a droid near a target for massive damage)

Master Droid Commander (1 SP) (Master Droid Commander)
+30 controllable levels of droids (160 total)
+20 Droid Terrain negotiation (50 total)
+5 attack bonus for the DC when attacking droids (25 total)
+10 defensive bonus from droid attacks (25 total)
+30 droid mod assembly (100 total)
+30 droid mod experimentation (100 total)
+20 droid slicing / moding (80 total)
+25 droid repair speed (85 total)
+10 ranged defense to all droids under the DC's command (20 total)
+10 melee defense to all droids under the DC's command (20 total)
+5 attack bonus to any droid under the DC's command (30 total)
^Area droid repair kit – C
~Area droid repair kit – C
^Advanced Droid Upgrade Kit
~Advanced Droid Upgrade Kit
~Dual Unit Command (this allows the DC to control 2 Advanced or regular Unit Leader Droids)

Okay guys, this is just the rough draft of this idea, please add anything you think i may have forgotten. Also feel free to fine tune to make it better balanced for the game. I'm still thinking over a lot of this, so I promise i won't take offense. All I want to see here is a very constructive thread that will help the Dev's make this profession a reality in this game. Not only will it help us as DE's, but I truly feel it will help bring back some of that Star Wars feel to the game. (wouldn't you rather see someone with a squad of Battle Droids – the Roger Roger droids FYI – than someone with three Rancors) I will be checking back frequently and moding / tweaking this build as we as a community see fit. Also please have other professions look at this too as their input would be very helpful. It is not my intention to make this into an UBER class – in fact the opposite – i would rather see it underpowered in the beginning then fixed to be in balance, than overpowered from the get go and NERFED later. Thanks guys, I know if any community in this game can do something like this – it is the DE's.

/agree

Right now im so hungry for improvement, i dont care what end nourishment is shoved in.

Doh, i forgot to include the xp costs for all the skills. Here they are :

Intermediate Offensive Control - 50,000 Droid Command xp (earned in a similar fashin to CH xp)

Advanced O.C. - 100,000 DC xp

Expert O.C. - 200,000 DC xp

Master O.C. - 400,000 DC xp

Intermediate Defensive Control 75,000 DC xp

Advanced D.C. - 150,000 DC xp

Expert D.C. - 300,000 DC xp

Master D.C. - 600,000 DC xp

Intermediate Droid Support Abilities - 75,000 combat xp

Advanced DSA - 140,000 combat xp

Expert DSA - 210,000 combat xp

Master DSA - 350,000 combat xp

Intermediate Droid Modification - 45,000 Droid Crafting xp

Advanced DM - 80,000 crafting xp

Expert DM - 160,000 crafting xp

Master DM - 275,000 crafting xp

Okay, these are fairly arbitrary and can easily be switched around to balance the profession. If you're wondering why defensive control takes more xp than offensive control - I feel that offense is easier to learn than defense.

Also even with this proffesion I in know way advocate players controlling things like Super Battle Droids. And if they are allowed to do so - people should not be able to have more than one. The one thing that particularly sticks out with this idea (no, i'm not trying to brag about it) is the ability for each player to configure the power level and number of droids out at one time. As for data pad storage i'm still trying to figure out how that would work. Any suggestions would be helpful - seeing as we need to find away to limit the number of droids a DC could have with storage modules in them (balance issue), but let them have enough variety to swap droids for different situations. Also i believe that DC's should be able to store and call droids in combat - it just makes sense with their profession.

For those that posted thanks for the nods of agreement - but how about some constructive criticism - the more balanced and well thought out this is, the better the chance we have of the devs listening.

Hey gang, i've been perusing the other 2 threads on DC (the 2 tree and the 4 tree) and maybe we should condense all these into one idea? Just thought, if you 2 are interested in working with me to get an amazing idea to the devs that will not unbalance their game we really might have a shot at this.

Everyone else - what are your thoughts?? do you want DC to be a clone of CH? do you want it to be really different? do you want to to be a part of the SL revamp? do you think it totally sucks and should never come into being? Hey any input at all would be awesome, thanks! Also non-DE's please put in your two cents - this is afterall everyones game.

Oh, and try to keep it in a positive tone - i.e. don't just put your idea sucks, explain why it sucks so either we can fix it or you can explain how you would fix it. No flame wars please - we have enough threads for that already. Thanks everyone.

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KIDDAtwood wrote:

Heres another suggestion why not just give combat classes certs. Then there would be no need for SOE to give us another broken profession. Commando's get military droids BH get Bh droids. Excetra

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Why only to combat classes? Several non combat professions could use a little help now and then as well. I have no combat skills and when I am out tending my harvs I sometimes get attacked by Trade federation, spineflap guards, Maulers, Shaupauts and other mobs. My Probot can help a little but not enough to take them out if they come in force.

If SOE is worried about the balance issue (Dont know what balance they are referring to) but if it is combat balance, wouldn't non combat professions get the better combat droids? To balance things out?

I am not in favor of that myself. Just asking. I can go along with the profession specific droids only be usable by that profession, but there are many professions that dabble in their skills.

I do think a Cert system might be the best thing all things consider. And maybe have the cert be added to the modules. So anyone being a 2204 medic can use a slightly weaker medical droid then a master medic or a 0210 doc or cm. for example.

As for combat droids a marksman with 2222 can't use a droid as strong as a TKM or Pistol master for example for combat purposes.

This cert system do exist for weapons and for human stims. It exists for musicians when it comes to which song they can play or what instrument they can use. It exists for the dancers when it comes to what dance they can do and the ID also have a cert system that prohibit them from doing all the ID changes right away.

If you are a combat profession you could get a stronger droid the higher up in combat you are, but the highest cert in any combat profession should take precidence over another. Like someone who both got pistoleer skills and heavy swordsman skills, the skill they have the highest cert in is their limit. No adding of cert 'points' from dabbling in many professions. And these certs should be combat based for the combat professions and utility based from the crafting professions or hybrid professions.

Some professions is a mix but I believe that one of the other are stronger Combat/utility in those mixed professions. Have the certs either include both combat and utility droid certs or the one that is the strongest of the two.

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KIDDAtwood wrote:

Heres another suggestion why not just give combat classes certs. Then there would be no need for SOE to give us another broken profession. Commando's get military droids BH get Bh droids. Excetra

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