Droid Engineer Archive

This list is updatedas needed (daily doesn't work anymore since changes aren't as often anymore)and is meant to supplement the work done by the current correspondant and provide an idea of where this profession currently stands. Please read it over and provide any information you have regarding any of these issues, or any new issues you may have discovered.

I am a Master Droid Engineer on Bloodfin. I also participated in the beta as a DE and bring a lot of knowledge of the profession from those days. However, I am one person and need your help to make sure that we've got all the real bugs nailed down, so we don't have DEVs chasing issues that don't exist due to confusion on our part.

Thanks to our correspondant for all the work done so far. Try not to makethe correspondants' lives difficult bybadgeringthemfor answers that they may not have. They're still only players like the rest of us. Players who have volunteered to organize and prioritize this information and present it to the DEVs. I'm sure any discussions between the correspondant and the DEVs will be shared with us regardless of how insignificant it may be.

We now have a voice, and the DEVs are listening to that voice. Hopefully I'll be able to start removing items from this list instead of just adding new ones.

Many, many, many thanks and respect to all those who have contributed. My personal thanks to Tyim for starting this thread during beta and for starting it up again now that we're live. Also, thanks to the devs who have worked like fiends only to be ranted at and badgered. Special thanks to any dev that cares to respond to this post.

I.Recent updates
II.Bugs still in evidence
III.Uncertainties
IV.Wishlist

I. Recent updates
A.Removed cluster module uncertainty.
B.Added cluster module bug (clusters in clusters in non-cluster sockets)
C.Moved one-shot droids to uncertainties.

II. Bugs still in evidence
A.Droids are not giving any UXP
B.Droid names use the standard name filter.This may beby design, butwe're calling it a bug because droids should use a modified name filter that allows for numbers in the name. Yes, Artoo-Deetoo works fine, but I've seen NPC droids wandering around with REAL droid names. So we should be allowed to do the same.
C. Data modules are non-functional.
D.Information in the datapad about your droid does not update dynamically, it only gets updated when you store your droid. Datapad information sometimes doesn't update at all. Several cases of droids missing commands from the datapad have been reported.
E.Droids with no attack capabilities none the less have attack speeds and damage base modifiers in the datapad.
F.Experimentation on droid parts has no noticeable effect on final droid. Resources also fall into this area since resource properties influence the experimental property values. There is no point to experiment either on droid components or the final product. The droids seem to all function about the same.
G. Droids can no longer be custom coloured, let us colour our droids again please.
H. Droids often stop following without reason. This is a generic pet problem as it happens to all pets, not just droids.Pets seem toget stuck on invisible zone boundries.Walking up to about 10-20m from thepet and re-issuing a 'follow' command fixes it.
I.Probots have a blaster and thus have ranged attacks. However, when set on a target, we see nothing. The droid moves around some as it fights, the target's HAM values decrease, but we do no see any blaster fire. Would be nice to have visual confirmation of the droid fighting with the blaster.
J.Storage Module 2s coming out as Data Module 2s during the assembly stage. What you seem to get at the end is a Data Module 2. Since neither of these modules really work, it is hard to tell if it's just a textual bug, or if you've really made a Data Module 2.
K.Probot armor is completely fubar. Regardless of what armor you put into the droid, it comes out with AR 0 and Effectiveness 0%. Makes the entire Armor Module line worthless.
L.Droid item storage ismarginally operational.
1. ALL droids (with or without a Storage Module, adding a storage module gives no additional effect) have a storage capacity of 20.
2.you can not place any items directly in the storage window, but you CAN drop items on the droid and they will appear in the window and can be removed from there.
3.The storage capability of the droid is not initialized until you have executed open for the first time after taking droid out of storage, if you drop an item on a droid that has not been previously opened the item will vanish.
4.Storing the droid causesloss of all items in droid. This may be by design, however some warning or confirmation should be added. It is also of some serious concern that going LD or dying can cause the droid to go into storage. Using a droid to store items with this combination of features is like playing Russian roulette with you items. There have been reports that lost items do sometimes return to your inventory a day later when you next logon.
M. Droids dragged from the datapad to the secure trade window are invisible. Secure trade itself DOES work, but until we can see the droid in the trade window, this is a bug. If it does not exist for bazaars and vendors as well, then this should also be implemented for them as well. Secure trade is important when you're selling something like a droid.
N. Droid repair kits are fubar. With the droid out in the world, or in your datapad, you always seem to get the error message 'You don't have anything in need of repair.' Kind of makes the recent "Pets don't heal when you store them" update really hard on us when we can't repair out droids.
O.Multiple crafting stations in a single droid breaks the modules in the droid. Only one of the modules seems to work when this happens.
P.The only difference betweenmedical module 1 and medical module 6 from what I read is the boost it gives to medial skills. Some people believe that it should also restrict which medic skills you should be able to use. I'm throwing this into bugs as this is mostly viewed as a bug and not an intended use.
Q.Droid deeds shouldn't be tossed into the misc area of the bazaar. They're deed versions of entities. Give droids a proper home so that people can actually find them with ease.
R.Cluster modules fit into cluster modules. This is because they fit into service module sockets as well as cluster module sockets. I see this as a bug. Clusters should only fit in cluster sockets. Otherwise you defeat the purpose of the higher-end droids supporting cluster modules instead of multiple service modules. While the fact that this can be done is a bug, doing so seems to break modules in the clusters. So at least this isn't a game-breaking exploit.

III. Uncertainties
A.Is your droid supposed to travel with you when you take a shuttle? It doesn’t, it stays behind. Sometimes it even goes red and attacks the poor people at the starport where you left it.
B.Patrol point list is not saved between store and call, is this by design?
C. Some droids, when given a repair module, gain a 'repair other droid' option in the program menu. Some, when out, add a 'repair' option in the radial menu of OTHER droids. I can only assume that both are possible. 'Converse' droids do not have a programmable 'repair' command. Seems a little inconsistent. Also, there are reports that the power droid with a repair module does not grant the 'repair' option in other droids, perhaps due to conflict with the 'power' option. I've even heard that an LE repair droid might even have this repair function as an inherent ability. Anyone care to test this out and provide a complete set of results?
D. Power droids (possibly also LE repair droidsand Surgical droids) are the onlydroid with a non-modular function. Repair droids have had their repair systems removed and changed into a module. R droids have had their crafting functions removed and changed into modules. Power droids remain as an inherent function. Can we get some consistency here? Which droids have inherent abilities, and can we get some kind of visual information on this? Descriptive text in the schematics would be nice.
E. Some of the advanced droids are using 'Converse' instead of 'Program' for programming. Nobody seems to know how to name these droids.
F.Protocol droids and Binary Load Lifters seem rather useless.Protocol droidsdon't help with languages, since everyone who cares about languages already knows all the languages. BLLs don't lift any loads.Neither of these droids have room for any modules. So, from what I'm hearing, they're just a nice droid to look at. Anyone find a good use for either of these?
G.Can friends of the droid use the droid's modules? Or just the owner?
H.I have read that Seeker and Probe droids are one-shot droids. This is why they're available from vendors. The one-shot part is said to be a bug, apparantly. So, fix these droids to no longer be one-shot and remove the vendors for these droids. Or tell us that this is not a bug and remove the vendors for these droids. Make it worth our while to bother making them.

IV.Wishlist
A.Advanced droid engineers should be able to call more then one pet at a time. I think this was the original intent as otherwise the formation commands would be rather useless.
B.Give us information on droid power levels in the examine window and/or in the datapad. Also, I hear that droid batteries repair mind. How about using mind as the droid's power level indicator? The action pool would also work.
C.Examining droid should give thesame data as in the datapad.
D.Datapad and deed should show what modules or options are installed. Without this, many customers are being scammed by less than honourable DEs looking to make a quick buck. This should not only include service modules, but defense modules, and even offense modules (if they ever happen).
E.We really want certain droids to only be able to take certain types of modules. There have been a number of really good posts on this topic, and due to space constraints, I'll leave it at that.
F.Take another look atthe “only able to callpets in city or camp” thing. I understand the logic and personally have no problems with it. However, many disagree with it and I think it would work better if it was that you can only call a droid when not in combat, or acertain distance from a battlefield.
G. Binary droids shouldn’t be speaking basic. 'die bad thing' comes to mind from a DZ-70.
H.Consider droids that can survey and report back on a particular resource. Perhaps even a high-end versionwith the ability to go toother planetsto determine which resources are available.
I. Consider droids that can help maintain installations. Senda droid out to pay mantenance. Send a droid out to collect resources. Send a droid out to deliver power. There are many ways to implement this as a viable system.
J. Consider droids that can act as standalone vendors in cities, and/or droids that can act as Barkers. Perhaps even let droids deliver goods to a customer in another city or on another planet.
K. Either item/data storage droids need to be able to maintain their items/data when in datapad or droids need to stay persistent in the world when you die or go LD or logout. At least have the system bring a droid back if it was out when you logged.
L. A lot of Droid Engineers are calling for some form of permanent decay. As they are, droids are immortal (I read that droids will perma die when incapped is in testing... BAD DEVS!). You buy one, you never have to buy another except in the case of an upgrade to the latest model. The current decay rate does not support this (and perma death on incap is NOT the solution). So it would need to be overhauled to better match weapon and armor decay rates, or even have pets use an attribute wound system akin to what characters use.
M. There have been several complaints regarding the 5 droid in the datapad limit. While there are some compelling arguments AGAINST this wishlist item, it would be nice to at least have this limit reviewed.
N. Here's another comon wishlist item. Droidekais. Probably won't get them, but a lot of people are asking for them.
O. Create aslicing module. This module would allow smugglers to get a boost to their slicing ability. We're not interested in putting anyone out of a job here. R2 could slice terminals in the movies, why not our droids?
P.Allow us to drop batteries into the droid's inventoryand have itrecharge itself as needed until the batteries run out.
Q.Create an entertainment module akin to the existing medical module to allow entertainers to work ouside of camps, cantinas and hotels. This module would be also level 1-6 with each level giving a little extra boost to the entertainer's skill.
R.Many beleive that there are enough DEs in the game these days to warrant removing the BH droids from NPC vendors. Afterall, there are no NPC weapon or armor vendors, so why the competition for DEs?
S.Saw a request for a training droid as seen in the movies that 'harasses' its target, pulling aggro. Thisidea is intended togive a little variety to the Novice DE's life. Could also be used as a consumable for training the combat classes.
T.Let usname our droids through the datapad controller. Droids shouldn't need to be 'taught' a name like pets do. The name is programmed into the droid separate from the other commands.
U.Add the creator to the droid view information, not just theowner. When you look at a pistol, you seewho made it. When you look at a droiddeed, you see who made it. When you look at a droid, you SHOULD see who made it.
V.Allow droids to be re-deeded forease of transfer. Since we can only have 5 droids in the datapad, it makes it really tough forDE's to take old droids astrade-ins for upgrades (like a car). We either have to immediately re-sell the droid or delete it. Would make more sense to re-deed the droid so that itcould be sold to another customer as a 'used droid'.
W.We're tired of losing our droids due to accidental 'release' or 'transfer' commands. Give us a confirmation request to help reduce owner stupidity (I can say that because I've done it).
X.Droid "macros" came up last post. Let us create macro-like droid programs to have a droid execute a series of commands. Not sure how this would be implemented, but it is an idea.

Can we addthe followingidea for the Protocoll Droid to the Wishlist?

The response to it was positive. That was the thought...

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Most Crafters have the Problem that they have to explain things to there cutomers repeatedly. Specially we Droid Enigineers. My Idea would be to give protocoll Droids formemost another duty instead of maybe a plannded Language Translation feature.

The Master of a Protocol Droid should be able to customize the words he says to other ppl conversing with him. Something like the planned customized barking for vendors but with the option to create several dialoge trees.

Example: A Protocol Dorid stands in the shop of a Architect. You click him and he shakes n say "Hello i am W-3PO. Welcome to the shop of my master how can i assist you." Then 3 diaolog options appear like "What does your master charge forhouses?", "How do i place a house?", "Wheres the toilet?". He will answer to the question with his programmed dialog from his owner...

It should like like the ballot boxes while configuring and i bet everyone wanna have a protocol droid then for his Shop. He can be Afk while the droid supports his customers!

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Check the Thread "Use of PROTOCOL Droids (A Suggestion)" for further ideas.

Cheers!

Garantoth, Very Very Very well written. I have nothing else to add to your post at all.

Good Job

R.Cluster modules fit into cluster modules. This is because they fit into service module sockets as well as cluster module sockets. I see this as a bug. Clusters should only fit in cluster sockets. Otherwise you defeat the purpose of the higher-end droids supporting cluster modules instead of multiple service modules. While the fact that this can be done is a bug, doing so seems to break modules in the clusters. So at least this isn't a game-breaking exploit.

I beg to differ. I have actually embedded several clusters within clusters... ultimately putting the final cluster within a single mouse droid, and it then retained all verifiable functionality. I direct you to my recent posts on this at:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=11070

and:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=10994

Of course, since most of our modules don't function properly, I was only able to verify 3 of them... Medical, Droid Repair and Crafting Station, but ALL THREE of those functioned just fine within my one little standard MSE Mouse Droid. I really don't understand why this doesn't get higher priority? Seriously,as long as this is possible, there is absolutely no reason for any other droid to exist except for just appearance sake. This has been one of THE mose disappointing bugs for me to date. The

The Master of a Protocol Droid should be able to customize the words he says to other ppl conversing with him. Something like the planned customized barking for vendors but with the option to create several dialoge trees.

I can see the reason for the popularity of this option, and I do agree that the idea is a good one. However, I see it being more of a vendor wishlist item than a droid wishlist item. The problems I see with this being a droid idea is that droids are mobile. The main purpose of this ideaappears to be thatyou want to have a droid at your vendor answering questions that the vendor itself should be able to answer. Also, since only one droid is permitted to be out at a time, this will have severe drawbacks if you wish to have a different droid out.

I beg to differ. I have actually embedded several clusters within clusters... ultimately putting the final cluster within a single mouse droid, and it then retained all verifiable functionality. I direct you to my recent posts...

Yes, yes... I've read your posts. However, I havn't seen any confirmation of your claims yet, and have seen several people claiming otherwise. I will alter this entry and increase the severity of it once I have full confirmation of your claims.

Thank god for Gorantoth who continuisly spend's his time on this thread.Gor is stopping a train wreck by offering this info collected and confirmed by DE's across all server's.The weekly list of wish's has been forstalled until the importent issues are adressed,I find this to prove that DEV's read these boards and and this thread and alsounderstand that the pressing issues need to be fixed before anything else.

Now.I want to add a few things and hope that the community will see that these are importent and worthwhile of discussion and debate.These have all been talked about before.I fell they need to be priority items for game balance.

1.Master Artisan items are all DE needed items.They do not give droid xp but are required in large numbers in most droids.Many are required to be factory made.This has the effect that DE's must retain the master artisan trade to be able to also be a DE.this is unbalanced with other trades that don't require any other master trade to produce final products.In effect this has gated us as a trade to explore/dabble in other trades as we need to keep domestic/business that we don't use in.I've heard arguements that this makes an interdependency between trades.untrue! Only the DE is forced to rely on master Artisan/architect/Armorsmith.those trades don't need us except for a very rare order for droid storage compartments which is an option.Al other trades will give up master Artisan because they don't need it.This makes us rely on each other( the only MA lefts) to supply electronics if you don't have MA.Unreasonable to believe that a competing DE is going to set up a factory to provide competition with Mem/GP/Control mods.

Solution: move electronics to engineer 4.this allows DE's to give up worthless branches such as Domestic and regain skill points to pursue other area's that give us some enjoyment to the game.

alternate solution: add other items to Master artisan so that every trade relies onthem.Maybe then someone will actually seek and hold the trade of Master Artisan other then a DE.

2. I'm against any plan that makes crafting station or any other module lvl based.I'm already a master droid engineer,this plan wouldn't hurt me.It does hurt any upcoming DE that wants a product to sell.Why would anyone buy from them when they can go to a master and get top lvl modules.This is a game killer for many players that didn't get there first.I find any plan such as this to be wholy unfair to everyone but the masters already established.

solution: reject the plans put forward in the list "quasi-Official" list put forward last week.These are not well thought out and as has been warned before,Think before you wish.You may get it.

3.Do not feel that the whole community is being represented here.Many don't read the boards and many that do don't post.The replies here are still a minority as a whole of the community.Any vote taken here is not truly representative of the whole but of the minority who participate on the Boards.Let Good ideas with forthought come before bad ideas with limited communty support.I defer to this Link for good ideas.Gorantoth has proven to be an unselfish,non -ego driven member and continues to help the game and the community.

solution: Discuss and debate EVERY issue to it fullest before standing behind any of them.This is your game and your trade.be patient and take time to make sure that any changes are well thought and discussed before you offer support.

arghhh!

issue 4.NEVER! write a post at 3:30 am.Sorry I hope that rambling makes some sense.Maybe Gor will interpret it.Oh well.as always looking forward to your flames,I like them best on a 65 mustang if you can arrange that.

hi we really need the armor fixed so we can suvive the trip out to our harvestors! and there was a post about having certification for droids this really would end our profession! who would we sell our Droids too if the only people that can use them are other DEs {they would just build their own} we also need a way to upgrade out exisisting droids ever heard of widget 2.0? the COMBAT droids need better weapons than 50-55 damage. and those of us who have traind in pistol or rifle or carbine should be able to teach our droids rudmentry combat skills. equip the combat droid with the equivalant of a pistol and teach health shot or bodyshot it would have to have an advanced droid brain but they are not stupid they can learn, {C3-P0 i am fluent in over 40,000 languages} half that capacity could go for combat skills, give the droid a set number of learned skills {phrases} and alow addition Skills if a data mod is installed.

What good is letting the droid carry your stuff when you get somewhere and then have to find extra room to put it kust so you can store your droid? why can't they act as mini banks tweenty slot per droid X 5 droids 100 slots sounds like a bank. And we should be able to equipthem with backpacs {the humanoid ones at least}.

there really needs to be a use for the BLL they are big and fearsome looking let them become our harvestor maintaning droids. Teach them the waypoints and give them the energy and let them make the rounds to the harvestors. this is what they were ment for Load Lifters.

I still can't repair droids i have made several with the repair mods and none will allow me to repair other players droids, am i the onbe who is bugged?

Can we get some ETAs on the fixes and stats on the things fixed? Will we be able to craft speeders, bikes and walkers? I would feel safe when walking to my harvestor when in one of those lol

Love the Game even if it is somewhat buggy right now

Igiveu Elko
Rori, Radiant

"Ok, I've gone and confirmed the cluster module issue myself."

WOW... someone that actually took the time to verify what I've been saying all this time. Thank you very much Gorantoth.

This really isn;t the thread to answer these question because they have been aswered and discussed all over the boards before.

repair mods do work.Target a droid with black wounds and issue the "repair other droid command",only heals health/action wounds.use batteries or a power droid to heal mind wounds.

The cert program talked about is to give combat players a combat droid that is suitable for their skill.Much like weapon cert's are now.

Droids were never meant to be a "do all" "protect all".They are there to supplement your combat skills not to replace them.

Please use the search tool for more in depth discussion on these issue's.You'll find lots of answer's to your questions on these.

Thanks for your post and concern's.

Ok, I've gone and confirmed the cluster module issue myself. I'll alter the text to read:

R.Cluster modules not only fit into cluster module sockets, they fit into service module sockets.This allows cluster modules to fit into cluster modules ad infinitum. Thishas the added effect thatcluster module slots are nowpointless and allows any number of modules to be placed in any droid. Clusters should only fit in cluster sockets. Otherwise you're further exploiting the idea that the droid frame used is irrelevant.

WOW... someone that actually took the time to verify what I've been saying all this time. Thank you very much Gorantoth.

Someone's got to do it. And with things that I can check out easily enough, I can verify them now that I've hit Master. What is key here is that we get to the real problem. Many people make claims that cannot be verified. If someone can verify a claim, then we're that much closer to dealing with the bugs with some degree of intelligence.

1.Master Artisan items are all DE needed items.They do not give droid xp but are required in large numbers in most droids.

There are otherprofessions that require mastery of a lower profession. Personally, due to the DE requirements, I think it more appropriate to make DE require Master Artisan. Howerver, the problem with this is that my ability to cook and make clothes has no relation to my ability to make droids, or any other Master Artisan craft.

2. I'm against any plan that makes crafting station or any other module lvl based

Your logic here does make sense to me. I think that what we need is an increase in the types of modules in order to replace those that are level based.

3.Do not feel that the whole community is being represented here.Many don't read the boards and many that do don't post.

This is true. However, this smaller set of forum readers is all we've got in terms of our ability to poll people for what they want. All we can do is provide the information and hope that people read it and make an educated decision. Many times I have seen good ideas. However, because everyone was too busy patting the source of the idea on the back, nobody was looking for potential problems. Full discussion is needed, otherwise we will get what we ask for and then lose it a week later when the devs discover the downsides to the idea.

Great work Goranthoth, every single line of your bug list and wish list is sadly true, but we should help devs to fix the biggest issues before every possible "refinement".

Let me show mytop priority list.

1) Fix data and storage modules.

2) Fix armors

3) Make experimetation affect HAM. And HAM/damage for probots

4) Give a specific job to Protocol, Load lifter, repair, surgical, treadwell andfugitive tracking droid.

5) list ALL the droidfeature,as well as the rating of the various features,in deed examination box and in datapad.

I hope that every DE thinks that these are the major issues atm.

Fix all of the above "tomorrow" is too late yet.