Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Have our goals been clouded?
I know I am going to get flamed by this post, but I wanted to get this off my chest because I feel that the many DE's before us that have left the profession were, in a way, in this for the wrong reasons. First, let me say that I myself am not against making a good living while sustaining some sort of craft in this game. In saying that, my first idea of becoming a DE was that I wanted to become a competent warrior in my skills to where I could walk up to a stormtooper camp with just me and my best fighting droid and create havoc for the empire...period! Now, we all know that at present, as a DE, this is not possible. We also know that if a CH used his/her best pet in a similar situation, it becomes probable that victory is achievable.
Now, like I said before, I have no problem with trying to make a living in this game but was surprised to see the majority of posts I have read leaned more towards making a great droid to make a great profit. Now, before you start throwing your darts at me, let me backup my statement. In the game inception Ibelieve that from what I have been reading in the interviews and posts by the Dev's, the game was designed in a way so the player could experience the Star Wars genre by exploration, communication, interaction and other things to make the game more enjoyable to the player which included, yes, making credits. But I believe it was not the intention of the creators to make the game a soly credit making machine. Truly, seeing many of these posts makes me believe the only reason people are becoming DE's is to make a profit from the profession, which over time is a nice idea but for now, I believe is bad timing.
Perhaps if the Dev's believed that we wanted our droids to become a considerable match against a CH adversary, which would be a fair advantage for the DE, instead of telling a Dev "How can I sell a droid if it's worthless to the other players". Because look at it this way...A good CH cannot sell his/her best pet because of level limitations to non-CH's. Yes, they can sell to other CH's but the non-CH numbers are considerable to the CH numbers. They can't monopolize the market so, the Dev's gave their concerns priority over our concerns. This may seem a weak notion, but what would happen to our profession if Dev's just gave us our deadly probots back without limitations? I believe the market of DE's would go up, everyone would have a deadly droid and other professions, or pet usage may suffer.
I am getting off track here and I want to close by saying I think being a DE is great. I think it is pretty cool making the stuff that we make even though they don't do much know, we cross our fingers that something is being done to change that. Please understand, I am not saying that it is bad for us to be making a good living off of our profession and I know that this does not pertain to everyone. I am just saying that right now for those people that this pertains to, focus on the need, not the greed.
/bow
Respecfully,
Ewyv Aupap
Master Artisan
Driod Eng (3,0,2,4)
Yes, I think some people are a little too credit-greedy, but just because their reasons are bad doesn't mean their goal is. DE is a crafting profession, as is evident by the fact that all of our skills involve making droids and droid components. I know this is why I, and many others, joined the profession. Its not because we want massive credits, there are quicker/easier ways to get credits. It is because we want to build droids and see the happiness that our droids bring to our customers. I think the whole combat droid thing made some people forget about that aspect of the profession.
I dont know about everyone else, but beinga droid engineer on Corbantis, I cannot make enough money to sustain my harvestors, house, and vendors, now that they have maintenance as well. Mostly, I want to make enough to have some harvestors running for a week or so, not have to check them every day since I dont sell everyday to put lotsa money into them.My dream isn't to become rich and buy all these nice houses, it is to use some of my rifle skills, and go out with a nice DE only droid, and blast me some Imps. Sure making a little money would be nice, since other profs like Weaponsmith and Armorsmith do make some good money, but I do agree with you that most of us are making it seem to important to get money. If I had a lot of money I dont know what I would buy anyways, just resources to make more droids, maybe some nice armor(all I can afford is like Mabari or maybe Chitin). Again though, as other players said, I wouldn't feel sorry personally if we got a nice probot again or some other droid that sold like mad, because I still think that droids should be a bigger focus of the game than those frikin' creatures you see everyone. But yeah that has already been discussed elsewhere. And maybe Im not that high in the proffesion yet, just speaking in general mostly. Well, thats my two credits.
Mullet.DroidEngineer.Corbantis
I see our ability to get good combat droids as a "crafting" profession is the inherent uniqueness of our product, droids. I, and other DEs who want good combat droids are not looking for something so powerful it will be able to do all of the fighting for us. We do not want to bestrictly acombat class, but I think with the distinctness of our product in comparison to other "crafting" professions would allow us to be a hybrid profession.
As Sintrosi said in a post last month, she belives the devs are looking for DEs to be (CH + BE + Droids) - Organic Pets= New De ( http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=31638
This seems to be what Larrad thought this profession would be like before he got into it, as I did, and as did others who want a good DE combat droid. (make that MDE). And we all agree we want other combat droids to sell.
I don't think that there is a DE left who is totally in it solely to make money. There are a LOT better ways to do that. Weapon smith, for example.
As it stands, it is a pretty fine line between profit and loss for most DE's. Even Sintrosi recently said that she only has 50K credits.
DE's are oft compared to CH's. They are far more akin to BE's.
So, before you advocate a course that gives DE's the ability to be the exclusive user of any new droids, beware of what that will cause. There will still be harvester costs, but DE will be the flavor of the month, and you will sell NO droids.
Sure we will be the flavor of the month. But only to those who were already inclined to be DEs, not by the mass populace. Whatever combat droid would be no where near as good as a MCH pet, and people looking to get the best pet would still go into CH. Making it MDE would prevent dabblers. Someone who goes to get MDE just to get a droid that's nowhere near as good as a MCH pet to get that advantage of a MDE combat droid, is either really stupid or just likes droids.
Sketh wrote:
ISo, before you advocate a course that gives DE's the ability to be the exclusive user of any new droids, beware of what that will cause. There will still be harvester costs, but DE will be the flavor of the month, and you will sell NO droids.
Jenden wrote:
I don't think it wouldbe a flavor of the month issue, it would be a gradual shift of focus for the profession I believe. Yes, if they're not as strong as MCH pets you won't have people taking it up in droves, but you will still have people that take it up primarily for combat purposes, and also because they like droids. As more and more new DE's come in for this reason, they will start asking for more combat perks. I can guarantee you the devs won't spend the time/resources to fully work on both crafting and combat issues for us, it will only be one or the other in the end. Since undoubtedly combat will be easier to implement (copy and paste code from creatures), that is most likely what they will go for. I've seen too many great ideas on this forum from everyone to simply let that die because someone doesn't want to make the hard choices as to what to give up for more combat skills.
I think your reasoning is too much of a slippery slope. We won't ever become CHs, they do not want identical professions.
I think more DE's is a good thing (because they like droids, and whether they want to just make them and have a good combat droid or not). A majority of DEs want some kind of good combat droid. That would make a lot of us happy, and boy do we need some happiness.(assuming we get a good combat droid, and/or something better to sell)More DEs = lower prices on droids. Lower prices means more people can afford them, and so more people will buy them and total happniess will be greater than it currently is now. As you said before Jenden, "It is because we want to build droids and see the happiness that our droids bring to our customers." Don't you want to maximize happiness? Isn't that a good thing? Or do you want to be the only to dole out the happiness? Or are you one of those secretly worried about his profit margin?
And I do not, as I am sure other DEs do too, do not see this as being related to "someone doesn't want to make the hard choices as to what to give up for more combat skills. " My reasons go back to my earlier post. It is the uniqueness of our product, the difference in it between it and the products of other crafting professions. Anyone can get MDE, MA, and master an elite combat profession. I always saw DE as a hybrid profession, and until the devs come out with a plan that screams "No!" I will continue to see it as such and advocate a change in that direction.
EricTheGreat wrote:
I think your reasoning is too much of a slippery slope. We won't ever become CHs, they do not want identical professions.
Not saying it will work out well as another CH profession, but in the process of trying to get it done nothing will get done.
I think more DE's is a good thing (because they like droids, and whether they want to just make them and have a good combat droid or not).
More DE's is definately a good thing, I just don't want to see more DE's that think of this as a combat profession (which it currently isn't).
A majority of DEs want some kind of good combat droid. That would make a lot of us happy, and boy do we need some happiness.(assuming we get a good combat droid, and/or something better to sell)
Not saying combat droids aren't a good thing, its DE only combat droids that poses a problem.
More DEs = lower prices on droids. Lower prices means more people can afford them, and so more people will buy them and total happniess will be greater than it currently is now.
I'd love to see some people lower their prices, I'm disgusted by some of the price gouging I see going on. people charging 40k for probots? 70-100k for protocols? 250k for a load lifter??? thats some insane markup.
As you said before Jenden, "It is because we want to build droids and see the happiness that our droids bring to our customers." Don't you want to maximize happiness? Isn't that a good thing? Or do you want to be the only to dole out the happiness? Or are you one of those secretly worried about his profit margin?
If I were worried about my profit margin I'd be arguing to not fix a single thing in the profession as right now I have no problem making a couple hundred k per day. No, I don't have a problem with other people making customers happy, I have a problem with other people trying to turn the profession into something that it currently isn't.
And I do not, as I am sure other DEs do too, do not see this as being related to "someone doesn't want to make the hard choices as to what to give up for more combat skills. " My reasons go back to my earlier post. It is the uniqueness of our product, the difference in it between it and the products of other crafting professions. Anyone can get MDE, MA, and master an elite combat profession. I always saw DE as a hybrid profession, and until the devs come out with a plan that screams "No!" I will continue to see it as such and advocate a change in that direction.
Our uniqueness is the ability to craft droids. I don't know of a single other profession out there that can make an R2 unit. As for DE being a hybrid profession, thats fine, thats your opinion, just as I have mine. I think that the plan that screams no is pretty evident in the way droids were set up and their primary function right now but thats just me.
Jenden wrote:
Our uniqueness is the ability to craft droids. I don't know of a single other profession out there that can make an R2 unit. As for DE being a hybrid profession, thats fine, thats your opinion, just as I have mine. I think that the plan that screams no is pretty evident in the way droids were set up and their primary function right now but thats just me.
As I wrote before, it is our uniqueness in our products, not what makes our profession unique. (Not what we make, what they are ). I do not want us to become a strict combat profession. But the versatility of droids should allow for a decent combat droid, therefore make us a hybrid profession. One reason why I advocate a MDE only droid is because we will never get what I consider a decent combat droid (decent as in CL25, sludge panther level) if it is allowable to be sold to the masses, and so the pet wars will change to the droid wars (which they devs dont want to happen either). Whatever droid they do give us to sell to the masses won't be good enough because of the pet wars problem to be usefull at a high combat level. Even with certifications, I don't see them allowing us a decent combat droid, again because of the pet wars.
Seeing the past of the DE is seems clear to me that we were never meant to be so nearly useless as we are now, and we were always meant for change. A MMORPG always changes, and the ( CH + BE + Droids) - Organic Creatures = New DE seems to be the path that Sintrosi believes the devs will head us to.