Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droid Perma-death -- Was I the only one?
Was I the only one who LIKED the droid perma-death? I received about triple the business I had in the past due to people wanting to replace droids. A slight increase in entry prices and I was able to offer 25-50% off on replacement droids if they were destroyed.
This was a boon for my business, it didn't cripple it in any way.
You might have been... two instances here - a customer bought an R4 with w/d/g station from me, got aggro while crafting in the field, lost his droid, and had me replace it with an MSE instead...
I was talking to someone who got their probot killed, and I asked her if she'd be buying another one. She said no, because of permadeath.
I was getting some return business as well, however felt the need to lower prices to stay competitive. I truly believe if things would have continued as they are, more and more people will have been waking up to the fact that now, anyone can own creature pets, and that bio-engineers can make 2500 health pets at 150 damage alot cheaper than we can make droids. And they can be healed.
I'm not calling for a nerf to them.. I love my rock-beetle and goat-horse thingy, I'm just pointing to the fact that bio-engineers (at least on bloodfin) and creature handlers are about now getting their inventories in order and starting to sell these pets to the masses, and I've had a steady drop in probot sales in the last few days.
I think the no permadeath thing will help some because there'd be much less at stake and there' would be no reason not to have a pet tanking, and probot out for backup. Everyone could have one of each out for better or worse.
-Chans (MDE Bloodfin)
But see, the problem is you are focusing on the combat droids -- 90% of my business is from non-combat droids which will, again, now never have to be replaced.
As for the MSE droids -- it's simple, I refuse to put modules into them for selling to people. I won't do it. It's degrading and a slap in the face to sell a cheap piece of crap droid just because someone wants to save a few credits. If they want an MSE, they can go to someone who can't make anything but an MSE droid, but I'll be darned if I'm going to put a level 6 medical module and a crafting station in an MSE.
Thats true I was focusing on combat droids. I did have several people needing new multi-purpose droids after theirs got killed (usually in pvp it seemed), however all of them stated that theyd not allow the droid to be in that situation again (and of coursed I suggested that as well). In my case at least, most of those replacement sales happened last week up till mid-week, and I can only assume the drop-off in replacement sales may be due to everyone coming to the realization that the droids can now die.
Multi-function droids have been selling well, though many times it's dubiously because the devs dont know how to retroactively update properly and people want droids with med 6 at 110 capability instead of 95, and storage that works. I cant say I'm happy having to resell again with that being the case.
I hope we'll get an increase in return customers for our function models as well... Hopefully people will be more inclined to have them out in battle situations now since they wont immediately die. There could be a strong argument to make module functionality also decrease with vitality... Otherwise on the module-dependant models, will anyone really care if their droids health declines as long as the med rating and storage capacity remains intact?
-Chans (MDE Bloodfin)
As a PvP'er, I don't want to lose a droid that I spent a lot of money and resources crafting because it dies after the first incap. That's why I never bring out my item storage droids, because until the next patch when they take out perma death, you are only at risk by having a droid out, the benefits of having a droid out are not worth the risk when it's going to die because it got hit 1 time.
I liked it.
When the droids are worth something the DEs who don't like it now will beg for it then...
The architects are begging for a "repeat" buy. We had one, and some folks can't understand that even though it was not good now... it's only not good because the cost outweighed the benefit. When droids have real value every DE with a brain will be begging for permadeath so they can sell more droids....
Alternatively if they make the rate of decay high enough it will still work out.
We shall see.
I have this one customer who was happy to learn I could make FC stations - he wanted one in an MSE droid so he could hide it behind the bar with him when he was serving drinks... and R4 or R5, he said, would have been visible over the counter.
At least now he only has the beeping to deal with. And hey, somedays 3k is a needed 3k. 
Peramdeath is ok if there is a level playing field. Creature Handler pets should have died as well. As they didn't droids were a thing of the past.
Oh and by the way there are alot of combat people out there willing to pay good money for weapons - why not combat droids? I think a probot that has lost alot of vitality etc will be next to useless and people will want a new one eventually.
Perma death isn't a bad thing, just after 1 incap it is a bad thing. What's the point of a medic having a med droid out in the field so that he can heal wounds and stuff when that droid is going to Droid Heaven after one hit?
BS I say.
Oh yea, give the DZ70 some more ham. It's pointless to be able to create a combat droid that can barely take out a chuba baby.
Also, we need an edit in these forums 
Like to also add. I also had lowered my prices with the permadeath on droids. Yes, it will be reversed, but I will keep current prices going. But the only decrease in sales I noticed since permadeath have been Probots.
Those of you who liked permadeath are missing an important point: It keeps droids out of the game. Let me give you two examples:
1) I have a DZ70 droid named 'George'. He is the first droid I've ever purchased. Before permadeath I would set him on patrol around my house, before going out and doing my daily mining chores. The only purpose of this was to add to my experience in the game. The droid did nothing. He couldn't even kill theweak wildlifethat frequented the area. Occasionally, when I returned to my house, I would find him lying unconscious with one of these bunny rabbits near him. It was no big deal. Since permadeath, however, I won't leave him unattended for fear of losing him.
2) A few days ago I earned the Novice Droid Engineer skill, and this enabled me to start making mouse droids. So I made a mouse droid called 'Buddy'. Since I am now able to make mouse droids, I'm no longer worried about losing them, so I started having Buddy follow me around. After only about 1 hour, I looked up in the group menu and noticed that Buddywas a corpse. We were jogging through the fields from harvester to harvester, and some overgrown frog killed him. I would not take this risk if I wasn't able to make such mouse droids easily.
The permadeath issue for me, is not about sales or making money. It's about being able to use droids as they're meant to be used -- to be companions and perform varioius tasks in the Star Wars world. As long as I can go out, get the non-functional droid, and repair him, then I have no problem using my droids. However, if they're completely removed from the game, then I won't take the risk.