Droid Engineer Archive

Ok we all know certain aspects of Droid Customization are bonked... Let's put that aside for right now. Assume customization works as the devs intended and look at the system.

Since the Devs are soon going to work on Droids, I would like to get a consensus on other DEs thoughts and feelings about Droid Customization so we may submit the consensus in time to get fixed with our other stuff if we want it changed.

For me, most of my customers want a droid painted one color and want it to stay that way. However the 20 charges system can be used pretty quickly (especially if they are a crafter) and then they get the "customization fades" screen. To them it is another frustration of droids.

As most of my customers find this annoying,I do not charge for paint jobs and offer them as a free service to both customers and non-customers. I imagine the devs original intention was to have a DE have an income source and a reason for people to come back to DEs often but for me this doesnt help. However I am curious because some DEs may charge for this and have a steady income customizing droids (I dont want to deprive DEs from making money).

I guess my main questions are the following:

1.) Do you like the current (20 charges) customization system if there were no current paintbugs?

2.) Do you makemoney off of customization?

3.) If it needs a change or improvement, what solutions would benefit both the customer and the DE? Lets here your ideas!

Here is my suggestion: Make customization permanent. Paint a Droid and it stays that color until the customer wishs for a new color job. This would be much like Image Design where designing a face stays until you go back to the ID for another change. Therefore no more messy "droid customization fades" messages.

While my solution would be to do away with customization fading altogether, I realize some DEs might make some of their cash off the 20 charge system. So both sides speak up and lets figure out what the majority wants. Ah democracy...

I have never charged anyone for Droid Customization.

Instead of removing theCustomizationcharge system, how about modifying so that when ever the droid is incapped it loses a charge, instead of every time thatit is called.In my opinion, this wouldmake a lot more sense, since it wouldreflect the damage that a droidreceives from battle.This would basically cover the permanency of colorization for most droids, but would still allow for repeat business for those that charge for this service.

I'd like to see the customisatioin lifespan depend on the durability rating. Things like R2s where HAM doesn't matter, you can pour your points into the durability setting, that way getting same 100 charges on the lifespan, with 20 being the lower limit for a complete failure, with crappy materials, by a novice DE.

Here is how it should work, in my opinion.

When you craft a droid, your customization skill is used to set the base color of the thing. If you build a droid from a chassis, you get the opportunity to see exactly what the droid will look like when crafted. Just as it works now, increasing your skill increases the range of colors you get for your droids/droid chassis.

Then the customization tool, as currently implemented makes more sense. A customer orders a droid in a particular color scheme (what? White and blue? Never heard a call for THAT combo!) and if you've got the skill, you make it that way. Then for the holiday season, you get requests for droids to be painted red and green. Someone going on a covert mission requests a black paint job for their slicer R2, etc. etc. etc.

It could all be so darned cool if handled right.

Honestly people.

Why should customization "fade" away and vanish?



The droids should be colorized just like any other colorable item in game - During crafting!


And if the customer wanted to have it repainted he had to seek out a droid engineer.
But still, the paint job SHOULD NOT fade away. Never heard of such a sad idea.

Colors that fade when droids are call? hum.. its just another short sided idea push by the brainless powers at be..

"1.) Do you like the current (20 charges) customization system if there were no current paintbugs?

2.) Do you makemoney off of customization?

3.) If it needs a change or improvement, what solutions would benefit both the customer and the DE? Lets here your ideas!"

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1. No. It's moronic to the Nth degree.

2. No. The customer bought the droid, I offer it free of charge. I offer colorization to other droids I come upon for free, to help bolster the Profession and my reputation.

3. Either it needs to be 1) Increased to something more like 100 charges or 2) Absolutely permanent until another paint job.

Lets put it this way... What would you think about clothing that all turned a muddy gray after you had worn it 20 times, and you had to re-dye it to get it to be colored again. I mean, if that's all there was, that's what I'd buy, but if there was a choice, there'd be no way. What about if your rifle reverted to being a CDEF every 20 fights, and you then had to use a customization kit to get it to be a Tusken again?

And while we are on the subject of coloring stuff.... why can't we color our vehicles? What's up with that? Do the devs imagine that all the vehicles in the Starwars universe were created with the exact same paintjob?

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Kurt_Mendel wrote:

One more afterthought on this: the customization process definitely needs a preview process where the customer can see the changes before they're finalized, akin to the one Image Designers have for character changes. I can't tell you how many customization kit charges I burn getting it just right for someone.

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Yep. Couldn't agree more. I have crates of customization tools with 9 charges each - and often use up an entire tool coloring someone's R2 unit as they decide what color looks best to them.

On the main topic - I think that the customization fades thing is OK - but the 20 count should be raised to about 100.

I loathe the customization limit of 20. I've yet to meet one person in game who has liked the fact that after 20 uses their droid starts coming out the default of random (I know, it's a bug) color.

This is one of the most annoying things about our profession & I for one would love to see it go away forever.

I'm going to have to agree that the 20 calls system for customization bites the big one. I realize the developer intent here was probably to create some repeat business. The problem it creates is that it's hard to charge people anything for it since it's so short lived, while the customization kits are relatively painful to make (control unit, droid storage, resources). Current problems with battery life don't help because they compel players to store/call their droids repeatedly and burn off the customization counter in the process.

People really aren't going to want to get their droids painted every so many calls of the droid. The repeat business here should come from people who customize their droids to match their wardrobe (I've done this a lot) and want to change it to re-match new clothes or otherwise get tired of the paint scheme.

If the community really feels a need to keep this, then upping the number substantially should be considered. Maybe it fades every 200 calls instead of 20 if it needs to stay limited.

One more afterthought on this: the customization process definitely needs a preview process where the customer can see the changes before they're finalized, akin to the one Image Designers have for character changes. I can't tell you how many customization kit charges I burn getting it just right for someone.

The current customization scheme is horrid.

Make it permanent, and let me choose the color of the droid when I make it as well.