Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Project: Droid Engineer Droid Model Redesign
Drashk wrote:
Comments? Questions? Concerns?
: Do you other DE's really think that astromechs are combat droids? And should they therefore be possible to be made into one? 
however, i would also like to see 'innate' bonusses on some droids. For example, give the med droid a bonus to the med modules (i.e. allowing it to hit 110, and the others 100), a bonus to the detonation modules on mse's, a combat bonus to the probots, etc.......
-243 1240
One possible alteration.
Assuming we keep the bonuses that some chassis have
1. Drop the Socket Combat Droid Deeds and Socket Non-Combat Droid Deeds
2. Replace them with generic # Socket Droid Deeds
3. Give the combat chassis a combat bonus
4. Give the non-combat chassis a combat penalty
Reasons:
1. The process is simpler, less to code, less to build.
2. All droids can be all things, you want a combat mouse droid I can make you one. He does 3 points of damage as he rams the monsters toe again and again. I dont care if its not effective, its cute and I can sell cute.
3. More droid personality. A set of bonuses/penalties added to each droid type will give each type a better reason to be built.
4. Easier to adust combat balance, if the droids are doing to well, too badly the devs can just adjust the chassis bonus to move things around.
Other ideas:
1. Might have to make stacking a bit more logrithmic. Make it so putting in more than 4 of the same module is very inefficent.
good point, i can see a mse with 6 mods with all of them level 2 or so. but then that means a ton of complexiety teaching this kinda thing to the masses....as for only masters making them..as it stands now in swg most crafting profs are master or none, there is no dabbling. having a marketable product while you grind is very needed still...not sure what the best way to balance all those factors is in this system....need to think on it.
Drashk wrote:
Would it be better to limit the overall number of modules a droid, under this system, could have or limit the overall rating of each module? Would being able to craft an MSE with 6 modules be acceptable as long as the modules that can be installed are capped at Level 3 quality? I think that in order toget such a system added, we would need to acceptthe creation of Uber MSE, otherwise the system as a whole loses some credence.
The way the system is set up, you would have to be Master in order to build an MSE with 6 modules. The one problem that it couldcreate would be some undercutting; however I think that by placing rating caps on certain module fuctions willhelp to cut back on this.
Overall, I like the idea and would like to see something like this implemented.
When someone wants to buy a Droid, they usually ask for the droid that will offer them the greatest number of modules over the actual look of the droid. This has lead to the largest majority of Droids sales being limited to the Adv R3, Adv Probot, and Adv R2. Very few people own Power Droids, BLLs, or Treadwells in comparison, even though these three droids have a much more distinct look. The following is a change that I think would help to breathe a lot of life back into all of the 13 different Chassis types, and at the same time offer a larger overall market.
Droid Model Redesign
In order to change the current system of design, we need to do away with the Advanced/Basic droid models. We also should do away with the concept that only an Adv R3 has 6 modules or that a Power Droid will always have 1 Module slot. Instead of each droid model having a set number of modules, the Droid Model should instead represent the skin being used.
To do this, we would need to give each Droid Model a corresponding Chassis. Everything from an MSE to a BLL would have a Chassis that would be used in the creation of a final droid deed. The Chassis / Deed relationship would no longer be limited to a per droid model basis. At Novice, instead of gaining the MSE deed, a Droid Engineer would gain an MSE Chassis and a 1 Socket non-Combat Droid Deed. The MSE chassis would be built using the same methods as the MSE deed, but would not include module sockets. Once completed, the MSE chassis would be used in the 1 Socket non-Combat Droid Deed. By using the MSE Chassis, the 1 Socket non-Combat Droid deed would take on the characteristics of an MSE droid. The finished droid would look like an MSE and would have the same features as an MSE (bonus to Detonation Modules).
At Master, a Droid Engineer would gain the 6 Socket Combat and non-Combat Droid Deed. This would allow a Master Droid Engineer the ability to turn any of the current droid models intoa droid with 6 Module sockets. The following chart illustrates what changes would be made to during this process, from Novice to Master, on the Droid Blueprints line.
|---------------------------------------|
| Master |
| Droid Engineer |
|---------------------------------------|
| 6 Socket Combat DroidDeed|
| 6 Socket non-Combat DroidDeed|
|---------------------------------------|
| Master |
| DroidBlueprints|
|---------------------------------------|
|5 Socket Combat DroidDeed|
|5 Socket non-Combat DroidDeed|
| Binary Load Lifter Chassis |
| R3 Chassis|
| ProtocolDroid Chassis|
|---------------------------------------|
| Expert|
| DroidBlueprints|
|---------------------------------------|
|4 Socket Combat DroidDeed|
|4 Socket non-Combat DroidDeed|
| R2 Chassis |
| Probot Chassis |
| Surgical Droid Chassis|
| LE Repair Droid Chassis |
|---------------------------------------|
| Advanced |
| DroidBlueprints|
|---------------------------------------|
|2 Socket Combat DroidDeed|
|3 Socket Combat DroidDeed|
|3 Socket non-Combat DroidDeed|
| R4 Chassis |
| PowerDroid Chassis |
|---------------------------------------|
| Intermediate|
| DroidBlueprints|
|---------------------------------------|
|1 Socket Combat DroidDeed|
|2 Socket non-Combat DroidDeed|
| DZ70Chassis |
| R5 Chassis |
| Treadwell Chassis|
|---------------------------------------|
| Novice |
| DroidEngineer|
|---------------------------------------|
|1 Socket non-Combat DroidDeed|
| MSE Chassis |
|---------------------------------------|
This change would have a significant impact on the variety of Droid Models that would be seen in use. No longer would droid use be limited to just personal taste or overall benefits. If such a change was made, a larger variety of droids and droid configurations would be created, which would help to stimulate the overall market of each Droid Engineer.
Combat Droid Deed
Vs
Non-Combat Droid Deed
Combat Droid Deeds would only use the current Combat Droids. Non-Combat Droid Deeds would only use the current non-Combat Droids.I thinkthis is pretty self explanatory and wouldn't be that difficult to figure out. Such a change may also help to straighten out the Combat-Capable Module Socket Cluster and General Module Socket Cluster issue that some people have with Droid building.
One item that would need to be looked at with the Combat and non-Combat Deeds would be where do Armor Modules fit in? Here are my thoughts.
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|6 Socket Combat DroidDeed|3 Armor ModuleSockets|
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|5 Socket Combat DroidDeed|2 Armor ModuleSockets|
|4 Socket Combat DroidDeed||
|6 Socket non-Combat DroidDeed| |
|5 Socket non-Combat DroidDeed| |
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|3 Socket Combat DroidDeed|1 Armor ModuleSockets|
|2 Socket Combat DroidDeed| |
|4 Socket non-Combat DroidDeed| |
|3 Socket non-Combat DroidDeed| |
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|1 Socket Combat DroidDeed|0 Armor ModuleSockets|
|2 Socket non-Combat DroidDeed| |
|1 Socket non-Combat DroidDeed| |
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
RatingCaps
One issue that would arise, with such a system change would be with module ratings on an given droid. Detonation, Combat Ratings, Auto-Repair, Stim Dispensor, and Harvesting ratings might need a per droid skin cap, to prevent such things as a 120 Detonation Rated MSE with 6 modules. As nice as it would be for sales, this would be an overpowered item. This would be a case by case scenario that would need to be adjusted accordingly. Its not so much of an issue now, with only MSE having a bonus rating, but it could become more problematic if additional droids gained bonus features.
Possible Con
The biggest con of such a design change would be an overall increase in resource requirements. In order to make such a system work, each Socket Level would need to have a greater resource cost, to compensate for the increase in overall functionality. Since the Droid Chassis would decide the skin being used, and the attributes involved, the increased resource cost would have to come from the Socket Level of the Droid Deed being used. This is a detail that could be hashed out at some later point, but would be one that I think could be justified to increase the overall usefulness of each droid model. The change would stim from the ability to make a MSE in a 6 Socket Droid Deed. The resource cost needs to balance out in some manner, so that we don't end up seeing 6 Module MSEs running around all over the place, due to being extremely cheap to make.
Each of the current Droid Chassis' would have the same resource requirements. Any Droids that do not have Adv Chassis would have the same resource requirements as the Basic model droid. (IE MSE Chassis would require 53 Metal and 15 Chemical. An R5 Chassis would require 30 Ferrous Metal, 52 Metal, 70 Chemical, 1 Manipulator Arm Package Set, 1 Droid MotiveSystem, and 1 Droid Sensor Package.)
I think the following would be an acceptable resource cost increase, for the Socket Level Droid Deed. The numbers being used are arbitrary and would be open to debate, but I think that they would be reasonable for the overall system change.
|-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| MasterDroid Engineer |440 Chemical and1 Droid Brain |
|-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| Master DroidBlueprints |320 Chemical and 1 Droid Brain |
|-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| Expert DroidBlueprints |220 Chemical and 1 Droid Brain|
|-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| Advanced DroidBlueprints | 140 Chemical and 1 Droid Brian|
|-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| Intermediate DroidBlueprints| 80 Chemical |
|-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|NoviceDroid Engineer | 40 Chemical |
|-------------------------------|--------------------------------|
In Conclusion
I think this would be a reasonable request during the non-Combat Upgrade that would add not only a 'coolness' factor to droid crafting but would also give our customer base a larger selection to choose from. This would open up a larger market of re-occurring droid sales since it wouldn't limit a person to only an Adv R3, if they wanted to have 6 modules installed in a droid. It would also help out the non-Master Droid Engineer, by providinga greater number of droid configurations to chose from as a xxx4 Droid Engineer. I feel that this, along with a few other changes such as added decay,an increase to current droidfunctions, and a few other slight alterations to our current profession, would generate better health in our profession and open up greater droid markets.
Comments? Questions? Concerns?
I see where you are going with this one, but I think to make matters a little less complicated, the cap would need to be set for the droid chassis and not the droid chassis and how many modules are installed. Droids like an R5and an MSE should have a shorter life span, since they are cheaply made droids.
Gron_DM wrote:
hmm on that note maybe a MSE or other lower end chassis would have less decay with less mods? so an MSE with 2 mods decays a 1/3rd rate of one with 6...