Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droid Potential
**Disclaimer** This is not in preperation for any kind of revamp, this is just my attempt to come up with some new creative ideas in case there is such a chance.
Well from what I can see the following Droid Types/Professions seem to be covered somewhat:
Combat Droid - Combat Professions
Space Droid - Space Professions
BH Droid - Bounty Hunter
Crafting Station Droids - Crafting Professions
Medical Droids - Medic Professions
Barker Droids - Merchant
Entertainer Droids - Entertainer Professions (apart from Image Designer)
So far it seems Bio Engineer and Image Designer doesn't have anything to help them , well apart from the Crafting side of Bio Engineer. Not tested it but mayhap the Medical Droid will boost the DNA grabbing but if not why not .. or make it an option from creature harvesting as it is in someway harvesting from the creature .. just in a different way.
Not sure if anything existing can be used to help Image Designers but is theres something we can do that would encourage them to use droids. Not that entertainers are that encouraged... mayhap entertainer droids can boost the existing buffs in some manner.
Well thats all I can think of before hitting the sack .. night all ..
Xrystal wrote:Well from what I can see the following Droid Types/Professions seem to be covered somewhat:
Combat Droid - Combat Professions
Space Droid - Space Professions
BH Droid - Bounty Hunter
Crafting Station Droids - Crafting Professions
Medical Droids - Medic Professions
Barker Droids - Merchant
Entertainer Droids - Entertainer Professions (apart from Image Designer)
So far it seems Bio Engineer and Image Designer doesn't have anything to help them , well apart from the Crafting side of Bio Engineer. Not tested it but mayhap the Medical Droid will boost the DNA grabbing but if not why not .. or make it an option from creature harvesting as it is in someway harvesting from the creature .. just in a different way.
Not sure if anything existing can be used to help Image Designers but is theres something we can do that would encourage them to use droids. Not that entertainers are that encouraged... mayhap entertainer droids can boost the existing buffs in some manner.
Well thats all I can think of before hitting the sack .. night all ..
I'm looking for something a bit more integrated for combat. Combat droids are kind of an extra little thing for everyone, but they're not really integrated into the professions.
Or like the detonation modules are integrated into the BH/Smuggler community?
Or maybe droid "specials" instead of weapons specials in the combat professions, like timed attacks or such?
running with this, so quick shot ideas:
- GCW: A droid should be needed to destroy a GCW base. Probably somekind of module? Err module needs quality effects the time it takes so high resources/experimentation is favourable for quicker base take down
- JTL: Droids should be used on POB ships to reapir the armour and reload missiles. Droid could be "placed" inside somekind of hatch inside the ship by a player (co-pilot?) then the player (co-pilot) gives the droid instructions - for reloading the missiles the droid could hold spare missiles in it storage bit and also armour repair modules for it to fix the armour.
That way the Co-pilot does a lot more than press a button when the shields get low and another one for when capacitor overcharge wears off
- JTL:Would like it so you had the choice of Astromech droid OR Flight computer for your ship. For me a droid is a lot more personal.
- Smuggler: could get a slicing bonus from their droid - again somekind of module
- Ranger: the droid should harvest but allow the ranger to harvest also (if I remember correctly the droid would harvest and you couldn't)
- Bounty Hunter: Seeker/Akayrd Probe launcher module - give an additonal bonus to success/speed also a more viable combat droid for helping to take down NPCs/Players.
- Jedi: Droid could hack into the BH terminals and check out the Jedi's vis rating. Very low success rate and failure results in damaging the droids vitality points (most Jedi have too much money - how about giving us some?
) - Misc: Healing Module, kind of like the stim pack module expect the droid will automatically heal you with a should you get to 50% health
- Loot: Lootable schematics for DE modules! How about some rare module schematics for us to make? For example; a res-player module (works like that cyber arm: able to res a player every 30 mins) - probably should work so that it has to be instructed to res someone - so the dead owner couldn't do it unless the droid was instructed by a "befriended" player.
- Droid Mute: I know a lot of people who get annoyed at the noise the droids make, how about the ability to shut them up? An R2 droid beeping ever 3 seconds can get rather annoying.
(give me half an hour and I'll edit this to 3 times it's orginal length
ehhh I need to go get some lunch )Message Edited by Catman-Does on 09-12-2005 04:55 PM
Atan wrote:
Slicing of locked doors, retrieving of informations inside a enemy base, scanning (for rifleman(cover)&cloaker), such stuff?
That kind of stuff. Preferably not limiting abilities profession's currently have if done without droids (then they see it as a nerf). Instead just adding new abilities or expanding the abilities if they do have the droid (at which point its seen as an upgrade).
Jenden wrote:
Atan wrote:
Slicing of locked doors, retrieving of informations inside a enemy base, scanning (for rifleman(cover)&cloaker), such stuff?
That kind of stuff. Preferably not limiting abilities profession's currently have if done without droids (then they see it as a nerf). Instead just adding new abilities or expanding the abilities if they do have the droid (at which point its seen as an upgrade).
My only suggestion which featured a 'nerf' was the GCW one - but that just seemed more logical to me that you'd need a droid to hack a base.
*forces self back onto the rails*
- JTL: Droids should be used on POB ships to repair the armour, reload missiles and fix the other parts of the ship. The Pilot places spare missiles & repair kits (all purpose and conduit) into the droids storage unit and then 'loads' it into somekind of hatch inside the ship from their datapad - drag & drop affair, while onboard.
Then the co-pilot is able to give the droid instructions for example: "Repair forward armour", "Reload Missile Launcher [1] [2] [3]", "Fix [component] conduit" <--- players are still able to jump up and fix conduits and components themselves.
This way droids are a lot more useful on POB ships (and a bit more true to the films - ep 1) Also the Co-pilot gets a bit more to do than sit there pressing a button when the shields get low and another one for when capacitor overcharge wears off - JTL (again): Err rough idea: Astromech Droids could be loaded into turrets to provide automated defensive shooting; they'd only shoot at ships that hit the player ship first and their firing rate wouldn't be great. Also they could be instructed (via /say command?) not to fire at all - should the pilot wish. This would be quite useful on ships like the Aggressor/Krayt/Y-Wing but require the droid be loaded into the turret before take off. On POB ships the droids could be loaded and unloaded during flight.
- Ranger: the droid should harvest but allow the ranger to harvest also (if I remember correctly the droid would harvest and you couldn't)
- GCW: Droids could be used to "interface" with a turret to increase its automated firing rate - this would 'break' when the turret is manually controlled.
- Jedi: An astromech droid could hack into the BH terminals and check out the Jedi's vis rating. Very low success rate and failure results in damaging the droids vitality points.
The droid will give ratings like:
"safe" (not on the terms)
"in possible danger" (ie vis levels are near or over the required level for the Jedi to appear on the terms)
"under threat" (you're definately on the terms) - Droid Mute: I know a lot of people who get annoyed at the noise the droids make, how about the ability to shut them up? An R2 droid beeping every 3 seconds can get rather annoying.
- Droid Combat:
I think we've been spoiled with the droids from KOTOR series so to get a bit more inline with KOTOR...- Place a PSG inside the droid storage and it automatically "wears" it for additional armour bonus.
- Place a ranged Weapon in the droids storage unit (CL 30 or lower - depends on the droids CL) and the droid will "use" that weapon for combat. Non-ranged droids like Astromechs will then be allowed to range attack - Droids need a combat module built into them in order to be able to do any sort of attack so this is just an extension of the combat module. Also gives the owner a nice way to give their droids some customisation.
- Droid Movement Speed: Droids are rather slow, if we want people to use their droids more maybe if they could keep up with their owners; people would be more inclinded to use them?
- Protocol Droids: Could be used to "enhance" factories, several options:
"reduce maintenance cost (increases power consumption)"
"reduce power consumption (increase build times)"
"reduce build times (increase power & maintenance cost)"
Such a system could be used on Harvesters too - Patrol: I'll be honest, I hardly know what this does: the droid seems to whizz around in a circuit of specified WPs and that's it? Should it (Does it?) attack any (agro) creatures it comes across? If not well maybe it should; as you'd want to use a droid to patrol your camp/whatever to keep critters away. Only seems useful for barker droids - from what I've seen.
- Power Droid: Actually able to give some free power to harvesters/factories, this would be limited (up to 2000 units?) and take some time to recharge (err 24 hours?)
- Repair Droid: Able to restore some health to vehicles in the field (about 500 health?), usable every (24 hours?)
- Detonation Modules: Usable by DEs too please! *puppy dog eyes* I'd like to blow up the things I make.
Message Edited by Catman-Does on 09-12-2005 04:46 PM
Message Edited by Catman-Does on 09-12-2005 04:49 PM
* Spotter Droid - Some kind of droid/module that assists riflemen with a ranged bonus when it's called.
* Resource Gathering Droid - The idea of having a droid be able to gather harvested resources from a given harvester. Maybe a tier4 skill or just Novice in Artisan could be required.
* Speed-loader Droid - A droid/module that can assist a pistoleer or carbiner in a faster refire rate, therefore increasing their DPS.
Some ideas:
De-Created cyberarms and legs. Why make these loot drops only? Comination of bonuses, plus penalties will ensure that these are not "must-have" items but rather items that some players choose to take. I can just hear it now: "Nice legs! Who makes them?"
Droids and the GCW. I'd like droids to have a component in base raids, maybe slicing the door to get in or some other aspect of base destruction or defense. Scanner droids to identify rebels from imperials would be nice. What about a reconisance droid that you could use to invisibly spy on bases, etc?
JTL and droids. Huge potential here. Most obviously in ship repair. Give the co-pilot the aiblity to control repair droids. Won't stop others from helping, just allow droids to pitch in.
Protocol droids. One of my alts has refused to learn any languages. It gives the game a whole new feel and I like it a lot. A language reset probably won't work, but using protocol droids to unlock certain content would be hot.
Also, just add PC droid races already!
Last but most importantly: Droidekas, battle droids and super battle droids. Did you think I'd leave those out?
Sodan-droiddreamer wrote:Some ideas:
De-Created cyberarms and legs. Why make these loot drops only? Comination of bonuses, plus penalties will ensure that these are not "must-have" items but rather items that some players choose to take. I can just hear it now: "Nice legs! Who makes them?"
[...]
I like this idea, would be cool if DE's could make the Cyber attachments and stuff. Maybe with BE tissues too as well as additional bonuses, they should be able to take AA attachments also.
I don't think the language thing is likely to happen as you can /tell people in plain English anyway and as Jenden says that would be a "nerf".
Anyway we digress
I really like that scan-for-player ability mentioned earlier by Atan. Been thinking about how this might possibly work and came up with this variation:
Alert Mode
There should be an option off the droid (astromech) where the owner can ask the droid to "Passive Scan for Intelligence Lifeforms". First the player sets the range of the scan, going from 32m (1x battery drain), 64m (2x battery drain), 128m (4x battery drain), 256m (6x battery drain).
The droid will scan for lifeforms - it will pick up any NPCs and players in the area (cloaked or under cover). When it detects a new lifeform in its set range it will say on spatial "Lifeform detected to the [direction ie North]" plus some funky R2 style noises. The droid will ignore any group members moving in range.
I think this would be ideal for everyone out there; GCW goers, BH's and even Jedi. The idea is that you set the droid down next to your base/lair/house/whatever, activate it's scan and should someone enter the scan circle the droid gives you a warning. And yes I know the radar does most of this functionailty but that thing isn't always reliable (update can be slow on it) and it can't warn you of invisible players. I do think this would be hard to program, especially as the droid would have to remember who's who so it didn't go alerting on every scan check it did.
Detection Mode
The owner instructs the droid to "Scan Area for hidden lifeforms", this would have a 64m range and have a 3x battery drain. When the droid detects a hidden player it would bark out on spatial "Lifeform detected to the [direction ie North West]" prehaps; if it's able; it should go and attack the target: this in itself wouldn't break the cloak/cover of the target unless that player started atatcking the droid - although this would cause more trouble for riflemen than it would for cloaked Jedi.
As for expanding combat abilities: I had a little chat with some of the guild members and the general tone was that people wanted droids to be more useful in combat: actually deal out some decent damage: not only in PvE but also PvP. And they wanted droids to do a lot more to help the player: ie boost stats; increase accuracy, firing rates - that sort of thing.
Also one suggestion was that droids should be able to do a tick heal on the player - not the request heal (from stimpack module) but a constant tick heal, a bit like the auto-repair on the droid but applied to the player. It was also stated that the stim-pack module on droids was rubbish and should be loadable with stim D's and that maybe the droid should automatically apply a stim to the owner when their life gets to 50% or below.
Message Edited by Catman-Does on 09-13-2005 12:27 PM