Droid Engineer Archive

I just signed in for a bit, while dinner isn't quite ready, the kids are asleep, and the wife is out shopping...

I got all excited over the good results I was getting. I made some very nice components indeed... Nice high positive numbers.

Then it struck. Two R2 units lost to two assembly critical failures. BAM!

I hate when that happens.

You know, I'm using darned good materials, and I am supposedly a master of droid engineering. If my mechanic had this big a chance of criticals reassembling my engine after an oil change, I'd have a BIG problem with it.

Addendum: Yes, I know technically one does not reassemble an engine after an oil change, but I was all in a huff and such. Besides, a n00b might just forget to oil the gasket on the filter (use the old oil, guys!) or to tighten the plug, thus leading to a critical a bit down the road. ;-)

Rho I feel your pain. When I first tried to make a regular probot with a lvl 6 armor mod, I critically failed 3 times before a success.

/wookieehug

Whew, tell that to the guys who began an oil change on my car by draining the transmission, and then had to get the manufacturer to fax them instructions on how to refill it. My 30-minute oil change wound up being a day off from work (sitting in a waiting room with crappy coffee, so not a GOOD day off from work), and almost turned into a rental car for the night. Needless to say I did not get charged for that oil change.

I've also had the "forgot to oil the gasket" problem come up before.

The main difference here is that these critical failures require the direct involvement of an idiot at some level. The percentage failure on crafting does not adequately simulate idiocy, since it happens to every crafter evenly. You do everything right, and you still have catastrophic failure.

I feel your pain. I've lost several droids recently on the final "click". Not sure if it's me, the game, or perhaps the 60s being a little to friendly to me... I've noticed many more crits over the last week or two than in my entire DE profession.

I've even started to think that it tends to make a difference if I fly through a crafting stage rather than taking my time. Only because I've noticed if I start assembling and get side-tracked or walk away and then come back, I get a crit... Probably coinsidence, but nontheless, enough to piss ya off.

I tend to keep the factory making components most the time, but I generally only do the mass crafting once or twice a week. (Except for special orders) It's very frustrating when all your crits seem to happen on either the general socket module or the final droid clicks...

Unfortunately I have that beat..

Last weekend I Crit-Failed on 2...TWO Adv. BLLs ina row!!! Somehow I just didn't feel like logging in for a several days after that.

side note: Using a 42+ functionality Crafting Station and 14+ Crafting tools and I'm a Master DE all of which does What for Crit failures?!?!

And they wonder why crafters get frustrated!

Build yourself a droid with a WDG crafting station. Have him out while you are standing next to your crafting station making droids. Works wonders...

I believe I have a solution to these Crit Fail blues. I had been noticing them a lot lately as well, but I noticed that I never even get one crit fail when using my "infinite loop crafting macros". So, I just took the end of the macro, the part that finishes the crafting after giving you a chance to put in the materials...and wham, haven't had a single crit fail since. I just made the separate macro called "endcraft" and put it on my toolbar, I'd start my crafting, make what I need, hit the appropriate number, and continue on my merry way.

This may be cheating, it may be exploiting...but it's hella cheaper when I'm not loosing my resources every other time I craft.

For those who hate the grinding macro and have refused to get it, but are interested in reducing crit fails, I or someone else will be sure to post the helpful part here. I can't do it now because I don't have access to my game at the moment.

Its happened to me twice in the last week as well, one of which was while a customer was waiting. He felt bad and offered to pay for the materials for the lost droid, but I couldn't really do that to him. It wasn't his fault, and I had to explain to him that sadly, this is part of being a DE. And a shame at that.

Nothing in the game has made me want to take a couple days off more then crit failing on a 20k+ droid final assembly.

Zeheeba Lorne

"I've even started to think that it tends to make a difference if I fly through a crafting stage rather than taking my time. Only because I've noticed if I start assembling and get side-tracked or walk away and then come back, I get a crit... Probably coinsidence, but nontheless, enough to piss ya off."

I've noticed this too. Whether its pure coincidence or not I don't know, but it bugs the hell out of me!

I have heard rumors, but haven't seen any supporting data, that any crafting station over about +30 actually increases your chances of crit failing because the algorithm that incorporates the station's rating wraps around to negative values somewhere in there. The same rumor indicated that a +25 station is the most effective of the home installations, and is roughly the equivalent of a +5 station module in a droid.

I was making R2 medical droids last night and everything was going superbly well. I was getting "great" successes on almost every component and experiment... so much so that the occasional "moderate" or "good" success felt like afailure.

So, of course, the final combine on the 1st R2 unit was a crit failure. *sigh*

The thing I don't understand is, when you do crit fail, all the components and resources you were using just go *poof*? If the droid didn't go together, maybe a few parts would have been damaged/destroyed, but all of them? You should regain some of your materials if you fail a combine.

yeah i don't even do BLL, useless, crit fail sucks, and the biggest pain to make.