CUEmu - Thread Posts

Javac

Mon Jun 07, 2004 10:30 am

This is by no means a new concern. However, there have been a couple threads latey on how business has slowed down from the 'patch day' sales. This is an expected thing, and eventually the market will reach the saturated levels again as they were pre-patch. To the devs' credit, there are a couple 'consumable' items:

Droid Repair Kits
Droid Customization Kits
BH Droids
Survey Droids
Droid Batteries (Artisan item)

While these sell, they are very low-volume items in comparision to nearly every other crafting profession. The mainstay of our profession are purely one-time sales unless they come back for additional or different droids. There are a few ways that decay could be implemented.

The decay could be time based, where the droid deteriorates after 'X' days. I prefer usage based, where the droid deteriorates after 'X' uses, either calls, battery charges, or some other criteria.

Calis Exud - Droid Engineer Extrodianre - Retired

Soty

Mon Jun 07, 2004 10:39 am

#2

perhaps modules to add-on to a post-constructed droids...

--component to speed up survey droids
--component to increase harvesting

Just a thought...

Soty

Javac

Mon Jun 07, 2004 10:52 am

#3

Soty wrote:
perhaps modules to add-on to a post-constructed droids...
--component to speed up survey droids
--component to increase harvesting
Just a thought...

Droid 'Powerups' or 'Enhancers' has been brought up in the past as an alternate income source. Increase the abilities of a droid for limited time or # of uses. Another cool idea that probably won't happen.

Calis Exud - Droid Engineer Extrodianre - Retired

Soty

Mon Jun 07, 2004 11:01 am

#4

:takes two steps back and sits back down.... in the corner...

Sorry - new to this forum -

I'll check that thread out.

Soty

Javac

Mon Jun 07, 2004 11:04 am

#5

No biggie ... we've had SO many ideas passed around it's rare that something truely new comes up. It's never a bad thing to reehash old(good) ideas.

Calis Exud - Droid Engineer Extrodianre - Retired

Gavvot

Mon Jun 07, 2004 11:21 am

#6

Droid Repair kit are a pain to build. (actually take longer than droid to make...)
Customization kit, hum, what can I say, worst idea ever.

No Decay is a problem, but it's far from #1 for me.

Bigger problems for me are the insane bug list we have, and having to write a manual for each droid you sell...

--
How to make a link in those forums
Look sir, droids. -4689 3336, Naboo, Theed

Javac

Mon Jun 07, 2004 1:06 pm

#7

Gavvot wrote:
Droid Repair kit are a pain to build. (actually take longer than droid to make...)
Customization kit, hum, what can I say, worst idea ever.

No Decay is a problem, but it's far from #1 for me.

Bigger problems for me are the insane bug list we have, and having to write a manual for each droid you sell...

Yes, there is still a huge bug list still but there is a decent droid market now with the modules that are actually desired. However you only sell one. Personally, I think that it's the most important thing in the long run for the viability of the profession. I've adjusted to having to 'educate' customers on droids, and the repair kits can be a pain but no more difficult than medicines.

Calis Exud - Droid Engineer Extrodianre - Retired

Malitevv

Mon Jun 07, 2004 1:39 pm

#8

While I agree that some form of droid decay would be nice, I don't consider it the top DE problem. It isn't a problem specific to DE.Most crafting profession (except for Armorsmith, Weaponsmith, and Chef)has this same problem on most everything they sell. The Artisan does have weapon powerups and some of their other tools do decay as well, so you could argue that Artisan is ok. But the others all have this problem. The only thing that an Architect makes that decays is lights and candles and those only decay IF the owner attempts to move them. And while a tailor's clothing does "decay", it is fully functional at zero condition so decay on clothing is meaningless also.

This is a general problem that isn't unique to DE.

In DE's case, I am very concerned that droid decay would completely kill the profession if implemented poorly by the developers and am not so sure we should be demanding it as the top priority when we know their time is so spread out as it is. Better to add more consumables to the profession like droid powerups or something.

At the very least, they have to get the droid stats to display in the examine window with the same level of detail as exists for weapons and armor, with everything displayed accurately and in detail. By which i mean, display the number of items the droids can hold instead of a cryptic "storage module rating", and display all the combat stats for the droids instead of a misleading "combat rating". The bottom will fall out of the profession completely if droids start decaying like weapons yet customers still aren't able to get meaningful information from the display windows when shopping for droids. The majority of the customer base will give up in frustration if that happens, IMO, and sales will not increase. For this reason and others, its far more important that the current bugs and issues remain above droid decay on our list of concerns. All in my opinion, of course.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

T.S. Eliot

Malitevv

Mon Jun 07, 2004 1:53 pm

#9

Another way to look at it is this: there's is only so much annoyance the customers will be able to tolerate. And let's be honest, though decay is good for repeat business, it is annoying to the customer. Customers are willing to put up with and accept decay on weapons and armor because weapons and armor are so important to them. But droids on the other hand.... droids are cool, but nobody needs a droid (aside from doctors who like to buff at starports). If decay becomes a daily concern for customers,it doesn't mean that customers are going to come flocking to their local DE to replace their droids. A great many of our customerswill become frustrated and stop buying droids completely because they won't consider the constant need for repurchase to be worth their trouble.

The proper item for comparison is vehicle customization kits. Look how cool and popular they were at first. But look at them now. Almost nobody bothers to paint their vehicle's anymore. Its too much of a pain in the butt. If droid decay is implemented this could very well happen to droids if the decay is implemented poorly. And in my opinion, the developers have a horrible track record when it comes to implementing decay. The fact that they seem to think the decay rate on the vehicle customization kits is a good idea is for me, proof that the developers don't know how to implemented decay in a item that is not required for play (i.e., in anything other than weapons and armor).

Like I said, customers will only bear so much annoyance before they stop and ask themselves whether or not they really need the item in question. And almost nobody really needs droids and if droids become like weapons, armor, or vehicle customizationin terms of decay, it will kill us.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

T.S. Eliot

Sunfire1

Mon Jun 07, 2004 1:54 pm

#10

Actually there is decay, at least on combat droids. Its just that very few people hunt with a droid as much as I do, so it is not noticable. When a Droid is DBed, it takes a hit to its vitality. After a few DBs the vitality is below 90. Even with a HQ Vitality D, the droid is not going to hit 100% vitality again.

The rest is just like CH pets. Once vitality falls below a certain % (75 i think), HAM is reduced. I have never gotten that low, but have discarded at least 10 probots over the months and replaced them with new ones once vitality was below 80%.

This may be due to the fact I hunted alot on Dantooine. So I would let droid fall incapped/DBed alot. And I used my droids to take agro off me while I got away if I happened to be jumped by nasties.

As for other crafter classes, they too sell non decay items. How about Houses? Or any other type of building for that matter? Unless you are in battle wearing clothes, they never decay either.

There will always be repeat customers for droids as people change professions. And dont forget the space exspansion, we will most likely have to provide droids, as well as other components for space ship construction.

Malitevv

Mon Jun 07, 2004 2:00 pm

#11

That is true. There is decay on the combat droids through the loss of vitality. And that, at the current time, I don't think we should push for anything more aggressive than that because of the reasons I already mentioned.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

T.S. Eliot

ZeckAzuenden

Mon Jun 07, 2004 2:52 pm

#12

Droids need to decay, saying anything else just further tanks the profesion worse than it is. Fear that SOE will screw it up is not reason enough to ignore the issue, and thats the basis for your arguement. Even while it may be justified, all that means is we need to push hard for it to be done right.

For you ex EQ'rs out there, how much was a full set of crafted worth 12 months after it was introduced into the game. How about now? Yeah, worthless pretty much. Thats what happens when items pour in, but never get removed.

Don't let short term thinking generate a big problem down the road. Just because those other feilds got hosed by SOE does not mean we have to sit by and watch the same happen to this field. I quit architect when I came back because I could browse vendor after vendor with loads of heavies in stock, at prices that were barely above (sometimes below)market value of the raw resources used to create them. Is that where we want DE to end up? A market so glutted that our product is worth less than the materials used?

We got lucky with the revamp breathing some life back into the business, but without some system of decay, that life will die quickly.

As far as droids being usefull, I think the combat revamp is going to change the usefullness of combat droids once indestructable composite wearing uber buffed players are a thing of the past. But combat droids aren't really the problem, it's that 108 Harvest droid I sold that never has to be replaced along with the 110 Medical droid.

I agree that it needs to be done right, perma death was wrong, but not anymore wrong than perma life. Utility droids need to wear out over time, and provide enough value to the customer that they will want to replace it. Rangers don't need a harvest droid, but in any faq, it should say "Get yourself a Harvest droid, they rock".

Zeck Ravenclaw
BH,day one player, Eclipse

LonelyGhost

Mon Jun 07, 2004 3:26 pm

#13

Instead of forcing people to buy whole new droids, they should come up with a new system to "repair" droids, or to allow a DE to perform "preventative maintenance" on them. This would come in the form of Maintenance Kits useable only by a DE. The level of pack scales with the droid...so you'd need a higher rated pack for an R3 than a mouse. ANy DE can use the packs though.

Anakin opens the protective plate on C-3PO's chest, peering in intently. Noticing some corrosion on the torodial conductor, he pulls some cleaning solvent from his pack, and carefully cleans it. He then sees that the auto-diagnostic coupler has some worn o-rings, and he dismantles the coupler and replaces the o-rings. Finished in the chest cavity, he moves to the leg acutators. Both hip acutators were in need of fresh lube, the old stuff contaminated by grit. The knee acutatorswere in need of replacement, their normal lifespan met, and he spends a few minutes swapping the moving parts from inside the acutator body. Finally, one ofthe ankle acutators are showing signs of a stress fracture, and Anakin chose to replace the whole assembly, warding off a total mobility failure.

This sort of thing could be accomplished "instantly", but I would be in favor of a new flavor of DE...

Introduce a new structure, called the DE Workshop. This is placeable by anyone with all 4 Experimentation boxes. The Structure allows for the repair of Droids. The droid owner would enter the building, and place the Droid "into" the Building repair bay. The droid is not in the DE's datapad..it can not be destroyed by the DE, or kept, the owner can access the Repair Bay from outside the structure to retrieve the droid. The DE and the customer agree on a price (similar to the new ID interface), and once paid, the droid is accepted into the Repair Bay. The DE must then craft a Repair kit. This kit is not factory craftable. It must be made inside the Workshop, by hand. This is then dropped on the droid, and a countdown ensues. Maybe 10 minutes, maybe 30 minutes, depending on the complexity of the droid. Once this countdown is finished, the droid is back to full strength, and the owner can pick it up.

Crys Akkori - Merchant Engineer
Veteren of SIN, IO, and XC - A Founder of Jaxian Bay
Elder DE, Architect, Artisan, Chef, Merchant

Vendor on Naboo at -7547 4635 (Fly in to Theed)

Crafters do have decay on resources. As we use it it GOES AWAY. And when it's gone, we have to get more. - Elekae

Droid Engineer Archive

Thread: #1 Droid Enginer Issue: No Droid Decay = Minimal Return Business