Droid Engineer Archive

Happy New Year. Time for an update. Been almost a month and I'm behind schedule.

This list is updatedas neededand is meant to supplement the work done by the current correspondant and provide an idea of where this profession currently stands. Please read it over and provide any information you have regarding any of these issues, or any new issues you may have discovered.

I am a Master Droid Engineer on Bloodfin (Lime Akob). I also participated in the beta as a DE and bring a lot of knowledge of the profession from those days. I also read just about every single post in the DE forum and have a good idea of where this profession stands. However, I am one person and need your help to make sure that we've got all the real bugs nailed down, so we don't have DEVs chasing issues that don't exist due to confusion on our part.

Many, many, many thanks and respect to all those who have contributed to this list and to the Droid Engineer profession in general. My personal thanks to Tyim for starting this thread during beta and to Sintrosi for supporting this thread as our original correspondant. Special thanks to any dev that cares to respond to this post.

1.Recent Updates
2.Bugs
3.Uncertainties
4.Dev Issues
5.Wishlist

1. Recent updates
A.Added experimentation bug as a result of Drashk's testing.
B.Removed stacking uncertainty.
C.Moved BH droid exploit uncertainty to bugs.
D.Addeduncertainty for crafting modules conflicting with architect-built crafting stations.
E.Added new bug for chassis resource requirements.
F.Expanded the experimentation bug to include odities noted.
G.Added new bug for complexity tapes.
H.Added power droid wishlist item.
I.Added protocol colour wishlist item.

2. Bugs still in evidence
A.Droids are not giving any UXP.
B.Droid names use the standard name filter.Droids should use a modified name filter that allows for numbers in the name.
C.Droids with no attack capabilities none the less have attack speeds and damage valuesin the datapad.
D. Droids often stop following without reason.This is a generic pet problem as it happens to all pets, not just droids.Pets seem toget stuck on invisible zone boundries.Walking up to about 10-20m from thepet and re-issuing a 'follow' command fixes it (most of the time).
E.Item Storage Module 2s come out as Data Module 2s during the assembly stage.What you seem to get at the end is a Data Module 2.This is only a NAME/ICON problem.The module is said to function as it should - as an ItemStorage Module 2.
F.EXPLOIT: Cluster modules not only fit into cluster module sockets, they fit into service module sockets.This allows cluster modules to fit into cluster modules ad infinitum.Clusters should only fit in cluster sockets.Otherwise you're further exploiting the idea that the droid frame used is irrelevant.
G.Droid Customizationskill onlygoes to +64 at Master.
H.Repairmodules do not functionat all when placed in an LE Repair droid or Power droid.
I.Medical modulesaffect the effectiveness of stimpacks.Reports say that a stimpack is more effective when a medical module-equipped droid is nowhere to be seen (unless it contains a level 6 module).
J.Some experimental values for droids and droid components are always 0% regardless of the resources used. If they're going to bealways 0%, don't show them.
K.Droid deeds need to show ALL the modules installed and any important properties associated with those modules.
L.EXPLOIT: By telling a droid to stay, running 800m (need to cross a server zone?) or so away and calling another droid, you can effectively call all your droids at once.
M.Droid Storage Compartments use Artisan Experimentation instead of Droid Experimentation. It's a DE craft, it should use DE skills, not Artisan skills.
N.Item storage modules do not work with Surgical Droids (basic and advanced). The option to use item storage is not available in the radial menu.
O.Droid customization isborked. No xp is gained from colouring droids, the colours don't always hold (use the first white box to reproduce). R# units have random colours when they are first tamed and randomly change until the droid is customized. The number of colours available with the customization tool are different than the colours available during crafting. New droids are reported to not be customizable (certain frames perhaps?)
P.Droid customization tools give General Crafting xp instead of Droid Crafting xp when crafted. Can anyone confirm this one still existing?
Q.Droids suck batteries like there's no tomorrow ever since they no longer recharge on store. Please find a happy medium.
R.After calling or storing a droid, the datapad radial menu doesn't immediately update to reflect the status of the droid, causing the store item to appear after storing the droid.This seems to be a general radial menu problem with 'optional' items in the menu.
S.Armor resists sometimes degrade.The armor resist changes to a vulnerability and it isn't just visual. Can anyone confirm this one still existing?
T.Crates of droid batteries don't tell us how many charges the batteries in the crates have until you remove them from the crate. Buyer beware until this is fixed.
U.Converse style droids cannot be named.
V.Binary Load Liftersareuseless beyond being walking signs or furniture.
W.Protocol droids (basic)are useless beyond being walking signs or furniture.
X.Enough with the 'tame' thing... let us 'activate' or simply 'use' the deeds to first create our droids.
Y.Experimentation on subcomponents has no effect on the final droid (see Drashk's experiment). Experimentation on modules also seems erratic at times. Mechanical ratings of modules have an effect on the mechanical rating of a cluster (as do brains with repair modules), but the effect seems unusual.
Z.EXPLOIT: BH droids can be exploited as to not use their final charge.
AA.Experimentation values for Effectiveness listed in the schematics for droid chassis' are wrong. They list SR/UT, but should be OQ.
AB.Complexity tapes no longer have any effect on the droid's complexity.

3. Uncertainties
A.Patrol point list is not saved between store and call, is this by design?
B. Power droidsare the onlydroid with a non-modular function (ignoring combat capable droids here).Why not make it modular or give otherdroids inherrent functions?
C. Some of the advanced droids are using 'Converse' instead of 'Program' for programming. Nobody seems to know how to name these droids. Can it be done?
E.Information in the datapad for some droids no longer lists things like the commands programmed for the droid, customization, etc. some of them do.What's the deal?
F.Droidscannot be called while inside acity building.I see no reason to preventus from calling droids in a city. Shouldn't matter if we're in a building or not.If this is intended, then why?
G.Seeing several reports of 'broken' Medical modules.The modulesbreakand remain broken even after recharging the droid.
H.Droid crafting modules seem to break when near architect crafting stations. Confirmation requested.

4.Dev Issues
A.Combat modules (usable only by DEs), granting abilities(combat modes, short range blaster, long range blaster, anti-droid reactions, anti-creature reactions).
B.Allow DE's to take out more than one droid at a time (with restrictions).
C.Increase droid repair functionality.Make droid 'healing'work similarlyto the current pet standards.
D.Give droids expendable items to be 'charged' by a repair droid.
E.Add stim and healthpack functionality to medical droids.
F.Increase thenumber of locations wheremedical droids can be called.
G.Allow medical droids to reduce the mind cost of healing.
H.Allow medical droids to auto-stim incapped players.
I.Have all droids take power and wound damage (requires rework of repair droids).
J.Allow power droids to power harvesters (increased maintenance, power droid degrades over time).
K.Allow MSE droids to act as remote bombs.
L.Have more commands trigger animations.Possibly a decoration mode to haveparticular animation repeated.Possibly more personalities.
M.Give protocol droids a stronger role.
N.Add adroid certification system for combat droids.
O.New combat droids in Jan & Feb

5.Wishlist
A.Give us information on droid power levels in the examine window and/or in the datapad.Also,since droid batteries repair mind,how about using mind as the droid's power level indicator?The action pool would also work.
B.Examining droid should give thesame data as in the datapad (for the owner).
C.We really want certain droids to only be able to take certain types of modules. There have been a number of really good posts on this topic, and due to space constraints, I'll leave it at that.
D.Consider droids that can survey and report back on a particular resource.Perhaps even a high-end versionwith the ability to go toother planetsto determine which resources are available.
Ea. Consider droids that can help maintain installations.Senda droid out to pay mantenance.Send a droid out to collect resources.Send a droid out to deliver power.There are many ways to implement this as a viable system.
Eb. Another viable idea for this is to add droid chassis' as optional components in the harvester schematics. One optional slot for mediums and two for heavy harvesters.Allow for apower droid chassis toremove the power requirement at the cost of maintenance and extraction rate.A BLL might increase the extraction rate at the cost of power and maintenance.A repair droid might remove the maintenance requirement at the cost of power and extraction rate.
F. Consider droids that can act as standalone vendors in cities, and/or droids that can act as Barkers. Perhaps even let droids deliver goods to a customer in another city or on another planet.
G. Droids to remember if they were stored or called over a logout.Running around in the middle of nowhere and logging out causes your droid to hide back in the datapad.This means having to go back to town or putting down a camp in order to recall your droid.This is undesireable.
H.A DE equivalent to vitality packs would be nice.
I. Create aslicing module to boost smugglers' slicing ability.
J.Allow us to drop batteries into the droid's inventoryand have itrecharge itself as needed until the batteries run out.
K.Create an entertainment module akin to the existing medical module to allow entertainers to work ouside of camps, cantinas and hotels. This module would be also level 1-6 with each level giving a little extra boost to the entertainer's skill.
L.Saw a request for a training droid as seen in the movies that 'harasses' its target, pulling aggro. Thisidea is intended togive a little variety to the Novice DE's life.Could also be used as a consumable for training the combat classes.
M.Let usname our droids through the datapad controller.Droids shouldn't need to be 'taught' a name like pets do. The name is programmed into the droid separate from the other commands.
N.Add the creator to the droid view information, not just theowner. When you look at a pistol, you seewho made it. When you look at a droiddeed, you see who made it.When you look at a droid, you SHOULD see who made it.
O.Allow droids to be re-deeded forease of transfer.Since we can only have 5 droids in the datapad, it makes it really tough forDE's to take old droids astrade-ins for upgrades (like a car). We either have to immediately re-sell the droid or delete it. Would make more sense to re-deed the droid so that itcould be sold to another customer as a 'used droid'.
P.Droid "macros" came up. Let us create macro-like droid programs to have a droid execute a series of commands.Not sure how this would be implemented, but it is an idea.
Q.Make the droid deeds show pictures of the droid itself rather than a silly deed icon.
R.Make BLL Droids useful in 'city planning'.Let us use them to move buildings around without re-deeding. Great for once the player city expansion is released.
S.Please review the customization lifespan.20 is too short. I have people complaining to me personally that they have to get their customization updated almost daily since they're always calling and storing their droid. I'm sorry, but if my car needed a new paint job because I took it out on the road 20 times, I'd be most displeased.
T. Weapon and armor components have modifiers tovarious properties of the final product.Do the same for droid components... like have the motive system affect the droid's speed.
U.Customization changes areonly visible to the DE until set.Would be nice if everyone could see the changes so that the droid owner can decide if they like a particular colour before it is finalized.
V.Power droids should not require batteries. They're equipped with their own power core.
W.More colours for the protocol droid please...gold andgold isvery limiting.

2.H.Repairmodules do not functionat all when placed in an LE Repair droid or Power droid.

Might want to add all Humanoid droid types to this issue, to clear it up for some of the new Christmas DE.

3.Uncertainties

E.Information in the datapad for some droids no longer lists things like the commands programmed for the droid, customization, etc. some of them do.What's the deal?

The commands are now listed in their own seperate menu popup off of the datapad radial menu. I haven't seen the customization listing in quite some time now..

H.Droid crafting modules seem to break when near architect crafting stations. Confirmation requested.

I have yet to run into this issue. I often sit inside my work shop, where I have all four private crafting stations surrounding me and my droid with all four droid crafting stations. I've made it a point to try and craft near them while crafting everything under the twin suns. I haven't power tested weapon crafting yet, but I've had no problem with Armor, Droids, Structures, or Meds.

Looks like the post is about to hit 2 pages in lenght. Guess its about time that the DEVs take note and start to fix some of these issues so that there will be room for the next installment

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Gorantoth wrote:

W.More colours for the protocol droid please...gold andgold isvery limiting.

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I have often wondered if this were just a product of only having +64 for our customization instead of +100 at Master DE. Has anyone had a customization skill tape high enough (+5 or+10) to try it out? The coloring chart comes up when you go to color a protocol, there is just an option for yellow. Perhaps more colors would be available at 100? I hope this is just the case.

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jcarlson34 wrote:

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Gorantoth wrote:

W.More colours for the protocol droid please...gold andgold isvery limiting.

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I have often wondered if this were just a product of only having +64 for our customization instead of +100 at Master DE. Has anyone had a customization skill tape high enough (+5 or+10) to try it out? The coloring chart comes up when you go to color a protocol, there is just an option for yellow. Perhaps more colors would be available at 100? I hope this is just the case.

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Nailliar wrote:
I'm fairly positive you will Never see Silver as an option for Protocol Droids, the potential for greifing players at shuttle ports by leaving silver protocols there is just too likely to occur, other metallic colors would be cool, candy apple red, chromium blue, etc.

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jcarlson34 wrote:

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Gorantoth wrote:

W.More colours for the protocol droid please...gold andgold isvery limiting.

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I have often wondered if this were just a product of only having +64 for our customization instead of +100 at Master DE. Has anyone had a customization skill tape high enough (+5 or+10) to try it out? The coloring chart comes up when you go to color a protocol, there is just an option for yellow. Perhaps more colors would be available at 100? I hope this is just the case.

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Ackis wrote:

I have often wondered if this were just a product of only having +64 for our customization instead of +100 at Master DE. Has anyone had a customization skill tape high enough (+5 or+10) to try it out? The coloring chart comes up when you go to color a protocol, there is just an option for yellow. Perhaps more colors would be available at 100? I hope this is just the case.

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Right now I'm at +7 customization and I haven't noticed anything special. I hope to get a few more tapes soon so I can hit +10 and see if it gives me anything more. LOL

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H.Droid crafting modules seem to break when near architect crafting stations. Confirmation requested.

I disagree with this one, I have an Item storage and General Crafting station in my droid. I had called him next to my crafting station in my house. I could not access my input hopper because the droid was out. Once I had stored my droid I could access my hopper again. That leads me to believe that the Droid Station will supercede any and every other crafting station. As apposed to before we would break while walking by any other crafting station. Finally we have the more power than another class.

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