Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droid Owner's Manual Version 3
Note: Version 4 is now available, and can be found here.
Introduction to Version 3
This manual is intended as a manual for Droid Owners. It is not intended as a full DE guide - there are some great guides on the SOE boards. However, this post should cover most everything you need to know about owning a droid.
This post incorporates the things that were pointed out that were incorrect or unclear in verion 1, and also incorporates the changes that were introduced in the December 16, 2003 patch.
Training Droids
So, you got this new droid deed. What to do?
Well first, you have to tame it from your backpack. Use the radial menu, and select tame. This will bring the droid out for the first time. After this, the droid will be stored in your data pad, not your pack.
Now, you want it to do tricks Well, here is how you teach it.
Use the radial menu to select Program.
Select the skill you want to program. The droid will respond with a ?
Type the following
/say name command
Where name is the optional name you want to give it, and command is the command you want to bind to what you are training. For example, lets say you have you have a droid that you want to name Snoopy, and you want to train it to follow. You might then select the Follow option from the programming list, then type:
Snoopy follow
Note that naming a droid is optional - you can leave out the name in all the training steps. Also, note that names and commands are case sensitive (hence, FOLLOW would not work). Also, the same name filter is on for droids, so no numbers or special characters are allowed. Fianally, human form droids (3P0's and surgicals) do not accept names at all.
When the droid accepts the training, he will respond with a !
Once you train about 5 commands, the droid will take on the name you are using to train him. Also, note that you must use the phrases to train him in public chat (don't try to give your droid a direct tell).
If you change a droid's name, make sure to retrain all the commands that had the name bound to it.
Once you have trained a command, you can use it again by saying, for example, "snoopy follow"
The most important commands to train are, group, follow, stay, befriend, patrol, set patrol point, delete patrol point. In the case of the probot, you of course want to train the attack and guard command command. Do NOT train delete... there is not point... that sets the droid free, and you will never control him again. I list group first, because if you are solo hunting, and group with your droid, you will get the exp bonus for fellows without having to share exp with the droid. So, I really think that those that don't yet have droids need one.
Note that it is worthless to train the formation skills for a droid. It appears that they intended to allow for multiple droids at one point, but no longer do so. Hence, it is hard to make one droid fall into a droid formation (see also power droids... how can a pwer droid power another droid when you can only have one out at once?)
Types of Droids
At this point in time, there are three basic types of droids:
- Battle Droids
- Bounty Hunter Droids
- General Function Droids
Battle Droids have inherrent combat abilities (attack). Defense in all droids is based upon the armor modules placed in the droid. In addition, extra functionality can be added to these droids by adding functional modules.
Bounty Hunter droids are special use droids used in the investigation line of the bounty hunter line, and will not be covered in detail here. These are the Seeker and Probe droids (note: not probots). In general, though, seeker droids are used to find a target on the planet you are on (investigation 1 and 2), and probe droids are used to find marks on other planets (investigation 3 and 4). Both seeker and probe droids have multiple charges.
General function droids are the non-combat droids. There is no inherrent functionality in these droids. They can have armor added for defense.
All non-inherrent functionality is determined completely by the modules that are mounted in the droid. These modules currently allow medics to heal outside the cantina, crafters to craft as though the droid were a personal crafting station, repair of other droids, and item and data storage.
Droid Chasis
The following droid chasis are available:
MSE & MSE Advanced - These are the little beeping shoeboxes on wheels. The MSE has a single module slot, the MSE advanced has two sockets. There is an exploit that allows stacking of modules to make these little buggers as good as an advanced R3. I won't use that exploit, so don't ask.
DZ-70 & DZ-70 ADV - Little silver spheres with legs that float around. They are somewhat like Darth Maul's seekers in Episode I (though, what Darth Maul actually had was seeker droids). As combat droids, they are capable of attack. They do 20-30 damage, have 45 HAM and have a spot for armor and a module. As can be seen, these things are fairly useless.
R5, R4, R3, R2 & ADV models - These are the famous R-series droids from the movies. The better the model, the better the droid. See below for a description of the modules.
Probot & ADV - The battle droids. For the first month of the game, they were uber, then they were nerfed, and the December patch made them pretty nice again, though not as nice as they were in the first month. They can hold armor; the basic probot has one slot, the advanced has two for utility modules.
The Surgical Droid & ADV - One would think that this droid would have inherrent healing abilities, but it does not. The most comon configuration is to place a food/chem station and a L6 healing module in it. Item and data storage do not work in this droid. It can also take a personality chip to make it talk. Currently, only the sarcastic and worshipful personality chips work reliably.
LE repair droid - Does not repair. It is just another chasis at this point.
Protocol Droid - A very cool looking 3P0 type droid. However, he cannot hold any modules, so functionally wise, he is of no use.
Binary Load Lifter - The huge, lumbering fork-lifter looking droids. They cannot do much but look cool.
Treadwell Droid - Another chasis that can hold a single module.
Power Droid - This is one of the few droids with inherrent functionality. The power droid can power up other droids 5-10 times before it needs a charge itself.
Chasis Module Capacity
Assuming that the exploit of stacking clusters in non-cluster module slots, the various chasis can hold the following number of modules:
One module:
MSE
DZ70
Power
ADV Power
R5
R4
Treadwell
Two modules:
ADV MSE
ADV DZ70
ADV R5
ADV Treadwell (WED)
LE Repair
Surgical
Probot
ADV Protocol
Thre Modules:
ADV R4
ADV LE Repair
ADV Surgical
R2
R3
Five Modules:
ADV R2
Six Modules:
ADV R3
Message Edited by Sketh on 02-18-2004 03:01 PM
Droid Repair
Droid repair has been reworked lately. Droid damage heals slowly over time. Droids with repair modules can heal another droid's wounds, but not their own.
At one point in time, there was a Droid Repair Kit. This is not currently in the game.
Droid vitality loss, which occurs when a droid is DB'ed, cannot be healed. Eventually, a droid will be worn down to the point that you will need to buy a replacement.
Note: As AT-ST's are not crafted droids, they cannot be repaired with the Droid Repair module.
Med Droid Notes
Droids with medical modules allow healers to heal outside of a medical center. In addition, Medical Droids with the advanced med mods (L6 or dual L4's) give a bonus to healing. Note that a medical droid with less than a L5 medical module will impair healing - but will allow healing outside the medical center. The higher the level of module, the better the healing. There is a cap of 110% efficiency (meaning that the healer gets a 10% bonus over his normal capabilities.
Med droids do not work in the Cantina, to prevent entertainer/healers from being able to heal everything in the cantina.
If your med droid stops allowing you to heal, give it a command. If it responds with "low power" you will need to feed it more batteries.
The droid must be fairly close to you for it to allow you to heal.
One tactic for using a med droid: you can tell him to STAY at some point, then advance to attack... This way, your droid will still allow you to heal, but will not get into the fray.
Probot Notes
Probots are combat droids. As noted above, they have changed quite a bit over time. Depending on the quality of materials used to make the probot, and the amount of experimentatino, they range in stats as follows (thanks to Drashk for posting these):
0% Exerimentation Effectiveness
HAM 819
Speed 2.45
To Hit 0.21
Damage 60 - 80 (69 - 85)
45% Exerimentation Effectiveness
HAM 824
Speed 2.42
To Hit 0.22
Damage 70 - 80 (71 - 86)
100% Exerimentation Effectiveness
HAM 828
Speed 2.4
To Hit 0.22
Damage 70 - 80 (72 - 88)
Many people report that the best way to use a probot is to use guard command. This will keep the probot from running into battle to fast and getting killed as more mobs agro on it.
The Incap animations for the Probot have changed as of the December 16 patch. When ever a Probot is incapped, it will now stay in its disassembed state until it stores.
Crafting Stations
Any droid that can hold modules can have the crafting station modules placed in them. This causes the droid, when out of the data pad, to act as a private crafting station.
A well made droid crafting station appears to be as good as a high level crafting station made by an architect. However, there is no proof - just the general feeling on the DE boards. The actual relation between the droid crafting station numbers, the overall droid quality, and an architect station is unknown.
Just as there are four types of architect crafting stations, there are four types of droid crafting stations. At one point in time, droids could only have one (functional) crafting station in them. Now, multiple crafting stations may be placed in the droid - as long as there are enough slots for them. The following are available:
Clothing Crafting Station
Food/Chemical Crafting Station (this is the one that medics need)
Weapon/Droid/General Crafting Station
Structure Crafting Station
These types of crafting stations correlate to the tool types.
Personality Chips
These modules only work in the humanform droids (surgical, 3P0), and allow the droid to talk to you.
The following types are available: stupid, sarcastic, slang, prissy, worshipful and geeky. Each one has different, random responses and phrases that the droid can say.
They are "ear candy" - pretty cool, but have no bearing on how the droid actually works.
Storage of Data and Items in Droids
This has been fixed up a fair bit. A droid can hold up to 10 items, and lots of schematics, depending on whether or not the droid has the correct item and data modules. The higher the level of the storage module, the more the droid can hold.
Droid Power
Droids require power. There are two sources of power: batteries, and power droid.
When a Droid is low on power, it will say, "*low power*" and will not function properly.
To use a battery, have a battery, out of the crate, in your primary inventory. Select the radial menu, and click on RECHARGE. This will draw a single charge out of the droid battery (note that a droid battery can have more than one charge).
Droid charge does not appear to stack. So, if you dump 20 batteries into a droid at once, it will not make that power last any longer than if you had just dumped one charge into the droid.
A power droid can be used to power one other droid at a time - hence, if you own a power droid, you can only power someone else's droid, as you can only have one droid out at a time.
Power droids can power multiple other droids before needing a recharge of their own.
Different droids pull power at different speeds. Probots appear to eat power faster than R-series droids, for example.
Droid Custimization
Droid custimization refers to the droid's paint job. When you see that message, "Your droids custimization has faded..." it refers to the droids paint job, not how well it operates.
A droid will have the default colors when it is made if it is not an R-series droid, and will have random colors every time it is pulled out if it is an R-unit.
A DE can use a droid colorization kit to paint droids. This colorization will last for 20 callings of the droid, then the droid will revert to default/random.
Note that an advanced chasis can be colored upon crafting, and if this chasis is dropped as furniture, it will retain the colors assigned when it was crafted. However, if this chasis has been used in a fully functional droid, it will not stick, and the droid will have to have the droid custimization kit used on it by a DE to get the desired colors.
Fantastic Guide, Thanks!
Couple of questions though.
Does using personality chips still make it so you cannot name the droid?
My customization isn't sticking on R series droids - it is lost the moment it is stored and recalled. Any clue if this only applies to droids created before the patch or to all of them?
Faithful_Atheist wrote:Fantastic Guide, Thanks!
Couple of questions though.
Does using personality chips still make it so you cannot name the droid?
My customization isn't sticking on R series droids - it is lost the moment it is stored and recalled. Any clue if this only applies to droids created before the patch or to all of them?
1) It's not even using personality chips, all the conversation-type droids simply cannot be named at present (have not tested post December patch)
2) From what I've gathered here, droids made after the patch are non-customizable, giving us a window of four months during which we could make droids with whiteboard skins.
I created an advanced R2 last night, and was able to customize it after the customer TAMED it.
I was also able to repaint my own advanced R3 droid that was made over a month ago.
Droid_Engineer_Rho wrote:
So, the mystery deepens... There certainly are reports of failures. Sketh, was that R2 chassis created before or after the patch?
It was a factory made chasis made about a week ago.
Good job on the manual. Might want to add under Medical droid that the Surgical droid doesn't come with inherent medical abilities. There still seems to be some confusion about that one floating around.