Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Combat Droid Compromise
Ok, initially I was against one Droid profession, then against 2 separate professions...for different reasons. I wanted to see droids for all.
Now, I think DE should be reworked with a Droid Commander tree put it place of one of the crafting trees. Put the combat modules (MODULES ONLY)in the same tree. Increase the crafting xp in the other 3 trees by 50% per box to discourage 9000+ DEs. Put ALL of the Droid CL skillmods in the 4 Commander boxes and Novice DE - maybe 10-30% each box depending on level. Droid combat xp should be astronomical to attain. Make it 2 times the requirement of a similar CH box. NO extra Commander skills for Master DE- just make some new combat chasis's available. Make the xp required to advance through that tree HIGH - higher than per box in CH, much higher in fact.
This gives us ready DEs with Commander tree done by patch time to supply the needs. It makes it a very difficult tree to advance in as well, and discourages tons of crafting DEs due to the huge crafting requirement DE already has. Make the profession Uber hard to skill in, harder than it is now.
Combat characters who want a droid advantage will now have to give up 48 skill points to be a 'Droid Commander' - a significant investment.
Drroid levels should top out at CL45 with a max of 2 combat droids out with a COMBINED CL60 level.
This makes it a 'branch profession' more likely to be prusued by the weajer crafter types, further involving more combatents in the war. It would also be enough balance (with maybe a tad more tweaking) to not be more powerful than a MCH, but still be a valuable team member in combat.
ALL CL10 pets need some help to make them 'useful' both as droids and creatures. Light Armor would be a nice addition for non-CH pets - maybe some one useenhancement that BEs could make and sell? For droidswe have decent armor maxing at Medium Armor with 40% resists, thats not bad really. I'd like to see some HAM increases though, maybe 10-20% more effected by experimentation. Going from 820 to 828HAM on a Probotwith 10 experimentation points now is sorta a joke. No need to overpower them, just raise them to a usefull level. Speed of attack would be another area that could be improved too...
Combat Droids have been outlawed? OH NO! SO, friggin what?!?!
I've never been bothered for having my Probot, have you?
Rebels are illegal too - yet the Empire can't get rid of them either - droids would be 'contraband' right? It fits in your new content. Just because something is illegal to make, does not mean nobody will make it. Ask any drug dealer....
I propose this as it fits in as a compromise solution, making everyone happy.
It creates a 'Branched Profession' not a full new one and rewards the current loyal DEs with combat abilities, yet allows combat characters a reason to try crafting to get Droid Commander skills.
It creates more interaction among Crafting and Combat types and reliance on each other as well.
It also lets some of us bored Engineers participate more in the GCW, where many of us have been left out due to being bound to the Merchant tree with little skills left over other than maybe Carbine 3 or 4 and Ranged 2 or the bit of scout we often need.
'Great minds, think alike'.
This is very close to what i came up with. I will quote here from my post to the 'DI-3' thread
"A Solution, occures to me. to compronise, admirably between the 'I want to use my own droids'(droid handler line within DE) {'US'} and, 'I want a seperate DH/'DC' proffession, so I can have someone to sell droids to {'them'}
Put the droid handling skills within DE, as just one branch. Max droid level, and number of droids 'out' in one branch, or at most 2.
Then, those who want to mearly use droids will have a fairly easy route. Most DEs will want to use them anyway. At least have the ability to call multiples. If they dont, then they can save some skillpoints if they dont require Master.
Im not sure exactly how to organise this, but one branch would contain the Max level/numbers. And maby some of the old droid building skills would be moved from that branch to another."
Apon thinking further I would move one of those module crafting lines we have over to the research branch. Then add the 'max level/number out ' certs to the new branch, along with the combat modules as you suggest.
Im not sure about the droid combat exp required thing. But it would avoid the questionable maybe, idea if requireing droid crafting exp,, hmm. Either would do i guess. But I would suggest a path that one could travel without buying a droid from another char. Like whatever exp you needed for the cert branch you could get it from with novice DE.
I would be quite satisfied with a system like this, and it could be in addition to carefully selected proffession certs (perks/balances) That could be scattered where needed amoung the other proffessions.
As to skillpoints VS power,, I dunno, maby DEs dont need to be quite the fighters CHs can be. Requireing Master artisan, would be fine with me I guess. But would be very difficult to impliment. what of existing DEs without Master Arts ?
Or,, Maby some of the driod certs could be placed in the Master Arts Box ? to stack with those in DEs ? That sounds Quite acceptible as well !
It seems like a fair solution.
It createsd a mini-profession
It rewards Master DEs now with those abilities immediately without having to learn the combat xp.
DEs can use their own droids.
There is a market for combat droids beyond wimpy CL10s.
It makes it 'Star Warsy.'
Heck, since they are illegal, the Imperial NPCs could randomly crack down and shoot atcombat droidson sight - regardless of faction.
Anyone can commit to Novice for 6 skill points to get say a CL12-15 droid or advance up the Droid Commander tree to earn that tile and it's abilities - yet still costing significant skill points for balance.
On power for Commanders - I don't think MCHs should be able to be trounced by mere Droid Commander abilities. Droids should not be as powerful as Creature pets. CHs should retain their strength.
DCsshould be considered a mid-level power in the CL15-CL45 range.
I do think that CL10 Droids are a joke tho, same for non-CH pets. They need a tad bit more power to make them used more frequently. They provide 'no benefit' right now to most players.
With this proposal you will not have to learn how to make them. It would only require droid handling experience to gain experience in thisONE TREE in the DE profession.
All of the Combat Droid Commanding abilities would be in this one tree. We do not need an entire new profession.
I like Drashk's proposal a lot better. How is a bounty hunter ever supposed to get a decent droid if they have to climb up the engineering tree and then the drioid engineer tree? All this proposal does is reverse the CH mess into a DH mess. You will see tons of people with "Novice Droid Engineer" over thier heads tugging a chain of droids behind them.
With the Drashk proposal at least anyone has a chance of owning a slightly better droid for a small expenditure in skill points. Most people can afford a few extra skill points to "upgrade" toa slightly better combat droid. If we don't want to see 40% of the player base as "novice droid engineer", Drashk's proposal is the only way to go.
Gribnitz wrote:
I like Drashk's proposal a lot better. How is a bounty hunter ever supposed to get a decent droid if they have to climb up the engineering tree and then the drioid engineer tree? All this proposal does is reverse the CH mess into a DH mess. You will see tons of people with "Novice Droid Engineer" over thier heads tugging a chain of droids behind them.
With the Drashk proposal at least anyone has a chance of owning a slightly better droid for a small expenditure in skill points. Most people can afford a few extra skill points to "upgrade" toa slightly better combat droid. If we don't want to see 40% of the player base as "novice droid engineer", Drashk's proposal is the only way to go.
I'm not terribly concerned about lots of DEs; I've yet to hear an good argument on why that's a bad thing. If you look at Medic dabblers, the crafter medics make big cash off of them. Seems natural to me that people would pick up droid engineer skills to use droids. Correct me if I'm wrong here.
Also, investment of skill points and time for combat droids is what the devs want.
Finally, BHs don't have a lot of leeway due to the amount of uberness they get from their skills. And a LOT of them pick up CH skills.
Sodan-droiddreamer wrote:
Gribnitz wrote:
I like Drashk's proposal a lot better. How is a bounty hunter ever supposed to get a decent droid if they have to climb up the engineering tree and then the drioid engineer tree? All this proposal does is reverse the CH mess into a DH mess. You will see tons of people with "Novice Droid Engineer" over thier heads tugging a chain of droids behind them.
With the Drashk proposal at least anyone has a chance of owning a slightly better droid for a small expenditure in skill points. Most people can afford a few extra skill points to "upgrade" toa slightly better combat droid. If we don't want to see 40% of the player base as "novice droid engineer", Drashk's proposal is the only way to go.
I'm not terribly concerned about lots of DEs; I've yet to hear an good argument on why that's a bad thing. If you look at Medic dabblers, the crafter medics make big cash off of them. Seems natural to me that people would pick up droid engineer skills to use droids. Correct me if I'm wrong here.
Also, investment of skill points and time for combat droids is what the devs want.
Finally, BHs don't have a lot of leeway due to the amount of uberness they get from their skills. And a LOT of them pick up CH skills.
I'm not talking just Bounty Hunters. There are a lot of people out there that have a few extra skill points left over that would like to see better droids introduced. With this proposal all you get is a bunch of DE novices to get better droids. With Drashk's you get a new profession PLUS new droids for the population of other players that want to keep thier current skills.
What your asking for is a cut/paste of the CH profession which has already been done. Been there, done that and it wasn't pretty.
Gribnitz wrote:
Sodan-droiddreamer wrote:
Gribnitz wrote:
I like Drashk's proposal a lot better. How is a bounty hunter ever supposed to get a decent droid if they have to climb up the engineering tree and then the drioid engineer tree? All this proposal does is reverse the CH mess into a DH mess. You will see tons of people with "Novice Droid Engineer" over thier heads tugging a chain of droids behind them.
With the Drashk proposal at least anyone has a chance of owning a slightly better droid for a small expenditure in skill points. Most people can afford a few extra skill points to "upgrade" toa slightly better combat droid. If we don't want to see 40% of the player base as "novice droid engineer", Drashk's proposal is the only way to go.
I'm not terribly concerned about lots of DEs; I've yet to hear an good argument on why that's a bad thing. If you look at Medic dabblers, the crafter medics make big cash off of them. Seems natural to me that people would pick up droid engineer skills to use droids. Correct me if I'm wrong here.
Also, investment of skill points and time for combat droids is what the devs want.
Finally, BHs don't have a lot of leeway due to the amount of uberness they get from their skills. And a LOT of them pick up CH skills.
I'm not talking just Bounty Hunters. There are a lot of people out there that have a few extra skill points left over that would like to see better droids introduced. With this proposal all you get is a bunch of DE novices to get better droids. With Drashk's you get a new profession PLUS new droids for the population of other players that want to keep thier current skills.
What your asking for is a cut/paste of the CH profession which has already been done. Been there, done that and it wasn't pretty.
Also occures to me recently. Reguarding the pure crafters that dont want to spend points for droid cert, or 'DH' or 'DC' (whatever). ,
The solution, is to let droid cert be somthing that serves them. Make high level survey a/o harvesting droids, that find thier own recources. High level load lifters that can service harvesters. Vehicle repair units. High level stuff that needs high level cert. Every DE needs more droids in data pad. And Every DE wants more than one droid out at a time. And few if any would mind having a combat bot to guard them thru harvester runs, (contraban scans?) Who wants to make droids, and not be able to use them ? Doesnt mean you have to be combat oriented to benifit from droid cert.
As to non Master Arts, non DE access to droid use, Well it would cost a few more points to gain first increased acces than the Drashk plan. But 35 pints is not too much to pay to journey to increased droid power. You could put a boggish jump in power at novice DE. The artisan engineering branch is a very logical school for learning 'the ways of mechanism' that you need to 'do the droid handling thing' It, is, like a mini proffession already this way.
If you absolutly had to make it more accessable you could start putting it in the arts, engineering branch. It would then be almost as accessable as Drashk's plan without all the system retooling, and more importantly skillpoint ripoff to DEs. And as to the flood of Artisans or DEs,, An Artisan or DE with only boxes for Droid commanding, will tend to use them, for droid commanding. Its not going to threaten anyone. If a 'droid comander wants to be searched, they can use the title on the branch od DE that will be droid command.
The only reason i can see any objecting to this plan is if they are afraid of DE competition in the combat field. I dont think we have to worry Too much about another CH like uberness. Maby we will be as powerfull as someone else who spent that many skillpoints. (that would be a , good, thing) We dont have that many points to spend on weapon skills and such. But I see droid power, showing itself in other areas too. Maby not having the killing power of CH, but maby being just as valuable.
{ next up ,,,,,,, 'Combat Dancing' (g) }