Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droid Condition Decay Necessary for DE Economic Health
If any of you been around long enough to remember the short period were pets that got DB'ed and sustained wounds (black bar damage), they lost some points off their max condition. This had no effect until the condition dropped to 75% of its original maximum condition, then the pet's HAM dropped to 75% of its original value. No change from there until the condition dropped to 50% then then HAM came down to 50% as well. Another step down occurred at 25% and then at zero, your pet was toast. During this period my pre-nerf probot adv went down to 88 condition.
If I remember correctly which isn't always likely, the CH's got this thrown out. Don't remember DE's having much to say about it. We were along for the ride since it seems this was common pet code running on the server and affected our droids as well as the CH pets. It makes sense that this doesn't fit CH pets. They are organic and self-healing. But it doesn't make sense for droids which are inorganic and must be externally repaired. It also makes sense for CH pets to regenerate damage (white bar damage) in the datapad. It doesn't make sense for droids and they should retain their stored HAM conditions just like vehicles do. This common pet code needs to be decoupled and allow CH pets and droids to be handled seperately and differently.
If and I mean IF we get combat droids (please discuss/flame that if we combat droids condition elsewhere), its essential that we get this condition decay back in for droids only (not CH pets). I can't imagine the general population accepting such condition decay on crafting or utility droids now. They've had their everlasting convience droids too long at this point. But they are conditioned to accept decay from battle related items such as armor and weapons. So IMO, they would accept it on battle droids. Without this, the market in combat droids will fall from an initial 2-week peak level to the low attrition rate of players on the server. IMO that's quite bad for business long term and I for one am tired of seeing that sort of burst and fall flat sales events.
Message Edited by Pallida on 03-11-2004 02:50 PM
Very well summarized, Arden. I'm with you 100%.
Personally, I'd still try to find some way to apply it to crafting droids as well. We need some way for all droids to decay with use, not just combat droids. One of our many problems right now is that once someone buys an R3 unit with all 4 crafting stations in it, they never need to buy another crafting droid again. Ever. That one droid will last them for as long as they keep playing.
I agree with everything about droids needing to have a decay mechanism, even the utility droids. One thought I have on this issue though is that the droid shouldn't fall apart when its condition goes to zero. The reason I say this is because of the item and datastorage compartments. There would be no end to confusion, frustration, and complaints if the droid went poof while its storage compartment was full of stuff.
So I think that the droid's abilities, ham, and damage should decay over time but the droid should persist as an callable item in the datapad indefinitely (until the player deletes it)even if it has decayed to utter uselessness. Otherwisethe player may not always have time to retrieve stuff from the storage compartment in time. Whatever the mechanism is, it need to account for that I think.
I agree with everything about droids needing to have a decay mechanism, even the utility droids. One thought I have on this issue though is that the droid shouldn't fall apart when its condition goes to zero. The reason I say this is because of the item and datastorage compartments. There would be no end to confusion, frustration, and complaints if the droid went poof while its storage compartment was full of stuff.
So I think that the droid's abilities, ham, and damage should decay over time but the droid should persist as an callable item in the datapad indefinitely (until the player deletes it)even if it has decayed to utter uselessness. Otherwisethe player may not always have time to retrieve stuff from the storage compartment in time. Whatever the mechanism is, it need to account for that I think.
Good point, Malitevv.
But it could "decay" to the point that customization wouldn't stick, it could barely move, and Droid Batteries no longer worked.
Hey, just a thought...
It sounds like droid armor now wears out in the next patch... If droid armor wears out, that means that your droid becomes much less effective and will need to be replaced, right?
Just a thought
Daker-Naritus wrote:
Hey, just a thought...
It sounds like droid armor now wears out in the next patch... If droid armor wears out, that means that your droid becomes much less effective and will need to be replaced, right?
Actually I think it's that Droid armour is technically supposed to wear out currently, and so we're getting new, lighter armour that doesn't wear out next publish