Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Project: Droid Engineer Rebuilding our Profession (Phase 1)
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Drashk
Sun Oct 31, 2004 4:00 am
#1
Someof you may have noticed, over the last few weeks I have tried to gather thoughts from the community on where we stand now and how to improve our profession in the future. It has already been stated by the DEVs that after the Combat Upgrade is completed, work will commence of upgrading all non-Combat professions. This is the perfect chance for the Droid Engineering community to collect an extensive amount of feedback on how we would like to see things handled. This goes beyond simple bug fixes and minor additions. I'm suggesting that we put our thinking caps on and look at the overall big picture.
Over the following weeks, I am going to post a series of threads that I hope will move discussion along in the right direction. By no means am I trying to lead everyone around to what I see the profession evolving into, rather I am simply going to try to start discussions off. I think that many of you by now have seen some of my post history, especially some of the idea discussion threads, and have come to the conclusion thatI do listen to suggestions made by the community and incorporate or change what I write to better suit what those in the community want. I highly encourage others within the community to take an active role in this project and provide as much feedback as possible.
In order to keep the number of stickies under control, I will be using this main thread to list the links of the various Project documents. I will change the Phase number each time that a new link and document is added, and give the thread a nice, swift...bump.
Please, help me in this effort to guide the DEVs towardsthe profession that we would like to see.
- Phase 1 - Information and Discussion
- What would you do to improve our profession?
- Where do we fit in now?
- Modular Upgrade System Synopsis
- Loot Revamp: Post a drop!! ..err...Drop a post!! Err...
- Strakers Space Proposal for finishing the DE profession
- Chassis Experimentation System Upgrade
- Alternate upgrade system proposal
- Project Droid Engineer "need" Thread
- Ok DE's, Batteries are better, now this small fix to dramatically increase Droid sales.
- Project: Droid Engineer - Droid Model Redesign
- http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=102968&jump=true target=_blank> Project: Droid Engineer - Droid Decay System
Message Edited by Drashk on 11-29-2004 10:45 AM
Balzan
Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:06 am
#2
Let me start out stating that my opinions on this are not from a DE POV, as I have never been a DE or had a point of view 
The Star Wars galaxies game is empty of player droids. Why? Because they have no purpose to non-rebel pilot and non-Doctors. They also have no individuality as characters. The solution to this problem is to make Droids their own special PLayer Race. SO that these droids can have just as much use as a normal PLayer character if not more. Allowing Droids to become made by say a 4 month Veteran (as a new and more enthralling Reward.
This would open a new field for DEs as then they would be able to craft different type of armour, weapons, internal crafting devices, etc for the droids, and it will allow interaction between droid and master.
The Star Wars galaxies game is empty of player droids. Why? Because they have no purpose to non-rebel pilot and non-Doctors. They also have no individuality as characters. The solution to this problem is to make Droids their own special PLayer Race. SO that these droids can have just as much use as a normal PLayer character if not more. Allowing Droids to become made by say a 4 month Veteran (as a new and more enthralling Reward.
This would open a new field for DEs as then they would be able to craft different type of armour, weapons, internal crafting devices, etc for the droids, and it will allow interaction between droid and master.
jskywalker74
Sat Nov 06, 2004 1:15 am
#3
From a DEM POV, I can see why the droids are not used that much ... they are way out classed in many areas.
Combat wise -
You can armor a person to 80% but you can only armor a droid to 40% ? You can get a level 30 creature ... but you can only get a level 19 droid? You cant equip weapons on to them to change there fighting style? I mean even 3p0 carried a blaster in EP2. In a manner of speaking anyways.
Artisan wise -
Verry helpful to have a crafting droid around to let you craft ... but trying to figure out if its better then some +40 crafting station is too confusing to the players ... no stats on the modules to use as a guide
Usablity wise -
Most of the players I have run in to are more confused about how to use a droid then to actually use one. And with a droid that never dies kind of hard to keep selling them ...Take for example armor smith ... once your armor is done you buy more .. with a droid ..once you have your 3-5 you never buy again ... not to mention its rather a joke that your droid maxed out can only hold 10 items ? but you can hold 110? And if you ever need to change anything on your droid ... you have to hit the destroy button which is a big waist resources. Why cant you change out your modules ... or upgrade/reverse eng them ?
I am not trying to get up on a soap box here ... but these are just some of the things I would like to see change ...
and to think I didnt even get in the crafting part is broken ...
Gorathion
Sat Nov 06, 2004 5:14 am
#4
Mmm, wouldn't it be an idea to create ship-repair modules for astromechs? would fit in nicely, I think, and you see a lot of astromechs doing ship-repairs in the movies.
Straker_Atrella
Sat Nov 06, 2004 4:44 pm
#5
Drashk, as part of this project, can we explore my personal crusade? Space and space only.
Obviously, we fix all our gorund bugs and such first. However, other then that, we leave the ground game alone. Honestly, the ground game is a chaotic nightmare with many variables or Armor, Weapons, buffs, and many other thing. Add to the fact that people are already established in the ground game, so any changes there may not go over well with our customers.
Space however is different. Right now the ONLY market for space is SW with DE a little. No other profession got a piece there. So by makingSpace a huge droid market, it balances out that our ground market suffers. Space is huge people, a lot of people fly either all thetime or at least some times. This is alarge market.
I wont get into my exact space suggestions now, however I think this is really the way to go. What I want shouldn't be to hard to add, you don't need to deal with the ground chaos, and will give us a huge viable market.
I know this idea may not be popular, we have had so many GREAT ground ideas, decay systems, modular building, binding droids to houses, and many more. Perhaps it is time to look at something new.
Drashk
Sat Nov 06, 2004 5:05 pm
#6
I wasn't planning on adding too much to the space game suggestions, beyond what has alreay been brought up.
If you want to add to Project: Droid Engineer, please feel free to start up a discussion thread and I'll like it here.
Just keep in mind that not everyone will be effected by any space features added. Our biggest potental market is that of the ground game. This reason alone puts ground feature additions ahead of space additions. I (personally) think that the ground game needs to be solidified much more before we try to hit upon additional space featues.
Straker_Atrella
Sat Nov 06, 2004 5:43 pm
#7
Actually Drashk, I think the space market may potentially be bigger then ground. Eventually everybody will fly, some people will do nothing but fly.
I made a thread, I knew that was coming.
Jenden
Sun Nov 07, 2004 1:26 am
#8
I really would love to see playable droid characters... but to do it right it would really take almost an entire expansion.
That being said, the next best thing I think is to allow players to give some life to their droid. A command that would make my humanoid droid talk (maybe something like /droidsay message and the droid would say the message) and make my astromechs and other droids beep and chirp...
DaiVern
Wed Nov 10, 2004 1:12 am
#9
Why is it that you can only have 1 Droid out at a time, but multiple pets. If I am a droid engineer and my probot is going low on power, should I not be able to bring out my power droid to recharge it? Just seems silly.
Drashk
Wed Nov 10, 2004 1:17 am
#10
Only Creature Handlers, who have spent the points to be a Combat profession, have the ability to call more then one pet at the same time. Calling more then one droid is a DE wish list item.
DaiVern wrote:
Why is it that you can only have 1 Droid out at a time, but multiple pets. If I am a droid engineer and my probot is going low on power, should I not be able to bring out my power droid to recharge it? Just seems silly.
Drashk
Tue Nov 16, 2004 2:16 am
#11
Just added the newest thread to the list of Phase 1 threads. Giving this thread a little bump to let everyone see the update.
Everyl
Wed Nov 17, 2004 1:03 am
#12
I think master DE should be able to craft Battle droids,SBD and droideka.
They dont have to be uber like the in the death watch bunker. I just think it would make sense.
High lvl DE would be the only ones able to use them. Kinda like Creature Handler rules.
Dont you guys think the currents droids are ridiculus in combat?
Those 3 droids are already in the game. Is it asking too much that droids experts, riggers, be able to use them?
Ideka
Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:18 am
#13
Outstanding point, master CH can use all kinds of pets, I see their rancors and such all over the place. Even if the Droideka had the same stats as a probot, it'd be nice to pull one out once in a while. I'm no programmer, but the animations are there,soI'm curious tohow big of a patch would it be to give us those animations and a new droid chassis? All other de issues aside, something like this would really be a great quality of life addition.
Everyl wrote:
I think master DE should be able to craft Battle droids,SBD and droideka.
They dont have to be uber like the in the death watch bunker. I just think it would make sense.
High lvl DE would be the only ones able to use them. Kinda like Creature Handler rules.
Dont you guys think the currents droids are ridiculus in combat?
Those 3 droids are already in the game. Is it asking too much that droids experts, riggers, be able to use them?
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