Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Drashk's Proposed Droid Certification System
Drashk wrote:
I can tell you that I wasn't me, just in case people have been wondering.I've been pushing for a Droid Cert system that includes every single profession. I just made a post to that effect, again, on the Corr. board and will share the system that I've been suggesting. Here is the system that I've been suggesting on the Correspondents Forum.
Droid Cert/Level System
Each and every profession would gain a certain amount of points at every Tier 4 and Master box that is filled. After so many Droid Handling points, the PC gains the ability to call a droid with a slightly higher Difficulty level. Here is a break down that I had in mind
Starting Professions -
1 Point (5 Total) Artisan, Entertainer, Medic & Scout.
2 Points (10 Total) Brawler, Marksmen, & Politition
Elite Professions -
2 Points (10 Total) Architect, Armorsmith, Bio-Engineer, Chef, Dancer, Doctor, Image Designer, Musician, Creature Handler, Weaponsmith&Tailor
3 Points (15 Total) Carbineer, Combat Medic, Commando, Droid Engineer, Fencer, Merchant, Pikeman, Pistoleer, Ranger, Rifleman, Swordsman, & Teras Kasi Artist
4 Points (20 Total) Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, & Squad Leader.
Faction Standing -
1 Point for every 3 ranks.
The break down -
For every 3-4 points that a PC gains, they gain +1 Droid Difficulty Level, which allows the PC to call a slightly more powerful droid. The Droid Difficulty Level could be capped at 20-25. The general public would rather see an insurge of combat droids that are lower in combat levels available to all PCs as opposed to seeing a new profession that is based off of an existing profession.
Profession breakdown -
Politican is a 2 Point Profession due to the command stucture that droids are supposed to follow. It also would sort of keep in line with the Trade Federation concept
Droid Engineer is a 3 Point Profession due to the knowledge of inner workings that they.This might be an idea that could be adopted to Bio-Engineers that have pets.
Merchant is a 3 Point Profession in similar reason to the Politician. Merchants of old are accustom to having a guard to command.
Bounty Hunters already have a lot of knowledge of Droid workings
Smugglers deal with a lot of underworld content and being that Combat Droids should be considered contraband, it really made sense to me that they should have a bonus.
Squad Leaders are the ultimate Commanders on the battlefield and should be able to control power powerful droids.
Again, /agree
Daker-Naritus wrote:
Again...Love it!
/sign
You know, the thing I love most about this plan is this:
Someone who has mastered 3 elite professions (ex: DE, Pistoleer, Rifleman), gets much more "droid power" than someone who has only mastered one (ex: only pistoleer). If preserves balance perfectly, without sacrificing the lore of the game (ex: droids don't need handlers).
From a RP perspective, I think this makes great sense.... Since combat droids like droidekas and battle droids are somewhat rare in this time period, it makes sense that it would take a long time to find a really good combat droid. Only acharacter experienced in the ways of the world would have such time to find a DE who makes such droids.
Generally I like it, but just to play devil's advocate, here's why I think it will face DEV opposition.
Anyone with a few thousand creds can take up all the novice professions. Assuming they grind through one skill tree in each, to level 4:
Artisan, Entertainer, Medic & Scout: 16 points total
Brawler, Marksmen: 8 points total
Altogether 24 points, or right around the stated cap. So this person is running around with the best droids soloing everything.
Different scenario: DE dabbling. Similiar to what was happening before the CH balance, someone does this:
Grinds to DE and Blueprints 4. 4 points in Artisan plus 12 in DE = 16 points, plus the ability (based on the current skill tree) to build every droid possible.
Add a couple other novice professions, you're back to the cap. Again, you end up with someone who's basically unskilled running around with the best droids.
I'm not trying to be divisive or contrary here, I'm just proffering a different perspective.
Thoughts?
As you can see I do not post much, but I feel this is a better time than none.
I personally really like proposed droid cert system by Drashk. I'd much rather have this than a Droid Handler profession any day.
Jastin Darkcrest, MDE -Starsider
But talking skill points not DH pts here, thats a lot of skill points, since each novice takes 15 pts to get. Sure maybe they could get a good droid, but they wouldnt be able to do as much personally and I think most people would take that as too much cost.
OrionsByte wrote:
Anyone with a few thousand creds can take up all the novice professions. Assuming they grind through one skill tree in each, to level 4:
Artisan, Entertainer, Medic & Scout: 16 points total
Brawler, Marksmen: 8 points total
EricTheGreat wrote:
But talking skill points not DH pts here, thats a lot of skill points, since each novice takes 15 pts to get. Sure maybe they could get a good droid, but they wouldnt be able to do as much personally and I think most people would take that as too much cost.
OrionsByte wrote:
Anyone with a few thousand creds can take up all the novice professions. Assuming they grind through one skill tree in each, to level 4:
Artisan, Entertainer, Medic & Scout: 16 points total
Brawler, Marksmen: 8 points total
I think the point is that even a newbie can "get around" the limits that the Cert system is supposed to impose by simply taking all of the novice professions and rapidly climbing a tree or two in each.
This touches on one of the reasons I'm not sure a cert system will work. I'm sure we could come up with a system that would prevent newbies from running around twinking themselves with Droidekas, but how do you make a cert system that does not increase the overall level of combat abilities in the game? This overall level is important because that's what's used to balance PvE combat.
If we give everyone (or nearly everyone) a Droideka, then sure everything will remain reasonably well balanced in PvP combat. But all those poor Rancors are suddenly going to become chump change.
Ok, so make PvE combat tougher you say? Now you're requiring everyone to use a Droideka, and I really doubt we want that either.
So maybe just give them to non-combat types, right? No, that doesn't solve the problem either, because that just imbalances the professions against each other - crafting professions become "more valuable" in an overall sense than combat professions because they can suddenly do both.
I just don't see an effective way to introduce a system-wide cert system that doesn't tip something dramatically out of whack. I'm certainly open to suggestions, though!