Droid Engineer Archive

Thread: Big problem with Merchant Droids

OHMSS225
Thu May 06, 2004 10:01 am
#1

What's the point of merchant droids if they're just going to auto-store? Is this being looked at by anyone?



-= Ahriman BreViary =-
TheRealTK421
Thu May 06, 2004 10:06 am
#2

Heya...

If there is a real "bug" happening, here...post more details.


I suspect that it auto-stored on you because no other players were around to keep it from storing.

If you set this down in a truly empty city/area, and try to leave, it likely IS going to auto-store on you.



This is, best as I can tell, the intended functionality.



/bow


Respectfully,





TheRealTK421 a.k.a. "Doughbacca"
SWG DE Correspondent
Co-Founding member of Ahazi DENet & SWG DEA (Droid Engineer Association)
"I think all right-thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that ordinary, decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. ...I'm certainly not. And I'm sick and tired of being told that I am."


ImmortalOne666
Thu May 06, 2004 10:31 am
#3

I build a barker for a customer, couple of days later i got spammed by it in coro, damn thing wouldnt shut up.


Try placing your droid there and see how it works out.


Cheers
Marek Steele





00101000100110011101001011011111110100100010011111
00111010000011000011000110101111010011010110111000
Marek Steele
00101000000010010110000111011000001101110000110101 Space Cowboy
1101001100010001011001110100100000100000111011011
1 I'm evil personified
11100111100011011001010110100101010110110011101000 King Of Naboo
01101000110100101101110000011110011010100100110001 Riya's fiancé
10100010100001110000101111101110010010100000000111

000000000000000000000000Co-founder of the Anti-Wook Squad
0000000000000000000000000Supreme Overlord of the Forums
00000000000000000000000One of the 5 gingers of the apocalypse
00000000000000000000000I am Satan in a BlackSun Ace Helmet
0000000000Loot vendor Mictian and Yaotzin, Heaven, Dantooine -4210 -4150
Asteroids
Thu May 06, 2004 11:33 am
#4

On a slightly related note. I left my barker outside the SP for an hour the other day and travelled 1.2k to my house and went AFK.


I get disconnected if I'm AFK too long though so how do we get around that?
OHMSS225
Thu May 06, 2004 1:00 pm
#5

Thanks for replying, TK.


What I've been doing is leaving out one barker in front of the starport in theed and one in front of the starport in coronet. I group with them, so I can make sure they're still there. Then I go to the cantina to play some music. About 15 minutes later, one of them leaves the group. So I go back to where I left it to check. Sure enough, it's not there. About 5 minutes later, the other one leaves the group. Went back, and it's gone, too.


In those busy areas, I doubt there was every any less than 10 people very close to them. Both batteries were at 100% when i left them.


Let me know if I can provide any mroe info. Thanks.





-= Ahriman BreViary =-
TheRealTK421
Thu May 06, 2004 1:15 pm
#6






OHMSS225 wrote:

Thanks for replying, TK.


What I've been doing is leaving out one barker in front of the starport in theed and one in front of the starport in coronet. I group with them, so I can make sure they're still there. Then I go to the cantina to play some music. About 15 minutes later, one of them leaves the group. So I go back to where I left it to check. Sure enough, it's not there. About 5 minutes later, the other one leaves the group. Went back, and it's gone, too.


In those busy areas, I doubt there was every any less than 10 people very close to them. Both batteries were at 100% when i left them.


Let me know if I can provide any mroe info. Thanks.




First off, naughty naughty....you're not supposed to have out 2 droids.


Try just using one and see what happens.


In addition, are you going AFK at all in this situation?


Does anyone else seem to have these kinds of issues?



/bow

Respectfully,






TheRealTK421 a.k.a. "Doughbacca"
SWG DE Correspondent
Co-Founding member of Ahazi DENet & SWG DEA (Droid Engineer Association)
"I think all right-thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that ordinary, decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. ...I'm certainly not. And I'm sick and tired of being told that I am."


Itochew
Thu May 06, 2004 3:36 pm
#7

The droids will remain if you leave the area via shuttle. If you walk too far away, or drive off on your speeder, the droid will auto-store. (Pets work the same way)


I've left merchant droidsat theTheed Startport, and have taken shuttles to other planets or cities, and have had no trouble with them auto-storing. If I walk or drive too far away, they store.





Bye Bye, Bria

This post cost me $15.



Itochew / Okano
Elova
Thu May 06, 2004 6:30 pm
#8






Gavvot wrote:
The battery last 1 hour, if you're offline it won't bark for a long time.

Also, people should really stop refering the barker as spambot, that's just wrong.

And don't complain about coronet, just don't go there. I don't.





they do spam. if i park one outside coronet it wil go off like mad for first few mins.. the 1 min timer rule is for someone it has already spammed.. if 20 people walk up it will spam 20 times . i tend to not use mine as id rather not make my customers mad. i think the devs should have a timer for per use and not per person



Elova Melee Weapons - Melee weapons at affordable prices- Location -3924 4573 Theed,Naboo
Shian_Tavkin
Thu May 06, 2004 8:45 pm
#9

Actually, seemingly unrelated to Merchant barkers, but on de-spawning:


I have noticed since Pub 8 that my combat droids seem to despawn for no good reason..just walking through the deserts. They never do it in combat.but they do it almost any other time..so I wonder if its a related issue.





Shian -- Master Droid Engineer/ Master Artisan
Burning_Tyger
Thu May 06, 2004 11:07 pm
#10






TheRealTK421 wrote:





OHMSS225 wrote:

Thanks for replying, TK.


What I've been doing is leaving out one barker in front of the starport in theed and one in front of the starport in coronet. I group with them, so I can make sure they're still there. Then I go to the cantina to play some music. About 15 minutes later, one of them leaves the group. So I go back to where I left it to check. Sure enough, it's not there. About 5 minutes later, the other one leaves the group. Went back, and it's gone, too.


In those busy areas, I doubt there was every any less than 10 people very close to them. Both batteries were at 100% when i left them.


Let me know if I can provide any mroe info. Thanks.





First off, naughty naughty....you're not supposed to have out 2 droids.


Try just using one and see what happens.


In addition, are you going AFK at all in this situation?


Does anyone else seem to have these kinds of issues?



/bow

Respectfully,









I cant seem to find a pattern concerning the premature stores. I play on Eclipse which is a fairly busy server. The first time I placed my barker out in front of the starport in Bestine,I then went planet hopping for about an hour. When I got back, the droid was still there doing its thing. But the next time I placed it in the same spot and then went to my house which is only 500m from the city. I came back 10 minutes later and it had already stored on me for no reason. There does not seem to be much of a pattern to me.


Personally, I think they mis-store for the same reason the vehicles do when you don't want them to, whatever that may be. I've noticed in both instances, heavy server traffic seems to cause the problem to be more prevalent. When the server is crowded and laggy, that seems to be when it is worse. Therefore I have a tendency to think it is some complex server instability problem. Either way, it is beyond my understanding.





2nd Lt. Tygo Noscixximi
Master Artisan
Master Merchant
Master Droid Engineer
Eclipse Server

"It matters not...he is still your Emperor."
Starphire
Fri May 07, 2004 12:42 am
#11

i dont see why we would want people to have the ability to have one out if they are disconnected.. just use a survey macro to keep yourself online. If your offline it should not be spamming.



Starphire Elation Tesra Elation - Master of All Proffessions

Cancel your ALTs in protest of to many bugs!! TO MANY BUGS!!!
I cancled mine until the big bugs are fixed!
Gavvot
Fri May 07, 2004 12:44 am
#12

The battery last 1 hour, if you're offline it won't bark for a long time.

Also, people should really stop refering the barker as spambot, that's just wrong.

And don't complain about coronet, just don't go there. I don't.



--
How to make a link in those forums
Look sir, droids. -4689 3336, Naboo, Theed
ArdenStarmariner
Fri May 07, 2004 4:23 am
#13

Two problems with merchant barker droids that pretty much render then used by nobody and everyone is back to Macro AFK shouting:

1. The battery only keeps them going for about an hour.

2. The owner has to be online or at least Macro AFK'ing.

What's the point. The owner might as well, just return to Macro AFK shouting in Theed and Coronet. The old drop your droid to do the advertising while you hunt doesn't fly because the skill point requirements force most people to go either pure combat or pure crafting. OMG, we can't have hybrids. That would unbalance and destory the game! If they can hunt, they dont usually have merchant advertising 4. While they could advertise for an owner who is busy crafting, most pure crafters don't stay online very long. They do their crafting then log an alternate pure combat character on.

Until droids can be pre-recharged with multiple batteries so they can operate 8 hours or more unattended and can continue do their jobs without the owner being online, there will be no real market for these merchant barker droids. I don't see that this would be a problem. After all, the droids vicinity speak on triggers when players walk near instead of shout across the entire area they way AFK spammers do. So they are less offensive than what's already going on in the game. Eclipse is one of the biggest and most populated servers in the game. And when I pass through Coronet and Theed, I don't see a single merchant barker droid being used. What I see is every one of the Macro AFK shouters doing what they have always done and my spatial tab spinning so fast that I can't even read it. I have to go to my group chat tab the entire time I am in those cities. I can't blame the Macro AFK'ers. Why bother with something that will tie up valuable skill points when there's a method you can use for free?

Gotta chose the lesser of two evils here, the merchant droids or the Macro AFK shouters and right now, people are finding Macro AFK shouting the more attractive method to go with...

Message Edited by ArdenStarmariner on 05-07-2004 07:31 AM




Arden Starmariner - Master Jedi, Smugglers' Alliance Privateer Ace - Eclipse.
Nemok Starmariner - Elder Commando - Eclipse.
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