Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droids: Where we were and where we’re going.
TH,
Thunderheart wrote:
Im really glad to see this is whats good for DEs and good for the community. You guys have no idea how we wrestled with this. This was a huge decision.
Thanks for everyone's input and thanks for going the extra mile to keep everything positive
Thanks for keeping an eye on our 'shop' around here.
One thing that struck me about this plan was that there's a good balance in combat focus and non-combat focus. A lot of people will be getting things they want.
However, can you confirm that (on top of the things in the earlier big post) that there will also be several rounds of bug fixing on past DE related bugs (on Gorantoth's list)? I'm talking things like naming droid with personality chips, etc. Not stuff as major as combat modules.
I'm sure that many DEs are curious how much bug fixing of the current list is going to happen. Can we find that out?
/bow
Respectfully,
Thunderheart wrote:
Publish 7: Droid Invasion
Droid Engineer Issues Addressed:
· Wound Repair Kit : Finally...please make sure that the schematic given from the Rebel Themepark for the Droidsmiths Tool Kit is updated with this new item (retroactively) so the people that already have the schematic can actually create it. Right now there is no way to make one unless you have a droid repair kit from six months ago.
· Droid Battery consumption rate halved (enabling them to last twice as long) : Good, though in the future I'd like to see power become more dynamic - i.e. consumed based on used functions. This is a great start however.
· Droids will no longer be susceptible to poisons, bleeds, /warcry or /intimidate - Good. Finally, the droid system is becoming less the photocopy of the creature pet system - and giving droids more value as they cannot be bled like creatures. Kind of like how in the command lists "repair" is listed as "do trick 1". 
A basic overview of the combat module functionality looks like this:
Combat Droids will have all the fighting functionality of a regular combat-capable creature (CL10)
What will make Probots better? A R3 unit with six combat modules still shouldn't be better than a Probot. We have asked for our droid frames to be more unique, not more simmilar.
· All players will now be able to have both a CL10 creature pet and a CL10 combat droid called out at the same time.
Excellent. We have been lobbying for an equal choice between creatures and droids, and instead we get to have both.
· Combat modules can be crafted at varying quality levels, which can be seen when the module is examined.
Another nice addition. This is what we meant when we said we wanted experimentation to matter.
· Combat modules stack and if more than one of them is placed in a single droid, they have a cumulative effect.
· To have the strongest combat droid, six 100% combat modules must be used in constructing a droid.
The six number kind of scares me. The only droid we have capable of that is an R3 - I'm not very fond of the R3 being the most combat capable droid. Since Drashk said we should stock up on Probot deeds and Frames, I'm assuming that means that the Probots will also require these combat modules. Probots only have two slots - so I am assuming they must have inherent ability? I'd really like to know how the Probot still fits into all this - Probots need to be STRONGER than any other droid with a weapon.
Publish 8: Droids Rebuilt
Droid Engineer Issues Addressed:
· Droid HAM Experimentation to make droids more powerful has been implemented
Great, and I'd really hope this isn't just in the final assemble based on Fiberplast quality. That's what it currently is on Probots (the only HAM-experimentable droid), and isn't a big deal. You can either use crap fiber and get 820HAM, or really good stuff and get 828 - eight points isn't worth the really good chemical a lot of the time. It would be really nice if this was based on the quality of the CHASIS and not simply the chems you use to seal up the deed.
· Display for power meter - Great, maybe an audio warning would be good too.
Droid Customization Kit
- kit useable by anyone
- customization lasts longer
As it should be...The most dreaded question as a DE (after, "Why can't I name my Protocol Droid?") is "What colors do you have?" I have like 70...LOL. Make sure you adjust the customization accordingly - let them have more than one color. Oh, and are there fixes to the kit as well? It currently only works on a couple of droids.
· Customized appearances for Droid Deeds so that Droid Engineers can display the models they sell.
That's a neat feature - hope it's in the works for vehicles as well.
It is still an early look, but here is our goal for Droid Modules:
Entertainer module:
Neat, if not especially useful. My first thought was, "Dang, I want to try that," but since it's a cert it will only be a toy for Entertainers (which is fine). However, I am a bit concerned about 10 of them. The amount of components that come up in our crafting tool is already larger than a 1280x1024 screen - one thing we aren't short on is components. Please keep in mind that when asking for more features, we aren't necessarily asking you to throw a hundred modules at us. Ten seems like an awful lot of them - and one effect per module is pretty limiting. I'd suggest two - meaning that someone could fit a full suite into an R2 or R3 module. It's a nice idea, but I don't think people are going to want to devote multiple droids to the task. Since only one effect can be produced at a time, people will still have a need for more than one, and this would be the benefit of them in groups.
I kind of would like a droid that helps entertainers heal outside of Cantinas, like the current medical module. This may not be viable to open up the whole game, BUT a module that let them heal INSIDE a city (but outside the cantina) or IN A CAMP would be very valuable and increase reliance on camps instead of "Coronet/Bestine/Theed" runs.
Merchant Barker module:
Excellent....HOWEVER...
Please, oh please don't make this a merchant-only item. (Please hold the Merchant-flames for just a minute ). I have Mastered Merchant twice - I understand the need for more content. This could be invaluable to creating Player Content, and we don't want that limited any more than absolutely necessary. Like the "data discs" that can be written on by a player (that would be so cool when combined with a droid) that people have requested since beta for Player Content, a droid like this would be the next best thing.
Make the basic features of the droid available to anyone, but make them ESPECIALLY USEFUL for merchants. Like this :
Everyone : Program the droid to talk back to someone who initiates talk with them (I.E. no barking but will converse with a player if the player selects them) and has a limit on how many screens of data it can show. Maybe one waypoint. And droid must remain stationary while it's available for conversations (i.e. it stays put when the owner enables the "talk to people" function toggled on).
Merchants : Get actual barking ability, a larger limit on how much data it can hold, multiple waypoints, and the droid can patrol barking until conversation is initiated by another player. Give them other benefits - heck, if it's technologically do-able let Master Merchants have a droid sustain for a period of time (a few hours maybe) after they logout.
Covert Detector Module: Hadn't thought of this one. A GCW use to droids. Nice.
Exploding Module: Those art guys really worked hard on those animations, didn't they? I bet they look good, hehe. One concern here - make it so the "self-destruct" timer will NOT engage if there is data or items in the droid unless you do something special (like type in a 6 # code like when destroying structures). There needs to be a visual warning that you are going to destroy a droid with items in it - but a code is even cooler and more "droid-like".
These changes in addition to combat droid modules and utility modules will address 8 of the 10 Droid Engineers’ Questions. We are very interested in hearing what people have to say throughout this discussion. I’ll post follow-up threads on In Dev and In Concept for each main topic.
These are some nice changes - can't help note the absence of a Slicing droid or survey-related droids. I would assume these fall under the "no bonuses" edicts, and I hope they are reconsidered. In both cases, there are three possibilities :
- Make the item give you a higher max bonus (on slicing or sampling)
- Have an additional useful function (slicing - choosing speed or damage, surveying - giving larger range to surveys)
- The middle ground : give a higher MINIMUM with the droid out. For instance, if a smuggler has a range of 10-30%, make it 15-30% with a droid. The max remains the max, but the min is slightly increased, just meaning you have a better chance of not failing with the droid out. For survey, it could do the same for sample rates.
Besides all that, I would really REALLY like the notion of multiple droids out for a DE (non-combat, of course) in one of these patches. Droid repair kits aside - I want to be able to use my power droid to recharge my droids. It's not too much to ask!
Audio
Wow, best idea I have heard on getting droids to actually fall apart over time yet. I think 1% per use may be a bit much though. Maybe 1/2%.
Tathir wrote:
Not a droid engineer here but I despise any situation where any class is left hurting, so I had an idea:
How would you guys feel about a droid condition decaying each time it was recharged? Since batteries are going to last twice as long, I think it would be entirely reasonable to have a 1 percent loss per charge. None of this vitality pack business either. A droid should be able to repair another droid's wounds, but once the durability is shot, it's time to trade in that clunker for a newer model.
Hmm... cool idea.
I think that even the new double-duration batteries are going to be too short lived for this, though. I could see 1% decay for every hour of use or something like that. Gribnitz's 1/2% per recharge might be just about right.
Haden_Aurelius wrote:
I haven't read all the way through this thread yet, but instead of the Droid Commander class, just put different certs at certain levels of current classes? Just a thought.
3D4D wrote:
This all looks good, but I'm hoping for some better modules. Modules that can use consumables would be the best option to all professions IMHO.
Specifically, being able to purchase a crate of Stimpacks and load it into a Surgical Droid and have the droid use a stim pack on me when my Health reaches a certain level.
Also, what about plans for having two non-combat droids out at once?
I too want to see a Doc droid that could be loaded with stims and then set to heal people in the same group as the droid.
and yeah I would love to have multiple non combat droids out at the same time. There would be no major advantage to this, just the fact that it would be cool for Role Playing.
Both are really essential in bringing droids in line of where they are actually useful to players.
Droids should be as ubiquitous as guns.
The problem of healing was somewhat mitigated by the hologrind, but the fact still remains that in order to get healed if you do not have a medic in your group you must stop what you are doing and take a starship to Theed or Coronet.
I love medics - and I tip well. Even if I just have a few wounds, I routinely tip 5-10K. I appriciate a live body that isn't standing afk next to someone they hired to /tumble; /tumble; /tumble.
There seems to be this fear that it would make medics obsolete to allow droids to heal, but it's not further from the truth. It may slightly change the scope of the novice medic profession, but I think that's perfectly natural and desirable. Right now Novice Medic is 1/4 crafting and 3/4 healing, by skill tree. The problem with the 1/4 crafting is that the audience is limited - other medics and Stim B's for dabblers. There is very little high-volume crafting besides those Stim B's.
A medical droid would need consumables only made by a medic, giving someone who only has Master Medic, and not an elite profession, a viable alternative for making a living. Those that want to specialize can - we have combat medics and doctors, who's crafting abilities are far beyond what a true surgical droid could do.
These droids shouldn't be very powerful - for instance, if you have "clone wounds" (i.e. you didn't clone), it should take you sitting in a med center for 20-30 minutes with this droid to heal you up and use an entire stock of consumables (in fact, that sounds like a good limit for how much "medicine" it can hold - enough to heal someone fully from one set of clone wounds). Of course, it should ALWAYS be preferable to find a medic or a doctor to heal you up in 60 seconds, but it would give us a valuable choice : do we jump casually jump starships across the galaxy just to get a booster shot and a band-aid, or can we sit in a med center on some remote planet for the same amount of time (or more), but just not have to endlessly ship hop. I assume (hope?) that this will become more of an issue with the Space Expansion, when it actually takes time to travel from planet to planet.
Let's face it - doctors are either buffing for credits or afk these days (with "no i'm not buffing" messages) - and combat medics are out in the field. After the Holocraze is over, basic medical attention is going to be harder to find. Right now even in populated cities it's getting harder to get in between a /tumble player and a med-pack, but as I said - even that will be going away. We need the option to slowly regenerate ourselves if we have no other option, or the option involves multiple shuttle trips hoping for a live player.
And yes - multiple droids at once for a DE was brought up before, when the whole "all non-ch get 1 pet" edict. They said it was temporary, and specificly mentioned Droid Engineers as a profession that would see eventual bonuses to their pet count (mentioned with high ranking faction members getting multiple troops out at once). We haven't heard a peep in a while - my guess is they are wrestling with the "utility" vs. "combat" droid number. It was said at the time that we would be allowed "multiple utility droids", but now that they are seamlessly meshing them, this may be harder. It is still a vital issue though - I should be able to power and repair my own droids asa Master with droids dedicated to that purpose. Since Power droids don't take repair kits, that's two droids in my datapade devoted to power and repair - which is fine - but to not be able to do it to my own droids is silly.
Audio
Thunderheart wrote:
Im really glad to see this is whats good for DEs and good for the community. You guys have no idea how we wrestled with this. This was a huge decision.
Thanks for everyone's input and thanks for going the extra mile to keep everything positive
And thanks for going to the mat for us. We really do know the Devs want the best game possible, it is just hard sometimes to wait and even harder to understand such things as team time management and budget constraints.
We honestly don't want the world as gamers, just 99.99999% of all the good stuff. 