Droid Engineer Archive

why must SOE nerf and balance us to death...sheeeeeesh! It gets really old! work on the bugs...

Lotus

Im just going to quote this guy, in hopes someone in SOE or Holocron will pay attention. Not that they care, butthey are close to losing one insignificant customer.

"

Frankly, I'm dissapointed. Not specifically at you Holo, but somewhere down the line, SOE has dropped the ball.

These balance issueswith creatureswere discussed ad nasium on the beta forums, and for whatever reason (be it time constraint, apathy, poor logistics), they were not dealt with til now. We should not have to pay you for the frustrations and changesthat come with beta testing, and we are.

I urge you to take very careful steps when 'nerfing' Droid Engineers - they are a very weak and under-rewarded class - lets notmake them any more so. If you are going todowngrade the probot - argueably one of the few 'good' things about the class, *please* consider improving the class in other ways before you do so- the minor improvements you are suggesting for the DE in the next patch hardly make up for the loss of our one really effective droid.

You've been mostly ignoring the DE forum for weeks now. The last time you were here you were talking about giving us the ability to color our droids and fixing storage containers (since these should have been in release anyways, that's hardly 'great news').Now you're telling us you're going to heavily nerf our combat abilities.

Do you have anything actually good and *interesting* planned for this class? Or are you going to make a few comments, throw us a some ratherunspectacular fixes to existing bugs, and then disappear again until the next DE nerf comes along? Attention to the DE board (and our issues) has been horrible, and in this instance I think I can blame you specifically, or at least whoever should have been doing your job while you were away.

There is a long long list of serious issues with this class which has been floating around for some time, I personally would like to hear what you have planned that actually might bring some value to the class (I assume others would as well).

On the issue of the Probots, I see your3-point solution as a heavy handed knee-jerk reaction tothe problem. *With* the removal of the healing exploit of which you speak, Idon't see them as overly powerful, and I think the level 25 cap you suggest is too low for a 'top of the line' combat droid.

Certifications are certainly a warranted measure. But I question their implimentation. If you plan on adding certifications that prevent other players from using the probot, you will have effectively taken away most of our revenue stream. Are you going to give us some more useful combat droids? The only other one we have is the 'fugitive' droid, and that is a complete joke at its current '50 hit point' level.

Thank you for your time,

Zapgun."

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walla wrote:

I really hope, in choosing how to implimentdroid certs, you're taking into account the non-combat classes that get TONS of value out of combat droids. In my opinion, the thing that makes droids cool is that they can do something that the owner CANNOT do -- the fact that some players are using Probots to augment their already master-level combat skills (so they can solo Krayts or whatever else has prompted you to take this action) should not cause you to lose sight of how the rest of the classes use these tools:

I'm a pure-crafting character, and my ability to play as a non-combatant is what makes SWG cool and unique. I've been saving up for a Probot becuase having one will allow me to go into the field, surveying and tending harvesters, without losing my life when a half-dozen agro mobs suddenly spawn around me.

This makes perfect sense to me: For my profession, I invest the profits from my crafting into tools that help me do that job better...and a Probot is one of those tools!

If you design a set of combat-droid certifications that lives at the top of the COMBAT skill trees, you will remove the possibility for this cool and believable play-style, making it so that the players who legitimately need these items the mostare unable to use them.

That's it...just wanted to make sure that the voice of the non-combat crafters made it into the fray

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Maybe droid certs should be tied to the crafting classes. Generic artisans get certs for the weaker combat droids, and specialist crafters get certs for the advanced combat droids. For example a novice artisan gets some weak combat droid certification (like the basic DZ-70), a master artisan gets the DZ-70 advanced (assuming its fixed that is), and a masterspecialist crafter like the architect would be able to use the probot advanced,

I still think that Master DEs should get access to a unique DE-only combat droid like the Droiddecca, (alas, this idea NEVER gets a comment from the developers).

Why must the dev's nef us? The answer is the same as "Why does a dog lick himself?"

Because they can.

What is the point of this post? The same as playing a DE...none.

Rare.

No! No! NO!

Certs only work if there are actual levels to the droids. With probots, it's just probots. The only good thing we have. You want certs, then make it so that there are varying levels of combat droids. How about each blueprints level has one of each type of droid, and toss the stupid advanced idea.

So, make a weak combat droid at blueprints I, a better one at II, and probots at IV. This way it will be more like weapons and armor. Progressive difficulty in crafting, progressive value, and progressive usability.

And I'm thinking, anybody can use lvl I and II droids, but it takes at least a hybrid or elite novice to use III and IV.

Again, certs are stupid unless droids are progressive in any way.

I don't know what else to post except this...

Did you at least give us DROID UXP?!?

Fine, nerf one thing but at least fix the most important thing for us. Throw us at least one **edit**ing bone.

This is pointless. Do you think the devs even read our responeses? I challenge you mighty dev, just quote this sentence and prove me wrong. Maybe I wont pack up my bags and head back to shadowbane.

Thats a pretty big insult, id rather play shadowbane than this piece of rubbish.

well the way i see it, i should redeed everything i own..... get rid of my merchant... and become my PA's Architect's resource gathering pet..... at least then i would be something more than dead wait draining guild funds.....

Thanks devs..... you've really made me feel like changing to this game was a good idea

Dillius Archania

Cup-Holder Engineer

Keep nerfing the most broken and weakest class PLEASE!

Thats the way to keep the game in balance you know. Pretty soon maybe SWG will be like DAoC where EVERYONE plays one class *cough*assasin*cough*. Clerics were great until they caught a nerf bullet to the head making them brainless buffbots.

Lets all be Creature Handlers! Thats what the Dev's want, screw diversity! Down with diversity! Down with diversity!

I feel bad for droid engineers now... you guys can't make crap that is worth using.

Holocron, you're an idiot. Period. You say that anything can be killed in the game by using the right exploits, but instead of FIXING the exploits, you'll just nerf something else into oblivion. I sure hope you all tell us what these "exploits" are since they are obviously now no longer exploits and meant to make droidss worth using.

Oh, and for those complaining about use experience not working for droid engineers, don't worry, it doesn't work properrly for weaponsmiths nor architects either. Not certain on armorsmiths. And please don't bother asking them to fix things like use expwhen they can't even keep servers running stable. It's amazing how many things they broke after the last day of before the release date. Oh well... enjoy beta 4. You're in their world now.

OK... I'm new to DE... I admit it... near as I can figure its going to cost me somewhere around 17,000 + metal to make anything but a mouse droid (thats a WHOLE LOTTA MICE!) At any rate, I think that the probot fix for now is fine, provided that you take into account that it should not remain this way. Not saying that a probot should be a fighting droid... but there should be a replacement for it, perhaps (like adding ne droid designs)

One of my BIGGEST concerns though is how this certification system your talking about will work.... One of the reasons I got into DE was bacause I like the idea of being able to make my own fighting droids (along with the other types)... I'm also working on Pistoleer... so combined, my thought was to be basicly a team of 2 while only being one player. This can get overpowerful right now if 3 or 4 people all have probots as they stand, and if they have creatures to boot... look out! So with this certification, will we as DE's be unable to use our own droids? I'm not just talking about calling thm out of storage.... Who is going to be able to fight with these droids? With the economy the way it is now, If a DE cant use his fighting droids for fighting, then some of us (myself included) would be better off going into conbat professions... making oodles of money though combat missions, and just buying them from those that have stayed in the profession... non-DE's still come up on top. So the real question there is... Who will be able to USE the droids... how is this cert system going to work (For the record, I like the idea that not everyone can have a fighting droid, just because they have the cash.... but I think that DE's should be able to use any droid they can craft... as a minimum)

Next thing, since you asked for comments and sugestions, I'm gonna gine 'em...

Shouldent Master DE's be able to have 2 droids out at a time?? My actual template as of now is master DE, master pistoleer, and enough medic to heal in the field. It would be really nice that since we cant call out droids outside of town... to have 2 droids... one a med droid and one a fighting droid... I think masters should at the least have 2 droids.

OK on to other things... I know this is long, but there are concerns here....

So with the probot nerf, the only other droid of use is the med droids. And from what I've seen... any med mouse will do for basic stuff. So why go higher?? Yeah I think that the 'effectivness' factor is a GREAT idea... at least then there is a reason to buy a better med droid.

Craft droids? fine... np... repaire droids? sure why not...

But lets work on this issue of data/item storage. I see no difference in my mouse when I do and do not have a data mod on it (havent bothered trying the inventory mod)... I can STILL store 20 items, data or inventory on it. And my med mouse is the same... what gives? Why make data droids that can store but not retiieve data? Why bothing making droids that hold stuff and not be able to move it that way to another planet? Why Why Why!?! I mean really??

Want to make a better droid?? How about one that can act as an active medic in the field?? I mean actually treat the wounds themselves without a medic? (with a camp = wounds.. without a camp = heals)... make them require stimpacks and med moduals and let them heal based on the stats of those? (future plans I know, but a nice droid idea)

• Have sensor moduals that help the player see farther on the radar...


• How about droids that send out a warning when alternate factions are in the area...


• What about a combat droid that takes a weapon as a component... so that it's fighting power is based on the weapon during construction...


• Droid mods that give the owner extra experimentation points (medic, art, weapon, cehicles when they come in, archetects, etc)...


• Music playing droids that can act as entertainers (ok so they should be uber nerfed to reduce the amount they heal... say twice as long as an entertainer or something like that)... I dont even get a radio to listen to when I'm in a camp hehe...


• R2D2 was pretty darn good at slicing computer terminals... hint hint...


• Another type of droid at novice would be supper nice!


• Protocall droids that affect NPC encounters (not sure about all the mechanics and such... but say a protocal droid that has a good personality chip and a Hutt on the other end of the conversation, things go better) (yeah big thing there heheh)...


• I dont remember seeing anything in droids about having built in factories... so how about that? Limit them in complexity of the item based on their brain type perhaps?? Dumb droids only make complexity 5 items... while upper ends can make higher complexity items... not as fgood as a REAL factory... but a cheaper fix...


• This is a pretty long list already... so I'll save the other ideas for another day and get back to the point (if anyone's still reading this)

The bottom line I suppose is that for the most part, droids have little function in SWG. From my perspective, after watching all the movies so far and reading a boat load of books... there were hella more people that had droids doing all kinds of tasks as opposed to CH's. But thats because the droids in SW actually DID something useful. In SWG I see little to no use for the droids I HAVE seen so far except the med mice and the probot.