Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: DE's I need two things from you please
There was only one plan, the rough DE one.
It sounded mostly good. A master-DE only combat droid -- I wouldn't use it, combat bores me. Tougher than a cowardly gurreck but weaker than a rancor, great. Master-only, fine. But with a great combat droid available to all of DE or even with 1 or 2 trees of DE, you'll get a prettysmashing number of elite crafters whoimmediately pick upDE-dabbler b/c it requires the least number of skill points for thegreatest combat bang(i.e. no need forgoing intoa combat profession if you already have Eng IV and can pick up a fabulous droid tank in 30 skill points or less).
Everything in SWG proceeds to its logical extreme. Very little that is intended to be rare stays rare for long.
My change:
New combat chassis!
Chassis's that I can sell to other people! And that I can put my name on. That would be nice. That would be really really nice.
I agree whole-heartedly with Sintrosi's "State of the Profession" post.
For discussion on the general "plan" post, please read the "DE Plan CONCERN thread"at http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=32197
Its stickied up top, ya can't miss it.
Some of my thoughts:
1) I like the idea of high level DE only combat models (or modules) as long as we have appropriategeneral combat chassis and modules to sell to others. If there has to be some cert system, key it to basic prof master and elite prof novice and master boxes across all professions...
2) I have NO problem with becoming the mechanical equivalent of a CH. So we're an artisan class. CH's are a Scout class.Neither basic prof is exactly a combat class. They tame. We craft. They'll have mounts and level 10 pets to sell. We'll have utility and low to mid level combat droids to sell.
3) The number one priority however, should be addressing the current list of bugs/design issues in Gorantooth's sticky "Issues" post http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=33835
And THANKS
A lot of people are angry. You haven't been here long, but I think except for a few that are poisoned beyond emotional repair, everyone will be happy to give you the benefit of the doubt.
All the professions can't be fixed at once, and FIFO is fine by me. Some professions have to be the last few fixed, thems the breaks.
Thunderheart, definitely go peruse the stickied "ideas for new modules and droid types" thread. Some great great great ideas in there.
Thunderheart wrote:
When it says only DE will be able to use these combat modules do you mean that only DE will be able to asemble these modules or that only DE will be able to use combat droids of any form?
Which would you prefer and why?
th
Anyone be able to use them.
I dont like pets anymore. 
Ye Gods
Thunderheart
You cannot be serious, I appreciate you reply late, but I have to wonder after how many beers?
Not to be rude but PLEASE stop asking questions that have already been answered over and over - READ the stickys, its not a long job, really it isnt.
Everything you asked has already been answered in this forum,every single thing. Take an afternoon, if your as serious as you say you are, and read..it wont take longer. I know you dont understand Droid issues, its good of you to admit it, but neither do the player base. Thats why we have a DE forum. If they wont read it, more so it behoves you to do so.
Please, stop the delaying tactics, if you want to be with DE's go in game with them. Feel the pain literally as we try to sell a decent chassis to a guy who knows well it all will fir in a MSE
Play a DE Thunder, its the only way you will understand, since you cant, or wont accept the Correspondent / Keeper of the issues list at face value.
I'm not going to post anymore on this, it makes me too depressed in RL, and thats not worth it.
STOP the delaying tactics, and read a well organised forum - been ignored since before launch, the summaries are good
Over to you, if you have the power to make things happen
Sorry for the negativity - I'm a Droid Engineer - its normal in Pet wars galaxies
Thunderheart wrote:
What things and which professions?
What items seem like the most important and which professions have interdependencies that are a lot of fun?
What entertains you folks?
I dont know what I can do, but there is a lot of talk about Combat Droids. There are a lot of dependencies here so its not an easy, cut and dry proposition...
why do you talk about 1 active pet per player as the maximum in the CH changes thread and here I read that you plan to have more than one active droid. Arent you guys talking with each other?
As a master CH I'd love to see a mount storage module that would allow me to store only those creatures that have been trained as mounts. I do love the fact that we're getting a little more pet storage space. But in my case I already have 16 pets, one of which is my personal mount. So the added space means I'd only be able to store 4 mounts to sell/give away.
At one time I was half way through the musician profession and thought how great it'd be if R2 units could record a jam session, or dancer's performance. Which would create a data disk I could remove from my R2 unit and sell to someone else that their R2 unit could play 1-5 times (like the message R2D2 played in Episode 4).
As for combat droids I thought that 3 levels of these wouldwork great and certifications coudl be in every profession based on skill levels. I outlined the idea along with a revamp of armors and armor certification (because they'd be at same levels as combat droid certifications) in this thread. http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=771651
I used to be a Master Artisan and considered going the DE route. Not to be able to control combat droids when/if they came out but to be able to sell ALL types of droids to everyone. Frankly if only DE were allowed to use the combat droids, you might as well make BE be the only class allowed to use the pets they create. After all it's the same concept.
Thunderheart wrote:
When it says only DE will be able to use these combat modules do you mean that only DE will be able to asemble these modules or that only DE will be able to use combat droids of any form?
Which would you prefer and why?
I would prefer combat droids to work like this...anybody use a level 10... novice ADVANCED class people get a higher level droid cert. at various places in the xp columns we get higher level certs... at MASTER an even higher one and maybe a +1 active...
It should not be a DE only thing! make it so we see more droids via higher level advanced classes EXCEPT in CH class...this will cut down on the CH people and push people higher up single classes and make pet wars more like star wars!
my 2 cents... make DE be the only +2 active class (totaling 3 droids out...any type of droids out)...
oh yeah...and bring on the droidekas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What I think almost all DEs will agree with the following needs in our profession:
1. Fixes to obvious bugs (droid naming, modules not working, etc)
2. A better set of combat droids
3. Droid should not accept any type of a module but only ones suited for its purpose -- there should be droid differentiation in abilities
4. Droids without any purpose right now (protocol droid, BLL) need to have interesting purposes.
5. Droids should be helpers to all other professions. There are tons of good ideas related to this elsewhere -- even in thevague DE "plan". Power droids that power harvesters (or whatever), repair droids that repair other things, astromech droids doing maintenance deliveries to harvesters, BLLs helping move structures without reclaiming deeds, etc etc etc. Not everyone agrees to every item in this list, but someone with authority should extend concrete proposals for _every_ droid type and then you can gauge DE community reaction to each one.
The Skinny! MOST IMPORTANT A MUST READ!
Quite frankly I think that Sodan is on the right track..
I really do think we need a battle droid for Rebels and one for Imps... Picture the rebels equiped with droideka.. seems odd to me...
We need more then 1 droid out for sure.. Matching the CH isgood..
Binary load lifter weapons is pretty cool..
In the future a mech droid that can act like a mount..
Mouse droid with bomb (not cool)..
Droideka adv for DE masters definitly or high ranking politicians governors etc..
the battle dorid in episode 1 sure why not..
rebels modify LE repair droids for combat and also load lifters..
Run of the mill droids that work..
The droids in episode 2 are cool..
DE should be able to make a mech suit like in the games if he has an armorsmith and architect to make the components with him..-These things are actually in other Star Wars Games..
*** Other
Shuttle for doing raids on enemy cities and bases (Like Planet Side)
Optional manual aim in PVP
R2 Hacking systems taking over a base
More clean cut objective to PVP.. there is none now and its not fun.. there is no way to guage truely who is winning the war.. At least not a way that really means anything like territory or whatever!
Just some ideas and oh yes no city waits at the **shuttle ports it makes the game take so long.. I can understand to go to another planet and not a 9 min wait.. It takes so much time to travel..
Thanks
Elitros(Mike) Master DE
So far I've been pretty successful at keeping quiet about what is, and what is not star wars to me. I like this game, and I feel that it is going in the right direction. It sounds like all we need is a clear picture of what we want, and we'll get it. (or close enough to it to not complain)
I'm not a Droid Engineer, and I haven't taken my character in that direction yet, but when I do I would like it to have:
I would like to see a greater breadth between the smallest droid to the largest droid. By this I mean that right now it feels like all the droids are between levels 1-5 (in Creature handler terms) I would like to see an assortment that widens the field (between levels 1-25 or so) We don't necesarrily need more droids, just make the differences between them very significant.
I would like more droids, we're in the right direction when we say battle droids, but I just wanted to add my voice, the star wars feeling can only increase when it comes to droid dependancy (unlike with CH, which I dabbled in for the combat benefit)
I understand the need to make a DE equivalent to a CH... and I'd like to see this happen, but at the same time for the non-DE I would still like to see a big enough selection that you see more droids running around than creatures. (it's a star wars thing)
In order to make the pain of droid death less painful, either make the droid repairable by a DE (kind of like the pets need vitality stuffs) Or make the steps to make them a little easier, and the resource requirement a bit more basic. One of the reasons I abandoned architect is because when I spend a week collecting everything I need to make something cool, then I get a critical fail, or somehow the item is destroyed it really hurts my feelings. I think that if the Droid Engineers weren't afraid of failure (so much) then maybe the cost associated with these droids can be reduced.
Even lackie droids like R2D2 ought to offer some kind of bonus in combat (even if it's tiny) after all, they seemed to help a lot during the battles in the original trilogy. (R2D2 sprays fire retardant to blind stormtroopers, he zaps an ewok to prove a point, plays a bit of intereference to confuse stormtrooper fire when directed towards chewbacca.)
I'd like to see medic droids that offer more than just false confidence... I think a medic droid ought to be able to at least help up someone who is incapped... I would also like to see it given the attributes of a novice medic (at least) I propose that you load some meds into the droid, (gives the actual player medics something to do) but the droid can only use stims at the level of novice medic unless your accompanied by a master medic or doctor or sumsuch. I think that if you limit the healing ability of the medic droid to novice medic it won't interrupt the game too much, medics will still have a place, but it'll make a market for the droids...
If this doesn't appease the medics out there, make it so a DE must have a component made by a medic in order to make the Medicine Dispercement Unit that gives the ability to heal on this level to the droid. I've noticed interdependancy isn't a BAD thing in SWG.
Maybe I'm falling into the same trap as everyone else... maybe this isn't what people want, or maybe it's too vague to do any good... I hope it isn't, but I'm still learning. As I said, I don't often state my oppinion on the forums.
Claudious Zankin
Ahazi
Carbineer/Bounty Hunter Carbineer/Master Marksmen
Hey Thunderheart!
I'm not a DE nor do I want to be. However, as a combat player I love the idea of having combat droids. Right now I have a Cowardly Gurrek for a pet, and it works great since I'm not a CH. However, I'm playing a Star Wars game and I'd much rather be using a droid instead of a cat.
With that being said, you asked:
When it says only DE will be able to use these combat modules do you mean that only DE will be able to asemble these modules or that only DE will be able to use combat droids of any form?
Which would you prefer and why?
Well, I think only a DE should be able to assemble them. They are Droid Engineers, so they should be able to make anything having to do with a droid. However, once the droid is crafted, you shouldn't have to be an engineer to use it.
Look at it this way: Engineers designed and built my car. I don't have a clue how to build a car, but I can operate one just fine. However, to operate it, I have to have a license. Could the same work for a droid? Maybe certain droids with certain modules can only be used by certain combat classes via the Certification system. So maybe a combat module that does basic Energy or Heat damage can be used by anyone, but if it has a module that does, say, blast or lightning damage, you have to have a certification for it, like maybe master Marksman or novice Commando or Bounty Hunter. Or have the certification in more than one spot, so a novice Pistoleer, Rifleman, or Carbineer can use it.
Sorry this got kinda long, but I wanted to give my thoughts! I hope it makes sense. If not, ask and I'll try to clarify!
I apologize up front that I only read the draft plan notes and TH's request for more input, but did not have time to get through all the feedback, so if I repeat things others have said, sorry. I am NOT a droid engineer (a master weaponsmith) but I love my droids but they don't do anything for me except to look cool in my shop. As a purchaser of droids and a crafter, here are some things I would like to see done with droids in SWG.
- Build on the concept of personalty chips and get our droids talking to anyone and everyone that come near. I want sarcastic droids that only say sarcastic things to it's owner (me). I was humorous droids that tell bad jokes forever. I was droids that think they know the meaning of life without telling your anything specific (think 8 ball). I want droids that talk and order around my other droids. Basically I want to see some life brought into our droids. Let the chips wear down and be replacable to keep the droid market active. Let the droid know and use it's owner's name.
- I want my personal assistant at all times. I want my droid to hold a lot more waypoint and comment information on places I've been, shops I like, etc. Similar to the planet listing option, I would like to call my droid (or just communicate via my datapad with him) and have all my exciting places and great shopsorganized by planet, type (shop/location/etc) with room for a short comment. As a crafter, I run out of datapad space and have to delete many great player shop locations or places I've explored. Take some of the features of the planet lookup and move it to your personal droid (or add more options only to your droid, like locations of elite trainers, etc). Give me the impression I'm talking or communicating with my droid (immersion)
- I want my droids to do some work for me. I'm tired of servicing my harvesters, trying to survey 10 planets, etc. Let me go to a planet and send out some droids to survey for me (based on my skill) with some level of risk they get destroyed during the surveying (low, but it will happen someday). Charge me for special motor batteries (expensive) to accomplish this. Give me a droid that will hop to a planet and pickup something I bought off the bazaar (take the costs from my bank including the extra charge for unescorted droids travelling in a city tax). Let me give my droid a weapon schematic and tell them how many I want and let them just grab the resources from my house and start my factory (ok, I'm getting lazy scanning for all the resources in my backpacks).
- Provide me some droids to make my hunting and mission trips better. Allow DE's to sell slicing droids to slice a terminal (disposable, one time use) to possibly increase my mission payout. Provide me a medical droid that a Master Doctor can install one set of buffs (based on the doc's skill)for my later application (one time use, disposable). How about some real combat droids that provide rechargable force fields (short term tanking) or are direct damage type attack droids. Make it so future speeders need a small droid for navigation.
- Skills rule this game, so why not offer droids that offer bonuses to various skills (skill mods wear down and need continual replacement). I would like a 10% experimentation bonus, or a 10% damage bonus for a hunting droid.
Part of the fun of being a weaponsmith is the effect experimentation has on the overall product and how good/bad resources continue to make existing weapons fresh and exciting as better resources show up. Many of these types of ideas could be adjusted based on the quality of the resources and the level of experimentation applied (i.e. 6% bonus to damage versus a Master with awesome resources that provides 20%). These concepts need to be further expanded in all fields so that Masters can specialize in one area to provide some diversity to all the various Masters on the server (i.e. you can pick 10 or 30 colors when you Master, you can get 5% to this area, etc).
The need for continual replacement parts and complete droids is needed to make this profession something to keep you busy for a long time. Even non-combat droids need some care, maybe have the color of them fade over time when a new skin must be purchased to restore it luster.
I have no idea what the day-to-day issues are for a DE, but I know I own almost every droid there is and they do nothing for me and never need replacing. Droids have no soul right now. So from a consumer's point of view, those are some things I would like to see.
We all wait for some exciting changes to the SWG droid world. Hope it happens.
Merett, Lowca
Master Weaponsmith