Droid Engineer Archive

I read this on another thread. but its such a good idea that im promting it on! this guy is not a DE but his ideas got straigth to my DE heart!! DEV'S!! DO THIS NOW!! this is what we DE's need!

Coute: First off, I'm a consumer, not a droid engineer. But I am against the notion of combat droids. I think they're unbalanced and it'll just lead to the mechanical version of the Poke-mon phenomenon we've seen with pets. Bad idea allaround. You'll have the same imbalances and inherent advantages that the pet players have right now, you'll have the same attempt at dabbling, and it'll be the same power-disparity between haves and have-nots as you see currently. Everyone will have to buy a droid to remain competitive, the same way everyone has to buy a pet currently or an AT-ST or whatever. But, while this may provide a short-term boost in droid sales, combat droids are not the solution to this profession's economic viablility. Sooner or later, people will just pick up DE and make the droids themselves. And remember, you guys are droid ENGINEERS, not droid HANDLERS. No, I think that more interesting and useful, and more importantly, more FUN droids ARE the solution. So, I'm proposing general revisions to the basic droid chassis that I know about.

Please excuse me if I forgot to include a particular chassis, and excuse the lack of the advanced chassis here. I figure the advanced models would just be better functioning versions of the ones I describe.

Second, I'm not actually discussing the particular modules, but I don't think it'd be hard to do any of what I suggest. Simply make certain new modules that have particular functions. Allow these modules to be installed on limited types of droid chassis. Or, permit them to be installed in different numbers (IE: better functionality).

So, with that in mind, here goes.

Instead, I offer the following suggestions for making the existing droids more FUN to use and more USEFUL overall:

1.) Mouse Droids -- Currently decent for storage and that's about it. The mousedroid bomb idea is a REALLY bad idea. I'd say a better solution is to make mouse droids more useful in terms of the GCW. This would require fixing the base issue, but the current TEF/house thing may help there. I'd like to see mouse droids used as remote cameras or spy units. You could use these when preparing to assault a base. A competent Droid Engineer would be able to craft a Spy module which would let the mouse droid get past the bases defense and report back on the status of the base (what kind of defenses, troops, etc. are present). You could also make a counterspy module which would allow defensive mouse droids (mousetrap droids?) to catch incoming spy droids. Mouse droids could also act as remote alarm units that could warn you when someone crosses a particular perimeter or is within scanner range.

2.) Probe Droids -- leave the blaster function, but give them very light/weak armor and a self-destruct mechanism. Probe droids could be used similarly to scout out areas while not exposing the owner to any kind of significant harm. Less concealable than a mouse droid, but able to defend itself. Same goes for the sentry function. It could warn you, but also defend itself and act as a picket for bases or PA halls.

3.) R-series droids -- give them different levels of functionality, but allow them to become MUCH more interactive with the environment than they currently are. When vehicles and spaceships are implemented, allow astromechs to repair ships if they carry a specific type of repair unit. This unit could be consumed over time, or could be less effective than human interaction by the vehicle crafting profession. Also give them the ability to interface with computer terminals. Smugglers could use droids to help with slicing weapons, armor, and terminals. Other players could use R-series droids to help take over or better automate a base's defense systems (perhaps, if programmed with a tactical interface module). Data storage could be useful as well. R-series droids should also be able to scan for hostile creatures and report back with more useful data, similar to the extended information that scout players see (maybe for humanoids, it could tell you what kind of weapon they're wielding and that sort of thing).

4.) Power droids -- You can keep droid batteries, or you can buy a power droid. The power droid would degrade over time (unless you maintained it with the help of a repair droid -- more on that later), but could provide your droid stable with an otherwise inexhaustable supply of power. Let's be honest. How many people ACTUALLY sell droid batteries anyway?

5.) Medical droids -- Allow them to heal people or control specific structures (IE: bacta tanks) that players could craft in their own hospitals. Bacta tanks could be something you give to artisans or architects. Operating tables, bacta tanks, etc. could all play an integral role in the upcoming player cities. Rather than the usual medical center, where people simply stand around, you could allow people to open their own healing buildings which could run automated, similar to how factories run currently (for purposes of XP, I mean). Any player who used your bacta tank or whatever would pay an access fee, be healed quickly, and this would result in a gain of XP for the player. Of course, hands-on experience pays off better XP-wise, but this could help boost the medical players' economic abilities. Concordantly, by requiring that medical droids (the current one is good, I'd throw in the FX7 as well) be employed along with the bacta tanks, you create interdependency among professions and give DE's useful equipment to sell to the public.

6.) Repair droids -- Similar to medical droids, you could permit repair droids to operate automated repair facilities for DEs. Of course, a DE should be able to repair a droid up to full health (I support MAINTENANCE decay, in that if you don't repair your droid it will decay over time, but I do NOT support that decay even AFTER you get your droid fixed up-- hell, R2-D2 was functioning for, what, 50 something years?) and gain DE experience for doing so. But when they're not online, you could visit the DE's shop, talk to his repair droid, and get your own droids repaired up to full functionality. Maybe even throw on a new coat of paint. Repair droids could also run customization stations, or customization could be an additional feature of the repair station. Anyway, this offers more functionality. Higher level DEs could craft these for lower level DE's to use when they're away from the shop.

7.) Treadwells -- I'd make treadwells the "jack of all trades/master of none" droid as far as the following functions go: they'd be able to perform limited repair for you, they'd be able to do limited maintenance for you, they'd be able to interface with computers for you in a limited way, they'd even be able to perform limited patrol duties for you, but they wouldn't do it as well as any of the other droids out there that are built for the specific task. Alternatively, you could make treadwells the new mobile crafting stations, a function that no other droid would be able to perform at quite the same level (other droids could do crafting, but could hold fewer crafting modules maybe -- those are details to be ironed out).

8.) Binary Load Lifters -- I think these guys should be the workhorses of the droid line. MAJOR storage capacity (since we can't implement that they haul boxes around). They could act as walking warehouses for you. Not too bright, but a strong back and plenty of storage. No fighting capabilites, though. What would these guys be useful for? Well, especially when the space expansion comes out, how the heck are people supposed to get things on and off their ships in mass quantities? Load lifters, my friend. Load lifters. You could also use these to operate automatically when you're not around, in order to maintain your factories, harvesters, and the like. Provided you keep the droid within a particular radius of the facility in question, the droid could stand as sentry for you, depositing power and credits into your harvesters and removing resources when the harvester fills up. Or, you could set waypoints so that the droid patrols between a power generator and a harvester/factory. When your factory is full, the droid could remove the crates for you if you're not online.

9.) Protocol droids -- This will require a major overhaul of languages, but personally, I think that's entirely necessary. I get sick and tired of everyone talking the same in this game. Where's the gibberish? Where are the subtitles? I never hear anyone say "Ooota goota, Solo? Som pichale. Mi paratraski chi-sa. Jabba wa ninchi koch-pa..." Instead it's just the same old stuff I always see. Wookiees speak perfect english, Rodians speak perfect english, EVERYONE speaks perfect english. It's boring. Enter the language nerf. That's right. I said it. Language nerf. Everyone is given the choice of two or three languages that they can learn in addition to their native tongue. After that, you need a protocol droid to translate, or a friend who understands the language. This might help make Undeworld I in smuggling a little more useful (FYI it gives you the ability to understand all languages), though frankly, I'd drop that from the skill line anyway. Anyway, so you'd need to have a protocol droid to do translation for you. Additionally, I'd have protocol droids be programmed in DROID languages, which no player (except maybe DEs) could speak. You'd need a protocol droid to program your binary load-lifters at least to perform the higher end functions like maintenance while you're offline.

10.) DZ-270 (or whatever) tracking droids -- I honestly don't know much about these things, so I don't really know what they're used for. I'd make them capable of traking people down for bounty hunting purposes, naturally, or possibly use them to deliver goods from one person to another. IE: I send craftsman X a request for a gun. He crafts the gun, places it in his tracker droid, and then says "Go find Solo4114." The droid takes off, finds me, and delivers the gun or message or whatever you stored in it. R-units and probe droids could have similar functionality, but on a more limited basis (IE: "R2, go find Obi-Wan and tell him topick up bread on his way back from work.") The more sophisticated the unit, the faster it can get to the player. But I figure that tracking is tracking, and why not let them be delivery units as well?

11.) Miscellaneous Customizations -- Well, obviously, Droid customization needs an overhaul. Pre-patch droids don't customize properly, which is a pain. But, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Painting your droid is a minor thing. I'd want to see personality chips come back in a big way. I've never figured out why the devs couldn't implement something like a personality chip for non-verbal droids (IE: R-units). Simple messages like "Bleeps indignantly" or "Chirps obediently" would make droids infinitely more interesting than they are now. Also, PLEASE let people name their droids with alphanumeric names. Droids should not be named Sparky, or Chip or whatever. Droids should be R5-X2, BL-24, etc. If people want to name 'em Bollocks or Blue Max or whatever, that's fine too, but give us the option to call a droid whatever we want.

12.) Droid calling abilities -- Give people the ability to call and have out multiple droids. Don't treat them like pets. Maybe DEs can call more droids than anyone else, or maybe not. Personally I don't think that's necessary. Droids are not pets, nor should they be treated as such. Droids are independent, highly sophisticated mobile computers with extended functionality. They're 100% obedient, they don't need to be *PLAY*ed with, and they can operate independently of player interaction for greater periods of time. This is the real value of droids. Remember why they exist: automated labor functions. A droid is fundamentally created and designed to perform tasks FOR you, especially laboring functions that you'd rather not perform yourself. To me, it's VERY starwarsy to walk by someone's house or estate and see that they're not signed on, but ten droids are wandering around performing various tasks ranging from basic sentry work, healing, repairing, maintaining, etc. Think about the Lars homestead in Ep. IV. There were tons of droids just trucking around doing their own thing. If no one talked to them for days, they'd probably still be doing their own thing, assuming that they didn't break down or something. That's my ultimate vision.

And think of the benefit this would be for crafters. Right now, crafters have to work overtime to fix their harvesters, check power supplies, remove excess resources for storage, and on and on and on. It's a grind, and it's a pain, and if I could get a droid to do it for me, you can bet your boots I'd buy one faster than you can say "Roger roger!"

So, there you have it. A modest proposal for howto avoid Pet Wars II: Droid Wars, and yet still make DEs economically viable, and make droids actually really REALLY cool. Hell, I'd love to buy a whole stable of droids and just have 'em wander around outside the house I plan to buy. If they could actually FUNCTION for me, that'd be even better.

I notice some people mentioned making it so some modules only work with certain droids.

I propose a compromise. I think a complete restriction of modules to certaion droids would stifle creativity on the droid engineers part. how about limiting the level of the modules, and then giving certain droid chasis inhertand/builtin functionality that is separate from modules

Fro example all droids could use a med module 1 and a repair module. But the Surgical droid can use a level 6 med and can use stims. I want to be able to use my R2 for repairs, he did it in the movies. But the Repair droid should be able to do it better. Droids should repair VEHICLES

****Creat a Creature cage that can be picked up by the Binary load lifter, maybey have the Master Artisan make the cage****

Slicer Droid Modues, with the R2/R3 droids having an advantage

A survey droid could be interesting, and what about a harvester droid.

A remote camera droid that is a disposable item like the seeker droids when you activate it you get to fly around with a birds eye view for like 3minuts or something.

Salesman/Add Droids would be cool

Battle Droids for all/ and Droideka for Master Droid Engineers Only

Jukebox module for entertainers and canteenas.

It is important to improve the use of Droids in the game, without weakening the player characters direct effectiveness. This can be done by limiting who can use some Droids and improving the player characters effectiveness with a droid.

Droid Module Usage -- When a droid uses a module (level 6) it should use more power than a module (level 5). The designers wisely limit the use of Player Character effects by costing HAM to use special abilities. Doing the same with Droids and their modules will help keep the Droids from getting out of control and taking over the Galaxies. Limit what kind of Droid can use which kind Modules (and let the Players know when a module that has no current use; this will save the frustration of installing it).

Profession Droids -- Droids that have functionality only accessable and/or more effective for specific Elite Professions. It is important that the Droid and the modules compliment and not replace the need for that profession.

Profession Modules -- The modules should improve or add skills to an eliteprofession. Attempt to tie components within the module to the targeted elite profession.

Power-Ups -- Give Droids specialmodules (that will allow droids to accept specificpower-up items).Much as with weapons, these should wear outwith use. However, unlike weapons the owner should NOT be able to replace the power-up by themselves (unless they are a DE). They should have a DE replace the power-up in the Droid. This will increase the need for DEs and at the same time limit some of the effectiveness of the power-up. It will also require a way to monitor the remaining condition of the power-up.

Combat Droids and Modules -- Increasing the combat effectiveness of Droids is a dangerous thing. It can easily get out of balance with the rest of the game. Armors and Weapons that must be replaced will help a bit to keep the balance in check. But increasing the cost of use will do as much if not more.

Droid Engineers -- DEs should be able to use ANY of their Droids; yet they may not be able to use Profession Modules if they don't have the profession. They should be able to have more Droids active much the same way that CHs can have more pets active.

Specific Droid Suggestions:

Surgical Droids--The same med module should be effectively better in a Surgical Droid than in any other droid. And when directed bythe ownerDoctor be able to apply medicines that have been placed inthe Droidsstorage bin to whatever target the Doctor directs it. A Surgical Droid with an internalChemical Crafting Station and a Storage Bin might bedirected tomake medicines (without crates, this will fill up the bin quickly) at the Doctors or Combat Medics direction. Bio-Engineering may also have specific Surgical Droid uses (just not sure what).

Battle Droid -- Much more powerful combat droid. The elite professions of Droid Engineer, Bounty Hunter, Commando and Squad Leader shoud be the only professionsallowed to control a Battle Droid. ButONLY the Master Squad Leader should be able to use a Battle Droid without it counting againstthe total number of active droids.

Recon Droid -- A droid allowing for remote viewing. Usable by any profession; however,Master Rangers may use without counting against the total number of active droids.

DampenerDroid -- This droid is designed to drain ALL the power (Mind) froma singledroids within range; this does not destroy the droid only render it inactive. The power can be then used to power other droids much the same as a Battery Droid would. This is the ultimate anti-droiddevice (this feature takes time to recyle). Only usable by Droid Engineers.

Kiosk Droid -- A mobile vendor usable by aMerchant. The Merchant may tell the Droid to Stay and leave it till later. The droid then becomes a vendor at that location. Modules might include an Advertisement module that allows droid to display adds that either rotate or scroll above the droid.

Kitchen Droid -- Usable by Chefs.

Garment Droid -- Usable by Tailors.

Makeup Droid -- Usable by Image Designers.

Stage Droid -- A portable stage usable by the elite professions of Musician and Dancer.

Lifter Droid -- Uable by Architects and City Designers. Used to moveLot items to new locations.

MaintenanceDroid --These are installedArchitects and City Architects intoBuildings andStructures (non-personal), and reduce the mainentance cost or the structure.At most these droids are an animation associated with that structure. These Droids DO NOT count against active droid limits.

Notes:
- I intentionally left off Ranged and Brawler (non-hybred)elite weapon professions; I could not seethese professions directing a specialized Droid.
- Ialso can not see Creature Handler profession directing a specialized Droid.

Specific Module Suggestions:

Shield Module -- This should be as a Power-Up. The module should allow the DE to install a Shield (from the Armor Smith) into a Battle Droid (and ONLY a Battle Droid). It should NOT limit the other armors used on the Battle Droid. This shield willadd additional armor effectiveness to the Droid, as it does with players.

Ranged Weapon Modules -- Ranged weapon attachment module which allows for the insertion (by a DE) of a specific ranged weapon for use by the Droid. The module includes instructions for the weapon use by the droid. (see power-ups)

Melee Weapon Module -- Melee weaponsattachment module which allows for the insertion (by a DE) of a specific melee weaponfor use by the Droid. The module includes instructions for the weapon use by the droid. Will be very hard to animate.(see Power-Ups)

Astro Mech Module -- For use inastro mech styledroids (for later use when personal craft are allowed).

Translation Module -- For Protocol Droids. These should allow for the owner to direct the protocol droid to translate what the target is saying. This will enable role players who don't want to learn all the languages of the Galaxy, the abiltyto still understand what other players are saying.

About colors on the computer. The reason they are Red Green Blue as the primary colors instead of Red Yellow Blue is that there are two color spectrums. The first color spectrum deals with pigments (paints and such) and is called the additive spectrum since you add the colors together to get black. The second is based upon light (like the rastors in a monitor) and is called the subtractive spectrum since you remove the light to get black. Just a note. All computers work on the subtractive spectrum.

How about this, we can actually experiment on crafting stations to make them better with a functionality.

Droidekas doesnt sound like a droid equal of a rancor, a spider droid or hailfire droid is more like it, it should have similar stat or superior stat as a rancor, since droid cost money and time to build, not to mention the variability in stat of the droid due to resource, but ch pet is always in constant supply, quality. therefore droid should be much more powerful than some organic creature, and of course spider droid or hailfire droid would reserve for master DE only, as with drodeka it could be limit to player with 95% of skill point trained.

Knowing that your probably already tired of reading all the rehashing I'll make it short.

Delevery/harvestor colletion droids

Rickshaw droids

"Insect Droids"

Pit droids

A Variety of battledroids

Have modules that can be "replaced" or interchanged. ex battle droids w/ variing weapon-shield mods that can be interchanged after wear-ou t or if a customer changes their mind. Even if in the process the old module is destroyed.

Have Advanced frames for all the new droids... personally i like having a "showroom" to let people know what the droid looks like (not all are familiar with the different droid frames). Secondly there are many people who like having the non-functioning droid in their house/pa for decoration.

Certs are a good idea but keep in mind that there are professions that require them to goto some VERY UNFRIENDLY WORLDS to collect their resources,doctors for example, anything under a LVL 15 might not be enough help to just survive the resource collection, exspecially when the "free death bus trips" are nurfed.

Thanx for all the patience and good work guys.

The dumbest ideas I see here are mind-bogglingly brilliant compared to what I've seen the design and development team come up with.

Just an FYI from a long-time DE sufferer.

"My idea is to make droids consumable."

-Credit to one of the many above

I'd like to say that the survey droid module should be usable by anyone without Artisan skill.

Here's how to do it:

I purchase a 'survey droid' and since i have no /survey skill the droids data disk tells me only what resources are available. Not where they are, not what quality, only a list I can retrieve to see if there's anything i 'might' be interested in.

Then, I could hire a real /surveyor to find out the qualities of the specific item I'm after, knowing that at the least, I'm not sending them on a worthless mission.

I don't think that this idea would hurt SWGcrafter.com either, instead, people would easily supply a complete list of resources but only the true surveyors would be able to tag them with statistics.

Also, I'd like /survey droids to have a chance of being 'eaten' by some creature or stolen by some 'plasma thief.'

BLL's used for to reduce costs on redeeding harvestors, when someone has a BLL out the cost of redeeding is little to none.

When You have 10000 credits in one harvestor and when you redeed and put it back out it has huummm lets say 10000 credits in it.

Hail, I am a Droid Engineer:

I have an idea for Droid Engineer, since most of the quest rewards are bad in this game, why not putting some droid engineer badges or quests in game? The badges can be a quest or a drop of a NPC in dungeons like Warren or anywhere else. After we gota Droid Engineer Badge, it mayunlock somehidden schematics in our DE datapads. In other words, people with badges willmake more stuff then people without ones.The hidden schematics maybe a deed for a personal probot(more hp, more damage, etc.), better quality components, parts, better protection madule....As a game designer, sometime I feel Devs are just fooling us arround and trying to keep us in game with all those unrealistic promises. I have no problem about making Droid engineer better or stronger,we obviously are weak now. If Devs really worry about making Droid Engineer tough will unbalance the game, then make the droids professionalized or lvlized. I don't want to suffer the weakness because other professions' bitter comments.

Vena'es

Droid Engineer

I havethree ideas,none of themare very thought out, but I'll say them just in case anyone likes them.

I would like to see a delivery type droid that would find a player (go to their house, a waypoint, or just locate the player) and deliver an item, or maybe data. This droid could be made to accept a certain amount of credtis in exchange for this item.

Also it wold be nice to see a droid that could sit in a specific location and be conversable (:smileytongue. By this i mean it could be programed to act like an npc giving out information programed into it by being asked a set of programed in questions, the converser (:smileytongue would be able to select one. Could be used to give information (maybe it would just be cool to hear someone tell somone else to ask their droid for more info).

My third idea would be a portable mission terminal type droid. One that could acess a mission terminal remotely (probably still relativly close to the terminal) and recieve missions (maybe with some drawbacks to make things fair)

I don't know how the multiple droid issue is going, but i think my first two droid idea should not count against our limit of droids out at one time.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.