Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: DE's I need two things from you please
I've read both plans and like them both. We really need something done with DE. I haven't botherd to gain MDE yet myself mainly because I have no reason to.
I like the idea kicking around here of letting masters of elite combat professions gain a cert allowing them to call a combat droid.
We droid engineers need droids that player want. Combat droids are at the top of the list. I like the MDE can call any droid and a MDE can call more than one droid ideas.
How can you even think, you can make droids good on the current system?
Scrape the stupid deed system and fix the original droid system. Droids are items, we need to see there stats and colours when we buy or trade them. Painting them afterwards is another 'cheap solution' forget resale.
I won't be playing DE or buying things from them anymore, I'll be ignoring the fact that they partially work as intended, they ruin the immersion for me at the moment.
All right I'll toss my 2 cents in both on Thunderhearts Original Post and The Late Night Post
Original Post:
Yes, Sintrosi hit it right on the head. Forget the tone of the address, for a second, look at these boards, and you will see the exact same information over and over again. Sin's right on, Fix the bugs first. Don't just fix a few and think it will solve the problem. There are lists and lists of bug in this forum, find them, use them.
The Plan? Parts are good, parts are bad. Its pointless to cover it here, its been covered BEFORE, look at the information here, we did the talk about the plan.
Late Night:
Thunderheart you are asking questions , and for that you get points. But honestly all of the topics you cover (covering someone else's post) have been beat to death on this board.
I'm not going to just leave this with "look at the boards the info is there".
Fixing the class isn't rocket science. First someone needs to sit down and find and list all the bugs.This needs to be addressed first; thenfind them, and fix them.Dont even think about new content until this is done. If someone actually was given this task I have hopemany if not all the bugs could be fixed in a matter of weeks.
Then this same person needs to return here, and figure out a working plan to upgrade the class.Not some vague set of ideas from a Burger kKng lunch break, but a real working plan with a timeline.Ipersonally don't care if I see this timeline, if changes are happening. If we can see things changing, people will regain lost hope.
DE's are the most patient people in SWG, we've waited this long for a fix. But plain and simple you are going to lose MANY of us if we don't see results NOW.
We need a real combat droid. We need some sort of reason to sell more then MSE's with Food/Chem Craft, Medical 110. We need honest answers, and a real plan. And we NEED BUG FIXES.
Lyoncage wrote:
“What items seem like the most important and which professions have interdependencies that are a lot of fun?”
Kill the Bounty Hunter Droid terminals and let DE make all the Seekers and Probe Droids. It will build a nice market for that…being able to make these with better chances to find the BH mark and what not.
Pretty sure this has been done already... The originally had the BH Droid Terminals up because there wasn't enough DE's that could make them... Now that there are several established DE's on every server, they removed 'em.
Au-Ru Blasterkin - Master Droid Engineer of Intrepid
1) Sinistorio's Plan is spot on... perfect. Every thing we are looking for and more. Top priority is to fix bugs.
2) I think there are some interesting gems in the ROUGH plan. But there is alot of muck that is surrounding it. No mouse exploding droids. New chasis were not listed. Mentioning of bugs were hardly adressed.
I cannot reitirate enough. FIX BUGS first.
Then make it so that droids have specific purpose.
e.g. let a surgical droid to be able to include the best medical module but a R2 perhaps only level II but otherwise it can include all types of crafting stations while a surgical droid only gets Food&Chemical. Otherwise I assume there will be only the "best" type of droid that will be build (either the one with most modules or adv mouse because the customer only needs one module).
On Combat droids:
There should be special chassis that can include higher level combat modules (perhaps 5 levels as the others:
level 1: weak melee attacks
level 2: stronger melee attacks
level 3: weak blaster attacks
level 4: stronger blaster attacks
level 5: something like heavy weapons fire (e.g. rocket launcher/flame thrower)
level 6? : stronger level 5 version
Let the use of these modules drain the droids action/mind like player special moves and let repair droids or droid engineers with repair kits refill these.
Like the above suggestion let some chassis be able to inclde higher level modules than others (i.e. a medical droid cannot include a combat module, a R2 a level 1 (its electric wielder
), a binary loader perhaps level 2, a probot level 3, Adv Probot Level 4 and at least one new chassis (droideka, as the models allready exist ingame perhaps ?) that can inlcude level 4 and level 5 (adv chassis).Usefull things for other professions:
Medical modules in droids offer healing bonus to medics near them (in addition to the ability to heal wounds). So if a master doctor uses a stimpack and a droid with medical module is near, he heals for more or can faster heal, increase buffs etc.
Item repair modules that help in repairing damaged items (with the new item decay and the still very uneffective repairing processes this could be high demand)
Harvester Module:
Let a droid with this module be able to get 1 to 5 waypoints (depending on level) and money and energy then they automaticly empty and refresh harvesters. It would be cool if they really walk to the harvester but with the problems in AI-pathfinding, perhaps it would be better to calculate some time, depending on distance and level of module and then the droid "remotely" looks for the harvesters, but physically stands in place. So to look for 5 harvesters 10 min each, he will be ready to store or use again in 50 minutes, something like this.
Combat support modules:
Tactical Modules that included in a droid, give a to-hit bonus to every player in group (and in range). Or give a defensive bonus (something like a shield generator).
Entertainer modules:
Let the droid be able to support entertainer healing/Buffing
Factory modules:
Such a module would work like a stationary factory, but perhaps take more time to build the items and perhaps with limited input hopper capacity. The level should limit the max. complexity of the Schematic to be manufactured. This would allow crafters to use factories "in field" and allows mobile crafters to manufacture things without the need of a stationary factory
Another idea for factory modules would be, that if you include one in a droid with a crafting station and then craft you would be able to "manually" craft the Schematic that is inserted, so basicly the final item would be the same as build by a factory but build via this droid with the normal crafting tool (this would allow to build some Schematic things that you need only a few items without a factory)
Slicing modules etc.
Droid Certification:
If its a problem that everybody can use every droidmodule (which for sure is), perhaps include a new "profession" droid operator. This one would not use any skill points or fewer than a normal profession (as this would limit the droids usage). You get different usage xp for using a droid with a given module.
Everybody gets access to novice droid operator
Novice droid operator: Module type 1 usages, some general chassis certifications (Mouse droid, R5, DZ70, Treadwell), 1 droid out
Utility Droid usage tree (Utility droid usage XP)
Level I: type 2 crafting/harvester/factory modules
Level II: type 3 crafting/harvester/factory modules
Level III: type 4 crafting/harvester/factory modules
Level IV: type 5 crafting/harvester/factory modules
Combat Droid usage tree (Combat droid XP)
Level I: type 2 combat and tactical modules
Level II: type 3 combat and tactical modules
Level III: type 4 combat and tactical modules
Level IV: type 5 combat and tactical modules
Medical Droid usage tree (Medical Droid XP)
Level I: type 2 medical/entertainer modules
Level II: type 3 medical/entertainer modules
Level III: type 4 medical/entertainer modules
Level IV: type 5 medical/entertainer modules
General Droid Usage tree (general droid usage xp, something like combat xp, you get everytime you use some type of droid)
Level I: Adv Novice models, R4, Power Droid
Level II: Probot, Adv R4, Repair Droid, R2, Surgical Droid
Level III: Adv Probot, binary loader, R3, Adv Power Droid, +1 droid out
Level IV: Combat Droid, Adv surgical, Adv Repair
Master Droid Operator
All modules (type 6)
All chassis (Adv Combat, Adv R3, Adv binary loader)
+1 droid out (3)
This to implement would be quite a big effort but could make the droid engineer a fun and balanced profession I think.
1. I agree 100% with the Sinostri State of the Profession
2. Not convinced the Plan set the right priorities
3. What do we need, been said a million times, but fix the bug list (and boy there are some real quick wins in there, gotta be quicker to fix stuff than invent new stuff!), then give us a "pet" level combat droid we can sell, a bigger one we can use if we want to, and some modules that we can fit that increase the ability for other professions (ie survey modules. sample modules, etc)
Finally, stop listening and start doing
Nevad, DE, Kettemoor
You've done a fantastic job of telling me what you dont want, but only a few put effort in what they DO want and it left me without the impression of a central direction that will suit most of your purposes.
There are many many many many many posts on this board about what we do want. There is an entire thread here plainly labelled 'Ideas for new modules and droid types'.
There is also a Centralised Droid Issues Thread listing our major concerns with current bugs.
I do understand you have only been in the job for 2 1/2 weeks, and reading all of the posts in a professions forum would take up far too many of your limited hours available, but we have been lobbying for fixes and changes for the past 4 months and our issues and concerns are clearly labelled and very kindly floated at the top of our forum by our correspondant.
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?
Again I direct your attention to This Thread which contains our ideas for new modules to help other professions, including but not limited to, smugglers, entertainers, artisans etc.
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?
The main sticking point is most DEs want to be able to craft things that are desirable by other player classes and actually be able to sell something for a while. Yes we would love some DE only droids, but it isnt a priority. Being able to craft combat droids that the majority of the player population wants (especially if they are only allowed 1 active pet at a time) is what we want.
Umm, please tell me more about this. Sounds like it is gonig to be stepping all over me and my fellow healers.
What are your conerns?
You already addressed this concern in your own post. Medics are concerned they will no longer be required if people have droids that heal them. I thought it was a pretty straightforward point...
I also must admit to looking for a bit more specificity,
Like what?
Like specifics. Not we are thinking about maybe possibly doing this sometime in the next 6-8 months. Things along the line of: Yes we understand this is a problem, and we have what we think is a definite answer by doing x, y, and z which will alleviate your concerns by doing this...
Only DE's would make them. Any Droid owner would gain the benefits of their Droids Abilities...
Thankyou! That was one of the major concerns from the plan thread cleared up right there. We were just totally unsure if all the new combat modules you were planning were unavalailable to our end customers.
What WOULD make you go "yay"?
I can't speak for the person you were answering but I know what would make me go yay. Actually having something that players want to buy from us. Entertainer modules for dancers and Musicians. Slicer modules for Smugglers. Building and Harvester maintenance monitor modules so people dont have to run 15km to check if their harvesters are still running... again go take a look at the 9 page list of things we have already expressed an interest in the devs adding to the game.
Will droid power rates be looked at?
I dont know, how does it work and what's the problem?
At the minute a droid requires a battery to be used once every 20 minutes. Thats an awful lot of batteries and people are starting to get fed up with it and not using their combat droids because its too much hassle and not "fun". If your droid complains of *Low Power* then it will no longer attack (if its a probot), its medical module will no longer work, it will no longer group with you... I wanted to sit in popular places with my Power Droid which can recharge other droids, except that every 20 minutes the little power reactor on legs complains of *Low Power* and has to be recharged from a battery... a little stupid dont you think?
I also notice you mentioned the concerns over medical droids replacing medics and doctors three times in your post TH. There have been a couple of suggestions posted but can I suggest we get the medical correspondants and their players to consult on this? I dont want every single medic on my server spitting at me as I walk through town, and consulting with them long before any changes are made.
I understand that you have a lot on your plate TH, but we are here trying to help. We've been making lists since release, just take a glance at them and you will start to get some picture of the changes we are looking for.
It's only a short read, so you might want to take a look.
Maybe the DE's could make basic armor, weapons, shields for their combat droids but to get the best weapons/armor/shields they have to turn to other crafters. Combat charcters have to group and work together I think this is a great opportunity to add that in for crafters.
Perhaps for the medic droids they have to get some componants from doctors too ?
Let me preface my post with one sentence:
I am not a droid engineer.
That out of the way, I would like to see the following be functions of, or performed by a droid:
- Increased scan range on radar (instead of things popping 90m out, seeing them pop 150m out). R2's scanning consistantly was made use of in the movies, in one case spotting Luke (a Jedi) long before he spotted the Rebel Commandos hiding in the Endor foliage.
- Profession specific droids to assist witth the basic functions of a player in that profession. More on this in a bit. This would be a HUGE boon to various professions. Bounty Hunters already have droids specific to their purpose, let's start seeing them for other classes.
- Vehicle/Ship repair (obviously only suited to the Vehicle update and Space Expansion). Droids should repair minor damage on both Vehicles and Ships. This seems like a no-brainer, and something to release with the updates, not after.
- Door access (in err... uhh... "dungeons", or areas such as the Warren, Droids of certain types should be able to open Blast doors and the like, only accessable to those with the means to open them (smugglers via slicing, and droids).
- Combat Droids usable in lieu of what "pets" are used as today. This is a touchy subject, but I don't believe the removal of pets on a broad scale enhances the feel of Star Wars Galaxies as a whole. I do feel that replacing the current multitude of creature pets with droids and "factional" or mercenary pets would enhance that.
Pets in general allow an area to feel much more crowded than current technical specs will allow for players to exist in the same location. An example of this is a small 2-3 person rebelband with factional pets attacking an Imperial base. Game specs and player population may not allow say 20 people to attack a base, but if you have 4-5 with factional pets and droids attacking, then the game all of a sudden takes on a different scope, and one that feels much more like Star Wars.
In the movies, we rarely see small battles. If they are shown, they are mostly encounters between Jedi (Obi Wan and Vader, Luke and Vader, Han and Vader, Obi Wan, Anakin, Duku and Yoda, Obi Wan, Qui Gon and Maul, etc etc. You get the point.) Thus, I see no reason why a combat droid such as a droideka should not be permitted. The general feel of Star Wars was not one of pitched battles between the heroes and the enemy. It was one of quick skirmishes resulting in victory or capture for the heroes, with only few notable exceptions.
It would be nice to see this reflected by allowing Droids to fill the void left by the removal of creature pets. I realize this is, in design terms, exchanging one "evil" for the next, but in terms of the setting you are (or should be) trying to recreate, it makes sense.
On to what I feel should exist for profession-specific droids:
- Crafting droids:
One type of droid, or single type of droid with multiple exclusive modules,should exist for Artisan, and another for each of the specific trees of elite crafting, Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, Tailor, Chef, Droid Engineer and Architect. The certification for this droid should come ateach profession's Novice skill level.These droids should provide a small bonus (+5 to +15, depending on quality of resources and experimentation success) to the experimentation and assembly of their profession while they are operational. This bonus should not be granted if the droid is being used as the crafting station as well (ie: if there is no real crafting station within range) as the droid is required for the more basic functions of the crafting process and cannot assist to its full potential. - Smuggling droid:
Much like the crafting droids these might provide a bonus to the experimentation of spices (once it becomes available) and tools (once this actually matters in some real fashion). In addition, these droids should provided larger storage than normal droids for use in actual Smuggling. (Yes, secret compartments and the like.) Again, available once one reaches novice smuggler. - Bio Engineering:
See Crafting droid uses. - Medical droids:
Medical droids should be given as a specific certification only at Novice Combat Engineer and Novice Doctor. At these levels of training, a character has dedicated himself or herself to the study of a specific branch of medical tree to the point where a robotic assistant helps, not hinders. These droids should perform a number of specific functions, including, but not limted to:
- Healing of wounds/healthPC's and Pets while in camp, home or hospitalprovided either a) stimpacks and woundpacksare in their item storage modules, or b) their medical rating degrades at a quicker pace (the droid expends its own excess energy in the healing of patients). This function frees up the Doctor or Combat medic to focus on creating more stimpacks while resting or healing the wounds of the more grieviously injured players.
- See crafting droid uses. A medical droid should be useful to all of the same ends. - Dancing/Entertainer droids:
Entertainer droids are a bit more touchy. There are, however, numerous positions which could be filled by a droid that should be available.
- They should provide advertising via speech (as vendors can through barking).
- They should be small vendors, able to sell whatever is in their item storage modules (R2 served such a purpose on Jabba's sail barge, there is no reason entertainer droids should not be able to fill the same purpose).
- They should provide an on-the-go campsite/cantina for entertainers to heal mind wounds in battle as droids provide for crafters via the crafting modules. I realize, again, that this goes against the "we want people to go to cantinas" mentality, but let's face it: nothing really happens in Cantinas. There should be no reason to limit players to go there only to heal mind wounds unless absolutely necessary (ie: they're not grouping).
I've left out quite a few professions intentionally. There isn't a reason a combat oriented profession (aside from bounty hunters) should recieve a specific droid. Instead, they should choose a combat droid as their primary droid type. As for Scouts/Rangers, it just seems foolish to grant a droid, as the concept of a droid is rather contrary to use in the wild, save for the general functions of allowing an increased radar range as a droid module.
In general: Droids should degrade in power over time, and continue to require the use of batteries. However, perhaps moving Droid batteries off of the Artisan line, and onto the Droid Engineer line would aid DE's in keeping customers returning to their shops.
This is my take on the matter, not as a Master Smuggler and Master Creature Handler, but as a player, and a fan of Star Wars.
Regards,
Ilucide il'Pernod
Master Smuggler
Master Creature Handler
Scylla Server, Dantooine
My main concern is that DE might turn into the next CH.
If you only let DE's use combat drids, then you will have CH's who need to maintain hoppers, and this will be basically a slpa in the face to the DE's who have stuck it out (like, me).
I want cool droids, but I don't want to suddenly be swamped by being the new flavor of the month.