Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: DE's I need two things from you please
I appreciate that TH is so honest as to say that he is clueless about crafting and droid engineers. I am, too pretty much btw. Heh.
I just like to point out the importance of droids for Starwarsyness once more. I see the discussion very much go into the direction of "only DEs can use droids". I think this completely negates the way droids are being used in Starwars. They should be there for anyone and everyone to use. They help people in various tasks.
So maybe high level combat droids need to come with Certs, that high level combat classes attain (like BHs/Carbineers/Pistoleers/Commandos/...) but for the love of god not only for DEs!! They are guys sitting in their workshops, not fighters!
Overall, in terms of IMPORTANCE for the game, Droid engineers should be what Creature Handlers are at the moment. Today, using a pet is the common thing. It's in each and every FAQ for Newbies: "get a pet, it'll help you in combat." That's so weird! It should be the other way round. "What, you don't have a droid???? How do you even survive in this universe????". That's more like Star Wars.
Thanky for your time.
--Bluezman
Thunderheart and to ALL the DEs here,
I play a BH hammering my way to MBH on Eclipse. Yes, I know this thread is for the DEs to give TH input, but as a heavy consumer of droids I think it fair to add thoughts.
TH has asked what would make DEs hearts go pitter patter. Just reading 30-50 posts in this thread alone has revealed a constant. DEs want steady, repeatable business. As a BH I provide a small amount of that already since I do not seem to benefit/suffer from the infinite Seeker/Arakyd bug. I also have steadily upgraded all my droids to what appears to be the current "heavy" line of ADV probots (medium armor, 40% resists). Upgrading my droids pushed me thru roughly 15 or more as I keep a rotating stock to replace whatever got it's butt kicked by a mark. I gave the replaced models away to my newbie buddies.
With the highest DE desire clearly illuminated I can now speak to what I would buy as an aspiring MBH. I want a Melee droid or 3. I want a sniper that bothers to do real damage. I want a close support aggro droidmounting a close range BFG. I want a real honest humanoid fugitive tracker that works. I want a PRISONER TRANSPORT. I want anSCOUT that I can link to and view mob disposition without aggro. None of this is asking for the impossible, it's just listing what I would not only buy, but would pay dearly for on maintenence, upgrades, regular replacement and DE customization.
Thunderheart, you wanted DEs input and got a BHs input but I am the guy they want to supply.
Asheesh
Multiple droids should be able to be left out if all but one are left roaming/patrolling a players structure. Come on, Star Wars droids are everywhere and only being able to equip one stinks.
The first change has been mentioned several times and has to do with droid power usage. It's very frustrating to come up to your prey, intiate combat, command your droid to attack, and then realize that your droid is sitting there doing nothing. Is the droid bugged? Is he really dead? Is he attacking but you just don't see the animation? No! He's out of power! Several fixes need to be made here. First, there needs to be some way to know how much power is left in a droid. Second, the droid owner needs a better indication of when the droid stops functioning because it is out of power. A small *Low Power* that is only visible if you are facing the droid and close to the droid is simply not enough. Just adding this to the spacial chat would be a huge step in the right direction. Third, having batteries last a little longer would be nice. I think currently one battery lasts about 20 minutes. Even just upping that to 30 minutes would be a boon. The better method would be to make experimentation affect the duration of the battery with the best batteries being on par with the length of master doctor buffs.
The second change is the one that will make me put away my cowardly gurreck and use only my probot to tank for me. The probot is an effecient tank when it is equipped with the best armor. Only 800 HAM is not a bit detriment when mobs are doing very little damage to it. It currently is an effective tank, but ONLY FOR ONE BATTLE. As soon as that battle is over, it's time to put the probot back in the datapad for an hour or so to heal it up. If the white damage on droids could be healed, the probot would become my pet of choice.
So please, before adding more combat droids, consider making these changes to droids first. Better power management and the equivalent of pet stims for droids will make me a happy droid owner.
--Ulf Svensson
Chilastra
I'm relatively new at SWG and as a novice DE. But here goes:
TH:
1) I agree with Sintrosi's post on state of the DE profession.
2) the rough DE Plan as stated was to vague for me to agree or disagree.
3)BUT: I think if you take Sintrosi's report and Gorantoth's great post of bugs/uncertainties in the centralized issues then I think we have something the Dev's can really sink their teeth into. I think these give great direction and guidelines as to what to concentrate on ( Bugs first) and future improvements (combat droids etc) . I think the Dev Plan seemed to just want to add a few things, not repair existing problems which seems to me to be the heart of DE's concerns.
Thanks TH for looking into all of this and taking so much heat when you are just trying to get a consensus. I hope this helps. Also please remind SOE that we are all paying customers, not just here for a free ride. I think that entitles us to air complaints AND get some feedback. As in Sintrosi's post, if we were to know that a Dev was actually working on these issues it would help greatly. But we have all had too many "the check is in the mail" kind of experiences that are extremely frustrating.
Osarp Adoo
novice DE, almost MA - Flurry
1.) Yes ..
2.) Generally I like theplan but it wasa bit rushed. There wasnt much detail and I would like timeframes. As for combat droids I go on record as saying yes, I would like Combat Droids onlya DEcan use. As long as we get enough combat droids OTHERS can use as well. That way the pure crafters will still be content and happy becuase they can make credits still, and those that want to craft and kill something would be happy as well.
(Copied from another post... but it echo's my thoughts 100%)
1) Do I agree with Sintrosi's plan?
If you're referring to the State of the Profession, then yes I agree. Sintrosi didn't just make that stuff up. Everything in there are issues that have been discussed here for months. If you're referring to her thread last week before THE PLAN was unveiled in which she hinted that DEs would be shifted a bit to be more like CHs, I agree with that even more.
2) Do I agree with SOE's plan?
Hard to say. for me to agree or disagree with it, it would actually have had to contain substantive and informative plans not riddled with vagueries. I like the surgical droid idea. The MSE droid bomb nonsense is insulting. Power droids powering harvesters? Nice idea... I actually like that one. It's hard to comment on the combat module idea because I don't think anyone knows what you meant by it.
What do we want most? Bug fixes. Fix the problem with cluster modules fitting in ANY module slot. Stop medical modules from stacking. Having to recharge my probot every 15 minutes is ridiculous. The droid repair tool doesn't work right neither does the customization tool. The fact that any module of any level can go into any droid is a monstrous oversight. We have NEVER been able to properly name humanoid droids.... the list goes on and on and on.
It's safe to say that we all want the droideka. Do whatever you must to get this to us so that it's a truly fearsome piece of machinery. I would rather not have it at all than have another 820 HAM 50 damage combat droid. I am a big fan of working high level combat droid certs into the DE skill tree (top loaded to thwart the dabblers). Work these certs into other elite combat profesions as well if you must, but give us something that is uniquely ours. Those of us who want to be more combat oriented can. Those who do not are certainly not forced to. While it is certainly true that we are not a combat profession, coming neither off of the brawler nor the marksman tree, but CH comes off the scout profession which is not itself a combat profession. How is this so very different?
The reliance upon master artisan parts is crippling. Move the electronics MM and GPs into Engineering 4. Leave the MSS and the energy distributor in MA. That makes us still need parts from MAs without rendering most of our droids unbuildable without them.
I could go on ad infinitum but I'm not saying anything new here.
1. Usefulness for professions - Right now we have only three purposes to our droids. A mobile hospital (medical module), portbale crafting stations, and some semi-good tanking by the probot (Yes, that armor come sin handy). There are more modules, but they rarely get used. Item storage is very small and data storage is useless. (Notice that I speak of modules, not droids; different chassis for the droids make little difference).
Addition of new combat droids (droids that actually do meaningful damage) is a good start. But I've always loved droids for their versatility as opposed to creatures (who ONLY fight). Many ideas have been posted on uses for droid. For example, a droid that allows entertainer to be recorded and be played back (a la R2-D2), allowing you to use this recording at a later time and place. Droids that help with surveying for resources, much like seeker droids allow BHs to find marks. Also, droids that enhance skills used by players, making the desirable to have around and with you. Combat is cool, but it's not all that droids are about.
2. Droideka - we can worry about this after our current droids work.
3. Will DE's be the only ones able to install and/or use the combat modules in droids - If we are talking about installing, then yes. We are the droids crafters, therefore we should be the ones placing these into the droids. They could need parts from other professions, but we should still be the ones making the final combine.
Should we be the only ones able to use them? A big, resounding No! I have no qualms with being able to use them myself, but as a crafter my main goal is to sell them. If they are limited to DE's, then the result will be dabblers and not sales.
4. Does this address droid functionality or DE functionality - Great question Thunderheart (I keep seeing Thundercats in my mind). How to measure DE functionality? My guess would be whether it is a fun profession to play or not. Droid functionality would be the same, but for droids: Are they fun/usefull to use. These are two dinstinct issues. I believe that the proposed plan mostly addresses the second issue. Functionality is added to the droids, making them more useful to other players. DE functionality is not touched upon much.
I still can not experiment with my droids, making a quarter of the DE tree useless. The MSE droid that I can make at master level is NO different than what a novice can make. I would like to be able to use all those high quality resources that are lying about in my house for something. As a master DE, I can make Lvl 6 modules... So what! A lower level DE can do the same by combining two Lvl 4 modules. At high levels I can make the BLL and Protocol droids... Nothing added, since all droids can hold the same modules (Except for the BLL which can hold none, giving it NO functionality... Again, the dependance on modules to make a droid usefull). Also, I can't sell much as a Novice (I think this issue almost plagues most crafting professions though; people will only settle for the best).
Again, I must say that this is a woderful question since it points a finger at what we WOULD like to see, which is a rework of the profession as well as of the droids that we craft.
5.
Only a DE will be able to craft them and insert them in droids is my guess.Is that the way you want it?
Yes! With the allowance for needing components from other crafters.
6. Lack of specificity - I myself was looking for something more general (well, encompassing would be a better word). Namely I would like to hear what is the developer's idea of the role that DE's should have in the SWG universe. Are we strictly crafters? Handlers? How versatile do they really want to see droids be? What should they be allowed to do that does not unbalance the game?
7. CH remarks - I believe that CH's can now have more than one pet out, but the xp curve was changed so that one would not get xp for using two pets. (Just thought I'd take this one out)
8. What would make me go Yay? Fixing the bugs that we have now. Being able to experiment on my droids. Cool new behaviors for my droids (Let them heal me when I'm down, although not when the monster that did the incapping is sitting on me). Added functionality for my droids (Let the BLL carry stuff for me; Let the protocol droids translate for me). Specificity in terms of which droid can use which modules, i.e. specific functions for each droid (only the LE repair droid and Tredwell should be able to fix droid; I'm just not too keen on modules being used as they are now).
Well, I hope this helps out. I could talk about this for a VERY long time, but then I'll get busted at work
. Good luck, TH.
Thunderheart wrote:
My only gripe is that we are so closely dependent on items from the Master Artisan box and there is no added benefit.
Thats a good point. I'll bring it up.
I know there's a big backlash against interdependancy in this game, but please don't remove master artisan components from droids or any other schematics (weapons, armor, etc) or I will have NO market for my master artisan components. I am a master artisan and that is the ONLY crafting profession I have.
As things currently stand, I sell about 3 master artisan components a week. I RARELY ever sell crates of them. Most elite crafters just pick up master artisan so they don't have to rely on others for the components.
It will really hurt my business if you take away the pittance of sales I currently have.
Well, I have seen many people answering the basic questions, and pointing you to threads with the problems we want fixed, but few who actually added functions to the droids we have to make them better.
I would like to see the fixes to the current problems as well, but added functionality would be a huge plus.
1. Mouse droids should be message couriers, as the are in the movies. They scurry about with data and messages to others. crafting modules should not be permitted in them, only data and storage.
2. DZ70' s need a purpose. I would suggest a personal survey device. You could load them with new modules that could be programmed with the type of resourse and pecent you are looking for and send them on their way. They send you a message like the factories do with a waypoint to the concentration you are looking for.
3. If we get the above listed additions, we should be able to call more droids, or not have the 'mission' droids like messangers or survey droids count against out droid out count.
3. You should be able to drop things onto the binary load lifters and have them take them places, or harvest the resouces from your harvesters and take them either to you, or a pre designated location.
4. Droids should be used in homes, to lower the maintenance costs and add the heralded 'Star wars' feel. Just having them do more things than sit there and lean when called would be a big start. More movements and different looks when you are crafting, storing, adding data, using the medical mods. The ones in the Tatooine starport and in near the DE trainers come to mind.
5. There should be a nice high level combat droid for crafters only, since we need to take up so many skill points to get to our desired profession, we need a body guard from some of the more hostile areas wer need to go fo find resouces.
6.Give a definitive use for each droid. Each R unit should have a different or advanced set of purposes, which would add more modules for use. I have seen basic slicing mods listed, as well as repair mods for more than just droids. these would be basic, needing the other professions for the advanced things. R2's should be the top droid, which do just about everything, but at a high cost. Other R units should be scaled down, and limited to what type of mods they can carry.
7. Each of the conversational droids should be limited to what they were designed for, surgical for medical uses, with mods used only by medics. Repair droids should have mods for each profession, Weapons repair for weapons smiths, Armor for armor and so forth. Only these professions could use them, and they would greatly increase the repair percent and success rate, as well as lower the decay and or maintenace cost on the items.
I know there are a ton more ideas, so lets all get creative and toss them up here, or repost them from the other threads. In case you haven't noticed, there are a billion threads here, and we have the attention of someone who wants to help, so lets help him help us.
Azerin wrote:
Thunderheart wrote:There was enough resistence to the rough plan to warrant reassessing things and thats what Im doing.
Thanks guys, looks like we are gonna have to wait even longer... sigh.-Azerin Dangerflirt
Colonel, Imperial Army
Well sorry, but I'd rather speak out and get what the majority of people want for the profession than be fobbed off with ideas that would just make me quit the profession...