Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: DE's I need two things from you please
TH,
Ithink new combat droids would be nice but that might take a while for you devs to do. So could you at least make the probot a little more powerful??
Thunderheart wrote:
There needs to be more usefull things for droids to do for certain professions.
There are many, many suggestions in this thread,but the overall point is that droids are VERYStar Wars and almost all players would like to see many, manymore of them in the game. They don't have to be "uber" droids, just do someuseful things--like follow a vein of resources to its highest point and report the location.
And give us Droideka
Give droids "levels" like pets and let players use different levels based on their profession advancement. Don't make it weapon specific. Let us have fun with combat droids.
The medical droids had better be certed to Master Medic/Novice Doc/Novice CM then, because with this idea a player can simply replace the Player Medic with a Droid
Thats definately a concern. It changes the focus of both "when" and "where" players go to get healed and thats a key activity.
I agree that healing droids should not replace PC medics. However, I do think there is room for having healing droids. Make the healing droids useful, but with no where near the power of a PC. Since many players have novice medic, stim B's are fairly common. Allow medical droids to use stim A's only (stim B's can be made too powerful), but let their med module skill up their healing. Make the player have to load the droid with supplies. Then let the droid heal in combat, with a between-heal delay TWICE as long as a PC's delay. It will heal automatically when you have 10% damage or more. Of course, since it is out in combat it COULD be targeted, so he may get picked off. That's the trade-off. (Just don't make him lootable in PVP, that's just griefing).
When out of combat, give it a command to be able to target someone and heal wounds. Again, a long delay inbetween here. And again, limit them to A packs only, so they don't take away from Docs to much.
The delay will make them less efficient than a PC, and the use of med packs will control the overuse of the droids ability, and also actually DRIVE business for docs to make the meds.
One small step for droid functionality, one giant leap for DE- Dev relations.
Droid functionality or Droid Engineer Functionality? Which is more entertaining? How do you see each side?
Droid Functionality!! We all want droids!!
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?
I dont know, but Ill find out
Unlike pets, there are non-combat versions of droids. PLEASE let us have more than one droid out, but limit it to only one COMBAT or HEALING droid out at a time.
There's always more of course, and while these changes sound good, they didn't make me go "YAY!" like I was hoping they would.
(i saw all the stuff from your post )
What WOULD make you go "yay"?
A clear plan, that sounds really fun instead of a vague, unorganized one.
Will droid power rates be looked at?
I dont know, how does it work and what's the problem?
Two problems. First, there is NO way to tell if your droid is running low on power. It just suddenly says *Low Power* when you ask it to do something. Second, the power runs out much, much too fast. I don't know the exact time, but someone here on the board can probably tell you.
I am not a DE, however some things I would like to see is:
More Droids
Combat Droids (with decent HAM and armor)that we can put weapons into
Medical droids that can heal us up with rechargeable med modules (Doctors recharge them, DE create them)
Jukebox Droid similar to above but for mind wounds (Master Enterainers recharge them)
Other class specific droids - like tracking droids for MOBs (Master Engineer recharges with specific MOB type), surveying droid, etc.
The ability will not diminish the profession it complements
Power Droids for harvesters -- GREAT IDEA!!
DE should be able to have up to 3 Droids out at a time (Master level).One Big question I have though is, What is the purpose of the data module when most of the items in the datapad cannot be stored in a data module, ie pets, missions.
As an overall note, faction rating should determine the how many cross PETS one can have out.
Example: Master DE (General), 3 droids, 1 faction up to CL125, 1 mount. -- Must be overt to do this
Here's my answers to Thunderheart's questions:
There needs to be more usefull things for droids to do for certain professions.
What things and which professions?
Yep, every profession. A good thread sticked regarding new modules, etc. But to break it down simply: Slicing modules to enhance a smuggler's slicing abilities, Entertainer modules to enhance an entertainers skills, Accuracy modules to increase a combatants accuracy... etc, etc, etc....
What items seem like the most important and which professions have interdependencies that are a lot of fun?
Bug fixes first, customization of droid functionality next, new content last... those are the most important (unless I'm missing the point of the question, but those issues still stand)
What entertains you folks?
I enjoy crafting something that a customer finds absolutely wonderful, that they wonder how they could ever have made it this far without it.... unfortunately, I have not been able to do that yet.
And give us Droideka
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...
Combat Droids are going to have to become a reality, Droideka or not. The issue is who gets to use them, which involves some form of certiofication system. There have been several posts regarding cert systems:
Constructive Ideas to the DE Plan- http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=33049
DE Droid Cert Ideas - http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=30875
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 way it is now is that only a DE can craft a module and use it in a schematic to create a droid. Any module that becomes DE only after it is put into a droid should only be something to help a DE craft, as long as it does not give an unfair advantage over the other crafting classes. I personally, dont want to see a DE Only combat droid.
One small step for droid functionality, one giant leap for DE - Dev relations.
Droid functionality or Droid Engineer Functionality? Which is more entertaining? How do you see each side?
They are one in the same. Without Droid functionality there is NO Droid Engineer funcionality.
Only a DE will be able to craft them and insert them in droids is my guess.
Is that the way you want it?
That's the way it already is. What else are you talking about?
help me out on this one. does this mean that only droid engineers will be able to command/use droids that have these modules isntalled, or will everyone
Only DE's would make them. Any Droid owner would gain the benefits of their Droids Abilities...
I agree with DE Rho on this, module usage should be certified, which would be an easy way to implement combat droid certs as well, as you can certify the level of module by skill level of player. This introduces combat modules, but only if they can be used only in NEW combat droid chassis.
There's always more of course, and while these changes sound good, they didn't make me go "YAY!" like I was hoping they would.
(i saw all the stuff from your post )
What WOULD make you go "yay"?
If bugs were fixed. Exploits taken care of. An overhaul of the profession that increased functionality and individualization of different droid types as well as introducing more droid type choices.
Will droid power rates be looked at?
I dont know, how does it work and what's the problem?
Battery usage is insane. People are less likely to use their droid if they also have to stock up on batteries, in turn making it less likely they would buy one in the first place. Ideally, a battery charge should last a minimum of 1-2 hours, certainly not 10-20 minutes.
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.
The only real reason to obtain Master Artisan is to make Electronic components, which, if I understand correctly, are only used by DEs. Whether or not that is true, the main point is that about 90% of our product REQUIRES those components. In my opinion that is TOO dependant. Unfortunately, at this point I cannot offer any suggestions. Moving those components to the DE tree would leave a blank for MAs.
Hope this helps you Thunderheart.
While its heartwarming to see people engage TH on what they would like, I think the message from the 'state of the profession' post was clear
Fix the current content first!
All the good ideas for new content can wait, we dont want more broken content (droid customisation tool anyone) and its difficult to tell you where we want to go if we still dont know where we stand.
I'll say it again - fix the existing broken content!
Fix data modules (so if we cant store missions and we cant store pets and we cant store waypoints just what are these supposed to be for? Schematics! Thats a joke right?)
Boost Probot & DZ70 HAM now! This is a no brainer - these droids are worthless as combat pets next tocreature pets. This can be done right now, the only thing you guys need to figure out is what values to put them to, and 'no' it wont help putting them where they will be once the creature HAMs are changed, these need to be made competative NOW and then turned down at the same time the creatures get nerfed. Boosting them to where they _should_ be _before_ the creatures get done wont solve the problem _unless_ you nerf the creatures NOW as well!
Fix the cluster module
Fix level 5/6 module requirments (can we say commando weapons)
Fix experimentation
Fix multiple crafting stations in a single droid
Fix naming 'conversation' droids
Get rid of/increase the droid datapad limit (in line with creatures?)
Fix item storage modules (do they stack or dont they?)
This is what people mean when they say that all the answers are already here on the board and I personally never saw the point of going beyond the first correspondant reply until those issues (not all of which may have been existing fixed - granted) were addressed.
For example how happy do you think we would be if the next thing the devs did regarding DEs was add a Droidika.......with the same stats of a Probot!
People are asking for content that they think will compensate for the current lack of balance/desireability without considering why the profession is in the state its in - since new content is likely to take longer than bug fixes DEs would be even more let down if something that was a long time coming only added to the list of the things we are unhappy about.
Fix the existing content, then come back and ask us where we would like to go next
I'm sure I'm reiterating what's been said by some but here's my 2 pennies.
1. Fix what's currently broken.
a. The Binary Load lifter should do SOMETHING. In my opinion it should go to your extractors, and bring back resources.
b. Fix experimentation, and make it so that when experimenting you don't only get 5 extra ham for a REALLY good pro-bot. I'm thinking double, or more the ham for a very good version of the droid. This also includes giving us experimentation up to 100%. We don't have enought experimentation points at master currently.
c.tools to fix/repair damaged droids. Yes it could make the Master Droid Engineer powerful buy constantly fixing his droids after a battle, but no more than a Master Creature handler that can heal their pets with packs.
d. Multiple droids out for Master DE. Duh! people, we want our power droids to actually recharge our own freaking droids. This is an easy one.
e. LE Repair droids should repair stuff, not just take up space.If the multiple droids are out, it could be a medic type droid for droids.
f.Why are there MULTIPLE armor module slots? It doesn't do anything. Expecially in the Binary Load lifter.
g.socket module clusters should not be able to go into lower level droids. This is a semi exploit now.
h.Droid repair tool. **edit** does this thing do? I know what the armor and clothing one is for, but the Droid one has been broken since day 1. Actually since my playing time has went from 40 hours to 2 hours a week because of the lack of DE patches, this may already be taken out. Who knows. Not me.
i. An MSE droid can be just as good as anything else. Why? Level 6 medical/armor modules should not go into MSE droids.
j.Probot was nerfed very early in the game. Why? It is not anywhere near as powerful as most low level pets. Fix the HAM on the probots, or give us more combat droids.
k. Colors for the Protocol Droids.I'm sure we're supposed to have colors on these, but it's not there.
l. Why have damage numbers on non combat droids? Fix it so they attack, or fix it so they don't. Either way I don't care, I just want it to be fixed.
m.Datapad problems. I don't know if it's just me, but not until about the third time I mouse over my droid in the datapad do I actually get a CALL option. Very annoying.
n. there's tons more I'm sure. Read the boards.
2. We need more combat droids with varying damage/ham/speed/armor. If we get multiple droids out, we could have one that does little damage, but can tank, one that does lots of damage, but can't get hit much, one that can heal the rest, etc.. That way we get some kind of tactics. This is not P-keman. Star wars had droids, not pets everywhere.
3. Every class should have a droid that can help them. Slicing, leading, etc... You come up with some ideas. If you want me to come up with them, I want a paycheck.
4. DOCUMENTATION. **edit** do all these things do? What effect exactly does each combination of 'modules' do in a droid, how and what commands should each droid have? Why should I be the one to spend countless hours explaining what a droid can and can't do to only sell a probot for 9500. Time/value is not there most of the time.
5.Cleaning, maintanance, security, entertainment, dancing, singing, house droids. These should be created to put in homes. They do nothing else but act as moving decorations. I want a cleaning droid to drop in my house, and walk around all day doing various things. Maybe a Security droid that you drop near a door, and he says things like, move along, etc.. Like the stormtroopers do. Oh, and I want a mirror ball droid to spin in the middle of my room.
6. And as everyone has said. We want a MASTER DROID ENGINEER PERK. Something only we can have. Some droid that is not transferreable. Like a pet AT-ST. Ok, maybe not that extreme, but something. Master CH's can't give anyone their high level pets (well maybe to other master CH's). Where's our high level droid?
7. Recharge stations. I want to build a Droid recharge station to drop in my house. That way the PA and myself can recharge our droids in our own homes. Maybe it costs money to the public so that we make money while not logged on.
8.Healing station. Same thing as above but to heal hurt droids. Maybe they cost money to the public so that we make money while we are not logged on.
9.Patches. Every time you patch, I want something DE in the next few months. You can't do it all at one time, I understand, but if we get NOTHING. It's bad. For a while CH's got something (and other professions) EVERY patch.
That's it for now.
Thanks Thunderheart for listening (well, if you make it this far back into the post).
Just some thoughts from a Master Armorsmith, Pistoleer who did some DE back in the first month before deciding on armorsmith.
I would LOVE for my advanced R3 to come out as a second droid to Repair my probots and then be stored again. I only pull those guys out when I'm hunting solo and that means I don't have anyone elses repair module enabled droid to rely on. I think that would be a usefull addition to any class.
I'd like to see the level 6 storage module hold more than 10 items. As an armorsmith, I like to carry around the components to make armor in the field and I'd find it VERY appealing if I could store several different styles of armor worth of components in my droid. So a larger storage module or stackable storage modules would be great.
As a master artisan I would LOVE to have multiple crafting stations in one droid. Right now I don't think you can even fill up all the module openings in an advanced R3 because of that. I have to remember which probot has which crafting station when I want to experiment on something other than clothing/armor. Maybe a pop-up selection window would solve the problem of knowing which station to use since they all would be at identical distances from you.
Next, as for combat droids. I like the idea of a combat module upgrade that will make that BB gun on the adv.probot useful. I'd like to see armor go up to 60%-70%. As it stands now, level 6 armor isn't even used. 2 Level 5's reach the armor cap. HAMs are about right I suppose, but with the weapon like it is, or even like it probably will be with the upgrade, better armor would still be appropriate. Something like a force sensistive NPC still wails it in three or four hits, so more armor still isn't going to give ppl a usefull tank, but it'd be a lifesaver to have that extra time to get away when you get aggro'd by accident.
I think it'd be fair to DE's who like to get out to be able to call multiple droids, 2 or 3. Make it a high level skill though to avoid dabblers like the CH's had.
Finally, I want to suggest a page out of the armorsmith's book. WE will have the RIS armor quest and rare loot drops available in the next patch to make some rumored Uber-Armor. I shudder at the idea of everyone running around with droideka's. Let's face it. There's enough money in the game now for lots of ppl to swamp DE's with orders for them in the first day AND I imagine things like very lethal killing robots would be regulated by the empire/rebellion both. BUT it should be available as a counterweight to the use of CH pets and promote the sci-fi feeling of the game. SO, give DE's a quest where they have to get rare (not as much as RIS armor or holocrons, but still difficult to get) sub-components to finish a quest where they get the schematics to build a droideka and advanced droideka (with and without shield). That way the loot drops will break up the camping (krayt and holocron and weapon feeders) some more and keep the droideka count lower than it would be otherwise.
Rhiannon Rosto
Master Armorsmith, Naritus
p.s. Just another idea, I personally see DEs as inherently the most capable elite artisan profession. In a roleplaying sense they have to be excellent programmers, electricians, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, and artists. I would propose that the devs consider branching some other useful lines of items into the DE tree. Architects make furniture for instance, I think DEs shold be able to make consumer electronics that would be usefull to players. Electro-binoculars, radar boosters (think infra-red scanner/upgrade), Portable holo-net transceivers to be placed on harvesters like a powerup to allow remote management of operation and maintenance, a harvestermodification kit (read in one time permanent use)for power droids to generate power for said harvesters. A combination like that would effectively remove running out to harvesters for anything but collecting resources and redeeding them. Just require a large amount of radioactive as core material for the harvester interface. Like 10k of it or so. Makes it sting some, adds a reasonable cost to the upgrade, and makes it very useful. Some other ideas once the space expansion comes on line... SATELLITES. Think a survey/probot good for a couple days once launched into orbit that can give planetary surveys for those surveyor/miners out there.
Anyways, you wanted some direction for the profession Thunderheart. Take some of these ideas.
1. YES
2. YES
Delphi Nissam
Retired MAster Droid Engineer that kept his skills
TH,
You said that you don't really understand the crafter mentality. In my view, most (but not all) of the crafters are not neccessarily interested in going out and killing everything under the sun. Rather crafters are more interested in CRAFTING and then SELLING items. The biggest problem I see with the Dev plan for DEs was that the combat droids would only be able to be used by DEs, which isn'ta bad thing, BUT the basic crafter mentality is to sell not to fight. DEs want droids they can SELL. People want to BUY droids but there aren't any they want to buy!
Obviously the fighter types want combat droids to help them in battle. Crafters (not just DEs) want fighter type droids to protect them. Everyone wants droids they can use to power harvesters.
I'm not a DE (I'm a weaponsmith) but I have an interest in DEing and have paid attention to the DE board. The feeling I have gotten over these few months is that DEs (and crafters) want to stuff they can sell. Success for a crafter is SELLING. Right now there is nothing I want to buy from a DE.
As a non DE this is what I want to BUY (as a weaponsmith/novice pistoleer):
-A combat droid that is effective (but not necessarily overpowering) to help me run Rebel missions and protect me while I do my harvester runs on Lok, or Endor. The devs have said they want to place certs in the DE tree, they need to be placed else where. An idea would be to put them in elite professions, the higher up the tree, the better combat droid you can use. If you think that overpowers fighting types, well then only put the certs in artisan/entertainer based elite professions. Or even in the artisan Engineering IV skill. Again, they HAVE to be put somewhere other than the DE tree - DEs need to be able to SELL them.
-A droid that will automatically power my harvesters. I don't care how it works, if they have a certain amount of charge and I add it to my harvestor. Or if I send them out like a seeker droid to power them. I don't care, I just want something that will save me the trip.
-A droid that allow me to hold more inventory. The binary load lifter looks like something that would hold stuff, make it so it will hold a lot of stuff. As a (good :smileywink
weaponsmith, I have a ton of resources everywhere taking up a lot of space, I would love to buy something that will hold my stuff.
Those are the things I WANT/NEED/DREAM of BUYING. Right now I am afraid of buying a droid because they are SO bugged. I suggest you do what Sintrosi said in here state of DE post. Fix the bugs first. Then add the type of functionality mentioned above.
Hope that helps.
Okay, well I am going to put my flamesuit on but I just thought of something after reading through Thunderhearts post. He wants to know what we would like to see happen. I am going to throw something out here and I don't even know if it is a viable thing. How about droids working in combination with each other. Think about it this way.
Probot --- Okay it is a good support fire droid. My Probot has saved my bacon on more than one occasion and has saved me from a trip to the Cloning Facility. HOWEVER. Let's say I want to make a specific item for my factory. Let's make the Probot do what it is made to do.
Step 1 -- Make a schematic of the item you wish to build in your factory
Step 2 -- Feed the schematic in to your probot.
Step 3 -- Probot searches for the materials and grabs the pre-specified amount to fulfill the amount needed for the schematic.
Step 4 -- Probot uses BLL to store material that it has grabbed.
Step 5 -- Power Droid makes sure everything runs smooth.
Okay well how does this make sense? Who actually uses the "Patrol" command? What if you were able to take that patrol command and set it to WP's for the specified Material (i.e. Copper, Steel, Fiberplast, whichever.) That way you would still have to search for the material but set it as a "Patrol" point for the probot.
All this would depend on you having a Droid Shop. Materials get dumped in to your Droid Shop (which Architects could build) And of course it would be up to you to make sure you have enough room in your shop for all this material. This would make it a viable purchase for all crafting profession. How many hours have you spent surveying and stuff? Or even if you could set the probot to drop extractors and throw in Credits on your behalf. The power would be supplied by the power droid, who could get powered up by a Power Station within the Crafters shop (Also built by an architect).
I don't care too much about combat droids. If we get them...great..if we don't I'll live. I just want to see some meaning to our profession. Because really once someone buys a droid from you...you won't hear from them again.
That's my 2 credits.
Fearghal The B.F.W
The Fattest Wookiee in all of Bria.
1) Yes, I do agree completely. It reflected my bitter sentiments exactly.
2) I'm not sure about this whole plan. What ever happened to putting a drodeika in there? I think we wanted that in the game more than having a treadwell spit fire or something like that at an enemy.
Fix my bugs first before you go to work on it, thats all I ask.