Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Publish 8 (Droids Rebuilt) Test Center Reports, comments, opinions and discussion
Naufragus wrote:
the survey tree is a hold over from BETA when they had miner and otehr professions....it is really a useless out dated branch and is only in to fill up 4 trees to keep the skill tree all pretty....no one harvests by hand and that portion of the skills are just waste....i guess i all goes back to RK and his medival fantasy world, where we all walked around and dug in the dirt with our hands...
LeBob wrote:
Rogue_5
are we going to be able to have out more than one of the new droids at one time?
I know we can't have more than one droid out with a combat module, cuz they would imbalance the combat, but as I am a Master Musician can I have say one special effects droid out AND one playback droid out at one time? as long as neither of them have combat modules?
posted that in some test thread......... I'm sure you guys agree right?
Why not just put a playback module and some effect modules in the same droid? I mean an ADV R3 can hold six modules, and there are 5 new special effects modules and a playback module....
My suggestion, if you don't want to survey anymore, don't. There are plenty of people selling resources out there. The only time I do any of my own harvesting is when I've got a specific resource that I know just spawned and no one else is harvesting it, and even then I've only got one harvester to throw up on it. Surveying/harvesting is a choice, not a necessity.
Naufragus wrote:
sorry but MANY of us are just sick to death of surveying and moving harvetsors every week...i just really dont want to ever have to do it again...
it is a WASTE of my time spending an hour running 200m, stopping, scanning, running 200m etc...especially if after walking 5000k you end up with a high spot of say 48%...
surveying is tedious and dull....
as it stands now it is ALREADY a race to the highest concentration...
the survey tree is a hold over from BETA when they had miner and otehr professions....it is really a useless out dated branch and is only in to fill up 4 trees to keep the skill tree all pretty....no one harvests by hand and that portion of the skills are just waste....i guess i all goes back to RK and his medival fantasy world, where we all walked around and dug in the dirt with our hands...
having a droid say me from an hour or more of boredom is worth it....
right now i just leave my harvestors where they are because i just cant bear to survey again
duncje wrote:
This sounds like a good start.
One problem I see is that nothing here is necessary. For DE's to have a constant market, droids need to be necessary in the way guns and armor are necessary. If there is not a need for droids, once the novelty wears off (and everyone's got a droid that doesn't wear out), we will be back to having very little market for our wares.
Not trying to be negative, just trying to play a little devil's advocate. Overall, these changes are a good thing (TM) but we need something that is a necessity to others in order to maintain a long-term market.
I see your point here, but I don't necessarily agree with it. I think at least a couple of these modules provide enough utility that they will be highly sought after.
We'll have to wait and see how many of these modules are useful and how many are "novelty" but I don't see any of them as bad for business, and since the number of modules that do something is now higher than the number of slots in an ADV R3, we might actually see some repeat business as people change professions and find different needs for their droids.
Very Cool Publish, I am not a DE but a MCH/Smuggler and have another character as a WeaponSmith/Merchant. I have already been planning my purchase with the local DE when it goes live...hehehe....
However, as I read the 10 pages of comments, some questions came up.
Droid Names? Some droids you just can't name, I think they are the ones with the personality thing. For me, this really takes away from the illusion of the game and makes some droids kind of dumb when they aren't a repair droid but a fighting droid.
I am also concerned by the power usage and consumed rate of the existing and current droids. I am sorry but having a droid that can survey one planet for my Weaponsmith and then I got to get a new one makes it pointless and won't bring me back to get another droid unless the DE is selling me one for 100 credits. I can spend 15k or more in credits flying to planets in a night to see about resources or check on harvesters ... a single droid I am sure will cost more than that and probably not have all the information I need. These droids that check harvesters and survey should last for several trips or they will become as useless as customization kits and far to costly in the long run.
Speaking of which, power consumption. For me, a droid should last days instead of just an hour or two on a single battery. Personally, I don't have time to stock up on batteries if I want to use a droid, I already get stims (mine and pets), replenish other supplies such as food and then I have slicing items I like to bring just for a hunt. Droids are suppose to be pretty advanced in our world and need to last a while. I can't remember the last time I saw R2 or CP in the movies get a recharge.... We need batteries but they need to last 10 times as long.
The music playback sounds cool but I saw someone post the idea of recording tracks and giving them to other non-musicians ... it might sound dumb but actually could be cool. Nifty little things at events or other stuff just to provide some background action and noise. Droids should be as commonplace as clothing (well, except wookies that is). Make them common necessities even if they are toys for some.
No slicing droid? Bah, even R2 could slice and he was a navigation droid.
Barking droid, as a merchant this sounds cool but as I read, it got less interesting and down to pointless. 128 characters is not enough ... 256 is fine or make it three 128 sentences.... Perhaps the more it says the more it uses its battery? A set delay on barking is not good. Some people are very good about their barking and try not to spam everyone ... they shouldn't be lumped in to the "all spammers die" group just cause their droid can't be customized in it's interval. AND MY BIG ONE...I hope that I can be on the same planet as my droid and have him barking while I am off crafting in my home which has my kits and resources. I read that you couldn't get far ... well, if that's the case then what's the point? I take special orders, I have my best resources at home because I share them with others and we have our exceptional private stations in our community house. BUT if I want to leave a droid outside Theed and be in my home on the other side of the planet in our local town ... I should be able to. I can't leave the planet or logout without my droid being deactivated but I can travel around the planet or to my home on the same planet!
Medic droids need to be able to use other Stims/medicines. Let the Medical profession make the modules and sell them to the DE’s or the player’s to give to the DE. Give the medical profession the ability to do other modules besides just Stim A’s. They do suck and even if my droid can only get out a 30 second heal, that could save my life with a Stim B (even my pets) but a Stim A will do nothing in your more advanced cases. Let them also be able to cure and fix wounds. Wasn’t it a droid that put Luke’s hand on him? Mind you those modules aren’t cheap and you have to provide the supplies for the droid to use that ability but that is the fun and makes everyone profit!
Ok...a few other side comments:
The harvesting thing is cool but I kind of agree that it shouldn't be limited to scouts. Personally, I think scouts could make scout models (only allowing bonuses no larger than half a master scout) for DE's so they can add them to their droids so that scouting still has it advantages but in this way, it makes the droid useable by all but not nearly as effective as having the skill. It also gives some scouts another product to sell.
Droids are suppose to add to your abilities along with enhance them...a little of both would be much more exciting.
Personally, all droids that can fire items or hand out items should require a storage module and the owner (regardless of profession) could re-load them using them storage compartment. It makes more sense and again gives other professions another market to sell in (scouts selling traps and medics selling meds).
I don't know...perhaps it's just me...but droids should be able to do things my character can't. It shouldn't be as good or near as well as a master of another profession but it should be able to provide some support.
In my world, I should be able to ask a DE to make me a droid. Let’s say I want a harvesting/medical droid (just an example since I am not a DE), I find me DE and he can make me the droid but he only has level 1 harvesting upgrades and a large capacity storage module but no medical modules. No problem, I will go and find me a scout and medic. The scout friend can make me a scout module for level 4 for 5k … cool, I snag that up; the Doctor can make me a super Level 8 medic module for 10k. Snagged! I race back to my DE. I hand him the modules and the credits to make it, another 25k. Now when he’s done I got me a great droid that I will enjoy and three people profited in this handy purchase. I can go out and harvest hides or meat so I can sell them and I can also have my droid around so I can heal or he can heal me.
One last note, I can't say this enough ... make things last! Not forever but a heck of a lot longer than they do know. For example, vehicle customization kits are pointless, after a while it's a hassle to buy more.... No worries for those who want to see return customers, you just won't see them return two days later, they will return a week or so later. The point is, right now, if you want to do something in SWG, to me ... I feel as if I am leaving my real life job only to have to come home and get online to support my virtual life job so I can keep up. That's not a game and it does slowly wear you out over time.
Things need to last for days on end unless they are abused heavily. Getting supplies is one thing but to have to do it every day gets tiring. I can pull out my vehicle all day long and sure enough by tomorrow the paint is gone. Bah, I don't have time to get another kit, droids I can pull out for a hunting trip but within an hour and a half it needs a battery ... come on that thing should have be able to last a couple days unless it got killed (I can see that taking a heavy dose of energy to repair itself or regenerate health).
--Cardo
KzinKiller wrote:
My biggest question about the Survey module:
Will the droid simply display a list of the available materials on a planet in much the same way as the Survey tool, or will it provide information about the attributes of the resources (OQ, etc.)?
Without knowing the quality of the materials, a simple laundry list of resources doesn't seem to be saving me many trips offplanet.
If it gave properties, it would be far too useful, in my opinion.
If it just shows what exists, it will be useful in 2 cases. First, if I have an active harvester on another plant (particularly if it's on an expensive travel planet), I can check to see if the resource I am harvesting has shifted. This both potentially saves me a trip or two and it makes my harvesters more efficient as I will know about shifts sooner (so I can move on to something else). The second case is when I need a particular resource, but it either doesn't exist in the galaxy, or the it's planet-specific (say Yavinian fiberplast), but I know the current stuff is garbage. If I can tell when something new shifts in, I may not know the stats, but at least I gain a day or two in harvesting time since I know about it sooner if the stats turn out to be good. Finding out about a chemical or mineral or gas on day 3 of a shift stinks since you 30 to 45% of the shift.
I will definitely be using this, even without stat info. How much I use these will depend on cost.
Jenden wrote:
My suggestion, if you don't want to survey anymore, don't. There are plenty of people selling resources out there. The only time I do any of my own harvesting is when I've got a specific resource that I know just spawned and no one else is harvesting it, and even then I've only got one harvester to throw up on it. Surveying/harvesting is a choice, not a necessity.
Another question about merchant barkers: What's the range of the message they're spamming out? Is it the same as a /say? A /yell? A /whisper?
Personally I think if the range were small, they would be far more tolerable but still highly useful.
I'd still like to know if they stop barking after *low power* too. 
Message Edited by Lonkley on 04-13-2004 03:18 PM
Message Edited by Jenden on 04-13-2004 03:36 PM
Jenden wrote:
Ok, I've done some more testing on the maintenance module. While the droid is inactive for quite a good deal of time to deliver the maintenance, its not as bad as it seems. The maintenance you tell it to deliver is delivered immediately (so you don't need to worry about it not getting there soon enough) and you can have other droids out while its delivering. Basically it just means that droid can't be used for a while (not that big of a deal I think, don't generally use all 5 of my droids all the time, there are those couple that see little use).
Hmmm...but you can check the maintainance levels for all structures at once?
Hate to ask, but if you could post a screen of the interface that would be great.
To me, the biggest asset in this module is going to be simply being able to see what the maintainance status of my structures are - will it work for that?
Thanks again,
AO