Droid Engineer Archive

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Ackdel wrote:

Well, my ranger char wouldn't go without his droid. I find that the +106 bonus gives me between 8% (while using vegash) and 10% (while not using vegash) more resources per harvest. I was recently able to deliver 20k of Avian meat at 100cpu to a doctor. Statistically, between 1600 and 2000 of that was collected strictly from the droid bonus, meaning an additional profit of 160,000 - 200,000 credits. Usless? Feh, my droid would have paid for itself and a couple brothers like him in its first job, and that was before I really got used to droid harvesting. Would I like the droid to auto-harvest? You bet I would, especially with all of the brains I had to put into him! However, as they stand now, they are NOT useless.

Apologies for using facts and real numbers, but it just had to be done.

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LadyLeala wrote:

4) It's cool to use your droid more in the game. Prior to the droid publish, droids were rarely used in the field. Now it's becoming common-place. (yay!)

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That was something I was afraid to mention in my post, but there is something very exciting about having several of these little bad boys run around and DOING WORK for me and my friends on a hunting trip.

PS just thought of something, I can send my droid around to harvest while I stand still and heal or get healed, if the fight was particularly nasty.

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psikobunny wrote:

PS when you post on the DE board, its almost guaranteed most of the replies will come from DEs.

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Who would have thought? I was thought all the Armorsmiths hung out on the DE boards. I guess I am in the wrong place.

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X Machine'Zed X
Obsidian Dagger Squadron

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Zakalwe-naritus wrote:

I was excited to get this new type of droid. I bought a 108 efficiency droid and went hunting.

When you factor in the 15 second minimum launch time. Combat interuption of launching.Or that Droids can't keep up with bikes. The fact that you have to issue separate harvest commands, often more than once. The time wasted playing with the bot easily outways the minimal % increase in harvest per animal. This was yet another good idea made pointless through poor implementation.

If the bot was automated and instant launchable. Or gave a very large increase in harvest they would be worth something. As it is, I don't even bother using it.

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I sell the snot out of 108 rated droids. They are probably my best seller. I sure hope this isn't the opinion of the majority of the scouts. I haven't had a single complaint about them yet,. Actually, I have gotten lots of emails and tells asking if I had anymore in stock.

Harvester droids are fine and useful, you just have to weigh each situation to determine if the droid's overhead is worth the harvesting bonus. My rule of thumb is that I'll use the droid for "challenging" creatures, which would be flagged as white or higher.

More problematic, in my opinion, is the usefulness of the trapping modules. I had a hybrid harvester/trapper, and the trapping effectiveness (trapping rating +54) seemed to be less than one forth than if I just throw the trap myself. It's simply quicker and more efficient to throw a trap, plus that way you can have a maxed-out R3 harvester working for you.

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BoAbdor wrote:
I think maybe one of the issues with these droids is the sliding scale of bonus they give. Seems like the folks that think they are useless are the Masters who may not be getting the bonus out of them that the less skilled are getting. Just my $.02

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A very astute observation, BoAbdor.

I have mentioned this in previous conversations, as the droid gives a better % bonus for those with lower scout skills to begin with. Because it adds points to your creature harvest skill, of course someone who has a very low one will see a much bigger increase in yeild from harvesting.

But then again, we even have a Master Ranger who posted above who finds the droid useful (and even at the 8-10% bonus he is getting is making the droid worth it for him).

I think there are two other aspects to the issue - one, what your hunting style is and two, what profession are you playing.

There is some great advice in this thread as to the best ways to time your hunting - they key is to use the harvest droid while you are doing something else. It does take a bit of "tab" gymnastics, but you get used to it quickly.

Then there is the question of profession - a rifleman is going to appriciate it a lot more than a TKA in casual use.

It's clear that this droid, like the survey and structure modules, are intended for a specific set of uses. A lot of people would like more/different usefulness, and that's an entirely seperate issue. For my business, this is far and above the most "Gee, my friend had this cool droid can you make me one?" module of Publish 8.

AO

I am both a Master DE on one character and Master Ranger on second. In some harvesting situations the droid is good, others it is bad. When hunting out in the wild on Dath for lets say carnivore meat itthey are great. You can easily walk from one lair to the next killing as you go. The droid is perfect for harvesting despite the delay before you can switch to the next target as it keeps up with the kills. You can easily spend minutes trying to recheck every corpse to make sure you have harvested them all without the droid. Not to mention the bonus they provide.

However, if your only doing missions, there is no benefit to them as the time to deploy them negates any time savings or harvesting bonus you might get. In fact, they are a decided nuisance during these times.

I make 107 R3s and use one myself and absolute love them. How often do I use them? About 50% of the time and almost never when doing missions.

Echylod/Khromic