Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Why do yall bother? Do I have this right?
Jenden, you are being naive
1. DE is quite possibly the most difficult skill to master.
Not really, architect takes more resources, armorsmith takes more time, and BH/commando take mroe skills/time. Trying to master it without grinding on the other hand, its tough but not impossible.
We require the MOST grinding of any of those, and that really sucks. If there was a droid component that cost 150,000 steel and 70,000 chem, but only gave you 350,000 XP, i would havemade it, even tho it requires more resources than advanced frame units and gives you a lesser ratio of XP, simply because it would not be so much damned grinding.
2. DE requires tons of resources. This game seems to have many credit sinks and not many ways to get them besides lame job terminals. ACK!
You get them by selling the droids you make. Yes, on you're way up if you go the grinding route this doesn't work too well, then it does take some credits.
It is virtually impossible to sell anything until 0/3/0/4, don't even try to push the "you make them by selling droids" angle. even then, you need to load in somegood modulesor people will just buy a gurrek.
3. All droids suck atm. There has been one named combat droid that is OK from what I read but generally too fragile compared to the creatures available to CHs. There has also been mention of a Surgeon droid that is ok but not really needed for anything.
Droids aren't nearly as usefull as they could be, but they will benefit just about every profession out there (you just have to show them why). The primary thing they provide for people is mobility, the ability to craft/heal on the move, without having to be tied down to one particular location. THe probot (the combat droid you mentioned) isn't really fragile, and will take more damage than any of the non-CH pets out there right now (though it doesn't look like it since you can't heal them). With the upcomming creature balance these will be the tank to have for non-CH's (aside from another player, which is how it should be). They have 40% medium armor, and only about 100 points of HAM less than the CL10 pets everyone will be restricted to, which have no armor.
They won't benefit anyone but crafters and medics more than a gurrek would. When the CL nerf comes, this will change, but not one second until then.
4. Droids for the most part don’t sell very well. From most posts I have seen it seems you have to be at the beck and call of all buyers and just sorta get lucky to make a sale.
This depends on a couple things, location, prices, and you're quality as a businessman. I personally can't stop selling them, but I know other DE's who have trouble selling one or two a day. (again, this is from a masters prospective, before you get there sales are hard to come by).
This is an interserver issue i have found. Eclipse DEs and rich, Kettemoor seems to be doing well, i have amassed 1.5 million credits, but i would say that about half of that is not from droids. other servers, DEs are utterly destitute.
5. The Devs do not have any plans in motion to make Des even close to CHs. So why in the world would anyone want to be a DE? (kinda like the title of my post) when with the same effort I can be a CH with less effort and get a much better payoff at the end. Not to mention that creatures sell quite well on the market. At least its my opinion that all the suggested fixes for the class are quite lame. The fact that they are not including the speeder/bike making skill in DE astonishes me as it would pretty much balance out the CH and DE class…at least if its as bad as everyone here is saying.
Thisis morea matter of what you want to do, if you want to make droids, be a DE, if you want to kill stuff and be good in combat, be a CH. They aretwo completely seperate and distinct classes. As for the CH's having a good market to sell pets on, with the new patch that market will drop right out fromunder them, as they'll really only be able to sell toother CH's that are too lazy to tame their own pets.
We want to make droidsyes, but god forbid, we want to make some money,scratch that, with as much effort and patience as this profession takes, we want to be as rich as weaponsmiths. I will never stop making droids, if only for a sense of personal accomplishment, but i know that for the most part, my customers would have better spent their money elsewhere. The devsDON'T have any solid plans. The devs always seem to contradict themselves, and what little they have told us, is slated waayy to close for SOE to make that deadline.
So if I have this right why the hell would anyone want to be a DE? Am I right on these points or are there actually some good things about being a DE? If so what are they?
It depends on what kind of player you are as to weather there are any good things or not. If you enjoy helping people, making people happy, working with droids, and solving problems (a.k.a. finding ways to work around all the bugs and quirks) then its a great profession. If you want to go out hunting all the time and participate in a lot of the combat based parts of the game (pvp, GCW, hunting groups etc) then this won't help you (though you'll still have plenty of skillpoints to pick up another profession).
He is right on this point. you have to seriously love droids and star wars to play this profession.
Hote Khahi
Embittered Master Droid Engineer
Insurgo, Naboo, Kettemoor
DarthBukai wrote:
When you finally make MDE, your RL johnson grows to 16 inches. Though this can be a problem for female players, I've had no complaints.
*looks at his Master title*
*looks down*
Hey! im buged!
Kamayyk
Master Droid Engineer
Master Artisan
The only reason most of us are still here is we see potential....we may be the most useless class (although the items stored in a droid not decaying on player death thing has helped sales ALOT!!) , but we all see potential for this class. Personally i feel its a character i can RP the best and have the best opertunity to have a try Starwars experiance . We all see the things that it could be and hope that someday it will be that....and simply put we have Hope!
I'm just here for the RL johnson increase 
Actually, most of the DEs I've seen/heard/talked to are all here for the (eventual) coolness of making droids in Star Wars. Even at the beginning, I was able to make a modicum of money selling my weak/broken droids. I dont mind a little combat / missions to supplement my DE income, so I did some of that. Hopefully soon, I'll make MDE and the Jan patch will come through where others have failed and make droids more desirable. Then I'll be making decent credits in a fun profession for a change.
yup. I choose DE because droids are cool. I was then hit with a brick. I continue with DE because I have faith that droids actually will be cool someday.
I've found it useful, as a 0/0/0/1 DE, when resting in town and someone talkative and curious comes along, to showcase the Droids I can make. I pull out the mouse droid, with the medical module and tell them what it costs and what it does. Then I pull out the R5 with the medical module and the pretty colors and tell them how much more expensive it is to make.
They invariably ask: what does it do?
My reply: /grin; exact same thing as the mouse droid; /sigh
Then I get laughs and a discussion ensues, in which they usually assume I am joking.
Great way to get non-DE's on board and in agreement with the sorry state of affairs. I don't like to complain while playing, and I don't. I just explain how they work as I get inundated with more questions, and the other players attitude drifts from interest to amusement and shock. By the end of the conversation, the other player is the one voicing about how they need to fix the DE profession. I honestly think that is the BEST thing I can do at this stage as a DE.
Sometimes I'll sell a few mouse droids that way. But I'm not kidding myself. I'm not going to make enough money to recoup my costs at this stage. I can easily make about 10,000cr an hour just doing faction missions, since I've a side focus on Rifleman. Anything I'll ever make on selling droids at this stage is a drop in the bucket compared to that.
I also give medical mouse droids as tips to entertainers whenever they don't have a droid.
Malitevv wrote:yup. I choose DE because droids are cool. I was then hit with a brick. I continue with DE because I have faith that droids actually will be cool someday.
I've found it useful, as a 0/0/0/1 DE, when resting in town and someone talkative and curious comes along, to showcase the Droids I can make. I pull out the mouse droid, with the medical module and tell them what it costs and what it does. Then I pull out the R5 with the medical module and the pretty colors and tell them how much more expensive it is to make.
They invariably ask: what does it do?
My reply: /grin; exact same thing as the mouse droid; /sigh
Then I get laughs and a discussion ensues, in which they usually assume I am joking.
Great way to get non-DE's on board and in agreement with the sorry state of affairs. I don't like to complain while playing, and I don't. I just explain how they work as I get inundated with more questions, and the other players attitude drifts from interest to amusement and shock. By the end of the conversation, the other player is the one voicing about how they need to fix the DE profession. I honestly think that is the BEST thing I can do at this stage as a DE.
Sometimes I'll sell a few mouse droids that way. But I'm not kidding myself. I'm not going to make enough money to recoup my costs at this stage. I can easily make about 10,000cr an hour just doing faction missions, since I've a side focus on Rifleman. Anything I'll ever make on selling droids at this stage is a drop in the bucket compared to that.
I also give medical mouse droids as tips to entertainers whenever they don't have a droid.
Malitevv,
Your experience echoes my own... Aside from the fact that I've got more time and experience in the profession, I find a great deal of my time is spent just explaining to people what kinds of things can and cannot be done. When people ask me what a BLL does, and I have to honestly tell them "Nothing, but it makes a good walking billboard", the answers range from laughter to shock to (once) a tip.
I've sold several BLLs, actually...
MachineZed wrote:
You got a tip for explaining what a BLL does, wow I want to be in your shoes.
follows you around, looks impressive, and shows people that you're not short on cash (also make good walking billboards).
Some people just want them.
My opinion on the answers:
1. DE is quite possibly the most difficult skill to master.
No way, it's one of the HARDER of the crafting proffesions but BE is harder by far! Archie also cause it takes so dang much resources is harder.
2. DE requires tons of resources. This game seems to have many credit sinks and not many ways to get them besides lame job terminals. ACK!
Architect reuiqres WAY more and really I would say DE requires many TYPES of resouces.. like it uses Gas, and ore, and steel and alum and petro for most everything. Were for like tailor its just any metal and some hide, and polymer. It uses alot of TYPES of resources not a LOT of resources, atleats no more then any other.
3. All droids suck atm. There has been one named combat droid that is OK from what I read but generally too fragile compared to the creatures available to CHs. There has also been mention of a Surgeon droid that is ok but not really needed for anything.
No they don't *all suck* All medics need a medical droid and thats most of the population. In just a few days the probots will be just as good as a non-ch pet meaning we are just if not more viable then a CH when it comes to non-ch sales. Also most crafters need a droid, scouts who make their own traps for example.
4. Droids for the most part don’t sell very well. From most posts I have seen it seems you have to be at the beck and call of all buyers and just sorta get lucky to make a sale.
False, if you are smart and know how to do your research and get around it's no harder then anything else.
5. The Devs do not have any plans in motion to make Des even close to CHs. So why in the world would anyone want to be a DE? (kinda like the title of my post) when with the same effort I can be a CH with less effort and get a much better payoff at the end. Not to mention that creatures sell quite well on the market. At least its my opinion that all the suggested fixes for the class are quite lame. The fact that they are not including the speeder/bike making skill in DE astonishes me as it would pretty much balance out the CH and DE class…at least if its as bad as everyone here is saying.
Yes they do have plans, like I said non-ch pets are getting nerfed, and non-ch pets have no armor, were as a probot does. FALSE!
DE is a broken proffesion, but it's not useless and it is improving slowly. People just love to complain and be negative. It's not so bad as I had heard. I have been a master doc, worked on BE and am a master tailor.
I was a Master DE fairly early on. The class wasn't finished period and its painfully obvious when you play. Example: a Binary Load Lifter with 3 armor spots and no module support and it can't attack. If you want to play a very broken class... this is it. If you don't have some sort of infatuation with making little beeping bots... your going to hate this class with a serious passion. The reason is... our developer was taken away and none of our bugs were fixed... mostly all we've seen are nerfs or oversights on other patches that noone even took the time to see if they would break the DE profession... most of the time they did and it took about 1 week for them to fix it so we could do any business again. The reason some DE's make a lot of money and others don't... is they either sell them for such a low price noone (non master DE's)can compete... or my favorite were the resource dupers which is pretty obvious when you see a scatter brained pricing list that has no reflection to rarity of resources because they haven't had to hunt for them in bulk. DE's are limited because of the bugs... or all the other DE's have quit and left only a few active ones to take the orders
If you can handle that "current" reality... more promises have been made for January that something will be done about our sorry excuse for a profession. Personally I'll believe it when I see it but thats what they tell us.