Droid Engineer Archive

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TheRealTK421 wrote:

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Javac wrote:

Tk, please, please see if they can ditch the Vertex Gemstone requirement on these.


I can ask but, honestly, I don't see this happening. I'm about 90% sure you're gonna start seeing this spawn on most all servers over the next 2-3 weeks.

I hope so. but I wouldn't hold my breath. How long haven't the Lidium Extrusive Ore been part of the DE resource list and how often does it spawn?


It's an incredibly rare spawn and highly sought after by armorsmiths to boot. It would also be far more cost-efficient if these had multiple 'charges' as well like seekers and probes. (Perhaps 5 uses?)


If they made it 'charged', they would probably alter the schematic requirements unfortunately. I'll check on the 'charged' thing but for right now, we just need it to work period. First things first.

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/bow

Respectfully,

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how very disappointing.

its just >so< close to being a highly desired droid. a necessary droid. a droid people would really want and be willing to pay for.

It needs the stats. Please devs. pretty please. just toss us this bone. Yes, you can go to star wars craft to get the stats, but why bother using the droid, if you're going to go to swgcraft anyway? swgcraft=total loss of immersion.

Throwing a 14 foot rope to a drowning man 15 feet away does not a hero make.

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Naufragus wrote:

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TheRealTK421 wrote:

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Interplanetary Survey Droid (available at Master DE):

Items of note:

• This droid is 'certed' (available) only to Novice Artisan or higher. If you do not have Artisan, you cannot use this droid.

fine...but i dont think you are stepping on anyones toes by just making it used by anyone...but free skills checkers etc....perosnally as an artisan i would be more than willing to give up hand sampling and most survey skills in return for a droid that woild actually survey a limited area

They aren't going to add a droid module that gives the benefits of a "skill" (Survey) to a player outside the profession where that skill exists. I'd say that's a pretty absolute design rule right now (and down the line).

Also, the whole point of the skill is that you DO have to do this stuff (hand-sampling, etc.). It's part of the crafter game, like it or not. Having a droid such as you suggest basically nullifies the need for the Survey tree at all potentially. That's not gonna happen...

• It will generate (and send you) an emailed list of resources on a selected planet (no stats or concentration, just a straight list).

really what the point...i can do this for free by just opening a tool...the information isnt that useful...


No, what might well be useful, however, is the time that you can use to do something else and still get some useful Survey info on a particular planet.

Example: You want to head off and check out the new Corellian Corvette. But you need to do some surveying as well (for whatever rare or after, etc.). You send of the droid to do its thing on a
few planets you care to test and still have time to get repeatedly incapped and 'spanked' on the Corvette (and have a blast doing so).

Sounds a lot more "useful" to me, when painted in that light.


most resources spawn on multiple planets anyway....what i would find useful is something that would tell me stats or at the very least find the highest concentatrion, in a limited area...

Due to the time sinks they likely want to preserve, I don't see this happening. Maybe I'm wrong but I'm not sure they are going to'give away' the entire survey/mining portion of the game to ONE droid module. We might be able to get them to wiggle on some things but I don't ever see them giving us the whole enchilada.


i already have the skill to find concentartiions...the droid isnt doing anything i couldnt do...


No, but it is saving you the time from having to do it at all. Depending on the planet it goes to, you might also save money vis a vis the travel costs.


all it would be doing is saving me time and drudgery....maybe i am the oddball but i really dont care what resources are on other planets...i travel alot anyway so while waiting for shuttles all i have to do us open the tool and see what there....i could survey 4 planets in like 15 minutes if the shuttles favor me


There will still be those that do this undoubtedly. I might well use this from time to time but I don't see launching 10 of these every day either. I'm sure most players will fall somewhere in between. Just having the possibility of doing this is the bonus (and we might well see it get better down the line......../shrug).

• It is listed as "Item" in the crafting tool's Droid list (below BH droids).




• This is not a 'charged' item (similar to BH droids that come in packs of 5, for example). If you make these, you get one...that's it.

This droid is destroyed on use.

that is fine...but really isnt this A LOT of work for both the DEs and the customer for so little in return


That depends. As a DE, I can see crating these if I have the resources. If done in good enough quantity, I don't see this as a waste of time. That's hardly the point though. What matters is what the droid buying 'public' will care about. If they see no value in ANY droid product or feature, there'll be no sales. Period.

• It has a DZ70 style chassis (which cannot currently be customized).




• A survey tool (for the type of resource you want to survey for) will be taken and used by the droid. You will lose this tool and it will not be returned. Note: It needs to be in your main inventory when you set the droid off to do its thing.

WHY IS MY TOOL USED.....this is just dumb....the tool should be used in the crafting process...the DEs should use the tools when comining the droid and sell me a predefined Metal, Chem or Water droid


I've heard this a few times and I'm starting to think this might be the way to go. The system for now isn't too oppressive though. Plus, it does help give a bit of a market boost to the Artisans out there.

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this is now a droid i have no use or interest in

Then don't use one. /shrug

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/bow

Respectfully,

From an economic view point, the lack of usage charges and the rare resource requirements might make this droid a more expensive option than just buying the shuttle and ship tickets to just go there and check the resources yourself. The lack of resource stats also will drive people to just go check for themselves. For this droid to be viable, it must cost customers less than or equal to a round trip to the destination planet. From one starter planet (naboo) to another (tatooine), the cost should be less than or equal to a round trip which is 1400 credits. Adding 5 usage charges like the Arakyd would help the feasibility of this a great deal. The specific resources need to be dropped or changed to non-rare resources. Could also just change the spawn rate of the specific resources.

Maybe instead of it giving the actual stats of resources, it could use the "*" system like SWGCRAFT.COM does. "***" would mean there was three stats on the resource over 900. Then leave actual concetration location and full stats to a seeker type survey droid that could be added at some later date. At least this notation would give the customer a hint that it might be worth his/her effort to investigate further.

Economically and timewise, these will make sense to most crafters. I myself keep my workshop on Talus, and myshop on Corellia.To go 5 planets to comfirm all the resources currently spawned, it costs me 30k cash and about 90 mins round trip.

When the game 1st came out, this was fine, since all resources reset at the exact same time approx every 8 days. But now, only a few resrouces shift every few days. So if you want to be current, you have to make that boring 90 min trip twice a week.

But now, all I have to do is send out 5 droids(well really 4 since I already will know what is on Talus and Corellia) every 4 days, and in the time it takes me to check my harvesters and vendor, I will know the current state of resources in the galaxy. If there is a resource I am looking for, then I can make the trip to the correct planet and see it its worth my time to harvest.

So you can bet that I will always have at least 100 of these droids in crates in my house, and will try to keep at least 200 or so on my vendor. And the selling price will not have to be too high since the only factory items they require, I already make for Adv brains and BH droids anyway.

Hmmm....a ratings system.

How about a 1-10 system, based on the 0-1000 stats for resources?


This would mean that "4" on a resource meant it was in the 400s, for example.

/shrug


Since I have yet to see the email reporting work at all yet, they may well be trying to discern what exactly to put in it (and how) to make it "useful"...and still balanced.

I guess we'll see...


/bow

Respectfully,

Message Edited by MrWizzard on 04-16-2004 01:04 PM

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TheRealTK421 wrote:

Since I have yet to see the email reporting work at all yet, they may well be trying to discern what exactly to put in it (and how) to make it "useful"...and still balanced.

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umm, wait, so you dont know what is supposed to be returned...? you made it sound awfully definitive at the top of the post. I thought you had been given specs by TH on how it was planned to work.

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MrWizzard wrote:

According to the schematic, the droid has a Survey Control Circuit, anda Survey Scanning Storage Circuit.... why does it need a tool, or these, for that matter if it just gets off at the starport and opens the list?

Message Edited by MrWizzard on 04-16-2004 01:04 PM

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Survey control unit processes the attached tool's output - and the storage circut keeps the information till it can be processed in a coherant e-mail.