Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Well, the devs have stated thier main goal for DE....
Here we go....
My break-down of the plan that's being forced down upon us (after they carefully sidestepped our community's excellent discussions).
/bow
Hillslayer wrote:
In Development 2: Droid Invasion
Welcome to Star Wars Galaxies second In Development overview. During the first 3 months of 2004, there will be many upcoming game features up for addition and design changes. The second will be a set of changes made to the game world that will add combat functionality to Droids.
See...that's funny. I thought they had stated several times that we were the #1, top priority.
So much for Devs' official statements on priorities.
There are two parts to the "Droid Invasion". The first component is the adding of combat functionality to droids with "combat modules" that can be crafted by Droid Engineers.
Okay...well...
From what I'd read (and contributed at the time), I thought this was pretty much shot down by the DE community. Maybe I misread theemphatic cries and rants after the Droid Plan got posted.
I'm pretty sure that I know how toguage community displeasure with a proposed change.
I guess it won't be long before we start seeing R2 Adv droids with T21s grafted into them.
.........how sad.
The second component will be a reiteration of the Droid Engineer profession.
"Reiteration"?
Meaning what, exactly?
Is this the new iteration of the CH profession, using the droid model?
If so...............the devs STILL aren't listening.
In Development ideas will be considered for the month of January and planned for implementation in Late February. Points of focus will be:
I have seen no "In Development" ideas for us to discuss. When/where did you post these, exactly?
Did I miss something?
Droid Combat Functionality
New Combat Droid Models
What's to discuss? We've already spoken loud and clear in MANY, MANY DE profession forum threads.
Apparently, reading a few carefully chosen 5-star threads is a bit too problematic for members of our red-named community. Sheesh...
Combat Module ideas and basic rules for combat modules for all droids
I wouldn't think there'd be much to discuss. You (the Devs) will likely just do whatever you've already decided to do anyway.
Remember the "Pet Wars" problem we'd had for so long? That came about when the Dev Team thought they collectively knew what was "best" for the game.
I guess we all now that turned out.
Things to Consider
The role of combat droids in MMO combat and
Uhhhh...about the same as creature pets, right? I mean, that's what they are going to shove on us, regardless of discussion. Am I wrong?
The repair of combat droids and the crafting of repair kits
Hmmm....yes...
What do we need to discuss here again?
....sorry, I wasn't listening.
Droid combat and owner's Faction modifiers
Interesting....
I'd never thought about this before....I guess because it SHOULDN'T MATTER.
Droid Engineer Revamp
The Droid Engineer profession will be reiterated as much as possible with a focus on combat droids.
Why? Did you hear the DE community screaming that we needed to be refocused primarily on combat droids?
If so, methinks you've been playing a bit too much MechCommander and not paying attention to what we discuss (constructively) on our forums.
I'm not saying that combat droids aren't important. I just think that refocusing the profession with a heavy eye towards combat alone is a HUGE mistake...
It's also indicative of what I'd expect from the team thatbrought us the fun of "Pet Wars" to begin with....
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Seems they want us to be a robotic CH with hopper costs. Nothing otherwise useful. No droid to help slicers, no cantina module, no door opening droid, no droid totranslate stuff. Looks to me like SOE is taking the easy way out again.
Yup.....standard operating procedure.
I'll grant that they have an idea session open but when was the last time they listened to us? We have tons of ideas here that were totally ignored. I'm not against combat droids, but making us a CH clone is just about the stupidest thing possible for the Devs to manage.
Yes...just watch them manage it. Given enough time and proper input by us DEs, they will successfully kill this profession's fun yet. You just wait and see.
Respectfully,
progman63 wrote:
I doubt they'll ever put more than 5 combat droids in the game.
Maybe in another 5 years they'll look at us again.
You're being VERY optimistic, my friend. At the rate things are going, SWG will be long-forgotten in 5 years.
ZiegenBock wrote:
Exactly.. I have never understood that camp that wants a Droid Engenieer to be a Droid Handler in combat. That makes little conceptual sense, IE my step-fatheris an airforce aerospace engineer.. but he doesn't go to IRAQ to fight.. he BUILDS FREAKIN AIRPLANES forothers to fight with.
It can make as much "conceptual sense" as anything else in this game. In what way does it make sense that jedi are spawned through grinding tons of professions, or that creature handlers carry rancors in their pockets?
If a droid were an airplane, your analogy would be valid. But its closer to a creature than either a vehicle or weapon.
I think combat droids are a great start, as there are a large number of combatants in our universe that would use them. A great booster for DE economy. However, I don't think I'm alone in my concern that if not properly implemented, combat "modules" could compromise the integrity and continuity of the Star Wars Universe within the game. Allowing DE's the ability to install combat modules into utility droids, such as astromech droids and protocol droids, would turn the game into a bit of a farce, in that some droids just don't go into battle. Protocol droids are sissies and should stay that way. Combat modules should only fit into combat-class droids. There have been many ideas about what combat droids we should get, but I think the common favourite for most of us seems to be the Droideka. I really hope we get it.
That aside, I hope that combat droids are not the primary focus of the devs right now. Consider this: we already have the ability to make a bunch of droids that do absolutely nothing (i.e. - repair droids and binary load lifters). Let's have a repair droid that actually repairs things, or a binary load lifter that actually lifts stuff (for storage, retrieval and delivery duties). The rest of the droids are almost all capable of the exact same thing (storage containers, med modules or crafting stations).
Instead of allowing us to install any module in any droid, why not restrict what each droid can do? For example, it's not feasible that an R2, R3, R4 and R5 droid could each do the exact same thing. If we really want these things to be the "Swiss Army Knives" of the Universe, why not give them each highly-specialized functions that suit the needs of specific professions in the game? The bounty hunter needs seeker droids, and so a slicer should need an R2 unit for enhanced slicing, a doctor should need a surgical droid for advanced healing and chefs should need an R5 droid (for whatever reason). It doesn't make sense that a mouse droid can be used as a med station or a massive storage container. I personally think that only surgical droids should have medical capability.
All astromechs should be capable of some level of repair (with a repair module installed), as well as sensor packages to warn of incoming danger out of a player's radar range (i.e. - your R2 droid starts freaking out when an overt, opposing faction member is close to entering your radar range). When the spaceship expansion eventually comes out, astromech droids should be exclusively compatible with astronavigation modules, so that they may ride along in one's personal ship.
PROBE DROIDS SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED COMBAT-ONLY DROIDS!!! Probe droids are just that -- *PROBE* DROIDS. While they do have fighting capabilities, they are equipped with a huge sensor array, repulsorlife technology and lots of arms for sampling. They are meant for travelling around on long journeys probing for whatever they are programmed for. Instead of writing these droids off as combat-only droids, they should also be exclusively compatible with a survey module (and lots of extra batteries) which would allow them to go on long survey trips for the owner. And not just for resources. Give Squad Leaders the ability to use probots to probe around an enemy's outpost prior to invading, in order to report back with data on the number of enemy combatants, etcetera.
Binary Load Lifters - I'm still not certain what these could be used for, but here's an idea: why not give them the capability to go out to your harvesters and collect the contents of the output hoppers? Surely all that steel and stuff must be heavy! (It's a wonder we can carry it around with us in our backpacks). Simply feed the waypoints of your harvesters into your BLL's memory and give it a final waypoint of where to deliver the goods. You could go do something fun for an hour and then go meet your BLL somewhere to pick up your resources. What else do these beasts exist for if not to lift heavy, raw materials?
To reiterate, I think each droid should have unique functionality which could fulfill a unique need of various professions. Modules should be separated into classes, each only fitting into certain droids. Probots should probe, repair droids should repair and lifters should lift. And once again, droideka is high on my wish list.
Advice to the devs: go and re-watch Episodes I, II, IV, V & VI. All the answers are there.
Lexx Muskoka
Droid Engineer
Master Artisan
I HATE the idea ofa DE only droid. It turns us into a mechanical creature handler, the class we all hated even talking about before and now some want to turn us into that ??? However, I do support having combat droids available only to the Elite Master classesand maybe another less powerful combat droid available to the Base Master classes.
Actually i was thinking more along the lines of this ....Droid battle tank (requires droid engineer master to create, requires Novice droid engineer to opporate)
this is open to abuse just like almost every profession tree, i know a few combat classes that take only one or 2 ranks in pistols to get the better attack option, some people also take novice CH to get that extra +2 level pet.
A seperate skill tree as noted above would help curve this IMO and i think its a good idea.
Yes we are a crafting class and in the real world it would take us 100% of our time to concentrate but this is not the real world. You can mix and match all forms of classes for better results. i myself have some basic scout training (for camps so i can call pets outside town while doing missions) and i am a novce pistoleer so i can use my droid to tank while i shoot the hell out of it.
We as droid engineers offer more to the game than just a house to live in, or a weapon to use, or armor to wear. Having droid engineers just the ability to command 2 droids at once would make us better combatants than a new player who bought a droid with his first 10k!
Being a crafter is a very solo attitude to the game and i enjoy the group aspect when hanging out with my friends - id like to offer some form of combat potential through my droids rather than just being a mediocor pistoleer.