Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: First Look Interplanetary Survey Droid Information
OrionsByte wrote:
Naufragus wrote:
if all it does is tell you what resources are avaible on X planet that its really isnt that fantatstic...
As AO said, for 700 credits you could hop on a shuttle and just find out...
I also think that the survey tool should be used IN THE CRAFTING PROCESS....so essentially we consumers would just buy a chem droid or flora droid...
if the droids dont help me find CONCENTRATIONS then i dont know why i would need one. what i am looking for in a suvery dorid is one i can use on the planet i amm currently on. I already know the resources from opening the tool....i just want to release the droid, choose resource X and have locate the highest concentartion within a say 5-6K radiuos
why would i spend 100s or even 1000s on a droid that basically doesnt give any nore info than simply opening the survey tool
at the very least it needs to tell you the resources stats
From a cost perspective, the droid would still be cheaper than a round-trip ticket to an adventure planet... or multiple layovers (like from Talus to Lok). In those cases it might be worth it, but only time will tell.
Still, I hope they can adjust the schematics on these to make them a little less expensive. High price + low feature set = no sales.
Aside from travel costs to adventure planets and/or layovers, the time I have to spend actually waiting at starports etc, is valuable to me. Particularly when layovers would be involved, this can be a big time saver. It can be doing its thing while I'm doing mine.
OrionsByte wrote:
I'm still waiting for more reports from TC before I make a judgement call though. Plus there's still plenty of time for tweakin' before it goes live.
Kaldeth wrote:
I have a suggestion regarding the tool thieving survey droid.
Why not replace that with an advanced droid brain that is installed when made, and thus we tell the droid which resource to scan for.
A advanced droid brain should be able to handle that information.
Kollos wrote:
Kaldeth wrote:
I have a suggestion regarding the tool thieving survey droid.
Why not replace that with an advanced droid brain that is installed when made, and thus we tell the droid which resource to scan for.
A advanced droid brain should be able to handle that information.
Ack! Horrible idea!
You do realize that survey droids are expendable, right? Do you REALLY want to be manufacturing Advanced Droid Brains, which require 4 factory-made Electronics General Purpose Modules and 4 factory-made Electronics Memory Modules each, just to put them into a disposable item?
I have a factory dedicated to constantly making EMM and EGPM as it is, and that's just to make Seekers and Arakyds. I do NOT want to have to run another factory to make exactly the same thing just to keep up with Survey droids.
you're right. I didnt think about that *Flogs himself*
New idea. A multi-survey-tool-module in 3 flavors. (Spread out at the right place in the DE skilltrees)
the highest level can accept command to search for any type of resource while the lower level only can search for a third.
The survey droid is the one I think I like the most in this publish, but having to stack up on crates of the various tools, flora, gas, wind, water, mineral, chem, (Shellfish?), will make it more troublesome.
But I guess that we all can start stocking up on those in the final week before release, when we are fearly certain that the survey tool will require them. Not all have that option though.
Kollos wrote:
I have a factory dedicated to constantly making EMM and EGPM as it is, and that's just to make Seekers and Arakyds. I do NOT want to have to run another factory to make exactly the same thing just to keep up with Survey droids.
Message Edited by AudioOrgana on 04-15-2004 05:59 PM
Kaldeth wrote:
But I guess that we all can start stocking up on those in the final week before release, when we are fearly certain that the survey tool will require them. Not all have that option though.
That's the best part... we don't have to stock up on survey tools because they're not required to manufacture the droids. Our customers will certainly want to be able to buy (or make) tools for themselves, but it's not something we necessarily have to do for them.
If there's enough demand I'd certainly be happy to do runs of surveying tools, but I suspect that most people who are interested in buying these droids will have the ability to make their own tools.
I, for one, was looking forward to these as perhaps a way to help keep swgcraft up to date. Not to eliminate the need for someone to fly to endor to keep the data fresh, but perhaps at least allow people to better plan their trips so they don't go out there and find that nothing has shifted since the last person was there.
But the way things are looking the cost of each individual droid, the time involved, and the fact that you'd need 5-7 of these expendable droids per planet you want to check up on just doesn't make it seem like they're going to be all that much use.
A damn shame too, between survey droids and smuggler bomb droids I would have become some unknowing DEs best customer overnight.
Message Edited by Ragnaat on 04-15-2004 06:02 PM
Kollos wrote:
Kaldeth wrote:
But I guess that we all can start stocking up on those in the final week before release, when we are fearly certain that the survey tool will require them. Not all have that option though.
That's the best part... we don't have to stock up on survey tools because they're not required to manufacture the droids. Our customers will certainly want to be able to buy (or make) tools for themselves, but it's not something we necessarily have to do for them.
If there's enough demand I'd certainly be happy to do runs of surveying tools, but I suspect that most people who are interested in buying these droids will have the ability to make their own tools.
I hope you are right. From what I understadn these droids wont require any skills to use. but to make the survey tools you need artisan skills. I can imagine that some buyers will get these droids and try to set them on their survey run only to find out they can't get them to work as they dont have the survey tools. They will get upset and send tells to the DE who sold them the survey droids.
I will stack up on them. probably make 50 or so of each and split them up in 5 crate stacks for my vendor. Since there dont seem to be any difference in the ql of the tool itself any crap metal will work for them
Until we actually know what the Droid's report looks like I'm not going to get down on these droids. For all we know, the report that comes back will be a list of every resource (of the appropriate type) on the planet along with full stats.
THAT would be useful. I'd use those suckers all the time even if none of your concerns were addressed simply because having access to full SWGCraft-style information in-game would rule. Remember, the report is an email... you can reference it again later if you want.
30 minutes isn't that big of a deal. It takes me 30 minutes just to come up to speed after entering the game. I'll just make "launch Survey droids" the first thing I do when I log in, and by the time I'm done reading email, answering the spate of /tells I get every time I log in, and figuring out what each factory needs to be doing next I'll have the report back.
Using up a surveying tool is annoying, but again not a big deal. I can hand make one every time I need it if necessary. I won't even need to call my crafting droid - just fire up the crafting tool and be done with it.
Kaldeth wrote:
I hope you are right. From what I understadn these droids wont require any skills to use. but to make the survey tools you need artisan skills. I can imagine that some buyers will get these droids and try to set them on their survey run only to find out they can't get them to work as they dont have the survey tools. They will get upset and send tells to the DE who sold them the survey droids.
Kollos wrote:Until we actually know what the Droid's report looks like I'm not going to get down on these droids. For all we know, the report that comes back will be a list of every resource (of the appropriate type) on the planet along with full stats.
THAT would be useful. I'd use those suckers all the time even if none of your concerns were addressed simply because having access to full SWGCraft-style information in-game would rule. Remember, the report is an email... you can reference it again later if you want.
Ahh... but I have 2 computer screens up on my desk and can reference swgcraft (or these boards) and play at the same time already. (not to mention how much of a mess managing a dozen or so droid emails might be for the various planets and types of material you may have sent droids out for).
Sorry to bring a bad attitude into your revamp, but I'm just not feeling these things right now. Hopefully the devs get enough feedback in enough time to sort through it and I'll be more impressed with these things by the time they hit live.
Ragnaat wrote:
Ahh... but I have 2 computer screens up on my desk and can reference swgcraft (or these boards) and play at the same time already. (not to mention how much of a mess managing a dozen or so droid emails might be for the various planets and types of material you may have sent droids out for).
Sorry to bring a bad attitude into your revamp, but I'm just not feeling these things right now. Hopefully the devs get enough feedback in enough time to sort through it and I'll be more impressed with these things by the time they hit live.