Droid Engineer Archive

Clusters ... non-cluster modules ... who cares?


Everyone (almost) knows that De is bugged beyond belief so they don't really care if they have to buy a new droid when we're hit by the nerf-bat.



When I make droid I make them as the customer wants them.

If they want Medical, Storage, Data, Repair and Chem-station in an advanced surgical droid I'm not the one who says: No sonny, that's not intended.
I just tell them that an ordinary surgical can hold more modules and stuff it full with clusters.


Customer happy, me happy, the end.





well... till the next DE-update whenever that'll be.

Why do you think it's an exploit? .. Read the schematics, they are Explicitly labeled as to what type socket they are for. The fact you can nest multiple clusters in a mse for exampledoes muchmore to break theprofession then fix it. But I guess it's a matter of personal integrity. No my high horse and soapbox are not for rent.

I tend not to serve up these droids but charge throught the nose if I do. Only made 4 of em.

Pooka's reasoning makes me hope they do a retroactive nurf already and waste all prenurf droids of all types... old probots included. And make em start wearing down already. There is a finite number of droids the universe is going to hold if they don't wear out we're SOL

Well....right now, the Cluster thing isn't a "bug" in the eyes of the developers. However, it is, in my eyes at least, representative of what is wrong with the profession. So what I do is this....

If a customer wants a lot of modules in a Droid, I say "sure" if that droid is third tier and higher in the Blueprints line. As a matter of principle I never put anything more than a level 1 module into a Mouse Droid, will only put Crafting Modules in Astromechs and higher, and will only Cluster things from the third tier and up.

It's mostly a matter of principle, because it DOES represent a huge problem with our profession. However, if done moderately, you can please the customer while not ruining the "feel" of the droids.

There's an old legal saying:

"He who is silent is assumed to consent"

Because this 'feature' has been around since the beginning of beta and questioned (such as this) hundreds of times... dozens of which I am quite positive the game developers have been made aware, and the fact that they have yet to address the community regarding it being an 'exploit',one is left with no other rational conclusion but to assume it is working as intended.

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Nailliar wrote:
Why do you think it's an exploit? .. Read the schematics, they are Explicitly labeled as to what type socket they are for. The fact you can nest multiple clusters in a mse for exampledoes muchmore to break theprofession then fix it. But I guess it's a matter of personal integrity. No my high horse and soapbox are not for rent.

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No, it's not integrity. This implies that I have less integrity than you. I believe I'm using the General Droid Module Socket Cluster as it's meant to be used. Look at how it's labelled. "General Droid Module Socket" Cluster. If it was meant for only one specific socket it would have been called 'Specialized Droid Module Socket Cluster'.

Also, note the wording when you bring up the schematic:

"This array can fit a variety of droid sockets."

It's not integrity. It's a difference of opinion. The developers could say something about this and resolve it real quick -- but they don't, so we have to form opinions about what they think. It baffles me that people just assume that it's some sort of bug.

Sincerely.

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BudaKhan wrote:
Pooka's reasoning makes me hope they do a retroactive nurf already and waste all prenurf droids of all types... old probots included. And make em start wearing down already. There is a finite number of droids the universe is going to hold if they don't wear out we're SOL

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This statement implies that we're living in a static Universe. It implies that as soon as everyone buys a droid, then no one will buy the next droid. But this game is anything but static. People are retiring and new players are joining all the time. Everytime someone reaches his 11th or 12th birthday, a new customer comes of age. In 2005, when the next Star Wars Movie comes out, a bunch of new people will join. When the trilogy comes out on DVD, a bunch of new people will join.

This isfar froma static Universe.

Maybe we should have the Devs institute and Imperial "EMP" that wastes all droids, so everyone has to buy them again after this is (or if it is) fixed.






/bow

Respectfully,

Thank you all for the well-put dialog, and apologies If I'm beating a dead Eopie here. I do have to say that if this truly is working "as designed" then it is a blatent design defect. It just makes no sense to have cluster slots in high-end droids only, yet allow clusters to be used in any general slot. (I know, I know, there's a lot of things about the profession that doesn't make sense.)

Many in this thread have said it well...our profession is so broken, that this is pretty much par for the course. Regardless, I'm gonna try to stick to my carbines and persuade customers to by a higher end droid if they want a load of mods that would otherwise require me to put clusters in general slots. Though I understand the reasoning behind opposing decisions,I justthink it can only hurt my ownand probably other DE'scommercial viability.I make it a priority to provide good value and service to my customers, but I don't want to cut off my sensor module despite my chassis.

Cheers,

What if you could put multiple crafting stations into a single droid and they would all work? Would you consider this an 'exploit' or a 'feature' ?

What if you could use 2 lvl 6 armor modules on an Advanced Probot and give it a Heavy Armor Rating? Would you consider this an 'exploit' or a 'feature'?

What about the fact that storing your droid in the datapad fully recharges it? Do you consider this an 'exploit' or a 'feature'?

What about when you could store your droid in the datapad and it would be fully healed? Did you consider this an 'exploit' or a 'feature'?

What if when you made a Probot using 1000 OQ Duralloy Steel it would have 3150 HAM and do 120-130 dmg? Would you consider this an 'exploit' or a 'feature'?

What if an Advanced Surgical Droid was created with an inherent lvl 6 Medical Module installed? Would you consider this an 'exploit' or a 'feature'?

What if you could squeeze every single module into a single MSE Mouse Droid? Do you consider this an 'exploit' or a 'feature'?

Ultimately... it's all a matter of perspective. Sure would be helpful if the game designers would see fit to share their 'perspective' with us.

Rarely do I utilize this exploit to shove more than the normal number of modules into a droid. However, I have to admit, I do routinely use this to merge together an Item4 and an Item3 module into the equivalent to an Item6. The Item6 module cannot be crafted on Radiant except for resources that date back probably a month. The ones that still exist are priced at a premium. I do have them in stock, and I did pay a premium for them. But until they fix 1) this exploit and 2) resources shifting out after 3 days and not coming back for a month, then I will continue to use 4 times the resources that are common compared to rare resources that cost 5-10cpu and I'll keep my lidium extrusive and Neutonium Steel safely in my bank.

I don't see how it's an exploit. It's quite clearly coded to work that way. The documentation says that clusters can be used to combine lots of things together to get greater capabilities. Clusters are also documented in the user interface as being just another module. An exploit is something where you use some edge case or combination of timing things to break the normal rules of the game. Module sockets are very, very far from doing that so please stop calling it an exploit. That's wrong, by definition.

As a general statement, almost every droid I make uses a cluster in it. Makes for great sales because as a mid-level DE, I can make anything that my customers are asking for. At high level, that won't change either. The only thing I don't do is put clusterrs in clusters. That is an acknowledged bug from the devs, so I don't do it out of care for my customers that will have their droids break at some indeterminate time in the future. Also, one thing to think about - a lot of potential customers can't afford a full advanced R2/R3 as they are low level. So, as part of my customer service, I'll do a low-level droid like an MSE with a cluster in it. They always thank me, and most have come back at a later time when they have more money and upgrade to a better model such as a surgical, R2 or probot (very popular with the Combat Medics that spend a lot of time in the field, but started as a novice medic when I first sold them the droid). Those that haven't I haven't seen around on the server, so I guess they moved on to other professions or decided to leave the game entirely.