Droid Engineer Archive

Ugh, check the Rifleman response, then look at this again.

You guys are lucky.

gah ... signed under wife

AMRA KATRUNER Theed (Gorath) Master Droid Engineer

The Powers That Be wrote:

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We’ve made some changes as of the last patch, and have many more in the works. We like some of the ones you suggested in the email. What types of droids would you like to see in addition, and what functions would they have?

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I don't understand this answer. What changes went into the last patch to make them more distinct from each other, to make them more unique and useful? Can you give us examples of some of these "many more" in the works? Which suggestions from the last email did you like? Which are infeasible, and why?

Please read my post at the URL below. This reply does not clarify the situation for me, and it's hard for me to suggest new droids or droid functions when I don't understand where you guys are going with droids in general.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?
board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=14221&highlight=#M14221

The most important thing for me is that a droid should not be a passive thing. It should be accomplishing active tasks. Having a droid that acts as a skill modifier by mere virtue of its presence is not satisfying. Having a droid with a storage module which is really little more than a teeny-tiny backpack that superficially LOOKS like a droid is also not satisfying. My droid(s) should be accomplishing things on my behalf.

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We’re adding more power ups and buffs to droids, but we currently don’t plan to make modules hot swappable. The concern here is we want to encourage specialization with droids, not make every droid able to perform every function. This specialization actually helps the crafting market.

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Power ups and buffs for droids will be nice, but you've got to understand, we are embarassed when our customers come to us looking for upgrades and we have to tell them they've got to buy a whole new droid. They feel like they're being taken advantage of, and we feel like we're being forced to take advantage of them. Perhaps if droid modules were not hot-swappable as such, but instead required a droid engineer to perform the upgrade. Perhaps the upgrade could have a chance of affecting the effectiveness of the droid. The droid engineer could get back the old component, maybe, to use in another droid. But right now it feels like we're car dealers telling customers they've got to buy a new car if they want a different radio in the dash.

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We’re going to change the Usage Experience to programming droid commands in the future. This should help the progress for Droid Engineer. Expect this to work somewhat like the Creature Handlers pet trick experience.

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Any UXP we can get is most appreciated, but does this mean that droids will give UXP only the single time the user programs it, or not at all if they choose to keep the default command set? Not being a CH, I've got to ask, how does pet trick experience work anyway? Does the CH get UXP when the creature learns the trick, or each time he does it? How will droids, which have nothing equivalent to creature tricks, work in a similar way?

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We agree. What kind of Combat Droids would you like to see?

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I believe the universal answer to this is, "Droidekas. Duh." I think most of us would be satisfied in the short term if there was some attempt to address and resolve the apparent disparity between creature pets and droid pets. The changes made to both classes so far lead one to believe that creatures are intended to be combat pets and droids are not. If this is not the case, what's the deal? Are droids "allowed" to be as powerful as creatures? Why are DZ70s even theoretically combat droids, when bumping into a daisy while floating along is sufficient to destroy them utterly? Giving them the potential to attack something does not make them combat droids. It makes them suicidal.

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We are going to add a repair kit for droids crafted by Artisans. Your droids will be able to heal with these.

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Yay. The sooner the better.

Oh I forgot to mention...Droidekas would be nice...

blaster module

grenade/mine module

hack module gives bonus to hacker when pluged into a terminal failure means droid gets a powersurge attack

entertainer module lights, dancing droid so forth

scanner modules

We’ve made some changes as of the last patch, and have many more in the works. We like some of the ones you suggested in the email. What types of droids would you like to see in addition, and what functions would they have?


Oh my you are asking how cool. (no sarcasm at all its really cool) I want my droids to be more useful and to be able to perform everyday tasks like many people have mentioned tending the harvesters performing maintenance and such. Mor battle droids would also make the fields more dynamic.

4) Variation in Combat Droids – Combat Droids are too similar, and could use more variation.

We agree. What kind of Combat Droids would you like to see?


Everyone is going to say droidekas. But I like the lil marching ones that they had by the millions in Ep 1 and 2. And other droids that can fight and shoot guns. Maybe even a big walker like an AT-ST. I want to build one it could be the DE version of a PA hall.

)Droid Repair Issues – There is no mechanism in place to heal the white bar of a droid. Is droid perma-death going to come about?

We are going to add a repair kit for droids crafted by Artisans. Your droids will be able to heal with these. J


Correct me if I am wrong don't these already exist? Does this mean they will be fixed or is something new coming along? And if something new is coming can we make the existing one do something?


Thanks for the update it made me feel better about my proffession and I still love being a DE.

Q-3P0 I would like to see the Human Replica Droid as a lot of everything, but an extremely expensive and huge amount of ore consuming droid.

Also other Attack Droids, id like to see soem battle droids and droidekas maybe?

Lots of other fighting droids, Maybe IG Assassin Series?

I am all for change.. but i feel that now the droids can die.. as mine has. It devalues the droid. I remember seeing probots for 20k a few weeks ago.. i bought mine for 15k.. my friend who bought his recently (ie yesterday when it died) for 10k. It wouldn't suprise me if soon the value is at 5k since they are kind of weak and could get tuned up so easily. Did anyone else feel this way?

AT-ST's that cost more than Guild Halls would be AMAZING.

How's this for a DE Issue?

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=14205

4) Variation in Combat Droids – Combat Droids are too similar, and could use more variation.


We agree. What kind of Combat Droids would you like to see?



I would like to see some:

The Battle Droid from Episodes I&II
The Super Battle Droids from Episode II
Oh and did someone say Droideka?

As far as extra modules, I think there should be some that add to each part of a droid. Have one that adds 250 HAM and let it be experimented to get up to 400. Have one add another 50 to the damage and let it get up to 80 or so. Maybe even another module to change the type of damage, or that can even be mixed in with the one that adds damage.

I like the idea of droids acting as mini factories. If not that (since that takes away from architects), have our droids add bonuses to either crafting, repairing, or what-not. And make these changes in specific droids. Like the BLL could add bonuses to architects, and the Surgical Droid could give a bonus to Injury treatment. We need to make these things more viable, so that some people might like to get them.

I did a breakdown of the responses like the fellow before me, then I wrote this bit, but I thought it was more interesting so I'm hauling it to the front:

I notice that our responses are somewhat unsatisfying, partly because we advanced some unsatisfying questions. It appears we weren't sufficiently detailed in 1 & 4, and the fixes perhaps miss our point (or our point is badly made) on 5 & 6.

I suggest for next time we vote for the top two bugs, the top two clarifications, and the top wishlist item (not an existing broken feature, not something we think might be meant to work differently). And of course Sin's pet topic.

I wish the community had pushed some more useful issues to the front, but we didn't know what was already being fixed so there you go. All in all there's a little more than I expected in the patch, and I like it. On the next round let's try to be specific and to the point. I was hoping they'd sink their teeth into _something_ we wrote and run with it, but reading the questions, I can't really blame them for most of the answers.

So short answers to the answers:

1) How about if protocol droids become programmable, like the ballot box terminal, so they become mobile signposts? It would be more useful if they can be deployed and remain in the environment, but even so, a conversation droid would be better than nothing. Load lifters could get 10x storage from storage modules (that can't be too hard to do) and become auto-mobile backpacks. LE Droids should get the same "stimpack" function as droid repair kits.

2) It's nice that most of the modules work, that rocks. The "stack everything" bug with clusters needs to go, and I'd like a clarification about craft modules: are they supposed to stack? I'd like to see more edits in crafting to prevent non-working-by-design combinations, and get the combinations that should work to work right. Obviously, this last is planned, it's just a matter of more refinement.

3) Bring on the UXP! Woo!

4) Well droideka art is already in - perhaps they could be the attack-tank droids where probots are the defense-tank droids. Probots do teeny damage, but (can have) good armor. Perhaps don't improve the armor, but improve the damage for the next level droids. How about put in an advanced model in Master and a standard model next to the advanced probot?

5) Um, didn't you notice the kit in Artisan already? But yes, please get it working.

6) This misses the point -- maybe improving experimental effectiveness will produce better results, but we don't have adequate points to experiment and make a difference. 18% is a lot like 16%, even if it does now make an improvement. I have 1 point with Advanced Refinement. I hear masters get 6 points. This is out of line with the expectations set by artisan experimentation. If it's as-designed, fine, but please consider changing the design.