Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: I'm Upset Droids and Battery usage
Thanks Mirius. I liked your "Buy 1 fix, get 2 bugs FREE!" analagy. Sad that it's such an appropriate saying in this game 
I carry a crate of 25 batteries on me and have one crate in my house.
I don't mind buying batteries, and I don't mind recharging my droid, but the recharge time of said batteries is either pitifully low, or like I said droids must be using power constantly whether they are stored or being used. Kind of like a factory that isn't being used. The power and maintenance consumption gets eaten on a per hour basis whether you use it or not. But I really don't think droids should work this way.
They should only consume power for the time they are called out and being used.
There are 2 possible scenarios going on.
1. Batteries have a severely limited power charge (ie: 15-20 min per battery)
2. OR droids are using power 24/7 whether they are being used or stored.
Neither of these is acceptable to the droid using public. Nor is it condusive to the DE profession. Let me explain why.
Before this change was implemented, my droid was like my third hand. He was much wanted and appreciated. I would pull him out anytime, anywhere to heal passing people that were hurt with wounds. I would always pull him out while waiting for a shuttle even if the shuttle was 2 minutes away, and just throw heals on the most severly hurt players gathered around. (not for experience, I've been capped for quite a while) but just to help people while we wait around.
Since this change, thinking my droid was only using power while being out and used, and having it chew through batteries at an ungodly rate, I cringe at the thought of even pulling him out.Knowing that most likely i'm going to have to fumble around in my inventory that is full of meds, to find the crate of batteries, then charge the droid, THEN finally heal people has made it so I never pull him out anymore unless I absolutely have to.
He has gone from being a helpful and much loved assistant, to a royal pain in the ass that causes me more frustration than anything else.
I had my Probot Droid out last night 10-11-03 and when it was low on power it told me so by beeping *low Power* in my chat screen. It was still working fine but I recharged it anyway and carried on.
Yes, that's very nice. I was talking about a gauge, though. Does a single recharge fully charge a droid? Do MSEs and probots hold the same amount of charge or burn power at the same rate? Right now I recharge once when I get *low power* but would it be worth recharging multiple times?
There's just no way tell how much charge is in a droid. My laptop can tell me it's got a 40% charge, my car tells me I have a 1/4 tank of gasoline. Shouldn't sophisticated droids have a power gauge? Heck, even harvesters do. It would be nice on droids.