Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: barker droid concern
I think that'll minimize any spam problems.
Vilkata wrote:
1. The owners will no longer have to be there to spam you.. they'll just leave the droid on hold ground in front of a starport and go on playing the game.. that means each would-be spammer will be there during their normal play times, not just during their /afk in bed/at work times.. 100% spam time, from each person that does that.
the real issue is that people who would buy a spambot already have NO problem with spam....some of us dont spam and wont ever buy these spambots....since the owners will most likely be current spammers, and since most current spammers are generally AFK as it is, they will be able to double there spamming...they will set up the droid spamming and then start their AFK spam macro, probably adding a droid recharge every so often to it...basically the spam has now been doubled
2. Droids, unlike players, cannot be put on /ignore. I fully expect within 1 - 2 weeks of Publish 8, to not be able to load into Theed or Coronet anymore due to spam lag crashing the machine.
another guy in the tread says that spam doesnt effect lag...total BS....i can load into less popular cities really quick...i can load into the shuttle ports in Theed and Coronet pretty quick and move fine after loading....the starports take forever to load and i am lagged to hell when i do....you cant tell me that the CHAT BUBBLE graphics are not mucking things up....do we really need droids adding to this mess?
Solution: PLEASE give us an option in ctrl-O that says "do not show droid barking".
That would be nice...but FLOOD CONTROL in general would be better so i dont have to be bothered with any spam...these forums have flood control but its not in game
Never once have I seen someone's advertisement spam and gone rushing to their shop.. if I want weapons, I'll look on the planet map for vendors and visit them..
I dont mind getting peoples message once..i often find things i need..its just every 5 secs after i have seen it that get annoying..
If the people have time to spam then why dont they have time to do real bizness...try buying stuff from the spammers....you cant t- hey dont have any merch on them if they arent Afk and want You to go 2K oreven a planet away and visit their vendor
Jaxus wrote:
I've read the DE boards a lot (being an MDE myself) and there are enough complaints already which is sad. Why make DE's the bad guys since they will be the oneswho create the ability for people to spam MORE...something that is obviously hated in the game anyway?
Because until they implement some type of true global advertising, advertising messages ("spam") are a fact of life.
There are two different types of spam - the annoying "10K ORE FOR SALE - PST" every three seconds, and those from real shop owners that are just trying to increase traffic to their stores for stuff people actually want. "T21's restocked at waypoint X,X", every 30-60 seconds, for instance.
Spam only seems to bother other crafters, from what I can see. The "average" player sees it for what it is - in-game advertising for wares.
Spam in cantinas, med-centers, etc. is annoying - but people standing outside a starport is like reading signs on the train in NYC - it's a place to reach people.
This legitimizes spam in a way, but it also helps seperate the "trash" spammers from those who actually have products to sell.
I truly understand how much some people hate spam, but I also understand that some people find it invaluable as a way to find out about stocked vendors. The planetary map just isn't good enough - instead of visiting 20 vendors across the planet that are likely mostly empty I'd much rather see a Master Weaponsmith advertising that they just stocked their vendor.
That's the beauty of this module - you are going to get messages at busy starports no matter what. This at least will seperate the legitimate advertising from the crap. That's a good thing, IMHO.
If spam really bothers you, turn off spatial at Starports. People shouting is a fact of life in every single MMO - I don't often take such a defeatist attitude, but in this case, there really is nothing that can be done about it. It's not the problem, it's the symptom : the problem is that we have nothing other than a lousy one-time vendor listing on the planetary map. No in-game way to let people know we have new stuff, no in-game way to tell people our vendor is really stocked and not empty like so many are.
What we really need are holonet channels that advertise, for hefty fees. Or a way to attach an ad to our planetary vendor listings - something tells me that kind of feature will be a very long way in the future. And again, this only will stop the "legitimate" spamming - those casual spammers ("Death star fragment for sale!") will always be there.
AO
Vilkata wrote:
Gavvot wrote:
Yes, spam is annoying, but why would you spent half an hour near the spaceport? Only people that stay there for a long time, are the spammers.
I don't like spam(who does?) but I don't really fear those droids.
While I might not spend half an hour at a starport, I often do spend that much time at a medical center or cantina. Can you imagine being an entertainer having to listen to the same spam, every 30 seconds, per bot, all day long and be unable to /ignore it?
They don't have to park them at starports, that's not a restriction.. Same load bubble? Spammers will then put it on hold in the cantina and go afk themselves in front of the starport spamming..
The lag also is created by toons, that includes pets.. If they have to be near their droids, that'll just double the amount of toons to be drawn, thus increasing lag.
"No, Sir, I don't like it." - Mr. Horse, Ren & Stimpy
Reports from TC (Jenden, in particular) say thatthe range of the droids' spam is about the same as a /say. Most spammers /yell, which has a farther range. I imagine this will make it somewhat more tolerable, because you won't have to go as far to get out of the "spam radius."
Also, it's been reported that when a droid's battery dies, the spam stops. How many spammers do you know will want to stick around the starport so they can feed thier droid a battery once an hour?
If anything, I think things will remain at the status quo after the initial novelty wears off. We'll still see a lot of merchant barker droids after that, but they will be more legitimate and will probably be used mostly for thier waypoint information.
Let's not shoot this one down before we know all the facts... please?
The Barker droid will only 'bark' for Novice Merchant or higher.
TurboSith wrote:
is there any word on whether you'll need certification to use the barker droids? i.e. nov merchant or adv 4 ... one less afk spammer is one more afk camper imo
/bow
Respectfully,
Veers_Intrepid wrote:
why is spam needed to advertise at all? shop owners just need the merchant skills to advertise their vendors, but u know what? merchant skills take to many skill points so ppl are not getting the skills and just spam like mad.
and it is annoying, i personally dont buy from spammers at all, cause i am not rewarding ppl who annoy me.
i make differences tho, if someone isnt a shop owner and tries to sell some unique item sure he needs to spam it and thats fine, as long hes not using all caps and every 30 secs.
well after rethinking about all,
the droids seem to be more then senseless sadly.
why? cause spamm will happen , and ppl who have to be in range of the droid to make him work will just not use it and keep going with the normal spam which cost them no batteries, no droid and hmm nothing.
if they have to stand there anyways they just keep shouting BLAH BLAH at 6867 7777 for CHEAP! grrr
so i see sadly no big point in this droids :/
imo they shouldnt spam at all, they should have a kind of sign on the head where ppl pathing by can read and then click the radial to get info or wp.
or make it even like everquest had, a bazaar yone, which is only for sales, who goes there knows he/she can find stuff, add a search item option. but then i see problems with the shops and vendors. (so this i would not like to see actually)
why is spam needed to advertise at all? shop owners just need the merchant skills to advertise their vendors, but u know what? merchant skills take to many skill points so ppl are not getting the skills and just spam like mad.
and it is annoying, i personally dont buy from spammers at all, cause i am not rewarding ppl who annoy me.
i make differences tho, if someone isnt a shop owner and tries to sell some unique item sure he needs to spam it and thats fine, as long hes not using all caps and every 30 secs.
but ppl who spam like mad all day long are simply annoying :/
my 2 cr
ask a Dev 
Get rid of this type of advertising altogether, droid or player.
The bazaars already allow buyers to see what items are for sale in different cities or on different planets. They should put in a new type of terminal with similar filtering options that show the actual stock for sale on player vendors. No intrusive ads when you're not even looking to buy something, and accurate inventory, pricing, and location information available when you are. Include with each listing how far away that vendor is from the terminal the buyer is browsing at. Will this make things more competetive for sellers of all types? Yes, but it will be largely the spammers and merchants with empty vendors who will get weeded out, I believe.
The idea was fine, but the implementation sucks....
Instead of spam-bots, which the barker droids currently are, the droids should:
A) Take the name of the waypoint stored in it, i.e. if the waypoint is named "Sam's Wholesale Widgets" then the droid should show that intead of a name (like a clapboard sign)
B) Not "say" anything unless clicked on for its waypoint, and then only speak to the person doing the clicking
This would prevent the massive spam lag, allow people to advertise using these droids without driving the rest of us nuts, and allow the Dev's to make these droids work regardless of where the owner is. Making it neccessary for the owner to be in the same local as the droid makes the barker module useless. Why buy a droid when you can macro /yells without buying anything?