Droid Engineer Archive

I say go with a cert system.

We need certs to use the weapons effectively in the current weapon certsystem. Just make it where if you DO NOT have the proper cert(s) it will says "Can not tame or activated droid from deed" or something to the affect. I know with the current weapon cert system you can still use a weapon without the proper cert(s) but witha heavy penalty. AllI am sayingisif you do not have the cert(s) it does not get put in your data pad and stays as a deed, then you can bank it for lateror stick it on the bazaar for recoupe of creds.

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OrionsByte wrote:

Generally I like it, but just to play devil's advocate, here's why I think it will face DEV opposition.

Anyone with a few thousand creds can take up all the novice professions. Assuming they grind through one skill tree in each, to level 4:

Artisan, Entertainer, Medic & Scout: 16 points total
Brawler, Marksmen: 8 points total

Altogether 24 points, or right around the stated cap. So this person is running around with the best droids soloing everything.

Different scenario: DE dabbling. Similiar to what was happening before the CH balance, someone does this:

Grinds to DE and Blueprints 4. 4 points in Artisan plus 12 in DE = 16 points, plus the ability (based on the current skill tree) to build every droid possible.

Add a couple other novice professions, you're back to the cap. Again, you end up with someone who's basically unskilled running around with the best droids.

I'm not trying to be divisive or contrary here, I'm just proffering a different perspective.

Thoughts?

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Some good points here.

But who wants to play a brawler/marksman/entertainer/medic/artisan? The real action is in the elite professions. By the tiem you ground your way through all of the basic professions, you could have been well on your way to a real profession -- and thats ths point -- to make the droideka harder to reach.

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OrionsByte wrote:

Generally I like it, but just to play devil's advocate, here's why I think it will face DEV opposition.

Anyone with a few thousand creds can take up all the novice professions. Assuming they grind through one skill tree in each, to level 4:

How do you master all 6 professions with 250 skill points?

Artisan, Entertainer, Medic & Scout: 16 points total

First it would be 20 points, second it would require 272 skill points.

Brawler, Marksmen: 8 points total

Again, 10 points, and as they couldnt finish the above, they can finish these.

Altogether 24 points, or right around the stated cap. So this person is running around with the best droids soloing everything.

Well it would be 18 points i believe, capping at 250 skill points

Different scenario: DE dabbling. Similiar to what was happening before the CH balance, someone does this:

Grinds to DE and Blueprints 4. 4 points in Artisan plus 12 in DE = 16 points, plus the ability (based on the current skill tree) to build every droid possible.

Add a couple other novice professions, you're back to the cap. Again, you end up with someone who's basically unskilled running around with the best droids.

There would be no need to dabble, because a pistoleer or rifleman, or swordsman would have the same droid pull as a Master DE. If anything Bounty Hunters, Squad Leaders and the other one would be overrun because they would get more droids.

I'm not trying to be divisive or contrary here, I'm just proffering a different perspective.

Thoughts?

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Overall i like it.

I would hope the cap would be higher.

I LOVE the idea of faction rank having a purpose.

I like it!

I like the concept of droid certifications, but I think we should go a different way with it. One of the things that is limiting most crafters enjoyment from this game is that the content is all geared towards combat. Want the monthly....err...quarterly badge? Better have some high powered friends who are willing to carry you. My suggestion would be to keep the droid certification points in the Elite crafting professions. Let someone with one Elite crafting master have a droid of about CL35-40. Got two Elite masteries, 2 droids of the same caliber. After spending the points for one crafting master, you would have some points left over for a decent combat skill, but after two you're pretty much left with the old newbie CDEF. This will allow for decently high level combat droids without them becoming unbalancing to the game. No BH with two Droidekas killing everything in sight, but a pistoleer would be a pretty good match against an MDE/MM with two of them and his survival knife.

Excellent idea.

I like Drashk's plan a lot. There's still some room for discussion and tweaking. Particularly, with regards to low level PCs loading up on low level skills just to gain Droid Ability points.

BUT . . . let's not forget this is SOE we're talking about. Should this plan get implemented in any form, they will inevitably:

1. Add "+20 Droid Ability" Skill Tapes as loot.

2. Make said skill tapes drop off static mobs.

3. Give all those Holo-campers something new to perma-camp

Mark my words!

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Lonkley wrote:

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OrionsByte wrote:

Generally I like it, but just to play devil's advocate, here's why I think it will face DEV opposition.

Anyone with a few thousand creds can take up all the novice professions. Assuming they grind through one skill tree in each, to level 4:

How do you master all 6 professions with 250 skill points?

I didn't say "Master," I said take one tree and get to level 4 in each profession.

Artisan, Entertainer, Medic & Scout: 16 points total

First it would be 20 points, second it would require 272 skill points.

No points for novice,1 point for each level in 1 tree = 4 points per profession * 4 professions= 16 points.

Brawler, Marksmen: 8 points total

Again, 10 points, and as they couldnt finish the above, they can finish these.

No points for novice, 2 points for each level in 1 tree = 8 points per profession * 2 professions = 8 points.

Grand total for all 6 professions = 174 skill points. Again, that's ONE tree in each starting profession.

Altogether 24 points, or right around the stated cap. So this person is running around with the best droids soloing everything.

Well it would be 18 points i believe, capping at 250 skill points

Different scenario: DE dabbling. Similiar to what was happening before the CH balance, someone does this:

Grinds to DE and Blueprints 4. 4 points in Artisan plus 12 in DE = 16 points, plus the ability (based on the current skill tree) to build every droid possible.

Add a couple other novice professions, you're back to the cap. Again, you end up with someone who's basically unskilled running around with the best droids.

There would be no need to dabble, because a pistoleer or rifleman, or swordsman would have the same droid pull as a Master DE. If anything Bounty Hunters, Squad Leaders and the other one would be overrun because they would get more droids.

Yes but they'd also be able to build thier own droids. The other reason I used this example was because it's not a combat profession. I was trying to point out that someone could have no combat skills whatsoever and still own and operate a top-rate combat droid.

I'm not trying to be divisive or contrary here, I'm just proffering a different perspective.

Thoughts?

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Overall i like it.

I would hope the cap would be higher.

I LOVE the idea of faction rank having a purpose.

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Sodan-droiddreamer wrote:

But who wants to play a brawler/marksman/entertainer/medic/artisan? The real action is in the elite professions. By the tiem you ground your way through all of the basic professions, you could have been well on your way to a real profession -- and thats ths point -- to make the droideka harder to reach.

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When I first started the game, my character was a bit of a renaissance man. I was a novice Artisan, Entertainer, Scout, Marksman, and Brawler (everything but Medic, which is ironic becuase my holiday holo told me "Bio Engineer"). At one point I've virtually certain I had a level 4 box in each of these professions. That would have given me 20 DH points.

When I started getting in to the elite professions, obviously I had to start dropping other boxes. One-by-one, my skills started to focus. It was basically trading boxes from starting professions for elite ones.

Now, I'm a Master Artisan (5 points), a 1-2-0-3 DE (9 points), a 1-2-1-1 fencer (6points), a 0-4-0-4 Entertainer (4 points), and a 2-0-0-0 Scout (2 points). Add 'em up, that's 26 points. I doubt I ever really dipped below that initial 20 points.

So my point is just that it would be easy to get to the max quickly and keep the max throughout your career.

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OrionsByte wrote:

When I first started the game, my character was a bit of a renaissance man. I was a novice Artisan, Entertainer, Scout, Marksman, and Brawler (everything but Medic, which is ironic becuase my holiday holo told me "Bio Engineer"). At one point I've virtually certain I had a level 4 box in each of these professions. That would have given me 20 DH points.

When I started getting in to the elite professions, obviously I had to start dropping other boxes. One-by-one, my skills started to focus. It was basically trading boxes from starting professions for elite ones.

Now, I'm a Master Artisan (5 points), a 1-2-0-3 DE (9 points), a 1-2-1-1 fencer (6points), a 0-4-0-4 Entertainer (4 points), and a 2-0-0-0 Scout (2 points). Add 'em up, that's 26 points. I doubt I ever really dipped below that initial 20 points.

So my point is just that it would be easy to get to the max quickly and keep the max throughout your career.

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You didn't read how the system thatI described is set up OrionsByte.You only gain points at Tier 4 and Master skill boxes. According to your current skills you would only have 5 Droid Handling points, gained from being a Master Artisan.

I think that the original system is very well designed, however its main fault is that it's effectively making droids come "free" with abilities that folks already have. Since most people end up maxed out of their skill points, effectively everyone would carry certifications for almost top droids.

Cases in point:

Master Artisan / MDE: 20 Pts
Master Brawler / TKA: 20 Pts
Master Medic / Master Doctor: 15 Pts

I think the way to fix this is to greatly stretch the top levels of droids. For example:

Non-combat droids require 0 droid points
First level combat droids: 5 points (anyone who mastered any base profession can have one)
Second level combat droids: 15 points (anyone who mastered a base + elite profession can have one)
Third level combat droids: 25 points (only BH / Commando / Squad Leaders with some faction points can have one, or folks in high-level combat professions with faction points)
Highest level combat droids: 30 points (only folks in hybrid professions with lots of faction points can have these droids)

This can be justified (for continuity) that only factions are able to have the resources to help you smuggle high end combat droids and only if you're highly ranked in the faction.

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Sodan-droiddreamer wrote:

By the tiem you ground your way through all of the basic professions, you could have been well on your way to a real profession -- and thats ths point -- to make the droideka harder to reach.

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Well you're right - and the skill set I presented above is probably a rare one. But still I think you could get to the max pretty quickly by zooming up a skill tree that's easy to macro or grind. Face it, if there's a way to do it, someone will figure it out, and then EVERYONE will be doing it so they can tug their droidekas around.

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Drashk wrote:

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OrionsByte wrote:

When I first started the game, my character was a bit of a renaissance man. I was a novice Artisan, Entertainer, Scout, Marksman, and Brawler (everything but Medic, which is ironic becuase my holiday holo told me "Bio Engineer"). At one point I've virtually certain I had a level 4 box in each of these professions. That would have given me 20 DH points.

When I started getting in to the elite professions, obviously I had to start dropping other boxes. One-by-one, my skills started to focus. It was basically trading boxes from starting professions for elite ones.

Now, I'm a Master Artisan (5 points), a 1-2-0-3 DE (9 points), a 1-2-1-1 fencer (6points), a 0-4-0-4 Entertainer (4 points), and a 2-0-0-0 Scout (2 points). Add 'em up, that's 26 points. I doubt I ever really dipped below that initial 20 points.

So my point is just that it would be easy to get to the max quickly and keep the max throughout your career.

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You didn't read how the system thatI described is set up OrionsByte.You only gain points at Tier 4 and Master skill boxes. According to your current skills you would only have 5 Droid Handling points, gained from being a Master Artisan.

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Okay, I misunderstood you then. My apologies, and I rescind my previous comments.