Droid Engineer Archive

1. I agree with Sintrosi plan and State of the Profession

2. I disagree with the Rough DE plan in general

There seems to have been some fundemental disconnect in creating this plan and the already presented and collected and summarized material in these forums. There has been an enormous amount of excellent work made to collect and present the many various opinions here.

#1. Disagree , more Chasis first, and then the weapon modules, which are only usable in combat chasis. The weapon modules aren't a bad idea at all, though I would suggest makingthe weapon component as coming from WS schema. The will make DE dependent on WS as well as Artisan.

#2 Agree with DE having multiple droids out. Single combat is fine.

#3 Totally disagree withe majority of presented items. Mouse Bombs? Almost everything worth suggesting has been done in other threads. In general fix the existing bugs first. For example fixing the cluster socket module bug will immediately force people to probably get one probot and one R series and one Surgical droid and worry about trading one of those out for a repair or power droid. So just a couple bug fixes will drive the demand for more droids because you will need various types.

Add some of the new proposed droid types, surveyor, spy, harvestor maintenance.

Medical and repair droids need to be thought out a bit more. As DE I would expect to be able to repair droids as part of my profession.

Two things.

1.) Re: combat droids. I'd be VERY careful in how you implement these. Remember, a combat droid will operate as a mobile gun platform. This will drastically enhance the combat ability of any player, even if the droid can only do, say, 30 damage a shot, max. While this will certainly be preferable to the prevalence of creature pets, it will still create an imbalance in terms of the haves and have-nots. Give purchasors of droids some benefits, but have them include drawbacks beyond mere monetary concerns. Personally, I'd rather avoid combat droids altogether and create droids that are more useful for maintenance, crafting, and the like. For combat players, a droid that can provide better sensors, a droid that can give you extended information about your target, or a droid that can repair your gear quickly and better than you can would be a major plus. We don't have to have combat droids. I realize this will be an unpopular opinion, but I just think that players should do their own fighting the majority of the time. We don't want the game to turn from Po-ke-mon into Mechwarrior or Bot Wars. Please, be VERY VERY careful in your implementation of ANY combat droids. Keep lone players who do not use "supplemental hardware" a viable force. Make sure droids have both an upside and a downside.

2.) PLEASE let us get our pre-customization patch droids customized. There is a significant bug where your customization will not appear properly if you own an R-series droid that was created prior to the patch adding customization. I don't want to have to buy another droid. I just want my existing droid not to have the "bondo and primer" look to it.

Yes and no. I like the idea of more combat droids and more droid functionality... but I don't really know that I like making DE like CH. I like the idea of droids being for everyone... and the ideas about certain professions gaining the ability to call more droids. I think maybe everyone should be able to call 1 droid and 1 other pet, plus any extras from profession, and that Droid Engineer shouldn't grant a bunch of extra controlled droids, maybe at most one or two... Droid Engineer should be different from Creature Handler... it should be more of a crafting profession rather thana combat profession. That said, I do want to see lots more types and functionalities of droids, and lots more combat droids.

It doesn't really make a lot of sense (in continuity and otherwise) for MSE droids to go up and explode at people, does it?

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Thunderheart wrote:

1. I need to know if you agree or disagree with Sintrosi's Plan

2. I need to know if you agree or disagree with the rough DE plan in general

Also, please post the changes you would make to the DE plan. Thanks

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I feel that Sintrosi's 'State of the Profession' post was exactly right. I know it certainly encapsulated MY feelings on the matter.

I feel that the Droid Engineer plan as presented on October 23rd was written by someone with only a cursory knowledge of the Droid Engineer profession who was told to come up with it in fifteen minutes because all of us were clamoring for it.

My main change I would make to the DE plan would be to give a timetable of SOME description, even if it is nothing more than 'By Summer 2004', on getting the bugs listed by this community resolved. They are sticky and available for anyone to look at, so I must ask that the devs do so and make that the first priority. When your car's engine is leaking oil and making weird noises, you don't want the mechanic to try and sell you new tires. You want him to fix your engine.

I understand that no one wants to go on record as saying "We will have X completed by Y date" because then people will hold you to that, despite technical problems and acts of god. Likewise, I also understand that you, TH, do not have the managerial authority to make those kinds of promises... unless I have totally misread your position. However, an assurance that you will print out the bug list that has been compiled for you and the devs and take it to whomever the dev manager is and put it in their hands with a note that says that this is what needs fixing and what players want would be most appreciated.

AR

ok here is my 2 cents: (quotes from the official DE plan are in yellow)

Combat droids. We want to add Droid Modules that will convert many droids and give them combat abilities. ONLY Droid Engineers will be able to make and use these modules. Setting expectations, these changes involve a lot of people and its not something that’s going to happen fast.

Two things I do not like about this: 1) I do not like the idea of adding combat modules to non combat droid chassis. I dont want to see a power droid with a blaster!. 2) I do not like the idea that only DE's will be able to use these combat droids. Droid certifications should be put into existing professions. ie: a specific type of droid cert when you reach novice bounty hunter or novice rifleman, etc.. or maybe higher up in some of the skills. As long as ALL the fighter classes get a droid, there wont be any balance issues.

I would not mind if components for combat droids would be made by weaponsmiths such as pistol barrels, etc

We want to make the Droid AI so that it targets healers from time to time. Medical droids have a perception that they don’t work, so to change their functionality.

as a DE I would like this, but as long as it does not step on the foot of PC healers. How? By having droids if they do stim you, have a very weak stim. For example: the medical droid could have a storage compartment that only accepts Stim A's or med pack A's. Droids that do stim you or heal you would loose allot of power, and would need constant recharging, but not to a point where it is not worth it of coarse. Power levels (the way to check how much battery life is left on a droid) should be associated with the mind ham of the droid.

We agree with the players that there should be more droid personalities and to give Protocol Droids a stronger role. Many different options are being considered.

I agree also that droids, especially humanoid ones, should have a personality. One of the funniest things in the SW movies especially in the original trilogy, were the things that came out of C3-PO's mouth. For this to be even better, allow a person to customize a string and either have it say it at random or by command. Imagine a protocol droid taunting a player: "your odds of beating my master are 152,373 to one!". Have R2 units scream beeps out if their master is under attack, etc. or maybe when they detect a mob that is stalking them. Little things like these make the game more star warsy.

Above all.. what I do not like currently in the DE profession is that you can place any module on any droid chassis. Droids need to be specialized.

The key is that droids should be helpers not replacers of PC's. Doctors already have that benefit that a droid helps them heal outside med centers, etc.

Why not a droid that helps a slicer? Idea: It is sometimes hard to hand over a gun to a slicer that you do not know for fear of them running away with your precious krayt gun. There could be a droid to act as a "middle man". The slicer takes it out so the person would deposit the gun into the droid. The slicer can then work on the gun while it is in the droid. The slicer could never phisically get the gun out of the droid, only the owner of the gun. Once the gun is sliced, the droid gives the gun back to the owner. (programming wise, you may come to the problem of the droid not being able to give the gun back because the owner may have filled his inventory. Solution: make the transfer function the same way Ommni boxes and Nargolons work. Musicians can drop those items, yet still be visible and occupying space in their inventory. It returns to them after they walk away)

Another idea that has been floating around: enable Dancers and Musicians to create holographic image disks to sell. People would buy these disks and insert them into R2 units to play back the dancing or music in a camp (only mind heal not battle fatigue, and at a reduced rate)... gives dancers and musicians a way to make money, and another reason why people should own a droid. It helps out everyone.

above all and I repeat: I do not like the way droids are now that you can place ANY module on ANY droid.

Specialization droids and more ways to help other professions.

One more thing: DE's should be able to redeed droids, and deeds should carry the image of the final droid (like BE animals) not the generic deed image.

I hope you get to read this Thunderheart and thanks!

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1) Yes

2) Yes

Ackoo Alimock

DE 4/4/1/4 /M. Artisan/Novice RIfleman

Kettemoor

tell you what, you go back and fix all the current DE/droid bugs then come back and ask questions.

that way at least we know you are serious, not like 3po and holo.

Consider making a droid that can take samples of resources. This droid could maybe take samples at low percents, or even where the resource doesn't show up on a survey.

Another option would be to have a droid that can store information about resources on a planet. Or maybe all planets. Maybe it could sample every resource on a planet, and you could ask it what the stats are on a certain resource, or maybe it would just tell you what resource has the best OQ, or DR, or whatever.

There are many options when implementing a driod of this type. I would definitly buy one.

1. I need to know if you agree or disagree with Sintrosi's Plan

2. I need to know if you agree or disagree with the rough DE plan in general

Also, please post the changes you would make to the DE plan. Thanks

1. I Agree with Sintrosi's state of the proffesion. I have full faith in Sintrosi to poll the DE's opinions and suggest fixes and sollutions. However I wonder why this thread is created because we've had these posts already. Come on, read the stickied posts. There's all your information.

2. Sorta. I'd better tell you how I'd like to see it instead of posting with what I dont agree, since you dont like to read that even though you asked. (agree or disagree with the rough DE plan in general)

I'm not gonna make a long post, i'll just summarize my opinion, and some Idea's I've seen on these boards.

(really TH, read this forum. Or let the Droid Engineer Dev read this forum for 2 hours. He'll know what the DE's want. We discuss many things in these forums, hoping that a Dev would read our suggestions. Sadly, they dont because if they did you would not have to ask us this, yet again)

Gorantoths Bug list. Those bugs and their fixes should've been mentioned in your 'Plan'

People like pets to fight with. You've seen why CH was the most mastered proffesion. The DE's have hardly anything worthwhile to sell. Why dont you give us some more Combat Droid chassis'(s?) instead of combat modules, so we can create R2's with blasters? (I didnt really understand what that part of the post means, and i'm under the impression most of us dont know what hell it meant. However we all notice that whoever wrote that just skimmed trough the email Sintrosi sent Q3PO at the beginning of her correspondent time, and thought he had a general idea of what we want fixed.)

There should be a difference between utility droids and combat droids. What about DE's get 2 utility droids and 1 combat droid to controll, non-de's get 1 utility and 1 combat droid. I'm not gonna discuss which modules to add, which modules to fix, etc. This has been discussed in our forum already. Read it, please.

Thunderheart,

“I'll be the first one to tell you that I am not a crafter.”

Okay this one is easy by giving the DE high level combat droid they cease being a class that helps support the other combat classes and become just that…a psuedo-comabt class. Heck while your at it limit Armor…so that only Armorsmiths can wear Composite, and that Weaponsmiths are the only ones that can use Heavy Particle Beam Canons. When we chose to be an artisan it’s because we don’t want to run around killing thing 90% of our time we want to craft and make things for the people that doo run around and kill 90% of the time. That’s the dichotomy of the Crafting profession vs. the Combat profession.

“There needs to be more useful things for droids to do for certain professions.”

I said it earlier…I don’t want my Protocol Droid whipping out a T21 and screaming in it’s effeminate voice “DIE JEDI DIE!!!“ It sucked in AOTC…it would suck in this game. I think what people want are droids specific to combat. Like the Droideka and Trade Fed battle droids with interchangeable mods. take the Bounty Hunter they use droids all the time. In fact they were described as Master Droid users. Allow them to have an extra Combat type out or a higher level more advanced type of Combat droid. Look at all the combat classes in that respect. Gage their abilities and let them whip out higher level droid types. Artisan should be able to bring out several utility droids at a time…use a Power Droid, Binary Load Lifter, and LE Repair Droid to help maintain their harvesters and what not. Which leads me to a new building type that Architects can build a Droid Hub. That has power and resource storage so your Power Droid gets the power from it to fuel all your harvesters, a Place the Binary Load lifter can store all the resources it gathers. And lets us players have a decent place to store stuff other then having to put up a second house as a garage. It just cost X to maintain and these droids will all decay over time and need to be replaced. Cargo Capacity gets smaller in the Load lifter and power droids die out etc… Basically tier it. Non medics can have a limited use of a Surgical Droid. One that is semi beneficial but not one to replace the Medic Class. And then the Medic Classes get use out it like other artisans get use from a droid with a portable crafting station. They get bonuses to healing when doing so in the Proximity of their Surgical droid.

Kill the Bounty Hunter Droid terminals and let DE make all the Seekers and Probe Droids. It will build a nice market for that…being able to make these with better chances to find the BH mark and what not.

Allow the small profile MSE to help in GCW and help clear or mark mine fields like a mini detector. Make that available to commandos.

I’d love to allow Droids to help me with stuff…Heck R2 was da bomb. Maybe I can send my R2 unit to a Factory and load a schematic for me. Or

You make it sound like having a Pet is a bad thing. Heck I’d at least rather have a droid pet vs. a Creature pet anyday. It’s Star Wars. And seeing as how there will be Limitation on the amount of pets that any one class can call How would it be a dependency. The pet system is established. And short of removing it entirely…the system is there and we will use it. If I can have only one pet out at a time. Then I’d perfer a droid….its Star Wars gosh darn it. So I’d like my Droid to look cool and be able to help me a little. Jeebus I am not saying make it a AT-ST but something I can use. It’s all about making it just the right level. If I am a novice Marksman. Should I be able to call a super Advanced amped Droideka? No…but may be a have a Trade Fed Battle Droid. A basic combat droid. When I become a Master Marksman I can have a more improved Battle Droid that is more in line with my abilities now…

See above…Medics should be the only ones who will gain any real benefit from having a surgical droid. Anyone without Medic gets a droid that can do like one or two minor things that Stims can do right now. Medics get ability boosts when using a Surgical Droid. With a R2 with a Crafting station in it I can make any thing under the sun where ever I am. Well Medics should get a similar benefit

“Which would you prefer and why?”

Lets see refer to what I said about the Artisan profession. They don’t need to be a psudeo-combat class. Weaponsmiths, Armorsmiths and Honestly Droid Engineers should exists to enhance the combat classes. Give them better armor, weapons and droid to allow them to do what they like to do. Make them a psudeo-combat then you better do it to all the Advanced Artisan classes. It creates a market for DE outside of the rest of the Crafters. So they can offer something to everyone. Weapon and Armorsmiths already do that.

Both…one begets the other. If droids were more useful then the Profession become fun to play. If all guns were the same…did the same damage…and the only thing a Weaponsmith could do was change the look of the weapon…well we’d have a game populated by nothing but CDEF’s. Droids in Star Wars were there to help ease the lives of those that owned them. They fixed Moisture Vaporators, Input Hyper-Space coordinates. They helped with the mundane. And with the at times not so mundane…like war fare. Droids were an undercurrent to life in the Movies and the EU books.

Well duh…I don’t mean to be rude. What would be the point of a DE if any master artisan could do it…when it comes to Droids…DE should be the first, last, and final authority.

There is no warning when a droid will be low on power. You could be in the middle of a fight and bam…your Probot just ups and quits citing “Low Power”. If we had way to look at a droids power level like we can with a Harvester we can always avoid this. And regardless of the quality of the Droid Battery made weather it’s 99% effective or 20% the power usages seems just random.

To fix that is to place some of the items that only master artsan can make into the engy Skill Tree of the Base Artisan Class. But I still think that some of the things you need to make should be MA only items. If that forces a Droid Engy to go out and sub contract a Artisan to make that stuff then oh well. I mean honestly is it fair to force a Master Armorsmith to always have to get a scout or ranger to get the Hide and Bone he needs to make Polysynthetic Composite Armor. Hide and Bone…So is that why Stormtroopers armor is white cause they made it out of bone? So if DE need to either get MA or sub contract the work it just helps promote player community.

Those are my Thoughts on your questions...

Roorukk

Master Weaponsmith

What items seem like the most important and which professions have interdependencies that are a lot of fun?

What entertains you folks?"

Well im not a DE, but i guess im qualified to answer what i'd like to see in droids.

Most importantly for me is to be able to give a droid a personality, so a set of Emotes he could do would be cool but they would run out pretty quick if it was just emotes. I truly wish i could order him to speak, just for the sake of RP..then i could at least toy around with the droid.

Naming the droid - you really need to check the droids name filter. Its sad that my R3 can have the name R3.

Make the droid batteries last looong - right now its just a hassle trying to feed it with batteries. Make the batteries trickier to make and sell them for a larger credit..but make them last much much longer (hours..many hours)

Let the custom paintjob last, as long as the droids, or at least longer then 3-4 calls (A rumor i heard, maybe not eventrue)

As a dancer i more often then not have to dance out in camps etc..Would it really kill anyone if i could have a music box on wheels/legs? Just some simple tunes (im not trying to steal anything from Musicians here) to dance to? I look silly dancing without music. What more? Light show enchancers, smoke etc..thats a dancers droid.

As a miner..let me get some Survey boostfor example. Let the droid use my skill and go survey in one direction while i go to the other dir - if he scores a preset hit, let me know. Its not tricky to survey..let the droid be able to do it too and they'd sell like mad.

As a melee fighter i'd like to be able to buy a different sidekick then the standard Probot - yes we do want some sort of fighting pets (At least the same level as CH's are getting) and i BET a DE would want them as well - they need to make money selling after all.

As a medic i'd love to have a more active droid that assists in my heals and that heals people. Im sure you can make it balancing.

Ah you can really invent anything if you think about it, let all professions get a signigicant boost to something by using a droid. Make them useful, SWG was full of them in the moves and they sure had some use there.

(At least the same level as CH's are getting)

I meant the same levels we NON CH's can buy off a CH..

TH,

I guess from my perspective as a DE and an SWG player isI would like a few things:

1. Give me a better combat droid to sell to the combat professions. Make it certed for only masters of elite professions or master DEs, perhaps the droid for MBH could be even better / faster than the others. This gives us the DEs something fun to use at MDE and something fun to sell to the elite combats.

This also solves one of Raph's stated goals of encouraging specialization. It becomes another neat carrot to get when you reach master pistoleer, etc. These should be significantly better than the CL10 pets a non-CH can get and significantly better than the current Probot. Droidekas fit this bill but that's not my choice to make.

2. Don't put blasters in my R2 unit. I understand the desire to work with the art the dev team has already done but sending my R2 into battle for me just seems wrong. I'd rather wait on the combat droids until we can do it right than shoe horn something in that doesn't fit with the continuity of the movies.

3. Give the power droid and binary load lifter something to do. Obvious choices:

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