Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: DE's I need two things from you please
1. We WANT droids to maintain harvesters for us, not just power, I want power droids for power, droids that pay maintenance, and and binary load lifters that BRING ME MY RESOURCES all to a central point.
What does this do for the DE profession? It gives them recurring sales on power droids, it gives them recurring sales on binary load lifters. AND IT DOES IT ON EXISTING DROIDS. It can be implemented in stages. First you get power droids working. Then you make a depot structure and get load lifters delivering ore to that structure.
2. I'd love to have a droid that checks maintenance on things like houses and NOTIFIES me when they get low. This could be in the form of an email notice. Alternatively you could have the droid automatically pay things for you based on how you program it.
This could also be something recurring for DE. A droid that more people need to have.
Automated repairs / maintenance for stuff IS the killer app for droids. I still haven't figured out WHY THIS WAS NOT DONE FROM THE BEGINNING. Look at the movies...C3P0 and R2D2 were purchased from the Jawas to do what???? Yes...maintain stuff.
2. On the thought of giving DE droideka...I agree with that with a couple caveats. 1. Any DE who makes one should be required to have Trade Federation faction OR 2. The user should be required to have Trade Federation faction. Let's make some of these other factions worthwhile. Additionally should the use of one of these give you a TEF with imperial forces?
There is one thing that almost all of the above hinges on. Droid decay MUST be implemented. DE's need to have recurring sales or repair revenue to support their trade.
That's my $0.02 for the day...from someone outside the profession looking in,
-Zanik
Aside from fixing bugs (and it sounds like you've got the message on that), it seems like there are two main concerns:
We don't have a viable market
Everyone wants a critter, because critters are good combat and most players engage in some form of combat. What would make everyone want a droid? The quickest fix is to give us a marketable combat droid that's the equivalent of a level 10 pet. And it's got to be visually cool. Slapping a gun on an R2 doesn't do it. People will still go for critters because of the variety and visual effect. To compete we need desirable combat droids.
But that's just a first step. Droid's have the potential to be desirable on many levels. There are lots of great ideas for modules that would make our droids desirable to other classes. We've got med modules, they're a working example. I just read an excellent post about droid vendors (droids the vend) that would make them attractive to merchants. Bio-scanner modules to aide Rangers in tracking. Geo-sensors that aide in surveying. Entertainment module that add to the sound/light/special effects shows for entertainers. There are a ton of great ideas out there. Look at how many critters there are, we want droids with similar diversity.
Then there are DE only combat droids
And this seems to be where the real division in out ranks comes in. I generally think it's a positive move, though I don't think we need to have droids that go toe-to-toe with the top level CH critters. Droids should have enough other uses that they don't need to max out on the combat tree. But something formidable would be appreciated. I don't think it'll turn us into a "combat class." If anything, it'll let us concentrate more on crafting and less on making sure we multi-class into a combat tree so we can defend ourselves from aggro in the field.
Two other things I'd like to see:
There are problems with existing stuff that aren't really bugs in the mal-formed code sense of the word. But things that seem broken all the same and need attention. We'd like to see confirmation that these things are considered broken and will receive some attention. If they aren't broken, we'd like an explanation for how they are used. Top of my list for this category: Memory modules. They seem useless for anything other than storing schematics, which is of little value. Are they broken? Or is there a use we're overlooking? Binary Load Lifters. If they're not missing functionality, then what good are they? There are others that are outlined in the sticky posts at the top of this forum.
Item two: I think DEs ought to gain the ability to identify droids and their modules/capabilities/tendencies in the field. This is just like Rangers or Scout can do with critters. When we /exam a droid we should get more detailed information due to our higher understanding of the subject matter.
I agree with therecent poster. The main thing a DE wants is a market for our wares.
My idea is toimplement"Droid Control Points"-DCP a droid requires to use, and who should get points to control them with. Namely, everyone who isn't scout based (squad leader being the exception).
Where to award DCP
60 for DE Mastery (3 per skillbox, 9 for mastery)
50 for Squad Leader mastery (2 for novice and bottom boxes, 3 for other boxes, 4 for master)
*20 for any othernon scout based mastery (1 per skill box, 3 formastery)
0 points for Scout based skills other than squad leader (Scout, CH, BE, BH, ranger) as they can pull off the CH tree instead.
DCP requirements
5 Mouse droid (hey, my parents still can't program the VCR)
10 Advanced mouse droid
20 Tracker and Seeker droids (BH will have 20 DCP from marksman master).
10-60 depending on module for medical or artisian droids
20 Lowest combat droid that is equivalent to a CL 10 monster (probot?)
35-65 Equivalent of CL 10-20 creature - Think of the thousands of droids in neat orderly rows in Starwars II
70-90 Commander Droids (maybe the ADV version of the last ones with more armor, weapon speed, and skill)
75-100 Droideka (scale it depending on armor, weapons, shield strength, ham etc.)
- under this system, the average player with no DE or Squad Leader skills will have 40-70 DCP depending on how many scout related skills they take.
- This allows Squad leaders and DE's to be the only two classes that can use the very top end droids, yet reduces the ability of CH's to use droids creating the problem that we have today when someone with 3 AT-ST's is running around. A master CH with master Squad leader can achieve a maximum of approximately 66DCP (I used marksman tree to get that number).
- Attempt to NOT award any more points for scout trees if you don't want CH/squad leader super combos
- Gives newer players something to look forward to, and all established characters some level of droid friendliness (heh, unless they are a CH BH combo or some such).
- Allows a fighting character to takerows ofscout and a couple squad leader trees if they want a bigger bot.
I gave up putting effort into any DE posts because of the apparent lack on interest in our problems by the Devs. Not it looks like there is interest, and it seems like the thousands of detailed posts and ideas are too much of a problem to read through. I dont blame you, it *is* a lot of posts, and it is riddled with negativity caused by the Devs. Yes, they MADE us angry and bitter. THey shoudl all be forced to read every single word. But I'm letting that go, and I'm gonna make an effort to respond to your request for more detailed info...
Thunderheart wrote:
There needs to be more usefull things for droids to do for certain professions.
What things and which professions?
Droid "loudspeakers" so musicians can play outside. Droid factories that can produce a single crate of items (whatever kind of crafting station woudl define the type of factory) with a low complexity (BLL, anyone?) Droids that will track players, like the seeker, but for anyone. If I wanted to know where a friend was, I could tell the PC-Seeker to find them, and get a WP for that Player if the "roll" came in my favor. Survey Droids, either static ones (like a mobile structure) that will report on all the resoucres (stats and concentrations) in the area, or regular ones that will boost the survey range. Harvestor droids (again, BLL anyone?) that will visit a registered harv and pick up all hopper contents and deliver it to you (like the BH droids, it actually just disappears, and after an appropriate time, reappears in your datapad. When you call it, its storgae bins contain the resources). Maint droids, who will fuel up harvs with power you have placed in them (tell it which one and how many units to deposit and it then does the same thing as above). Delivery droids (can you say FedEx?) that will deliver the contents of its storage bin to a specific person.
When it says only DE will be able to use these combat modules do you mean that only DE will be able to asemble these modules or that only DE will be able to use combat droids of any form?
Which would you prefer and why?
This works for me both ways, but my preference is this: Make a combat droid wth "softpoints". Then craft seperate and swapable combat modules. Different damage types, ranges, etc...The character purchases a Combat droid with 2 softpoints. Then they buy a single carbine-type weapon modue ( I say a single one because they should be as or more difficult to craft as our current most complax itmes, AND shoudl require the assistance of a Weaponsmith) because they are pretty dang expensive. Then later they buy another (same type as you cant mix types. 2 in on droid gives a buff = to half of the lesser of each stat - 1st mod dmg is 120, 2nd mod dmg is 100, final dmg is 170) when they see it works well for them. Or they buy a different type to try that out. Anyone shoudl be able to use combat droids, 1 each at a time.
One small step for droid functionality, one giant leap for DE - Dev relations.
Droid functionality or Droid Engineer Functionality? Which is more entertaining? How do you see each side?
Maybe its just me, but I dont distinguish between the two. If the droids have more functionality, then *I* have more functionality.
Umm, please tell me more about this. Sounds like it is gonig to be stepping all over me and my fellow healers.
What are your conerns?
How about stim A's only for the droid owner if they aren't a medic, and make the droid med use= to the user if they are a medic. And they shoudl get full XP if the droid heals someone. And the droid shoudl be in danger of being aggo'ed if it heals someone in combat, just like a player. Meds have to be loaded into the droid storage bin to be used.
Will droid power rates be looked at?
I dont know, how does it work and what's the problem?
I dont know how they work. Does anyone? Is it based on time out only, or distance travelled, or shots fired, or a combo of that?
1. yes, i do agree with Sintrosis state of the profession post.
2. The plan is a bit vague. The number one priority must be to fix all the bugs. That should keep our dev busy for several months given the number of bugs that plague our profession.
Like almost every other DE I want more combat droids. But I don't want any of them to be useable only by DEs. DE is a crafting profession, not a combat profession. I want to make useful droids and sell them.
1) Yes, Sintrosi's state of the profession letter is exaclty the feeling of the profession.
2) There needs to be functionality to all existing droids (ergo: Probots actually probe and C3PO actually translates) and then have new droids that are combat droids.
Thunderheart,
Please read the stickies in this forum. This thread does have some good ideas, but a lot of them are summarized in the stickies.
Gorantoth's issues post is essential.
We want to see every one of those points addressed in a dev answer. That's the whole reason he keeps that post, to get dev answers whenever any of them stop by our forum.
And speaking of resource droids, the #1 concern of the medical profession time and time and time again is that they are unable to sample and find waypoints without having to take artisan skills. Well why can't they get a resource droid that will survey for them, let them check the quality of the material (as above) and then let the droid find them a waypoint? Sure, playing follow the droid may not be as efficient as a level 4 survey sweep but as the droid leads you through that pack of rancors it might certainly be more interesting!
As a Doc, I can only comment on med droids. I think this is a fantanstic idea!! This adds that Star Wars sense fun that I expected when I started. five stars for you!!-Od
1/ yes
2/yes also can we please have , the low level ADV droids have a chasis component like the high level ones so we can make "furniture" droids
and i dont expect TH to reread all the post from before his time ,, im more then happy to repost info if it will get us fixed
I am doing my best to get everything
and i dont expect TH to reread all the post from before his time ,, im more then happy to repost info if it will get us fixed
