Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Non-DE take on droid decay
Though, i would dislike to drop my droid and get a new one. As already mentioned, the droids in the movies lasted for ages, although they sure took lots of repairs in that time. It was even mentioned that R2 at some time was basically wrecked and it would've been more cost effective to get a new one. So what? Why don't i have the option to repair my droid to full shape, despite a new one would be cheaper? Or for the comparison with vehicles, i can drive my car for 10 years and then get me a new one as maintainance and rust will eat up the car. But i can also choose to spend that much money, do a big overhaul and patch up my very own special car so it can go again. This is definitely the more expencive option, still some people go for it... and in 50 years those cars are oddities and very valuable.
Due to the system of SWG i don't expect my old droids to get valuable to anybody but me, but if they are precious enough for me to pay the maintainance, then i would say, give me the option...
I know that my preference would make DEs much of a repairing profession. I also think that the repair kits should not simply be put on the vendor and be done for but require a DE to use them. If you don't feel attached to your droid, dump them and get a new one from the shelf/vendor. If you feel attached, you'll go the lengths to find a DE and have him repair your droid, despite that it costs the same as a new droid which you could buy at the vendor of the next DE at any time.
I think that this would both give DEs a new source of income and some nice interaction with the customers.
So, let my droids live forever, let me spend the money for it, force me to meet a DE to do that, that way everybody should be happy.
Sylow wrote:
I personally follow the "romantic" line of things. I have no problem if i have to bring my droid for a complete overhaul every second month or so. I also have no problem if the DE then earns as much money for the overhaul as a new droid would cost.
I know that my preference would make DEs much of a repairing profession. I also think that the repair kits should not simply be put on the vendor and be done for but require a DE to use them. If you don't feel attached to your droid, dump them and get a new one from the shelf/vendor. If you feel attached, you'll go the lengths to find a DE and have him repair your droid, despite that it costs the same as a new droid which you could buy at the vendor of the next DE at any time.
I think that this would both give DEs a new source of income and some nice interaction with the customers.
So, let my droids live forever, let me spend the money for it, force me to meet a DE to do that, that way everybody should be happy.
A customer after my own heart.
Would you also like the idea of a DE being able to customize your factory made droid the same way Mechanics can customize your car in real life?
1. Swap personality chips.
2. Increase/Decrease the frequency of droid speech
3. Tune the droid for (Improving one requires sacrificing from one or more of the others)
---Combat
---Movement
---Preformance (Module 1 Bonus)
---Preformance (Module 2 Bonus)
---Repairs
---Other
4. Swap non-combat modules
5. Stick on flames and big exhaust vents
Any other ideas that would help you make your droids more unique?
Those things would rock! Guess i need an MSE with huge exhausts... *grin*
3. Tune the droid for (Improving one requires sacrificing from one or more of the others)
---Combat
---Movement
---Preformance (Module 1 Bonus)
---Preformance (Module 2 Bonus)
---Repairs
---Other
4. Swap non-combat modules
5. Stick on flames and big exhaust vents
Oil baths, or maybe a droid shop that would cotain an oilbath. Basically, this would be a special house, just like a medcenter that only a DE can drop. It can be decked out in droid parts and work benches and such, but also contain an oil bath that operates like a garage with the money going towards the owner.
[...]And maybe have a public one in cities that is just a credit sink too. (seems to work for garages).
Actually that's contraproductive to the thematic. The whole issue is that DEs want more work and income. The DE-owned things would bring cash to the DE, although no more work. Sounds a bit boring to me, placing a building and hoping that it earns money for you without doing anything any more. Nobody else got that, the closest equivalent is a vendor, but even with those you have to pay attention that it's well filled and that it holds good offers.
The second quoted passage then totally defeats the whole purpose of this discussion. It's sure a nice money sink for the devs, but that's it. If people can repair their droids in a public repair facility they will do that. It's the easiest way. (As you're just passing by from or to the starport, stop for a second and fix.) That way you created more trouble for the customer, increasing costs and thus reducing the value of the droid to the customer without any gain for the DE.
Defeats the whole purpose of this discussion, i think, so i vote against it.
Message Edited by Pyrewolf on 02-23-2005 03:52 PM
a buffbot sitting in a house with his droid going 24/7 is considered infrequent use? the issue we have with droids not decaying is from the non-combat droids being used like the buffbot or the doc sitting in the starport using his droid andnever needing another one. another thing, if just the combat droids decay, then DE's will be skewed towards making only combat droids, which is something a few of us want to do. we want to make ALL droid options available, not just make 1 or 2 different types for money.
Pyrewolf wrote:
I don't think non-combat droids should be given any sort of decay. They're used infrequently enough as it is. If useful combat droids are put in with decay, DEs should get quite a bit of repeat business form that, especially considering a combat droid will likely be the most expensive droids they can make.
I am currently advancing through DE profession, but my views on decay were formed long before becoming one. I have used droids and creatures since the beginning of the game, and think they add a great deal of fun to the game. Decay of some sort needs to be added though, for both droids and creatures. The vitality system based on creature/droid death is simply not effective enough. But there also needs to be some way to save the identy for those who become attached to their virtual pets.
Since I have been CH and still maintain some skill in it, I know how fast they decay. I have never had to destroy a pet due to vitality degradation. It is a very, very slow decay process even if you use them every fight. As long as you don’t let them die in combat, they are immortal. All but one of my droids are service droids and all are 100/100 vitality. My probot was made second week of game, and he is still 98/100 vitality.
I have seen many ideas about decay here, and some are very good. I really like the idea of modular units that players can change modules in. I think it would be good for both droid engineers and players. It could be designed so that the thing which gives your droid its personality or identity is indestructible, but all other parts degraded. This would allow people to keep their droid identity while making a recurring market for the droid engineer. It also goes along with the spirit of Star Wars as when C3-PO was torn apart and reassembled or when R2-D2 was hit while flying then repaired. It also makes sense that one could modify the hardware of a droid without changing the processor.
In order to achieve a goal like this I would suggest something along the following lines:
Droid Chassis – Can accept modules or module clusters depending on model. These can be added by any player at a “droid repair shop”. These structures would be located in large cities, or placed in player cities by a droid engineer. I would suggest they be placed in less convenient places in the large cities (far from the star port) to encourage players to use the locations in player cities. The chassis would degrade over time as modules were changed out, but would not degrade from usage. All modules are destroyed when removed for replacement except for the Droid Brain/Personality Cluster. Once a Brain is removed from a chassis, the chassis is destroyed. The success while crafting a chassis would have an effect on how many sockets it has depending on model. For example and R2 model might have 1-3 module slots, while and R2 Advanced might have 1-2 socket clusters and 1-2 normal module slots. If a chassis degrades to zero, modules can no longer be exchanged.
Droid Brain/Personality Cluster– This would be the part of the droid that never degrades and is never destroyed. The personality chip (if used) would be applied to this unit when created and could never be changed. It would be genre specific, and when the owner needs to replace his chassis, it must be one of the same genre of chassis (R series in R series chassis; Humanoid in humanoid chassis). The system would assign a unique number to each brain based on model whenit was made. When a droid’s name showed it would show the system assigned number on top, and the owner assigned/taught name in parentheses on the bottom (similar to player name with occupation underneath). The identifier would give every droid a uniqueness, but still allow people to give their droid a nickname.
Droid Modules/Clusters – No immediate change except that they degrade over time. Ideas based on time droid is out or on when recharged are all good ideas. Modules would degrade faster from combat than from normal non-combat use.
Other game enhancements this type of system might encourage would be new loot items used for droids. Special module types could drop as loot; Socket clusters with additional slots could drop for droid engineer only use (socket cluster can only be outfitted by a DE, not by a player); Some special chassis styles only made with rare dropped schematics or one time quest schematics; combat droid chassis schematics available as faction perks; and other things along these lines.
I would also like to see chassis type have an effect on droid function. For example; a surgical droid chassis could have an inherent med capability, allowing it to exceed the 110 level with the proper modules installed; LE repair droid chassis could have inherent auto-repair capability; power droid in range of other droids would automatically reduce power consumption by 50%, etc. Right now the model means very little other than how many sockets it has.
These are just some thoughts I have had about the profession. I look forward to enhancement of this aspect of the game as Droids are as much a part of Star Wars as are Jedi and the Force.
lindalu wrote:
the way droids are done atm, there is 0 difference between a MSE droid named 'bob' and an identical one (down to the paint job and modules added) called 'bob'
...
I don't normally post here on the offical forums (normally just a browser) but this thread and Maisland's comments in particular have prompted me to post. Forgive me if this thread is not the proper place to ask this question, but I have not seen any other thread close to topic.
Why as Droid Engineers do we charge so much for our products? I have been a Master DE for about 7 months now, but not for profit. I tried it once before as my exclusive business and I know how hard it can be to maintain profitability since Droids are more toys and convience than essential. Instead I diversified to other products like chefs food and armor. I still offer Droids, but more as a side business. I charge the mean average for my server, maybe a little lower, so I am not undercutting and destroying the economy, but I am not sure why we should charge so much. However, the demand for droids would seem to dictate a lowering of price to compensate for the lack of demand.
Currenlty I can only see Doctor droids have anywhere close to a level of need that could sustain any notion of decay. Combat droids are not very effective against mid to high level enemies PvE and they are almost non-existant as far as PvP goes. Crafting droids are just convience. Same with storage droids. The other modules have varing degrees of usefulness, but most players can and do live without them.
Now what I see in Maisland's post is definitely a concern. You make droids, an already convience item decay, and you threaten what little market exists. Instead of letting new DE's break into the market the old DE's on a server have cornered, you could possibly destroy what little auxilary market that might exist.
Now I am all for some form of decay. It makes sense for an electro-mechanical device as complex as a droid to require regular maintainence. I mean I have my droids with me everywhere. No one can tell me that a droid that goes from the sandstorms of Tatooine to the seamy jungles of Naboo to the cold of deep space is not going to need some form of overhaul regularly. Even your computer that sits at home out of the elements (like the average crafting droid) needs occational visits from a technician. I just think that maybe more “need“ should be built into droids before most customers would truly accept a form of decay.
Just my opinion...
/kowtow
Typheon