Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Execution...
I like the idea of droid certs coming with related skills. That makes a lot of sense. Here's an extra thought, however:
What if you could get someone with the appropriate cert to program a droid for you? You buy it from the DE, then take it to someone with the cert, and they make the droid operational. But the programming requires maintenance, and if you don't have the right cert, you have to keep finding someone to fulfill the maintenance obligation? This would have a bonus benefit of giving other professions another route to earn cash.
When you talk about droid repair, are you just talking about wounds? Or actual HAM damage?. Requiring DE's to repair wounds is fine. But if I have to get a DE to repair HAM damage after every fight, there's no way I'd want to bother with a combat droid. A pet would be far superior.
One problem I see with droidsis just getting info out to the rest of the galaxy about what droids can actually do. I know nothing about them. It's not documented anywhere. I think I might like to own a droid, but I have no idea what one can do for me, and I tend not to want to spend time in gamesearching fora DE to explain things to me. Don't know how you fix that. Maybe with more extensive holocron entries to describe the different droids available in-game?
Lastly, I think pets need to be different from droids - not inferior, but they need to be more like animals. Really nasty pets ought to be hard to control in a fight, compared to droids that may be less nasty, but follow orders. Pets should also be able to do some different, non-combatthings, like tracking, or maybe even providing a slow mind-heal (pets are good for the soul, you know). Fixing a droid should be quickerthan healing a pet - if you've got a DE with the right tools around. We don't want droids to be pets in metal clothing, nor do we want pets to be droids with fur.
You know, I'm starting to like the idea of having certain profession-related requirements to operate more advanced droids in that field. I mean, why a would a 2nd day Novice Marksman, have access to/use of an advanced model Droideka? Or for that matter, a Master BH/Novice Chefwouldn't benefit as much from an advanced SE4 Servant droid (With it's innate Chef-aiding ability), as much as a Master Chef would. Sure, perhaps it would still help the Novice Chef, but the Master Chef would be better perpared to take full advantage of the SE4's abilities.
And I'm certainly warming up to the idea that advanced models of a specific profession could benefit from the cooperation of experts from that profession. (Armorsmiths could help DE tweak armor during creation, weaponsmithstweak weapons, and so on. Perhaps BE could help tweak the genetics-crafting assistance ability of that PD Lurrian Protocol droid we mentioned above, or maybe add it to other protocol/crafting assist droids.)
I also think that droids, as mentioned above, should have the great potential of assisting in crafting/manufacturing. Heck, maybe the DE could make droids to assist in his own crafting, or increase the affectiveness of any profession's crafting stations. ( "Well, shut me down! Droids making droids...how perverse!" - C-3PO, Episode II 
)
I do think, however, that DE's should be able to make aplethora of profession-related droids, at a variety of advanced levels without having to ask for a master's help; But for those extraspecial touches (And extra credits ), a customer could get a droid that's personalized, unique, and a cut above the rest.
Well, Snowdog, and everyone else posting here seems to be coming to a general consensus to what droids SHOULD be in this game, and I'm thinking about doing some shameless bumpage on the Discussion forum.
Oh, and the Treadwell is supposed to be a general repair droid for machinery, vehicles, spacecraft....pretty much anything metal and requiring a power source, "...such as arc-welding, fine manipulation, electric rewiring, and even paint spraying." (The Essential Guide to Droids, p. 110)
GrinimNine wrote:
Combat Droids - Based on players combat skill levels.
I can agree with this as long as it doesnt require professions Bounty Hunter and Commandos. These classes are powerfull enough as it is. If they become the only classes that can utilize the most powerful combat droids, they become way overpowered.
Dev's, are you reading this??