Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: UPDATE: The new Correspondent forum and Test Center changes
While I like the idea of making money by crafting useful droids and selling them I think they are working on that already.
What I am afraid of is this new idea of theirs of making a "Combat Droid" profession. I know that they are still debating whether to give it to us, the droid engineers, or make it an entirely new profession.
I think we have to start telling them RIGHT NOW that we want it to be ours and not in a different profession. Or at the very least have it duplicated so that if they do make it a different profession we get the same benefits in our class.
The more I think about it the more I think the Master Droid Engineer should be on par with the Master Creature Handler. We should be able to have the same number of droids out as the CH has pets out, store the same number of droids as the CH stores pets and have droids that are on par with the highest pet available to the Master CH.
Let's face it, finding the resources to make the higher end droids is just as dificult if not more so as finding the higher end creatures to trame. In fact I will say it is more difficult because to make a high level droid we must find several rare resources, resources that move at least once a week, resources that can be on very dangerous planets in very dangerous areas. And we don't just have to go there once. We have to put down a harvestor, wait several hours if not days and come back to the harvestor and pick up the resources. We have to do all of this several times because most of the high level droids require several rare resources.
Now compare that with the rare creatures. A CH will usually at least know what planet the creature is on as you are not going to find a nightsister on Tatooine. A CH only has to locate a baby and tame it. One trip if they are lucky.
So, I say our biggest issue is that we need to be treated more like the CH class. The CH class is boh a support class and a combat class. They can tame and sell pets, therefor they are a support class, and they can use higher level pets then anyone else and have more than one out at a time, therefor they are a unique combat class.
I know that a feature is coming to make it so some class can have more than one droid out at at time. I just want it to be us. If we don't act soon, they may give it to the Creature Handlers. 
Icarus-6 wrote:
B) This also assumes they do not raise the 3000cr limit.
Which is something they need to approach very carefully. There should remain a cap, and it should remain fairly low. If you can sell anything at any price on the bazaar, and people can search the entire galaxy from any bazaar terminal in any city, then why would anyone seek out private vendors? All of us who spent time building shops and gaining merchant skills would be seriously hurt by bazaar terminals that were too useful.
The wider selection is available on the bazaar, the less incentive people will have to leave town to go shopping. Any adjustments made to the bazaar cap need to keep this factor firmly in mind.
Sintrosi wrote:
This is what I posted, in the format they wished:
Profession: Droid Engineer
Top Issue: (use 1 sentence)There really is not that big of a market for Droids at this time.
Additional Detail: Granted .. we can sell Medical droids and crafting droids but to be honest it is not enough to stay afloat for many DEs. What this equates to I suppose is that Droids really do not do much. Instead of buying a Combat Droid most people will buy a CL15 Pet instead.
Proposed Solution:
Long term: Add more droids and modules. Especially modules that ENHANCE other professions such as Entertainers, Smugglers, Squad Leaders, Rangers ..etc. Make models of droids that only certain modules can go into as well.
Shortterm:Make probots slightly more desirable than CL15 pets. Give us a market back. To be honest we do not understand why the Probot was nerfed when CL15 pets are as strong if not stronger in some instances than the pre-nerf probot.
I'm not so sure I can agree that there's not much of a market left for droids right now. I've made over a million credits off my DE product sales and continue to net 50+K on a daily basis. A lot of these sales are coming from "churn" in the medical professions - some people surrender them, others pick them up. I don't know, maybe I just market better than some (having picked up Merchant and Advertising 3, opening multiple locations and advertising them on the global map,giving away high-value droids to highly visible people in exchangefor word of mouth asto where they came from).
The "there is no market left for my products" issue is one that's beginning to face all crafting classes right now. We're not in any way unique to the problem. Architects, Tailors, and so on have it too. Without some sort of loss/degredation systemin place, once you've sold people what they want there's not anything you can do to sell them more...
Until you get a new thing people want to sell them. Then you have a market again, but eventually you still hit that wall: eventually everyone who wants the old and new something will have bought it, and once again you're out of a market. So your proposed long term fix, in reality, is a shorter-term fix than it appears to be on face. To truly fix the problem of a declining demand curve, people have to occasionally lose or have broken what they've bought and need it repaired or replaced. It is the only truly "permanent" solution to the diminishing market problem unless you're willing to quite regularly introduce more new things that people will want.
I can about promise that, on the other hand, your proposed short-term fix isn't going to fly with development at all. You mention the CL15 non-CH pets as justification for the Probot having its foam wrapper removed. The problem with this is that Raph has already come out and publicly stated that they're not pleased with the net result of that experiment either (the net result having been that SWG is now overrun with non-CH pets). If you allowed people to have either their Probot or their non-CH pet out, the status quo here would be maintained. If you allowed the old standard where people could have both out, you'd double the trouble. Either way, from their statements I don't think it's a direction they want to go in. I honestly think we're going to have to tough this out until certs are published.
There are myriad other issues facing our profession right now that are much easier to address from a development standpoint, don't upset balance in any exponential way and yet still add value for us. Multiple crafting stations not working, un-nameable Converse droids,. repair and storage not working in Converse droids, that kind of thing. We should, IMO, focus on what we CAN change instead of persistently beating them over the head with a flaw they're already well aware of, have acknowledged work is underway on and have told us it's going to take some time to get pinned down.
Just my 2K.
/agree
The simpler we keep our requests, especially at first, the better.
That response you sent works quite well as far as I'm concerned.
Rugoe
I agree. We do need a market first and foremost. Additional combat droids and certs would solve this problem.
Best solution but probably won't be implemented because it makes sense on more than one level...
1)Combat droids will not die onincap ordeathblow but they won't get back up (thatsjust unrealistic). You have manually go pick them up (or clone yourself and do a droid run if you die as well)
2)You'll thenhave to takeyour broken droid to a Droid Engineer to fix the droid using possibly new modules (armor,blaster module, some petro chem, etc. - still less expensive than a new droid)
3)Get rid of the vitality crap, give the droidDurability and when a DE fixes that droid, it works just like armor. The Durability drops(ONLY when a repair droid, repair tool, or DEhas tofix the droid).Droids alsoshould not autohealUNLESS a repair module is installed in them.
4)Combat droids would be able to die several times (maybe adozen times or so) before needing to be replaced. This isn't permadeath as it was before...this is gradual decaybased on how much your droidis used/abused.
5) Thelast thing that REALLYneeds to be done is cap all playersEXCEPTDroidEngineers and Creature Handlers to how many pets they can control to =1=. No one shouldbe able to have3faction pets, 1 CH pet, and a droid pet out.Non-CH pets should be limited to MOUNTS only, non attack.Non-DEdroids should be limited to minimalprotection and usefull droids. Elite combat professions should have certs to use combat droids.
These changes will give us a market to newbs who want something to help them fight but isn't overpowering and unbalanced, elite combatists that need a powerfull combat droid, crafters who need a droid to helpthem with their work.Would give DEs return business since droids will need fixing (DEs would even be of great use in combatgroups - a combat medic for the droids), and wouldnot beoverpowering or unbalancing.
Fixing the market is the goal yes, but to acheive that goal, we need to look at the functionability of droid in general, and in relation to other professions. If the droids performed a function that couldnt be found elsewhere (which all of them have inherently, except for the fact that the actual implimentation is fubar), we would have an incredible market potential. I shall try and explain.
Droids are not made for combat (well some are, but until the prequals came out, droids almost never engaged in combat, unless you count IG-88, which in canon history, was a rogue, and genocidal torward ALL species), which is the only thing they are used for up to this point. Bad Mojo.
Droids are made for slicing (especially R-2 hacking every terminal in sight), navigation (again R-2 through R-5 series units), data storage and retrieval (MSE), repair and maintenance (BLL, PowerDroids), language translation (Protocal series), medical assistance (4LOM or the Surgical Droid), and recon (probe-droids ((Imperial ONLY!!)), seekers and hunters). Ive probly missed some, but the point im trying to make is that the fix is right in front of the devs nose. Simplify and divide, carry the remainder.
btw... i think that droids as storage devices are a bad idea, except the BLL's, and then only for resource containers (see item 2 below).
1. MSE Droids. Make the mouse droid a data storage device. Make the MSE actually be able to hold WayPoints, data disks, and other such items based solely on information and bam! you have a market.
2.Binary Load Lifters. Make the BLL's capable of transporting crates from harvester to house (unsure how difficult this would really be as far as the coding, but it would also mean placing harvesters relativly close to the persons house, but what else would a load lifter do in the game except load and lift and deliver?). you could also require them in some way for buildings, vehicles and future starcraft construction, i mean, realistically, how does an architech move those heavy walls into place? No one really knows... blame this on the deed system. How about the BLL is the only droid capable of holding deeds and building building and other deeded items.
2. PowerDroids. Give them the ability to house power units (imbided by enery resources like wind, solar and radioactive), that could be transfered to houses (do houses need energy? im to focused to look right now), harvesters and other droids (i think non-rechargable batteries are a bad idea, give them an extended decay rate, and in concert with disposable batteries with a high decay rate and no ability to recharge via a PowerDroid, both would become a highly sought after products with huge market potential).
3.Protocal Droids. Major snafu! How is it that a transdoshan can teach me twi'lek? I have turned down languages, because it distracts from roleplayability. Make a Protocal Droid mandatory to at least learn the language of the species you are currently talking to, then you have a market. I also think that personality chips are a great idea, but only for higher level Droids, why would a MSE or BLL need a personality, make the modules difficult to create, and Bam! you have a market.
4. Surgical Droids. I dont know much about the medical professions, but the Surgical Droid should be required to heal certain types of damage in certain situations, by people with certain skills, to offset or enhance certain abilities (in other words, let the medics tell us what the think a Surgical droid should be used for, i mean whould would know more about it then they).
5. Repair Droids. This should be a no-brainer. Repair Droids can stave off decay rates up to a limit, on certain buildings, weapons, armours, vehicles, and other droids, but ONLY droids with a lower level than the droid itself. Ban! automatic market, even if they only have the ability to extend the lifespan of an item by 10%. Bam!
6. Seeker/Hunter Droids. Seeks resources (within a certain diameter for lower level droids, and planetwide for the highest level and most expensive of the seekers), and seeks vendors in the feild (of course you would have to make a socket for these survey tools, craftable by an artisan). Hunters find people, people of a certain profession, species or faction. May also seek out MOBs and at higher levels mandatory for Bounty Hunters. Bam! instant market.
7. Combat Droids. Slow, stupid, but build like the proverbial tanks they will be used for. You should definately increase the damage potential (within reason), but even better would be a socket module that you would place a weapon only craftable by a weaponsmith. I must say again, i think it is a bad idea to use PROBE droids for a combat droid... they should only be a top of the line seeker, and ONLY as an Imperial perk item. What were the devs thinking! But once a decent combat chassis IS implimented, Bam! markets galore.
8. R-Series. These droids should be the most expensive droids to buy, because of their versatility. But again, within reason. They would be the only droids capable of slicing, and the only droids capable of navigation (can you say "Space Expansion"). They should also be the only droids capable of assisting as crafting stations, and the only other droids capable of possessing personality chips (besides the protocal droids... duh!). Bam! you've just created the biggest market for droids in all the galaxies.
So fix the functionability of the droid, and you fix the market issues inherent in the DE profession. Kill two birds with one stone.
That is my 2 creds.
Raanx Sedusa
CoreTech PA
Kor Vella, Corellia, -Starsider
Let's not mutate this into yet another "let's redesign DE" thread. Sin is merely asking for input on what she posted so let's provide that and leave the massive redesign ideas in their own thread.
Sintrosi ... well done. Works for me. I think thats our number one issue. Personally I dont care if our bots do anything ...so long as their's a market 
-Kralis
Sintrosi, you are doing a wonderful job.
"You bring hope to those who have none" -shmee
thank you, thank you, and many times thank you for working so hard.
Because of you, i WILL one day be a DROID ENGINEER!!
Raanx Sedussa
CoreTech PA
Kor Vella, Corellia, -Starsider
Sintrosi,
Thanks for your ever-stellar and timely feedback.
As to your post...
I agree that you should be able to post comments/issues that you post to the private board.
I think that your top issue was pretty broad but easily represents the overall #1 issue of the profession.
That being said...I'd have made a different #1
My post would have been that they need to respond to the DE community as a whole first. Then, start working with you in more detail.
I guess I don't understand why they asked you for info since they already had the list. That's just.....not right.
Anyway...I hope that this new system works out. But, for ____ sake, please emplore upon them the extreme importance of making a more detailed post about our 'situation'.
Please.
Please.
/bow
Respectfully,