Droid Engineer Archive

---

duncje wrote:

Is it justme or does it seem that TK and Audio have switched places now?

---

I think we are faced with 2 choices here:

A: Thunderheart is just a poor communicator, and doesn't mean what we read him to mean OR

B: DE is going absolutely nowhere worth going.

I don't know if it will do any good, but I sent a PM to Runesabre asking him to clarify the official position, because quite frankly I have had so much experience of TH having to change his tune, that I no longer believe anything he says is neccessarily actual Company Policy.

If he does really mean what he says, and SOE agrees with him, then I think there is very little fun to be had in our future as DE's. As everyone else's professions move on, we are left as a small island that time forgot.

I certainly hope...but I no longer believe.

---

SWG-Runesabre wrote:

It is my intention to add more utility to droids but it is not my intention to do this at the cost of another profession's utility. There are a lot of ways to give utility to droids so we would prefer to invent new meaningful utility to the game rather than rehash or steal away functionality from another profession. The sum of the changes should be an overall advancement/enhancement to the game and not simply a rearrangement of functionality.

---

Message Edited by AudioOrgana on 03-04-2004 01:12 PM

---

SWG-Runesabre wrote:

It is my intention to add more utility to droids but it is not my intention to do this at the cost of another profession's utility. There are a lot of ways to give utility to droids so we would prefer to invent new meaningful utility to the game rather than rehash or steal away functionality from another profession. The sum of the changes should be an overall advancement/enhancement to the game and not simply a rearrangement of functionality.

---

YaY I got a TK 'breakdown'

I'm sorry its gone this way TK, but I am glad to see you back to 'normal'

"The Blind leading The Not-So-Blind" sums it up very well for me, and I agree.....C is the answer very likely.

Saddened

Message Edited by Shian_Tavkin on 03-04-2004 10:14 AM

---

SWG-Runesabre wrote:

It is my intention to add more utility to droids but it is not my intention to do this at the cost of another profession's utility. There are a lot of ways to give utility to droids so we would prefer to invent new meaningful utility to the game rather than rehash or steal away functionality from another profession. The sum of the changes should be an overall advancement/enhancement to the game and not simply a rearrangement of functionality.

---

Wow good to hear from the MAN. I am happy to see your red glowieness grace our forum. Thank you for stating you have a vision for Droid Engineers. I am glad its not a rehash or stealing away functionality from another profession but thats not what we want either so we are on the same page here.

So what else are our droids going to do for the player base?

On another note since you are Lead Designer, will Droid Engineers have any part in the Space Expansion since astromechs are a big part of the Starwars Ship designs. Currently shuttle ports need protocal droid chassis in their construction will ships ala x-wings need astromechs in their constuction or will said pilot have to have own a r-unit with an astrometric module?

Why I asked is might give some of the current droid engineer base a glimmer of hope that we are all needing right now.

---

SWG-Runesabre wrote:

It is my intention to add more utility to droids but it is not my intention to do this at the cost of another profession's utility. There are a lot of ways to give utility to droids so we would prefer to invent new meaningful utility to the game rather than rehash or steal away functionality from another profession. The sum of the changes should be an overall advancement/enhancement to the game and not simply a rearrangement of functionality.

---

What was the original "Utility" function that droids were supposed to serve?

We can't tell because 1/2 of the stuff has never worked right (What's a Protocol droid for? What does a BLL "lift"?)

---

SWG-Runesabre wrote:

It is my intention to add more utility to droids but it is not my intention to do this at the cost of another profession's utility.


No one here has EVER asked for this, Runesabre. I know that you're in a tough spot here. However, we see other professions getting what appear to be "checkers" and then when we say "Uhhhh...where's ours?", we get basically the response that TH put forth.

"You can't have them."

It's great to hear that you want more utility droids/modules. So do we. However, I find it indescribably disheartening that WE are having to put ideas and such on the table. You all keep asking us to give ideas and such. Can it really be so hard for you all to come to US and tell us what is or is not possible and let us pick from that list?

For example:

"SWG-Runesabre: We've looked at the possible ideas that have been floated and come with some of our own. Here is what we know is possible to give you:

1) Survey/Harvester droids/modules

2) Slicing/Smuggler droids/modules

3) Valet/Delivery droids/modules

4) etc.

5) etc."

At that point, we DEs would have a way to move forward and work on those ideas on a constructive fashion. Right now, I have to say that all I hear is a lot of enigmatic conjecture and "What if...??" on our future. We don't need that. We need something real that we can sink our teeth into and that will make droids desirable to players to use and own.

To a large degree, that's just not happening.

I started playing this game with an eye on becoming, and staying, a Droid Engineer. I have to say that, even still, there is very little reason for the great majority of players to own, use or desire a droid. If the Dev team cannot find a way to address that issue, there will NEVER be a "Droid Invasion".

As a matter of fact, I'd venture to say that if anything...........you'll see the number of DEs drop dramatically.


There are a lot of ways to give utility to droids....


Okay....so, start making with the details then. If there's "lots of ways" to do this, then you all can surely tell what those ways are so we can stop flailing at any/all ideas that get floated. The fact that we don't seem to have direction (that I can see) is causing a gigantic amount of divisiveness and animosity about the profession. We seem to get so few details on our future that most DEs are left only to wonder....."What's this all going to mean?!?!"

Surely you can toss us some kind of bone, Runesabre.


...so we would prefer to invent new meaningful utility to the game rather than rehash or steal away functionality from another profession.


Well, the new ways to give utility are all well and good. However, I hope that you will considerhow non-DEs want to see droid utility.We can come up wth the greatest idea in the world for droid utility. But if other players just look at that feature and laugh, we won'tbe sellingmuch of that utility and all that workwill be for naught.

If you add autility, we all better be very very sure that it will actually be something that other players will want, need and find useful. Otherwise, this is all a non-starter and you will want to focus on other things.

"Measuretwice,cut once"....as my grandpa used to say.


The sum of the changes should be an overall advancement/enhancement to the game and not simply a rearrangement of functionality.


I'd agree. On that note, I'm seeing that a lot of Entertainers are really kind of down on the idea of the Entertainer module. Basically, from what I've seen, most of them have stated they don't care about that module and very few would likely take the time to actually seek out a DE to build a droid that had that feature.

A great idea for a droid/module will be 100% worthless if the great majority of players will find NO utility in the device.

I fear here that we've been asking for VHS but we're gonna get handed BetaMax.

---

---

SWG-Runesabre wrote:

It is my intention to add more utility to droids but it is not my intention to do this at the cost of another profession's utility. There are a lot of ways to give utility to droids so we would prefer to invent new meaningful utility to the game rather than rehash or steal away functionality from another profession. The sum of the changes should be an overall advancement/enhancement to the game and not simply a rearrangement of functionality.

---

Thank you for replying.

Please, do not for one moment believe any of us want to 'steal away' any other profession's functionality, merely fairly augment some of them in the same way that other professions are able to do...the list of those is long and varied but Bio-Enhancement and Buffs are the two prime examples for me.

Since Publish 8 is now dimly visible on the horizon, I guess you well down the road to coding the "lots of ways to give utility to droids" and "inventing new meaningful utility to the game"

Perhaps it would be possible to have an idea of what you intend here?

Is that an unreasonable request?

---

SWG-Runesabre wrote:

It is my intention to add more utility to droids but it is not my intention to do this at the cost of another profession's utility. There are a lot of ways to give utility to droids so we would prefer to invent new meaningful utility to the game rather than rehash or steal away functionality from another profession. The sum of the changes should be an overall advancement/enhancement to the game and not simply a rearrangement of functionality.

---

"intention"... We've been the target of intent from the days of Raph. What we need is action, or at the very least, indication that something is actually getting done. Give us some ideas of what's possible, if there are any out there.

The problem is that DE was never figured into the grand scheme of enhancements and utility. The Devs, since before beta, really didn't know (or seem to care) how DE and droids should fit into this game. Please give us some indication that this is no longer the case. Show us how you intend to fit DE and droids into this game, please.

Please, either educate TH or leave him out of the communication loop, as he doesn't understand the crafter mentality or our perspective on this game. He understands other facets of the game very well, but can't seem to grasp how crafting (or in this case, droids) works.

Runesabre, I have a feeling you understand a lot more about the game and its players than your predecessor did. Please don't let DE's fall by the wayside as we have up until now.

---

SWG-Runesabre wrote:

It is my intention to add more utility to droids but it is not my intention to do this at the cost of another profession's utility. There are a lot of ways to give utility to droids so we would prefer to invent new meaningful utility to the game rather than rehash or steal away functionality from another profession. The sum of the changes should be an overall advancement/enhancement to the game and not simply a rearrangement of functionality.

---