Droid Engineer Archive

Icarus-6 wrote:

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My take on that is that the drivers are droids, but the vehicles are not.

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That may be a useful way to divide it up conceptually in terms of game mechanics, but there are plenty of instances I've seen in even my recent, lightweight non-fanboy examination of EU sources, where the droid IS the vehicle and vice-versa. There is no robotic pilot sitting in a cockpit. There is no cockpit. The vehicle is a droid.

Heh. I should read further down before responding too. :-)

I think we're on the same page as well. I'm just noting that in the actual Star Wars lore, the line between a vehicle (or any kind of machine, really) and a droid is very thin. I've always been interested in the kind of techno-animism in the SW Universe. Threepio doesn't program or fix the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive. He talks to it, and even comments on the strange dialect it uses. He comments in ANH on the similarities between a Binary Load Lifter and a Moisture Vaporator (which are, respectively, a very stupid droid and a very advanced machine, I believe). The "Essential Guide to Droids" is full of examples of little hand-held droids, like translators and stenographers, which are actually considered droids and have their own intelligence. If you lived in the Star Wars universe, your pocket calculator would likely have a mind of its own. That's just the way things are.

I too forgot about that... hmm fuel for my role play... Maybe i can become an ecentric DE.. talking openly to droids and verious devices.. even terminals.. this could be fun..

Since Elite Prof cost less skill points to master then begining one elite-elite should cost even less so that we can have at least 2 branches in a novice prof and enough to be a novice elite..

maybe make novice elite elite cost 5 points, intermediate cost 4, advanced 3, expert 2, master 1, and master elite elite 1 (46 skill points for elite elite)

I would personally like to be master Artisan, Master DE, master elite elite.. and Novice pistoller (with all 4 boxes of ranged weapon suport.. or at least 3)

So i can join in on the PA hunts to endor and yavin..

but if not i can deal.. i expect to always die in PvP anyways...

My theory? The elite-elite DE profession (and there WILL be one, whether we like it or not) will be vehicle mechanic. Land vehicles are coming and someone has to make them. Large automated machines, onboard computers, lots of moving parts......... it would either be an offshoot of architect (harvesters and the like) or DE. Architects already have urban planner in the works. I suppose they could just create another novice class, but then everyone and their brother would immediately jump on it and be cranking out the huge money makers like swoop bikes and land speeders. that doesn't seem to make sense to me, though a lot of what SOE does is nonsensical.

My theory. I have no proof. Just a thought. Keep the flames to a minimum please.

My theory? The elite-elite DE profession (and there WILL be one, whether we like it or not) will be vehicle mechanic. Land vehicles are coming and someone has to make them. Large automated machines, onboard computers, lots of moving parts......... it would either be an offshoot of architect (harvesters and the like) or DE. Architects already have urban planner in the works. I suppose they could just create another novice class, but then everyone and their brother would immediately jump on it and be cranking out the huge money makers like swoop bikes and land speeders. that doesn't seem to make sense to me, though a lot of what SOE does is nonsensical.

My theory. I have no proof. Just a thought. Keep the flames to a minimum please.

Well the initial single seat swoops and speeders will be in the Artisan Eng tree (Holo has already confirmed this) reading between the lines bigger vehicles (Multi-seat land and air speeders + starships) will probably be a new Elite profession off Engineering (Vehicle Engineer?)

In reply to the poster(s) who think an entire tree could be filled by combat droids I would offer this.

The current DE blueprint boxes enable you to make entire droids without needing anything from the other 3 trees (but some of the other stuff is a good idea) to translate this to combat droids you would also need to take the same approach (or you wouldnt be able to actually build a whole droid until you got several boxes).

The problem with this is that while you could devote an entire tree to armour (as DE currently has) and an entire tree to weapons this either has the potential to make uber droids (unbalanced, wait for the nerf hammer) or not worth the investment (as we currently have with the experiment tree). I also agree that these are the kind of things that _should_ require Weapon and Armoursmith participation - DE's are masters of droid design, construction and programming _not_ armour or weapon manufacture - hence why I stand by my comment that an Elite-Elite DE tree would be a watered down waste of skill points (much like the Merchant tree currently is due to bugs)

I think about it this way... Take a look at one of the elite-elite classes that is actually confirmed, Urban Planner, an elite elite Architect profession. Not strictly buildings, though there are some.

Vehicle Engineer isnt droids at all really, but its complex mechanics.If they want it to be an elite elite profession I dont see any reason to believe it wont be elite elite droid engineering, but it could just as easilly be another elite profession off of engineering.

Either way Im going to do it. I just hope they do it right. What is right to me? Racing!

If the parts for a swoop bike are properly experimentable and upgradable, and they make it possible to organize courses and races and distribute prizes, you'd have a fun past time for those interested, a whole sub culture.

If vehicles are just a method of getting from point A to B faster, well, what's the point?

What's the point? Do you really have to ask that? It's called not having to spend 45 minutes every day running all over creation to get to my harvesters. If I can do it in 10, that's more time I have to devote to activites that are fun. I'd love to see a racing sub-culture, but if getting from point A to point B is all they're good for, I won't complain one bit.

And could someone post the link to the atualy message where a dev stated that vehicle design would be an elite profession off of the engineering tree? I want proof.

Well I would say common sense says it will at the very least branch off of engineeringbut that's almost too much to ask from this development squad

I really dont want to see vehicles adding only convenience. They should be a status symbol, a good part of the economy, and something to take pride in... and race!

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ASHRID wrote:
In reply to the poster(s) who think an entire tree could be filled by combat droids I would offer this.

The current DE blueprint boxes enable you to make entire droids without needing anything from the other 3 trees (but some of the other stuff is a good idea) to translate this to combat droids you would also need to take the same approach (or you wouldnt be able to actually build a whole droid until you got several boxes).

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My proposal would let you create a combat droid using only the Combat Droid Blueprint branch (or whatever else it is called). A droid constructed under that branch would be just as useful, combat wise, as a droid constructed using purely the droid engineer blueprint branch (no use whatsoever).

Modules for someone who only has the Blueprint branch are limited to the modules you get from your novice skill, which are pretty poor. While there are a few droids that have abilities generated by their blueprints (power droids and probots) in general you require modules from another branch before they begin to be much more than interesting toys (witness how rapidly unarmored probots were dying when we could not use armor modules upon them).

"My proposal would let you create a combat droid using only the Combat Droid Blueprint branch (or whatever else it is called). A droid constructed under that branch would be just as useful, combat wise, as a droid constructed using purely the droid engineer blueprint branch (no use whatsoever). Modules for someone who only has the Blueprint branch are limited to the modules you get from your novice skill, which are pretty poor. While there are a few droids that have abilities generated by their blueprints (power droids and probots) in general you require modules from another branch before they begin to be much more than interesting toys (witness how rapidly unarmored probots were dying when we could not use armor modules upon them)."

Ok but you still havent addressed how 'watered down' the other trees would be in order to stop a droid made with all level 4/master components being unbalancingly overpowered - nor have you addressed the cross over a weapon and armour tree would have this those respective Elite professions

I wouldn't imagine those branches would be terribly 'watered down'. I would imagine a Master Combat Droid Engineer would be capable of creating something roughly on the level of an AT-ST (at whatever powerlevel it happens to be in the game at the time, so if they get nerfed down the droid would be nerfed down as well). While this might seem like giving someone a whole lot of power it could be balanced out by the resource requirements (if it takes 30k of generic steel, 10k of duralloy steel, 20k of fiberplast, etc. to construct one of these you aren't going to have MCDEs tossing them out willy-nilly). It is also balanced by the fact you are referring to someone in an elite-elite profession with points for almost nothing else and the fact that other players (at least other Imperial players) could get the same thing for around 9000 faction points.

Exact power and requirements can be tuned, but you should get the general idea. The MCDE would be capable of making a massive wardroid, though at considerable time and effort. Someone with 4's across the board would make something slightly weaker, naturally.