Droid Engineer Archive

Thread: #1 Droid Enginer Issue: No Droid Decay = Minimal Return Business

Straker_Atrella
Tue Jun 08, 2004 1:44 pm
#27
You only need to recharge your combat droid every hour? I disagree. In a straight fight, with constant shooting, especially with auto repair on, you need to recharge the droid every 5 minutes, maybe 10.


I'm not positive, but ifI recall correctly, my droid starts firing a TON slower when his battery is dead. I will check that. I know for a fact that auto repair turns off when the battery goes dead.


I have another post that I am posting some detailed thoguhs and numbers on. Will have them posted in a second.



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Droid Vendor at Resurection near Theed on Naboo -5757 6222. Both carry a wide variety of maxed Droids, I also carry every type of Droid and Droid supply.

*Straker Atrella: Dark Jedi * Atrella's Wench: Master Droid Engineer / Artisan / Scout / Merchant * Dark Vortex: Ranger / Rifleman * Havana:Musician / Dancer / Image Design * Enigmatica : Doctor / Swordsman* CrazyEyes: Role playing BH.
Malitevv
Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:14 pm
#28

The charges on the batteries are good for an hour under normal conditions. It didn't used to be the case, but it is the case now. It does seem to me though that auto-repair causes the battery to deplete more quickly, but I haven't been able to figure out by how much yet. They definitely always last longer than 10 minutes no matter what the droid is doing.


But yes, auto-repair turns off when the battery runs out. You are right about that.



As far as resources go, I'm not just talking about the resources required to get the high ham. I'm talking about the resource requirments for the modules as well. The only way to get a high quality combat module is with copper that has both CD and OQ greater than 900. It also requires very high OQ inert gas.Both are hard to find, but the copper required isvery hard to find. And the harvest modules require very high quality and very difficult to find steel and gasin order to get good harvest ratings. The harvest modules are particularly problematic because for a high levelranger to see any benefit from using a harvest droid the rating on the harvest rating on the droid has to be very high. If it is not, the droid is useless to him, and if it decays and requires replacement often the ranger will have no choice but to stop using harvest droids because he won't be able to find a droid with a high enough rating most of the time. There simply won't be enough resources in the galaxy to make the droids the ranger needs if the decay rates are high. Shoot, high rated harvest droids hare hard to find now, and they don't even decay! SImilar things are true of the auto-repair modules. High quality auto-repair modules are very hard to make. They require rare resources, and each module requires a lot of those resources. I've made about 30 auto-repair combat droids with a 105 auto-repair rating. It would really suck if those were to decay quickly because once they decay I probably won't be able to make another batch of high quality auto-repair droids for a very long time because the resources required to make good ones may not spawn again for 6 months or more.


Regarding sales: selling at starports is not going to give you a good picture of the customer base for your server. I do sell at starports, but for every droid I sell at the starport, I sell 5 droids off my vendors. I sell 5-10 droids off my vendors every single day at this point.





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In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

T.S. Eliot
Malitevv
Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:40 pm
#29
I also have lots of money and can buy what I need. The problem is that I've already bought all of the high quality resources that are currently for sale on Kauri.


So far ashigh quality copper, aluminum, and inert gas are concerned:on Kauri, it has spawned so rarely that there is almost nothing left to buy.


Unfortunately, I cannot buy things that don't exist.



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In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

T.S. Eliot
Straker_Atrella
Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:55 pm
#30

Well I sympathize with you on that, I'm the opposite, have lots of resources but little money. Hopefully stuff on your server will spawn soon.


Yes under the new system De's who are established and can make better Droids will get more customers, but isn't that how it should be?





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Droid Vendor at Resurection near Theed on Naboo -5757 6222. Both carry a wide variety of maxed Droids, I also carry every type of Droid and Droid supply.

*Straker Atrella: Dark Jedi * Atrella's Wench: Master Droid Engineer / Artisan / Scout / Merchant * Dark Vortex: Ranger / Rifleman * Havana:Musician / Dancer / Image Design * Enigmatica : Doctor / Swordsman* CrazyEyes: Role playing BH.
Kniol
Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:25 am
#31
Malitevv wrote:


____________________________________________________________-


batteries really aren't that big of an issue anymore. a single charge lasts an hour, which ismore than long enough for any combat. we've also got the current battery charge showing in the examine window now too, which makes it very easy to check and make sure the droid has enough power before a fight begins. there's no excuse for a droid running out of power during combat other than that the user forgot to check the power meter. the game provides the user with all the information he needs to make sure that doesn't ever happen.


another important point: the droid does not stop fighting when its battery runs out. it just stops responding to commands. even if the battery does run out during combat it keeps fighting, and if you had the foresight to tell it to guard you before the combat started it will continue to attack anything that attacks you long after its battery runs dry.


Agreed. Sometimes I've forgotten to check the droid'sbattery-power ratingbefore the 4th or 5th battle in a row, but it still guards me.


i'm sorry. I just don't see the value of droids that decay as fast as you want them to. If droids decayed that fast I would probalby stop using them. And I'm a DE. I don't want to have to worry that taking my droid out too many times is going to cause it to disintegrate. I don't want to have to build myself a new crafting droid every two weeks. I don't want to transfer all the equipment out of my storage droids and move it to new storage droids every two weeks. I definitely don't want to rebuild my alt's harvester droid every two weeks. Nobody wants to have to do any of these things. Why impose it on the customer base for the sake of "the DE economy", when the economy really isn't as bad as you are implying in the first place? A million credits a month gross profit is a pretty steady income if you ask me, and I'm not the only DE who claims to be making about that much.


Maybe a sliding scale of decay on different droids, e.g., a death in battle gives 1% decay like it does to armor and weapons in PVE, but a harvester or medical or crafting or maintenance or effectsdroid could be used 5 times before getting a 1% decay, and just plain storage droids with no "special" function never decay. That wouldmake some repeat business for us, but not be so aggravating to those using them.


My g/f doesn't like using droids OR pets in battle (grrr), but has bought 5 storage droids for extra clothing, armor and weapons. She's a clothes nut, often changing her wardrobe a few times a day, and would be very upset if she were to lose any 10 items she had stored in a droid.


Define gross profit. :->


another point is the resource consumption that your proposal would require: the resources required for a lot of these new modules (including the combat modules) are so rare (the high quality ones are rare) that if they decayed as fast as you want them to there wouldn't be enough quality resources in any galaxy for the DE community to supply even a tiny fraction of the customer base with quality droids consistently. Even if the combat droid case really worked the way you think it would, within a couple of months all you would be able to supply to your customers would be droids built with 60-80 rated combat modules, because most of the high oq/cond copper required form them would be consumed crafting droids far faster than it spawns.


Totally agree here, but there is no need to use 999 OQ chem on final build on anything other than a combat droid, or combat modules for that matter, as who cares if their harvester, etc.droid has 4477 HAM orhas any combat rating? I haven't personally seen that many sales of high-rated combat droids, but I haven't sat in Coronet or Theed pushing them either.



Kniol Kiodo
Master Shipwright
Master Droid Engineer
Master Artisan (PRE-Vehicle Patch)
Vendors at (4988, -3844), just 1000m N of Moenia, Naboo
Ahazi Galaxy
"Say what you mean. Mean what you say. Do what you said."
Envoy3113
Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:49 am
#32

Well, we know to expect three things.



Droids in JTL.



Combat Revamp (i.e. things will get tougher low end)



Droid Commander




Doesn't look too bad to me. Granted I don't sell much right now, but we are also seeing droves of people grinding as much as humanly possible before the Jedi system changes. Once the system changes, things will settle down and people will begin to migrate back to their roots.





There comes a time in every mans life when 86 years is just too damn long...
Betatoxin
Wed Jun 09, 2004 11:11 am
#33
Just to chime in with my $0.02.

Having had a master CH and having had the opportunity to use an R3 5 repair 1 combat droid I can say that the R3 makes a great little tank for mid level mobs. So I think droids are very useful, and I have only just used this one type.

Also as one poster pointed out the droid takes a beating so your armor does not have to. The droid is saving me $$ and effort by not having to outfit with a new set of armor so often.

As far as decay, I would have no problem with my combat droid getting used up quicker. As it is I am on Yavin IV, most mobs I am fighting to grind smuggler do not DB so even though liltankum got incapped several times he was never DB'd, thus no potential vitality loss.

Also I like the batteries, means I have to stay on top of things and I like a richer combat experience than spamming specials, which is mostly what combat is unless you mix in things like droids and pets.
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