Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Newer... Faster... Stronger.. combat droids..
Redondo
You dont want it and I do..so there we disagree.
However, the confusion in all this arises from the presumption from the 'crafter only' camp that I (we) want some sort of uber droid..we mostly don't. I love my 3 probots now, we can do a lot of content with care and some (in my case) pistol skills.
This is my personal peeve with 'crafting only'. I dont want to solo krayts, I dont even want to solo FS mobs, and so all I really want is to be able to have a reasonably strong probot (or new design). The CL level is not something I want to argue about, cos I don't care if its 15 or 50, all I know is this : as a profession we have been able to craft and use Probots (which were 'temporarily' nerfed) and I want to do a little bit more in game with my mediocre pistol skills and my droid (of whatever flavour). I'm not asking for Rancor like abilities, but over time the mobs have got harder, the content has got harder, and the DE has remained the same.
Nowhere is the 'crafter only' DE threatened by this, neither is there going to be a flood of dabblers.
I just dont know why nobody seems to understand the wish to actually participate in the content of the game. Its no good saying create a combat character. I would if we could have one on the same server with our friends, but we cant.
So, even if the poor old (somewhat combat enhanced) DE is the weakest in the group, thats fine with me. I just want to see all this new content, not dominate it. And dont even say PvP, what I have in mind doesn't even go there.
So, there is a middle ground point of view. Now queue Kollos and crowd to flame me to death.
Dont get me wrong I think using a combat droid would be great. and if they put it in the DE tree then fine. I just think DE's are crafters. If you want combat you can master DE andartisan and still have skill pointsleft for mastering an elite combat profession and 3 levels of management in the merchant tree. There is the combat. Even more, ifyou dump the merchant and most of artisan you can get even more skills. I dont think DE limits us in combat at all. If you want to fight with your friends, even as the weakest link, then whats stopping you. If you are just a DE then you probably would be the weakest combat person in the group. I still go out and fight with people in our town just for kicks and to show them the ropes, if they are new ( I am BH on another server). I dont do much damage but I have fun.
Shian_Tavkin wrote:
I honestly dont think I will ever understand why anyone wants to have millions in this game rather than share at least the low level content.
I dont disagree with making more powerful droids although i do think there should be a limit to the level of droid. I think level 10 is far too low to contribute substantively to any combat in group or not. I mean CL 10 creature pets are worthless unless they are bioengineered. You start to get above level 35 though and the droid is starting to look like a graul mauler. Either that or put a trade off in the droid like high damage/low HAM or high HAM/low damage. Anyway, I see your point my point is keep it out of DE, you can contribute a lot to your guild by making them these droids, just like an architect makes the houses and the PA hall. Crafters dont fight, it is not in the pre-reqs, they make stuff. I think since you have combat skills you should qualify in some sense to use combat droids but that is not the way the game is set up. In the end it really isnt fair to give DEs, a NO combat profession, powerful droids, when all the other combat professions are having to fight for their skills. Its like letting WS use a flamethrower just because they can make it or a BE a creature handler just because they can make it.
I still consider the Probot to be the best Level 10 tank in the game, for 0 skill point cost. There are a couple of points that will really change how the Probot is looked at in Publish 7. First off is the addition of the Repair kit that will finally give anyone the ability to heal HAM damage on thier droid, much like a pet owner can do. A Probot with Medium 40% can out last pets that are 5-10 levels higher in level, without the use of healing. Imagine what is going to happen when the Probot can be healed. Next comes the change to the pet/droid/vehicle call system. Taking away the camp requirement will result in a significant increase in people using their pets during combat again. The addition of vehicles has actually reduced pet/droid usage, since neither of which can effectively keep up with a PC on a vehicle. Once the camp restriction is removed, DE should see an increase in combat droid sales. Then we have the addition of combat modules and their role on the crafting system. From all indications, the Combat Modules will be one of the first steps towards making experimentation really mean something to the DE profession. Combat Modules will be stackable and will result in better damage ratings that will depend on the quality and number of modules used. Finally, Publish 8 will bring us experimented HAM values. Depending on how that system is implemented, DE may see a more dynamic system similar to the diversity that BEs have, which could result in some really great Level 10ish pets. One thing that hasn't been made absolutely clear by the DEV team is whether or not allCombat droids will be limited to Level 10 and under. The Adv BLL is Level 12 currently, so if it is Combat module ready in Publish 7, we could see Level 10+ combat droids.
/SteppingOfSoapbox
armen2202 wrote:
The DE is an OK proffesion... but it needs more .. ahh mojo.. wouldnt it be a whole lot cooler if a DE could make the combat droids from episodes 1 and 2?.. and the DE himself could have like 5 or6 of these guys out at a time... kind of a way to counter a CH or.. to mass an attack of somkind... they should be able to build the droideckas, the skinny ones.. and the other ones that look like the skinny ones but with sum buffed up armor.. =D cause DE realy needs something to make this proffesion worth going into.. just a thought...
Wow...never thought of that. Like...a droideka?
Dang, the DE community hasn't asked for that before...maybe we should try.
Audio
Shian_Tavkin wrote:
Redondo
I do exactly what you say I should do, I do have combat points and I use them.
You want it simply put? Im fed up of being laughed at when Probot is called. Ok? its an embarrasment these days. The crafters are selling joke toys. If it hant got Med6 and a Chem craft its an almostuseless object in a hunt.
The point you are missing is I want my DE to have a value to my PA for being a DE. I can craft the best droids out there, but when they say 'guild hunt' I can contribute little, indeed I take up a lot of the Docs time.
In short I am anegative, but they take me all the same. We are not talking Krayt hunts here. Its not a matter of wannabe commando, its simply I hate my probot to be laughed at. Is that clear enough?
So why would it hurt to have a little more in a probot? Not a lot, not earth shattering, just a little
I honestly dont think I will ever understand why anyone wants to have millions in this game rather than share at least the low level content.
I think this is a good example of the real reasoning behind a lot of people's request for better combat droids. However, there is more to combat than just firepower, and I think droids can play an important role in those aspects.
Take a look at this thread: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=66268
There are some very good ideas in there for droids that would be an asset in combat without actually doing any fighting. Basically they take a passive combat role rather than an active one.
If that were the case, your childish guildies that laugh at you for pulling out your probot now will be begging you for thier own, because they will gain a combat advantage still, but probably since most of the damage will still be done by the player, they're getting more XP. They're probably all grinding holos anyway so this should be a godsend for them.
Just try and think "outside the box." As I said before I'm really against adding combat droids to the DE class, but utility droids that have a use in combat are an entirely different story.
DE is to the idea of a DH,
as a BE to a CH.
It's primarily craft, but I think they shoudl get some droid use/capability over the average joe. A level 10 combat droid? why bother?
I suppose it will all depend on where/how they implement the use of higher level combat droids.
I like someone's earlier suggestion of tossing the SL's a bone.
Oyah - since we can't edit these:
more fodder for the DE as craft vs combat argument:
WS make tons of high end weapons that they can't use (to any real effectiveness). Any word as to the current plan for where high end combat droids will go?
It is hard to explain what the "Droid Invasion" is to others without laughing. It is sad that I see that some people are content with getting R2 on steroids and be able to make a walking Karaoke droid for entertainers after what will be 9 months of waiting for anything positive to happen to DE.
Like some of the other Pro-hybrid DE's, I dont need or expect to get such Uber droids as to solo Krayts. I would be happy with anything that would give the DE's more purpose in the game.
Even a pupose in the GCW. Maybe if we only get utility droids, we should at least get to pull multiple at once. Maybe have a droid that is DE ONLY that is needed to shut down base defenses, or slice terminals, maybe shut some blast doors.....something.....
You crafter only types are going to get nothing and you are happy with it!! I don't get it. If you think that getting CL10 droids is going to bring you wealth and happyness...you would be mistaken. If you think that having a bunch of new utility droids is the answer....what happens when everyone has the the droid they desire? Then what will you make or sell.
As it is now, DE is a crafting profession that can make utility droids and CL10 combat droids. And you think that adding some new schematics after 9 months of waiting is worth it..... I don't know what to say.
/shakeshead
phamcar wrote:
It is hard to explain what the "Droid Invasion" is to others without laughing. It is sad that I see that some people are content with getting R2 on steroids and be able to make a walking Karaoke droid for entertainers after what will be 9 months of waiting for anything positive to happen to DE.
It depends on how they're all implemented. If what you mention isallthat we get, then yeah it's going to be a big disappointment. However, given the recent revitalizations of Bio-Engineer and Chef, I'm willing to give the Devs a chance to do it right. This is the first time that we've really had any of their attention, so their past screw-ups probably shouldn't be used to predict the outcome this time around.
They really need to implement some form of "decay" on Droids. Weaponsmiths and Armorsmiths are the most succesful crafters because their wares don't last forever. We need repeat customers, too. Hopefully the devs realize this and have something planned in patch 7 or patch 8, or possibly for the combat revamp.
Like some of the other Pro-hybrid DE's, I dont need or expect to get such Uber droids as to solo Krayts. I would be happy with anything that would give the DE's more purpose in the game.
Yes, but unlike some of the other Pro-hybrid DE's, you can be civil about it.
I would love for Droid Engineers to have more purpose in the game as well. I just don't think that the hybrid route is the best option of the many that people have proposed, simply because a hybrid isn't good at anything. I would rather excel at one thing than be half-assed at two things. And that's exactly what would happen if they made Droid Engineer a hybrid profession - they'd have to take away some of our crafting ability in order to give us some lame duck combat ability.
I just don't see that as fun.
Even a pupose in the GCW. Maybe if we only get utility droids, we should at least get to pull multiple at once. Maybe have a droid that is DE ONLY that is needed to shut down base defenses, or slice terminals, maybe shut some blast doors.....something.....
Cool ideas. I definitely agree that Droid Engineers should be able to control more than one droid at a time, even if that were restricted so that only one of them could be a combat droid. It's pretty silly that we can't even use our own repair droids to repair our own droids.
I would worry that any sort of slicing style of ability would step on the toes of the Smuggling profession, but I agree that there should be some integral way that Droid Engineers can participate in the GCW. It's too bad that bases don't have droids defending them in some way, because then Droid Engineers could be used to disable them or hinder them in some way.
It's difficult to come up with something, though, because then the other crafting professions would want something too. What special abilities do Weaponsmiths have in the GCW? How about Armorsmiths? It's not that I don't want to be able to participate in the GCW, it's that it doesn't make sense for Droid Engineers to have a direct role. Just like Weaponsmiths and Armorsmiths. Our role is and should be indirect - we supply equipment to others who then use it in the GCW. The trick is that we need better equipment to supply.
And that's where the crux of our difficulties lie. Making DE a hybrid profession does not give us what we need - it turns us into something else. Making new and more useful combat droids that everyone can use does give us what we need, or at least it gives us one thing that we can use. Properly designed and implemented utility droids can give us that same thing, though.
You crafter only types are going to get nothing and you are happy with it!! I don't get it. If you think that getting CL10 droids is going to bring you wealth and happyness...you would be mistaken. If you think that having a bunch of new utility droids is the answer....what happens when everyone has the the droid they desire? Then what will you make or sell.
This gets back to the decay issue, and it will be a problem until the Devs fix that issue. We need something that causes repeat business like what Weaponsmiths and Armorsmiths have. Droid Batteries aren't the answer.
As it is now, DE is a crafting profession that can make utility droids and CL10 combat droids. And you think that adding some new schematics after 9 months of waiting is worth it..... I don't know what to say.
We all have different ideas about what is fun. That doesn't make any of them wrong, they're just different. Yes, I do think that some new schematics for combat modules and utility droids could be worth the wait. But I also know that changing Droid Engineer into something completely different after 9 months is not the right answer - it's a cop out solution. "Well, we couldn't make Droid Engineer work, so we'll cop out and turn it into something else." The potential for a great profession is here, it just hasn't been realized yet. Now that we have the Devs attention maybe that realization is about to happen.