Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: First Look Interplanetary Survey Droid Information
Greets ...
I have read most of the thread ... to many naysayers concerning price. I am a master weaponsmith ... I move 100+ weapons per day ... so I am not worried about price :-)
I would not expect the droid to find me the "best location" ... unless that was the specific use of the droid ... maybe a droid that you sent to a planet to look for resource X ... it might return the top 3 spots.
I DO expect the droid to return the name, types, and stats of each resource on the planet (within that survey tool).
If it does that ... I will send one out to each of the advanced/adventure planets every otherday ... and will have on problem paying for that service.
So ... let's hope it returns the *stats* on the resources it finds ... if it just returns the name/class, I don't know that I personally would be using them.
Message Edited by Reaperss on 04-15-2004 08:12 PM
Kaldeth wrote:
Not sure on how to read your reply. What I was going for in my post was that to be able to place a harvester to mine a resource you would be best of to survey the land for a good concentration of what you wish to mine. And to survey you need novice artisan at least, and at novice artisan you can make all 7 survey tools.
I read it as you being part of the camp that think a waypoint to the highest concentration should be returned, which makes absolutely no sense.
I would just guess that if every other droid in this patch requires a novice level of a profession, this one probably will to.
Also on the 1/2 hour issue.... And this is assuming we get back stats... You couldnt do it as fast if you tried. Even if you were 1 system away, thats 10 minutes travel, then you need to survey each resource, which for mineral can easily be 20, so theres 10 minutes assuming no failures, but because you're likely on low percentages, add another 5 minutes for failures, and THEN theres the travel on foot/bike to get stats that are not found in the starport. I would like it to be faster, but its entirely reasonable. Also the data we have is on droids that arent experimented, so there's a good possibility a experimented droid will be faster.
on an off topic... a possible future droid that might be reasonable could be to have a survery droid search for resource X and have it return random locations with %'s. so you may get a 1% or 99% but it would be random and a starting point for search.Possibly a "seeker" (in-planet) vs the arakyd (what we are getting this patch).
sorry if I missed this in a previous thread but....Can more than one survey droid be sent out at one time or do you have to wait for the first droid's report before sending out sruvey droid #2?
it is probably to soon to get this answer. if so, please try this test of use too please.
1. The droid works like a Seeker, with charges. It can survey a 640m diameter. It seeks out a single resource you choose. It returns the highest concentration of the resource and a textual waypoint to the location (if there is one). You enter a waypoint into it and "use" it. One charge is gone, and a few minutes later the email is recieved with the results. This droid is around the same complexity of an R4 droid. So it will not be "cheap".
So these are just suggestions. I know they will never put in a "one touch" solutino to get the "best" resource concentration on a planet. Thats a terrible solution. But it will be nice if we could "pay" for the ability to NOT spend the time running around looking for a waypoint.
Deidre_DE wrote:
How long until this patch is pushed to live?
Naufragus wrote:
Deidre_DE wrote:
How long until this patch is pushed to live?
about a week 1/2.....but basically once somethig hits test center it doesnt get changed...
not sure where you got that idea, lots of stuff gets changed on TC.
Interesting information and thanks for supplying it.
a few question have I.
1) They are finished droids when built, but do they come in more then one complexity level? like storage modules and such?
2) Might be to early to offer a reply to this. but as it takes a tool from your inventory to head out, does the ql of the tool effect the how long it takes to return or the info it returns with
3) Does the time for the droid to do its survey remain the same no matter the distance from the planet you are?
4) Does experimentation on the survey droid affect this time or the information it returns with
Might be to soon to get a reply to these as they seems to be bugged on test atm.
But awesome work on bringing this information to us. Super 
For most of these - yes, its too early to answer. but let me give you answers that i expect (from experience in the game)
Kaldeth wrote:
Interesting information and thanks for supplying it.
a few question have I.
1) They are finished droids when built, but do they come in more then one complexity level? like storage modules and such?
They do not hold any modules - they are a single purpose droid - which is to take a tool and scan on the planet you want it to.
2) Might be to early to offer a reply to this. but as it takes a tool from your inventory to head out, does the ql of the tool effect the how long it takes to return or the info it returns with
It seems to be a pretty standard 20-30 minutes (i have not timed it exactly yet) - but no real difference is seen so far with the 3 i have been able to successfully launched (two yesterday and one after the patch today)
3) Does the time for the droid to do its survey remain the same no matter the distance from the planet you are?
Doesnt seem that way - i tried the planet i was currently on, i tried another newbie planet, and i tried an adventure planetwhich required a hop to a different planet first - i did not notice any difference.
4) Does experimentation on the survey droid affect this time or the information it returns with
No idea (we still dont know what data it returns with - so we wont know how it effects the quality). Also - since i have to do a backdoor approach to getting the droid to craft, i cannot experiment at this time.
Might be to soon to get a reply to these as they seems to be bugged on test atm.
But awesome work on bringing this information to us. Super
Morturr: Thank you for your effort in getting this information to us.
TK: Could you suggest to the Devs that they make a surveying tool a subcomponent rather than other things? This way we could at crafting time decide what it would survey for. And it avoids the possible bug that it won't pull tools out of crates. Anyway it is just a suggestion, I'm really happy and dare I say hopeful with the new changes coming.
darkmane wrote:TK: Could you suggest to the Devs that they make a surveying tool a subcomponent rather than other things? This way we could at crafting time decide what it would survey for.
Speaking as a crafter, I would MUCH rather be able to specify at launch time what kind of thing to survey for. I don't want to have to buy several crates of different kinds of droids.
imo it should be like BH seekers, coming with 10 charges and we should be able to craft in the survez tool, so we have a good set of droids for all kind resources.
30 mins to report back is way to long and does anyone knows if u can send out multiple ones same time or just 1 and then after report next? that would be insane 30 mins wait per each resource?
i would love to see them this way and i think that would help all most:
- craftable with specific survey tool
- 10 charges per droid
- 5mins wait till report comes in, sending out 1 at a time
