Droid Engineer Archive

Hi sintrosi! Dont take any flak just cause the developers cant read or write in english.

This post is a description of about a dozen different combat capable droids, and a few utilit droids. These all exist inteh SWU already, so stats can be had by anyone who wants to look for them, but they dont properly reflect how the stats would measure up in the game.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=14766

End Droid permadeath. Add Droid DECAY. Combat droids should decay faster, with better armor slowing decay over time. Droids should have to be eventually replaced, but not every DAY!

Droids in the star wars universe filled the role of PETS. Lots of peoplegot themselves a droid companion of some kind, but not many people hauled cat food from planet to planet. the costs of maintaining a LIVING pet were prohibitive for all but the richest galactic citizen.

"Many owners were loathe to wipe a droids personality, coming to think of them as pets and members of the family"

Actually I wanted to add one more thing. Since it is obvious from this response that the developers are NOT reading these posts at all, we are going to have to sort this stuff for sintrusi to properly inform them better. Theya re not aware of bugs we post here. They dont know about prblems, droid issues or help issues, and I am /bug everything I come across in game too. where is that info going???

Just an Idea for Sintrosi to consider that might help clean up the boards as far as subject and ease of access to specific subjects.

Make a few sticky threads for each droid type or droid related issue.Example..

Surgical Droid discussion

R Model droid discussion

Module discussion

DE vs CH.How to implement with fairness to both trades

Just a few thoughts to help you keep track of individual problems and help get the right responses in the right place's.

You have to be congratulated for your determination in our endevour to get things fixed and fixed right.Every DE has frustrations and dissapointments after working so hard to be successful in a trade that offers no success.You unfortunately have recieved alot of anger and frustration by players because of lack of Dev response and lack of Dev action.I am THE most guilty of this.I apologize to the DE community and especially to you.I decided to pack up all my belongings and sit this out as far as gameplay.I haven't handled my frustrations properly and haven't been able to put forth ideas properly because of it.Good Luck and keep up the good work.I truly Hope your hard work comes to some fruition someday.

I put my responce in another post, cause I want to keep this one positive.

well that is all i can say.

The response to the questions put forth to the DE devs was not heartening IMHO. They sounded like they rarely if even read these boards...or played the class. I'm still hoping that thei r reponse of adding droid repair kits(when they already exist) was just a misspeak. But objections to their response has been covered in detail in other threads.

Improvements to droids have been covered numerous times so I won't go into details but I'll summarize by saying that I'd like droids to help with the automation of tasks various people do. Also, they can help enhance jobs that we have to do which leads into my suggestion:

A good use for protocol droids would be to help you out when you're "programming" harvesters. Since they understand "the binary language of moisture evaporators" they could allow you to access an enhanced control panel if you have one out while operating your harvesters. This enhanced control panel would give you a small percentage bonus to the extraction rate and give you more options that can affect it.

I like the entertainer droids, but have it like a live broadcast or something.

Your question on what functions that droids should have, I would like to see a hologram mission. Some way the droids can be mini mission terminals, where you can accept a mission or be sent a mission by some one. Especially when the Player missions are put into place this would rock.

Sorry for the slang.

Would it be valid to put droids from the Clone wars, I am not sure of the history but it might be nice to see some of those battle droids.

I would also like to see the droid type that has a box and two legs. If anyone can remember the name of these droids please help me bring them in game...

A box on two legs? A power droid, or Gonk? It's in the game already.

Anyway, I agree with everyone's posts about permadeath being changed to a system of degradation that DEs can fix. However, we keep seeing calls for more and varied combat droids. I don't know. Combat is an easy way to give value to a droid, and droids aren't much other than combat or crafting stations. Droids weren't used at all for combat in the movies (except the prequels), so I don't expect to see them here. But if they're not for combat, what are they for?

I'd like to see droids capable of more game-automating tasks for the crafter or medic or support/services professions. It's probably tricky to have a droid, say, empty your harvester and come back with the goods, things like that. I doubt it will happen, but I wonder how deeply it was considered.

There have been enough listings of what new droids to have and what new modules, I think, for me to add something to help alleviate the perma-death problem while still keeping it in tact.

(If this has been thought of before I apologize, in advance).

Speaking from the Artisan point of view, what if the perma-deathed droid's "corpse" dropped a "wrecked droid" item to pick up.
This "loot" could then be given to a Droid Engineer to "repair" with additional resources (not the same cost as the original, I would hope). The Engineer adds the "wrecked droid" item to the mix and tries to assemble it. If they critical fail, well.. sorry! But, if they succeed, the droid will be up and running, again.

There would be a few different ways to handle this, I suppose, but I see having a "Repair schematic" for each type of Droid falling in with the same level that it takes to make it, in the first place.
Also, if you don't want to worry about the 'memory' of what the droid had, just require that the optional modules be made again. More resources, yes, but at least you now have droids that, if destroyed, can be repaired.

Seems more like a reasonable way to get DE's back in there and make droids unusable right after they get wrecked, BUT, still useful, once repaired.

There was a mention of a repair kit that Artisans would be able to make, but what if this was an added feature to that?

Well as i said in another thread i sent a copy of my letter to Q to all the dev's in hope of a responce.

I just hated to see all the great suggestions Sintrosi had presented perfectly getting totaly ignored. I managed to get a responce from vass so far, and i am hopeing to get some more feedback from them.

I will post the responces when i get some more time.

here is to hopeing that annoying them to death might get some action going!

Hi Sin, sorry I'm reposting this but I wanted to ensure that it got read. Thanks for the guidance on posting to prevent flames and ensure we get read.

Response to 1) Droid Uniqueness and Usefullness(apologies to fellow DE's who read, parts are from an earlier post of mine):

On Usefullness:

Droids are robots. There should be no difference in the logical reason for having/wanting robots in our time and universe and in the SW Universe. Droids are meant to do tasks and labour that is either:

a. Too small, time consuming, boring, repetative, or dangerous for human (flesh and blood beings) to do

b. Assist with skills or abilities that the owner is unable to perform themselves

What should be done to fix this and address the above:

i) Allow an owner to have as many Droids as they want, and have as many active at once as they want

ii) Allow droids to do tasks outside of a distance limited or area of control associated with the player - e.g. instead of paying huge maintenance fees on harvestors, if I have a maintenance droid tending my 3 harvestors I don't have to waste time tending my harvestors and I save $$ big incentive for buying droid

iii) allow droids to be programmed to do the following unattended:

a) structure and vendor (vehicle and ship in future) maintenance (no maintenance fee to player if used) - create maintenance module for droids

b) hopper harvesting and drop off (player does not have to spend time harvesting from hoppers anymore)

c) surveying and sampling (better than a human player, not as good as a harvestor - droid is programmed to survey and sample for one resource and will auto go to highest concentration and start sampling) players can then concentrate on crafting/playing other aspects, or if the player is not an artisan etc then here is a droid with skills to provide that to a player - create droid survey and sampling module

d) armor and weapon repair (not as good as a human artisan weaponsmith or armorsmith but mobile and good enough to make it worth taking with you if you are on lowly populated planet in several firefights or hunting expeditions) -- droid armor and weapon repair module

e) healing (not as good as human medic/doctor/combat medic) but again can actually perform act not just assist human player - but will still give boost to human player performing the act -- same modules as now

f) restocking vendors/shop clerk(will take whatever I have crafted and restock my vendors at a set price I have already established for that good will offer drinks and issue welcome and barkshopping admessages - again will supplement me if I don't have enough skill pts for Advertising 3 in business or I am away from the shop) -- shop clerk module

g) hunting droid (think hunting dog -- has large sensor array to find larger groups of selected prey on the planet, user chooses from available prey, bingo droid will search with greater than human range to find prey, identify it, and lead human hunters to the source -- droid will also autoharvest hide or bone as preselected by player) -- hunting sensor array and corpse harvest module for droids

h) increased variety and strength in combat droids (see specific response to point 4)

Permadeath for creatures, incapacitation for droids.

Droids are constructs - no different than any construct we can create in our universe, on our planet today. They are NOT living, breathing things. Similar to a car a droid can be built or taken apart as has been proven by the numerous movies despite being destroyed to a point where they are incapacitated into peices. Your car doesn't die when you have an accident (yes even though it may be an insurance "write off" it can still be repaired -- it is only written off because the cost to repair the car plus the added risk of that repaired car having a future accident is potentially greater than the cost to replace the vehicle or supply "book value" back to the owner towards a new car purchase). Your car can still have a second life - witness TLC's junkyard wars, monster garage, or visit any scrap dealer.

The bottom line isconstructsdo not die. Creatures do die. period. Welcome to life on this and any other planet. And if you witness any of the SW movies you'll see that universe is no different than ours.

On Uniqueness:

Bring back our ability to customize droid paint schemes for cutomers. It may seem small but will create a larger "coolness" factor around droids if each player can have a droid creation more visibly unique to them as well as functionaly unique. If the prior beta mechanism is a non-starter because it is too difficult to fix or implement then may I suggest a pick list of a dozen or so color themes (e.g. jungle camoflauge, astrocolors, desert camoflage, snow camoflage, imperial black, rebel blue and red, gray, etc.). All of these skins can be standardized in-game to allow some flexible customization until either real customization (like Tailoring) is possible or as a substitute until another system can be implemented with a larger upgrade.

Response to 2) Working Modules

With respect to not planning on making modules "hot swappable", I understand the desire to prioritize and there is something to be said for repeat business for more custom droid constructs, however I beg you to re-consider. At least do not shelve this issue - please institute this in a later, larger upgrade if necessary. As previously mentioned there is a large backlash from customers, whom as they grow and become more elite, or change professions, their requirements from a droid will change over time. These customers also view droids as they should be - constructs - similar to your car if you would like to remove the engine to add in a more powerful one you should be able to do so. THIS IS NOT to say that you cannot take that same car and add to it the ability to haul ore from a mine - that is a SPECIALIZED vehicle. I think we can compromise here and resolve the SOE team's concern about specializationwithout sacrificing the desire to have "hot swappable" modules. Some Droids are specialty function droids - e.g.

Probot (infiltration, espionage and attack - although currently only attack in the SOE environment) - already specialized because of restriction of program option to attack

DZ70 (tracking, espionage, light combat support - currently only attack in the SOE environment) - similar to probot - already specialized as it can perform the program function attack

Surgical Droid (heal) - should be the only droid to actually be able to heal independent of presence of healing class player (medic/doctor etc) - I recommend restricting medical module L3+ to Surgical Droids

By restrictingcertain modules, and certain LEVELS of modulesto certain types of droids you can address the concern you express. That way it will be impossible to put a very high level module in a very inexpensive droid and get the same performance as a higher class of construct requiring more advanced skill to build.

The advantage of "hot swappable" modules is two fold:

1) it gives new customers with limited funds an upgrade path to new droid functionality (up to a point!)this is desirable because without this, new customers will not buy low level droids from novice DEs, specialty droids (either inherentlyspecialized through the default "program" options, or through a module level restriction system similarto what I suggest)should command more dollars and require a DE with a higher skillset to produce. Withrespect to low level DEs buyinghigher level modules and inserting them into droids - this would be stopped because the low level DEs cannot build specialized droids at their level (they alsocannot produce droids which allow higher level modules to be inserted (swapped) into them); and

2) eventually the "hot swappable" module system will allow for a more realistic and comprehensive damage system to be introduced into the game for droids, whereby damage can translate into damaged or destroyed internal droid modules requiring "hot swapped" replacements - also something that will generate more DE business

With respect, if a droid can have a piece of technology inserted into it to increase it's inherent ability is it that much of a stretch to understand the desire and logic behind the ability to hotswap modules?

Response to 3) UXP and Master Experience

Thank you for taking this issue seriously and for assisting with leveling the experience point playing field amoung elite classes. Although we would appreciate a bitmore description as to how this is implemented and exactly how this will be similar to "pet trick", we are happy just to have the additional aid of XP gained outside of crafting alone.

With regards to general experience points required to gain Master level in the DE elite skill tree I would ask you to please review the distribution of blueprints and module levels gained to make the experience of growing in the profession more rewarding for players as they progress. Several excellent suggestions to accomplish this have been made in this forum.

Response to 4) Variation in Combat Droids

Thank you for agreeing. It's exciting to have you ask for our opinions and ideas on this issue.

I'm sure many of the droid types I list will be included amoung previous and later posts, however these would be my list for combat droid types:

1) Droideka Battle/Gaurd Droid http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/droideka/index.html

2) IG-88 Series Assassin Droid http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/ig88/index.html

3) LOM Series converted Protocol Droid http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/4lom/index.html

4) ASN Series Assasin Droid http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/asn121/index.html

5) Battle Droid http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/battledroid/index.html

6) Dark Trooper Droid http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/darktroopers/eu.html

(I know Dark Troopers are currently a Faction Reward, but truly these are droids -- may I suggest that instead of making the droid itself a faction reward that perhaps you make the SCHEMATIC for the droid a faction reward which can then be used by a DE with enough faction points to build a Dark Trooper? perhaps the Rebels can get a similar SCHEMATIC faction reward droid?)

7) Super Battle Droid http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/superbattledroid/index.html

Response to 5) Droid Repair

This is excellent news! Thank you! I'm sure the existence of a Droid Repair Kit already in-game was merely an oversight.

Response to 6) Experimentation

I have yet myself to confirm in-game, but bow to my peers whom I know will be testing this thoroughly, I'm sure any anomolies will be reported back to your team. Thank you for putting this high on your fix list.

-----------------

Emoud-Oh

DE, Scylla, Mos Tatoo, Tatooine

Love the entertainment module ideas Sketh - good job man!

"Droids should be persistent and they should be able to function away from their master. I should be able to feed a binary load lifter the waypoint of my harvestor and have it go and get resources from it. Of course, there should be risk involved with this. This is where the jawa factor could come into play. Sending a droid off to do some task should have a risk that your droid will be stolen by jawas. Reclaiming your droid would be possible by using force or perhaps payment to the thieving jawas. This could add a much needed rivalry between jawas and droid engineers/owners that I think should be in the game. I should have a reason to despise those stinking rodents."

Of all the "wanna see this, don't like that" posts, this one has got to be one of the best. It shows imagination and it fits in with the "fluff" or story. In addition it would add flavor and ((gasp)) content to a profession that is pretty much just grinding.

"Jawas stole my BLL...Sigh..gotta go bust it out." EXCELLENT!!!

I bet they could find some form of NPC rivalry for every profession.

GREAT IDEA.

Well Sintrosi,

I have a thread that states pretty much what alot of us want. View it here.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=285983&highlight=#M285983