Droid Engineer Archive

I thought I'd add my two cents' worth.

On the subject of combat modules, I agree with many here that they are a superb idea! But they should be restricted to combat-oriented chassis (such as the DZ70 and probot). Adding additional droid chassis would be a plus, but is not too critical to my mind. Aprobot has very little health, but has incredible armour, so if its damage is increased it will be a viable non-CH pet, which is pretty much all it should be, since non-CH's will use it.

I do not, however, like that only DEs can use droids with these combat modules. As has been said, this converts a DE to a combat profession, which is not its intent; we make droids, others die with'em. If a droid-style combat class is desired, look at the Droid Commander profession that was proposed, I still love that idea.

As for power droids, if they can be drawn at the same time as other droids, that will more or less kill the battery consumption problems currently being seen. I definitely am all for DE's having multiple non-combat droids out at the same time, and for power droids attaching to havesters.

Now, medical droids... The reduction in mind cost is a great idea, but I have worries about the droid automatically stimming incapped players. What if the aggressive has incapped you twice already, and you're stimmed up again? You die. The AI with this aspect will have to be considered in great detail.

On a different note... I've seen many people complaining about a lack of a timeline, and what that 'suggests.' Bear in mind: we aren't the boss, nor are we the client. I don't doubt there is in fact a timeline for implementation, but that doesn't mean it must be shown to we players. I would, in fact, be surprised if it was

Overall, I like the plan. I expect there will be other patches that are included along the way, but it will definitely and significantly improve Droid Engineering.

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Dorkl wrote:

Bear in mind: we aren't the boss, nor are we the client.

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- I am concerned about us being the only ones to use the combat droids (unless I read it wrong). This being the case how in the heck do we sell them for any profit?

-Medical droids, great ideas. Incap death needs to be looked at as this could be a nice griefing technique

-MSE bombs? HHmm as has been mentioned, we need to be able to pull out droids without a camp for this to be effective.

-From the CH forum. Only one Pet out at a time, looks like our droids are going to get purchased with less frequency (since most people buy the Probot for added damage as it would be worthless to be your only pet out)

-What will mounts be considered. I'd assume not a combat droid, does this mean we can ride a mount and have a combat droid out? (since DE's will get the multiple droids feature)

-Power droids, I like this idea even though I dont like the fact that we would rely on Archs for the parts (guess we need to have some interdependance) but would this be a schematic addition? or added on the fly? or would it run around and power multiple harvestors?

-I especially dont like that many of the broken portions of DE are not being addressed. New stuff looks salesy/markety to me. They can now say "Look New Droids !!!" When in reality I just want the old ones to work as they were originally intended. (or would those be considered bug fix's which are going to happen anyway?)

-Kralis

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Kralis wrote:

- I am concerned about us being the only ones to use the combat droids (unless I read it wrong). This being the case how in the heck do we sell them for any profit?


My guess is that we will only be able to control the droids that have the new/special combat modules in place. If it's a current droid (no new modules yet), anyone would still be able to use it....see?

Only we get to use the droids that have the new parts/features installed (for their intended purpose).

I'm concerned about be able to have my buddy use the droid if it also had Med capabilities in it. What happens then?

-Medical droids, great ideas. Incap death needs to be looked at as this could be a nice griefing technique.



Correct. This has some possibilites for greifing/exploiting, I'm sure.

-MSE bombs? HHmm as has been mentioned, we need to be able to pull out droids without a camp for this to be effective.



Also correct. Perhaps they will start making where/when you can pull a the droid based on the types (i.e. MSEs and DZ70s are 'pull-anywhere' droids and the higher level use the current ruleset).

-From the CH forum. Only one Pet out at a time, looks like our droids are going to get purchased with less frequency (since most people buy the Probot for added damage as it would be worthless to be your only pet out)



I think they will still buy them, especially for certain things (Droid repair, item storage, med droids, etc.).

-What will mounts be considered. I'd assume not a combat droid, does this mean we can ride a mount and have a combat droid out? (since DE's will get the multiple droids feature)



No. Droid or mount...not both (exception: Master DEs, it sounds like).

-Power droids, I like this idea even though I dont like the fact that we would rely on Archs for the parts (guess we need to have some interdependance) but would this be a schematic addition? or added on the fly? or would it run around and power multiple harvestors?


Yea...those are the kinds of details that would have been nice to know. I'd have to guess that even they don't know yet (since none of this stuff exists at all yet).

-I especially dont like that many of the broken portions of DE are not being addressed. New stuff looks salesy/markety to me. They can now say "Look New Droids !!!" When in reality I just want the old ones to work as they were originally intended. (or would those be considered bug fix's which are going to happen anyway?)

I too am befuddled by the fact that they didn't seem to touch on the current situation with droids and what would be happening on the fixes. It's always been puzzling to me why they'd take the time to add new content such as this instead of simply fixing what was released so it work as expected (....Adv. BLL, need I say more?).

-Kralis

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My concerns:

1) timeline - it sounds like these changes could take a long time. If its a month or two, that's not so bad. Anything beyond and I'd rather see a more immediate focus on at least some bug fixes.

2) not enough mention of bug fixes.

Thanks.

Concerns:

1. No mention of new combat only droid chassis. Withthe CH changes posted today, how come we aren't reading about difficulty ratings on combat droid chassis so people who aren't DE's or CH's can use a lvl 10 or below combat outfitted droid.

I would have been much happier with this if they said Master DE's will get Droidica's and the ablitiy to have two combat droids out equaling a certain lvl perhaps. There should be some kind of reward for making master beside a few new schmatics. And if they want me to be combat then at master I should be able to stand toe to toe with a Master CH. Looks like theywill have2 fighting pets out. Will I have the same fire power?

I see lots of places for concern but for the most part I like the gist of the plan.. but it's a long long way from being a balanced working reality. If this plan goes live like it is you will see 2 classes playing this game DE's and CH's. We won't have anyone leftto sell droids to.

My concerns:

• Plan is very vague and open to interpretation.


• no mention of new combat chassis.. I fear the combat modules will go into already existing droid chassis.. (ie, imagine a power droid with a gun!)


• Medic and storage modulesmay still be droid chassis independent. I dont want to make mouse droids carry level 6 medical modules! Whenever an informed customer knows about this, they get mad when I tell them I wont make a mouse with level 6 module in it.


• Plan also reads like it is in a very infant stage in development and fear it will be probably feb or march of next year (guaging by the promissed BE plans) that this will all come to exist.

                          .=+.             ------------------
                  \`--._,'.::.`._.--'/   _/ May the CU       \
Acktu - Sunrunner   .  ` __::__ '  .   _/ \ be with you      /
Beta 3, JTL,          -:.`'..`'.:-         ------------------
ROTW & TOW Beta tester  \ `--' /
                          `--'

I'm just... disgusted with the whole thing. Talk is cheap so they've bought alot it looks like. I won't rant and rave about the concerns. They've all been expressed. We're tired of begging for things to be fixed. Tired of begging for some decent combat droids. Tired of hoping that maybe, one day, we'll log in and see a great DE update that WORKS. It doesn't inspire much faith.

Everything about this "plan" concerns me. Everything.

* MAJOR concern here.....

Do not base the droid combat system on placing combat modules in existing droid types!!!

I'm sorry but R2 units with a "short range blaster" mod is NOT a good idea. That isn't what R2s are supposed to do.

Make only droids that can normally ATTACK accept these mods.

I mean I know everyone thought it was cool but EXPLODING MSEs? Cute and funny, yes...but Star Warsy? NO. Mse's aren't bombs. If they were that one in the death star wouldn't have run from Chewy.

please do not generalize everthing in our proffesion and make combat mods the "quick fix"

Here's one of your customers talking. I've bought hundreds of thousands of credits in droids, and I have to say this "plan" leaves me little hope.

exploding MSEs... not only a stupid idea, but incredibly griefable

combat modules in non-combat droids... no way! dumb idea! I want to buy droids for specific functions. I want a repair droid (that works) to repair things. I want an R2 with a crafting station. I want a probot to fight with. I want a binary load lifter that carries things. I DONT want an MSE complete with medical module and CDEF carbine.

Only droid engineers can take out more than one droid? Why? Is there some unknown exploit I'd be committing if I, a non DE, were to take out my own repair droids to fix my probot??? Am I taking cash out of the DEs pockets if I call my power droid to charge my own crafting R2? I want to be able to call 2 droids! not to have a mini droid army, but so they could be useful! And If I feel like having and R2 and a 3PO following me around, why not?!?!

Another concern is that this so called plan does not mention fixing droids that have been broken since beta! Binary load lifter can't have any modules installed, much less carry anything for you. Talking droids don't talk. 3PO droid is completely broke, repair droids don't repair and can't be renamed.

Your priority SHOULD have been

1. fix the broken droids and modules and bugs. (droids broken and bugged since beta are a disgrace)

2. make droids more specialized. Droids should have a purpose for which they are designed.

3. add more types of combat droids, NOT add combat modules to existing models.

4. flog the person who suggested exploding MSE droids.

No offense, but I find that seriously alarming. If you are unable or unwilling to read through "30+ posts" to divine the community's reaction to such an anticipated announcement, I'm forced to wonder how much else of what the community's saying that you're overlooking. Personally I'd be disappointed if I knew our correspondant was reading anything less than everything everyone said every day about the profession. Otherwise, perfectly good opinions and ideas would fall through the cracks.

Mind you, I'm not the type to greet this kind of news with negativity. However, I'm sorely disappointed, so on to the issues:

This doesn't smell, taste, feel, look or sound any different than anything else development has said to us in the past about DE. It feels like pacification and patronization. I'd expect less wiggle room, fence riding and vagueness from a candidate for President.

First development said we were getting whole bunches of new combat droids. Now we're getting combat modules for our existing droids? "The most obvious question is: 'How can I trust you?'".

Everything we build is puny. The 820 HAM Advanced Probot is our toughest droid that accepts modules, and it really doesn't do all that well. And forget loading one of those modules into an astromech or Protocol; you'd have an instant scrap pile of a droid. If you're going to make us a combat class, don't make us max out with a CDEF Droid.

Dang it, I know a lot of people talk about having multiple droids out, but how on any planet did this make it to their #2 priority? In all seriousness, I fail to see how this in any way benefits a DE. Give me 1 Advanced R3 with a full load of crafting modules over 3 with 1 working module apiece any day...

I see absolutely zero line items addressing existing problems here. Debugging what already exists should be on there somewhere. Looking at this, I see no new function for the BLL, no fixes to multiple crafting stations, no adjustments of ridiculous battery and power requirements. I see no "marching down Gorantoth's list" at all!

Didn't you promise me a droid repair tool for healing white bars for this patch? And now you're telling me you're going to make repair droids work "better"? Again, "The most obvious question is: 'How can I trust you?'".

Medics are going to (and in fact already are) going to give birth to large bovine animals at even the slightest mention of being replaced or augmented by a droid. As early on as possible, someone needs to calm their nerves by letting them know the droid medical functions will require Medic consumables to work.

I'm not totally negative on the ideas; some are good (like power droids, the MSE "bomb", etc). I just feel a lot of better ones have been floated here. And forgive me if I'm not totally optimistic that the implementation will go well.