Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: DROIDEKA
What is the difference in logic between giving DEs a droid which only they can control and giving DEs the ability to control more droids than other players? Neither of these really follows the logic of autonomous droids.
As for the fact that the super droids cannot be sold, that is part of the reason for the other two classes of droids. They would allow for increased sales of more useful combat droids to players.
Basically, it boils down to personal preference. I feel that everyone should be able to experience droids, no matter the model. However, only a master would be able to use the droids to their full extent. Consider the following: a non-DE has a droideka --vs.-- A DE has a droideka, a (functional)repair droid and a (functional)surgical droid out. The DE gains a distinct advantage--His droideka is more powerful (since it can be repaired during the fight)and the DE can be healed (if surgical droids actually worked).
I like the idea of a master DE being able to combine the strenghts of individual droids, instead of having an uber droid that noone else can use. This way, everyone can experience all droids, and DE's gain a distinctive advantage.
thanks for the discussion, icarus. Work is quiet on the nightshift, and im bored outta my skull.
Ok. I'm not a DE, yet I have plenty of rl computer experience. for all of you DE's that want DE only droids, that's ubsurd to think that once you have it programmed that only you can use it, come on vcr's even come with a manual. I say if you wanted to be a combat type you should drop DE or add some combat skills to you're proffessions. Now I know that I am probably going to get flamed over this but this is my opinion.
Macross Starchaser, Blademaster
Rakor wrote:
Now take those same 100 people and give them a VCR and ask them to program it. Enough said.
Really bad example. Horribly bad example. Not even close.
Or are you saying that your droids are as crappily designed as today's VCRs?
Give those 100 random people a TiVo or something at least as modern. 99% of them will be able to program it just fine right out of the box. (The other 1% are competing for the Darwin Awards.) Droids are AT LEAST that easy to use, if not easier, than a TiVo. They're borderline self aware, after all, so they BETTER be easy to use.
Droid Engineers are only better at creating droids, not at using them.
Kollos wrote:
Droids are AT LEAST that easy to use, if not easier, than a TiVo. They're borderline self aware, after all, so they BETTER be easy to use.
Droid Engineers are only better at creating droids, not at using them.
Hmm.. well, the Millenium Falcom wasn't necessarily a piece of junk, but it took a Wookie and a Human with intimate knowledge of it to keep it running under fire.
Your TiVo doesn't take a lot of hits from blaster fire, does it? Keeping a very complex piece of combat-ready hardware isn't going to be as easy as using a remote control. The simpler models will be simple "point-click" easy. But something with a shield generator, high-speed blasters, and transformer capabilities, made in the same universe where Han had to smack the Falcon occassionally to make it go into hyperspace isn't necessarily going to be so simple to use.
Yeevle wrote:
One trouble with IG though is what is in the databank:
The last surviving unit, IG-88A (smuggler Dash Rendar had reportedly destroyed unit D on Ord Mantell) continued his plans for conquest. Having crafted a duplicate battle station computer core carrying his sentience, IG-88 arranged for it to be installed aboard the second Death Star. IG-88 became the second Death Star. The megalomaniacal droid was set to activate his countless mechanical co-conspirators scattered throughout the galaxy when the battle station was destroyed at the Battle of Endor. Little did Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles realized that when they destroyed the Death Star, they saved the galaxy not only from the Empire, but from IG-88 as well.
Though IG-88's reign of terror was brought to an end, at least one lifeless shell remained -- the original body of IG-88A. An unknown party has reprogrammed it for bodyguard duty, and it has been seen protecting individuals such as Barpotamus Drebble and Tyko Thul.
IG-88 is a tall, spindly humanoid droid completely loaded with all manner of concealed weaponry, including a deadly gas dispenser, a flamethrower, a sonic stunner, a pulse cannon and a neural inhibitor projectile launcher.
So I guess that one is out.
Why? First off, Dash Rendar's encounter with IG-88, if we consider "Shadows Of the Empire" to be canon, was after the battle of Hoth, which hasn't happened yet. Secondly, look at Speeder bikes vs. Swoops. Not exactly canon there. Third, Luke Skywalker wasn't limited to only 1 droid out at a time.. so SOE has shown that canon doesn't really mean that much. How many Jedi are running around in game right now?
Personally,
GRRR, this stupid board needs an edit option!!
As I was saying.. 
Personally, I don't care if DE's get a "DE Only" Droid or not, but I DO think DE's should have the ability to use any droid we can make. If the idea of "certs" being put in for using droids gets used, I'd think that DE's should be certed to use any droid they can craft. That's just my opinion though.
Philomorph wrote:
Hmm.. well, the Millenium Falcom wasn't necessarily a piece of junk, but it took a Wookie and a Human with intimate knowledge of it to keep it running under fire.
The Millenium Falcon was hardly a standard-issue spacecraft, either. Han and Chewbacca had modified that poor bird so often that the original designers probably wouldn't have recognized it. Furthermore, an entire spacecraft is considerably more complex than just a single droid, so it makes sense that it would take 2 people to control it during stressful situations.
If you want to do a special droid that only works half the time unless the DE bangs on it to make it work, then sure. But if you want a droid that is easy to use (read: works all the time) and powerful, then it should be usable by anyone. That's why droid exist in the SWG universe - they are easy to use and can do things that most people don't want to do.
Give those 100 random people a TiVo or something at least as modern. 99% of them will be able to program it just fine right out of the box. (The other 1% are competing for the Darwin Awards.)
You are deeply, gravely, tragically overestimating the capabilities of the average human being.
Kitsunetsuki wrote:
Give those 100 random people a TiVo or something at least as modern. 99% of them will be able to program it just fine right out of the box. (The other 1% are competing for the Darwin Awards.)
You are deeply, gravely, tragically overestimating the capabilities of the average human being.
Yeah, you have a point. 
Allow me to rephrase:
The people who will fail to successfully program a TiVo are the same people who will not be able to fire the gun you hand them because of the safety. Or they will manage to shoot themselves while trying to figure out how to turn the safety off.
The point remains - by design, a Droid is easy to use. It doesn't require any special knowledge to use one, and that is BECAUSE it requires special knowledge (i.e. a Droid Engineer) to CREATE one.
VCR Analogy: This is actually a very good analogy, and I say so even though I'm generally wary of DE-only droids. A gunsmith can make very good weapons, but doesn't develop any expertise in their use without the same practice everyone else needs. But a guy who designs a VCR will inevitably know how to operate it. It's a mental task, not a physical one like aiming a weapon or driving a vehicle, and the act of designing and implementing the interface imparts all the training necessary to use it. As a software engineer, I know how to use the software I write, and it is certainly possible (though undesirable) for me to design an interface so obtuse that only I could be reasonably expected to use it.
On the other hand, I'd counter that with the idea that, while the DE who built a droid would certainly know all the commands it is capable of accepting, that does not necessarily impart the skill to make most effective use of the droid. A military droid can be given the ability to follow all sorts of military orders, but a droid engineer is unlikely to have the strategic capacity to know which commands to use under what circumstances. Likewise, a Droid Engineer would certainly know that he can tell a surgical droid, "suture that opening," but it is unlikely in the extreme that this would result in effective medical treatment.