Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: A Droid Cert System That Works
Ok, I play a DE but I also play a Creature Handler. So I can see both sides of the story.
The problem with giving certs for combat droids is after the Creature Handler nerf it's not fair for the guy who just spent all of his time getting 0-0-1-4 in CH so he can control a level 26 pet to have the Devs give <insert elite profession> a level 26 pet for free. And CH is a grind now. Maybe not as bad as Bounty Hunter or some of the other elite professions, but it is a grind.
DEs have sucked for a long time now, but giving away free combat power to one class when the other has to spend a week - 2 weeks (assuming they're not a powergamer) grinding through xp just to get the same type of power isn't fair and very unbalanced.
The whole combat droid thing is very messy.
That's why I'd rather see more utility droids, myself. Hell, Combat Droids were supposed to be illegal in this time period, anyway.
Thunderheart wrote:
If you give players the option to have powerful combat droids, most players will take them becausemost players want to have an advantage in combat.
The easiest solution is to allow the droids to be profession specific... i.e. a master artisan could have a surveyor (the treadwell could fit this nicely) droid, all brawler based professions could have a ranged combat droid similar to the probot, while marksman professions could have melee combat droids (these droids would still fire weapons, but in order to hit the target must be in melee range, short range droids?)... etc... but limit it to the masters of the professions, etc... A system like that could work, however it would also need to allow access to different droids based on which beginner prof's are MASTERED! That will help prevent people from stacking their droids, etc... Or maybe for a real brain twister only give the NON combat professions the ability to use the higher level combat droids... that would go over reaaaaaaal well... 
Thunderheart wrote:
If you give players the option to have powerful combat droids, most players will take them becausemost players want to have an advantage in combat.
When the majority of players aquire these droids (because they will - - most everyone wants to do better in combat),all player ability will rise, which means the entire creature and NPC system has to be dramtically increased to account for all of the extra player power.
Thunderheart wrote:
Lodacai wrote:
Droid Certs will work, and here is how ...
Combat Droids:
Assume there are 4 levels of Combat Droids... Light, Medium, Heavy and Jugernaut.
For every existing Elite Profession, place the Certs for each Combat Droid type in the existing skill tree.
However, the Cert is NOT automatic. When you complete a skillbox that includes a Combat Droid Cert, it provides the OPTION to gain the Cert. If you excersize that option, it costs skill points. You can't excersize an option for a higher level Combat Droid unless you've exercised the options for the lower level ones first.
Its a really well presented proposal, but it doesnt address basic player behaviors and the overall combat balance.
If you give players the option to have powerful combat droids, most players will take them becausemost players want to have an advantage in combat.
When the majority of players aquire these droids (because they will - - most everyone wants to do better in combat),all player ability will rise, which means the entire creature and NPC system has to be dramtically increased to account for all of the extra player power.
What would ensue is a month or two of all players walking through all missions and mobs with little or no resistance (because of the advantage and making the game world a "battle bots" place) followed by a big nerf (which we know everyone loves) and then we are back to having what should be powerful combat droids nerfed into submission orthe game would have to be completely re-balanced withhigher MOB combat numbers, which makes the game world extremely hostile.
Whenever you consider adding this much power to a game world, you have to consider how the whole environment will be effected.
If it is going to be that powerful how is giving that much power to one profession "Droid Handler" a better option? It will be the same as the Creature Handler class in the early stages of the game. It will have to be Restructured and Nerfed as well. Unless you structure it just like Creature Handler is now.
I think the current Creature Handler is fine (because you do not see 100 Grauls running arround any more) and if that is the way the Droid Handler profession is going to be done as well that might be fine. But that will not help the Droid Engineers. They will have a very small % of the population that will be able to use there product and will drop even more after the newness wears off. The samething that happened to all the wannabe Creature Handlers, one minute there are 1000's of them, the next there are a select few who really like the profession.
Combat Droids need to be treated like weapons not like pets, woven into the existing Combat professions for all to use or not at all. If not at all make the Support Droids everyone really wants, Medical, Survey, Slicing, ect....... Most people I have seen do not really care if we have Combat Droidsor not. They want support droids, not droids that will do all our combat while we sit in a camp drinking Jawa Beer.
Thunderheart wrote:
Lodacai wrote:
Droid Certs will work, and here is how ...
Combat Droids:
Assume there are 4 levels of Combat Droids... Light, Medium, Heavy and Jugernaut.
For every existing Elite Profession, place the Certs for each Combat Droid type in the existing skill tree.
However, the Cert is NOT automatic. When you complete a skillbox that includes a Combat Droid Cert, it provides the OPTION to gain the Cert. If you excersize that option, it costs skill points. You can't excersize an option for a higher level Combat Droid unless you've exercised the options for the lower level ones first.
Its a really well presented proposal, but it doesnt address basic player behaviors and the overall combat balance.
If you give players the option to have powerful combat droids, most players will take them becausemost players want to have an advantage in combat.
When the majority of players aquire these droids (because they will - - most everyone wants to do better in combat),all player ability will rise, which means the entire creature and NPC system has to be dramtically increased to account for all of the extra player power.
What would ensue is a month or two of all players walking through all missions and mobs with little or no resistance (because of the advantage and making the game world a "battle bots" place) followed by a big nerf (which we know everyone loves) and then we are back to having what should be powerful combat droids nerfed into submission orthe game would have to be completely re-balanced withhigher MOB combat numbers, which makes the game world extremely hostile.
Whenever you consider adding this much power to a game world, you have to consider how the whole environment will be effected.
Okay, the cert levels are only available to non-combat elite professions - next?
Thunderheart wrote:
Lodacai wrote:
Droid Certs will work, and here is how ...
Combat Droids:
Assume there are 4 levels of Combat Droids... Light, Medium, Heavy and Jugernaut.
For every existing Elite Profession, place the Certs for each Combat Droid type in the existing skill tree.
However, the Cert is NOT automatic. When you complete a skillbox that includes a Combat Droid Cert, it provides the OPTION to gain the Cert. If you excersize that option, it costs skill points. You can't excersize an option for a higher level Combat Droid unless you've exercised the options for the lower level ones first.
Its a really well presented proposal, but it doesnt address basic player behaviors and the overall combat balance.
If you give players the option to have powerful combat droids, most players will take them becausemost players want to have an advantage in combat.
When the majority of players aquire these droids (because they will - - most everyone wants to do better in combat),all player ability will rise, which means the entire creature and NPC system has to be dramtically increased to account for all of the extra player power.
What would ensue is a month or two of all players walking through all missions and mobs with little or no resistance (because of the advantage and making the game world a "battle bots" place) followed by a big nerf (which we know everyone loves) and then we are back to having what should be powerful combat droids nerfed into submission orthe game would have to be completely re-balanced withhigher MOB combat numbers, which makes the game world extremely hostile.
Whenever you consider adding this much power to a game world, you have to consider how the whole environment will be effected.
Could you use this idea in conjuction with preventing specials from being used while the droid is action? Or...better yet allow you to command the droid to do special attacks. Tell him to use an attack and hold. After his attack is completed you could either start using your specials again or give the droid more commands. This would make balancing much easier because you'd basically be balancing the base attacks of weapons.
Just a thought.