Droid Engineer Archive

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noobskillz wrote:

Can somone please either explain to me in detailor let me know where I can learn more about number 7 from the list above? I simply do not understand the whole droid commander profession and why it's needed and why this prevents us from making better combat droids?

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Here, I will do my best to help you understand.

Ok, lets say that we added Super Battle Droids that were about 3 times as strong as our current Combat Droids. Would we sell a ton of them? Heck yes.

The problem is that this would make many quests, monsters, and content a lot easier. Meaning that a person with such droid would do far better then somebody without them. So that when new content was added, it would be based upon the assumption that people would be using such droids. Since anybody could uses such droids, you would be increasing the combat potential of each person by a large margin.

Yet many people don't like to handle pets, or maybe they can't afford such a droid. Since content would be harder, they would be at a disadvantage, even with current content, they would kill slower.

Then there is the fact that Creature Handlers pay skill credits for more powerfull pets, but we would be giving equvilent pets to everybody for free.

Now maybe you feel that higher level Combat Droid should be added to the DE profession. The problem is that DE is a crafting profession, like all the otrher crafting professions. None of them get any advanced or extra usage of their product. CH's need to get their "good" pets from BE's, they are not a crafting profession.

So if better Combat Droids are added, for game balance sakes, they need to be added in a profession that pays the points to use them.

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Jenden wrote:
Ok, took me a bit longer than expected, but here's the results from the Top 5 issues poll I did last week. I combined some of the categories that made sense, listed in order of popularity.

1. Repeat Business: As it stands currently, all non-combat droids will last you forever without even so much as a tuneup from time to time. The favored way to increase repeat business is through a decay system, though some people have expressed they would rather have another system in place of decay (no proposals on another possible system are available at this time though).




2. Bug Fixing: There are many bugs with respect to droids and droid engineering that need to be fixed. A good list of them can be found here.




3. Droid Naming: This is a conglomeration of those who want to be able to give their droids a starwarsy name (something with numbers in it specifically) and those who want droids with personality to be nameable. I believe that the whole droid naming system needs a revamp (for example, there should be a "name" command on them that names them in one shot, they're not creatures that need to learn through repetition). Seperating creature naming from droid naming should make it easier to allow for numbers in their names, as well as allowing the droids with personality to be named.




4. Inherent Function: I merged together the people just looking for chassis specific bonuses as well as the ones asking for a specific chassis bonus (primarily the BLL's storing extra items). By employing a system of inherent functions in droids, we assure that there will be a wider variety of droids seen used, and add a little bit more "flavor" to the DE profession. We currently have a few droids with inherent functionality (MSE droid gets an additional +10 per detonation module, DZ70 and Probot's have built in combat capabilities, and Power droids can Recharge other droids) but we would like to see this expanded so all (or at least most) droids have specific functions for which they are well suited.




5. Droid Personality/AI: Droids in the Star Wars universe have always been so alive, yet in SWG droids are very dry. Most just follow you around, and those that do talk do so very rarely and only have a couple of phrases that are used over and over. It would be very nice to see droids react to their environment in an intelligent way (whether that be a talking droid making some comment about the weather or an R2 beeping and whisteling about aproaching hostile targets).




6. Droid Need/Usefulness: This is a conglomeration of requests for new modules and requests that droids be made integral for most if not all professions. The role of droids currently is mostly as extra tools, things that may give a minor bonus to some existing skill or add some convenience. Ideally there would be some skills/abilities in game that required droids to be completed in a reasonable manner. If you look at the current crafting professions that do the most business, you'll notice that they are all required or all but required for various professions. Architects are required by crafters for their harvesters, Weaponsmiths are required by combatants for their weapons, and armorsmiths and chefs are required by combatants to be competative/successful. Droids, on the other hand, are a convenience and possibly a small bonus, but never really a necessity.




7. Combat Droids: Since the release of Episodes 1 and 2, combat droids have been an integral part of the Star Wars universe, however they are only present in the game as opponents. All other major icons of Star Wars (Jedi, smugglers, BHs, pilots) are available to players, and now many want droids. "Can you make me a Droideka" has always been a common question in this profession, and many DE's would like to be able to answer yes. This issue has been discussed in the past and it was determined that a droid commander/droid handler profession was the only way to get strong combat droids into the game. If nothing else the idea of higher end combat droids will have to wait until after the combat upgrade, at which point things can be reevaluated from a better perspective.




8. Droid Stats: The current droid and droid module stats are readable only by DE's for the most part. Anyone else has a very hard time deciphering the ratings and values listed on deeds and modules. The UI needs to be revamped so that it displays all of the droids stats in an easily readable format that lists damages/speed, HAM, armor, and any skills that are required to use parts of the droid.




9. More Droids for Master DE: This is a combination of people wanting either more droids stored in the datapad or more droids called at one time for master DE's. We were told back during the creature revamp that the ability for DE's to control 2 droids at one time was a definate possibility down the road. The ability to store multiple droids would be quite useful to a DE so that they can have one of each type of droid to show off to the customers. DE's currently have 13 different droid models they can make, each one looking different. Most customers only know what the R2 and protocol droids look like and would like a demonstration of some of the other droids. Yes, we can have a house with all of them on display, but that isn't very convenient for someone out in the middle of theed talking to a customer. The ability to call more than one droid would make some of our existing droids much more useful. A DE could finally use their own repair/power droids to repair/power their own droids.




10. New Chassis: All other crafting professions in the game have recieved new primary items (guns, armor, clothing, structures, even creatures) except DE's. We are still stuck with all of the same droid chassis that were available to us at launch. Even if the chassis did not add any kind of new function to the game, new artwork would be much appreciated.

I will be comming up with some focus threads based off of this list, starting from the top and working my way down, so be on the lookout for those.

Message Edited by Jenden on 02-15-2005 08:32 AM

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05577 wrote:

I suppose I woudn't mind the Droid Commander profession if it didn't use Skill points (like the Pilot professions or Politician)

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lindalu wrote:

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05577 wrote:

I suppose I woudn't mind the Droid Commander profession if it didn't use Skill points (like the Pilot professions or Politician)

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the reason behind the droid commander profession to use skill points is that it will be the equivalent of the creature handler for droids. creature handlers have to spend skill points to be able to get thier top of the line pets. having the droid commander not take skill points will unbalance the game as every combat junkie will be taking droid commander just to get the best combat droids and will have the advantage over someone that didn't.

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Jenden wrote:

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lindalu wrote:

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05577 wrote:

I suppose I woudn't mind the Droid Commander profession if it didn't use Skill points (like the Pilot professions or Politician)

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the reason behind the droid commander profession to use skill points is that it will be the equivalent of the creature handler for droids. creature handlers have to spend skill points to be able to get thier top of the line pets. having the droid commander not take skill points will unbalance the game as every combat junkie will be taking droid commander just to get the best combat droids and will have the advantage over someone that didn't.

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Exactly

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05577 wrote:

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Jenden wrote:

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lindalu wrote:

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05577 wrote:

I suppose I woudn't mind the Droid Commander profession if it didn't use Skill points (like the Pilot professions or Politician)

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the reason behind the droid commander profession to use skill points is that it will be the equivalent of the creature handler for droids. creature handlers have to spend skill points to be able to get thier top of the line pets. having the droid commander not take skill points will unbalance the game as every combat junkie will be taking droid commander just to get the best combat droids and will have the advantage over someone that didn't.

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Exactly

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Actually, if it just takes XP like the Pilot or Politician professions, then more people will have it and not just the combat junkies. And besides which unbalance are you talking about, the PvP unbalance or the PvE unbalance. Yes, Creature Handlers have to spend SP to be able to get the skills to use multiple creatures and to use creatures that are more destructive, however having DE be just the crafting and DC be for handling is a bad way to go as well, mostly because then to takes twice the SP to obtain what a CH can do. Creature Handlers have taming as part of thier skill set so they can always "create" another creature for them to use, so the BE-CH argument really is a different issue than the DE-DC issue (and I seroiusly doubt that a DC will be able to train those unowned droids that run around the cities).

The point is that using the balancing excuse really doesn't cut it anymore, especially with the CURB happening. I would hope that the issue of combat droids is being at least considered as part of this, although I would think it should be included in it.

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Jenden wrote:

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05577 wrote:

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Jenden wrote:

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lindalu wrote:

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05577 wrote:

I suppose I woudn't mind the Droid Commander profession if it didn't use Skill points (like the Pilot professions or Politician)

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the reason behind the droid commander profession to use skill points is that it will be the equivalent of the creature handler for droids. creature handlers have to spend skill points to be able to get thier top of the line pets. having the droid commander not take skill points will unbalance the game as every combat junkie will be taking droid commander just to get the best combat droids and will have the advantage over someone that didn't.

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Exactly

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Actually, if it just takes XP like the Pilot or Politician professions, then more people will have it and not just the combat junkies. And besides which unbalance are you talking about, the PvP unbalance or the PvE unbalance. Yes, Creature Handlers have to spend SP to be able to get the skills to use multiple creatures and to use creatures that are more destructive, however having DE be just the crafting and DC be for handling is a bad way to go as well, mostly because then to takes twice the SP to obtain what a CH can do. Creature Handlers have taming as part of thier skill set so they can always "create" another creature for them to use, so the BE-CH argument really is a different issue than the DE-DC issue (and I seroiusly doubt that a DC will be able to train those unowned droids that run around the cities).

The point is that using the balancing excuse really doesn't cut it anymore, especially with the CURB happening. I would hope that the issue of combat droids is being at least considered as part of this, although I would think it should be included in it.

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Show me a system where you can add high level combat droids that don't make combat too easy for a player and yet are not required for a player to live up to the full potential of his non pet-handling profession and we can talk. The issue is, if everyone can use these droids then the overall strength of the creatures/NPC's in the game must go up to compensate. However, now you've got joe pistoleer who wants to shoot pistols, not command droids, who has to use a droid just to be where he's supposed to be in terms of power.

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05577 wrote:

I guess what I am having a problem with is how is being grouped with a droidika going to screw up the balance any worse that being grouped with a AT-ST? Any Imperial player, given that he or she has the FP, can get one of these and use it in combat. I can't image that a droidika even with shields would have any stats higher than an AT-ST. Plus it is not like that having the droidika is going to be in addition to the AT-ST. Only Creature Handlers can have more than one pet out at a time, the rest of us have to choose what we want to use.

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