Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droid Engineer Issues Designer responses
Hardly the resonces I had hoped to see.
The first two almost seem to contradict eachother. They said that they will be adding more modules in the future, yet say nothing of what sort, or how long it will be. They also did not answer the primary concern, written clear as day. When will all the existing modules function properly?
When will droids be given unique functionality? If I read the responce correctly, it said that they did that in the recent update. Funny, I didnt see any patch note about this, nor have I noticed anything differant about my droids, such as... I dont know, a unique purpose?
Combat droids, "What kind of combat droids would you like to see?" Areyou kidding me? I want a pair of powerfulDroidekka rolling along behind me, just like the two in the very beginning of episode I, complete with sheild generators so that the droids are immune to ranged attacks. I want to have a squadof those battle droidsfrom episode I and II. (Emphasis on the word Squad) I want to see some huge Torton sizedawsome heavy assault droids similar to AT-ATs. And most importantly, as a pure crafter with no combat ability at all, I expect to be able to use all of these droids or groups of droids.
What kind of droids do we want to see?
Er... Do a search on it and you'll find TONS of suggestion threads about what we want to see...
I basically think that each droid NEEDS a UNIQUE function that people in game would acually want! Then the mods we can put in are like a bonus, icing on the cake kinda deal. But the unique functions have to be SO good that THEY alone would be a reason to by a certian droid. Its not hard to see what droids should do what...
And if its plausable, why not merge the Customization/Experimentation tier into one of the others and add a Combat Droid Blueprints line? There only needs to be one type of droid per box or something.
Anyway, my point is: Droids need unique abilities that seperate them from each other, and make them wanted by other players.
Ok, credit where credit was due--it was nice to get a response at least.
However, I would have to agree with most of my bretheren: the response was weak, vague, and non-tangible. Furthermore, as much as I hate to say it Q, they're right--the answers are all over these threads. Someone didn't do their research before responding.
On Combat Droids
I think everyone is in agreement about wanting droidekas. I think that not a day goes by where a request for this isn't made here in the forums or in world for that matter.
The DZ70 is completely useless as it is now. It cannot defeat the weakest piece of newbie lawn trash even if you helped it. And now with perma-death, it's even more usless (if you can be more usless past completely useless) than before.
The Probot is functional, but according to SW Ep. V, it was really intended for probing (hence it's name, I would imagine) with minor defensive capabilities and that's it. For people to use probots as their "attack" droid is functional, but is mismatched to the droid's on-screen original intent.
Clearly we need somethingbigger and better to compete with creature pets. A rogue bageraset fully grown exceeds a probot in every way (except for armor) and doesn't have permadeath. And people have better pets than that all over the place.
What would work here? Several solutions have already been made (some even in this very thread) so there is no need for me to reiterate again--I think they all have merit. Definitely higher-level battle droids need more HAM and more armor--especially if you are going to keep Perma-Death in place.
Droid Variation and Inherent Functionality
Silly me for thinking a surgical droid could heal or a repair droid could repair. These things should be inherent in the droids. Make them more expensive (resource-wise) to make if you like, but these kinds of droids should do what their movie counterparts could do. The surgical droid should heal people (maybe pets, maybe not, I could argue that one both ways myself) and the repair droid should repair droids (and eventually vehicles/docked ships). Even better, I think that if you insist on keeping repair ability in a module, make it so that module will only work in the repair droid. While it is easier for us to have the all-dancing, all-singing droid that has all the modules thanx to the cluster, if you are serious about the viability of each individual droids, then do something that makes them truly unique from the others (either inheritently or through a module). Don't let me stick my repair module in my MSE-6. Make me craft/buy a repair droid to do repairs.
Seems to me the Load Lifter should be a massive portable backpack. A 2-item-slot Item Storage module is, for all intents and purposes, useless. If someone is already out of storage space in their inventory and their travel pack, how much benefit will 2 units serve?5 units is the minimum of useful in my opinion.
The Protocol Droids were more than objects in the movies, however. They were plot and storyline. So what should one do in the game? I like the suggestion about using them to run errands or having them as scriptable for greeters in homes/shops, etc. Makes a really nice touch. After all, you have them as Ticket Collectors now...why can't we use them as vendors with a personality?
Probots doing surveying would be very nice, and something along the lines of what it did in the movie too. Even if it's slower than getting out there and doing it yourself,that wouldstill be of benefit.
Power droids: there's enough of these useless critters wandering in the towns already. Since I can do the same thing with droid batteries (I have yet to hear of anyone telling me how much better it is to use a power droid instead of droid batteries), and since power droids require a part from another profession (the Power Core Unit from the Architect, which they have not dropped their price on recently like we DEs have had to), we have little to no incentive to build these beasties. Other droids give more crafting XP and many require fewer resources.
On the customization front, I'm easy to please. Just let me color the little jobbies. Yeah, case mods would be nice and all, but I understand the expense of new artwork versus recolored artwork. Just let me color them. Though it would be nice to have a droid designer work something like an image designer does to players.
On Droid Repair and Perma-Death
Yeah, several people have already pointed out that there is a droid repair tool (on the WDG tool under Weapons are all the repair tools, none of which work all that well to begin with). This tool, however, is broken and does nothing.
How about this: instead of Perma-Death, can you make it so that a "dead" droid can be revived by a DE? Kind of like having to call your roadside service to get a car jump started--no one just throws the car away. They make a call (or have the car towed) to someone who can repair the "state". I am not sure I really like the Perma-Death thing at all (especially since pets don't have that same boundary), but if you want to do something to make it difficult for the droid to recover, then put DEs as the requirement to re-jumpstart your droid. Helps us out economy wise, too. Instead of having to charge for a whole new droid (or give one away for free as some have done), now we get paid for a service/house call. And we can charge significantly less than the customer would have to pay for a whole new droid.
On Modules
While I would love to see new powerups and modules for the droids, I think I would prefer to see the ones we already have work at all and/or properly/correctly. Again, maybe even distilled downwards as to which modules can work in which droids. But yeah, please take a stab at making all the things with our current ones right before you go out and create new. We'd really be happy if the ones we had worked as they are expected to when they are expected to.
On Experience
The amount of XP required to climb the skill trees in DE is excruciatingly high, but it is accomplishable. I think there was one artisan-based profession that had higher requirements, but I am not certain at the moment. In any case, any additional XP would be quite welcome. Not sure I have any feedback on "best way to do it", but anything would be an improvement.
On Experimentation
Yeah, I noticed this too. Almost every other profession that has a unique skill associated with it gets reasonable climbs in their areas (5pts, 10 pts, 15 points, on your way up to 50 or 80 or 100). With ours, even our best master DE cannot get a high-percentage start point. Even when I was a noob artisan, my 1 or 2 experimentation points came in handy on bofa treats or crispix. We need more points and we need this to work better than it does presently.
That's all I can add at the moment.
I dont really think there is much I can add here that others havent already said.
What I would like to add is along the lines of droid usefulness. Personally, I think protocol droids should be used to communicate with harvesters. C3P0 was purchased by Owen Lars in Ep IV in order to "speak the binary language of moisture vaporators." Some friends have suggested that a protocol droid be required to talk to harvesters, but if thats too hardcore for you, maybe a bonus to lessen upkeep fees and power requirements.
There should also be some kind of hacking/slicing component for R units. We see R2D2 hack everything from systems in the Death Star to Bespin to the Shield Generator on Endor and beyond.
Just my two cents. Thanks again for the reply.
DROIDEKAS DROIDEKAS DROIDEKAS
1. Obviously, more variety ofcombat droids. As to new, unique droids, there are lots of requests for droids that will help smugglers slice. Others asked for are droids for entertainers - like the medic droids, allowing people to entertain on the road (since only high-level camps allow BF healing), droids that function as LIMITED factories (like, runs of 5 or less, perhaps), and droids that can be taught pre-fab responses (like the protocol droid being able to store messages or information to be accessed by customers in a shop, for instance).
2. I think you may have misunderstood this. I think it was hot-swappable by us, not the user - which would bring us more repeat business. So far, even with permadeath, I have been hearing how people have become attached to their droids. For instance, if someone has a general crafting, for instance, and they progress up the tree to say armorsmith, they'd like to be able to take their favorite droid to us and have it "upgraded", for a fee.
3. Any word on how long in the future? Will it require us to be in proximity?
4. Droidekas, like everyone else is saying. Also, something along the lines of IG-88 would be nice. Basicly, I don't care what it looks like, as long as it's not as fragile as a china doll. I get at least a dozen people every day that ask me, "what's the toughest droid you can make?" and I have to send them to the local BE/CH, 'cause I just can't sell Probots in good concience anymore. While we are on the subject - any immediate plans to "fix" them again? Perhaps not to their pre-nerf state, but anything to keep them from being taken down in 45 seconds or less?
5. Aren't they already in game? I'm pretty sure - cause I have one, it just doesn't work. However, our question is outdated now - since perma-death is in, they don't have time to get wounds. Does this give us hope that we can "revive" droids? Otherwise, don't waste the programmers time - we won't need it. 
Audio
Actually, not everyone wants droidekas or better combat droids. Some of us want better service droids that are comparable to the movies. In terms of the SWG universe (at least during the movies), there were NOT many combat droids. Droidekas were not around at this time. Having the DE profession come down to basically making a combat droid is, in my mind, the 'simple' and less-thoughtful approach to the droid engineer position. If I wanted a big pet, I would have been a creature handler.
That being said, I would like to officially flame the developers on this. According to the Holocron help files and the profession description, droid engineers are supposed to be "critical" to the SWG environment. Unfortunately, they are not. The design decisions and implementations are almost indicative of someone (or a team) that has NOT watched the movies nor has any passion for the profession. There is nothing in this post that gives droid engineers any hope about the future nor is there anything that inspires me to continue paying $15.00 a month on a game that is clearly not become what was advertised.
I find image design more facinating than droid engineering. That should tell you something about the profession.
First thing, Permadeath really makes no sense. Flesh and bone creatures don't die, and robots do....
At least make it so the individual components of a droid should be lootable from a corpse, along with items stored in droid. For instance, a kreetle takes out my ADV DZ70 in one hit. I loot the corpse. Manipulator arm is there, Modules, etc, possibly damaged. Items in the storage unit are there. Even chassis is there. With a little resources and a droid engineer, i can have my old droid put back together.
Also, protocol droids, they sure are shiny. That's about it. I suggest you totally redo languages. Make it take like a half an hour to learn a language. 3% of the language learned for every minute, and if someone stops teaching you have still learned a little. If I have, say, 75% wookie comprehension, the chat should translate 3/4 of the words so I can kinda understand what they might be saying. That way, we can have protocol droids actually translate...
Pen Rosan
Droidekas, Battle Droids, Super Battledroids, Hailfire Droids, etc.
Whew! This is just the kind of response we were hoping for, and for me personally it gives me instilled hope. They avoided the "working as intended" crap, and gave is thoughtful responses.
A big hearty thank you fellas.
Q, here is a summary of all the non-combat droid ideas that I can remember this late at night that have been posted on various threads in this forum -
- Survey modules - short range survey for anyone to use
- Survey modules - droid could go hunt for resources
- Sample modules - droid could function as a mini-harvester
- Hopper runs - droid could go get your hopper materials (BLL?)
- Power for factories/hoppers (would require world persistant droids)
- Power generation - droid could dump power stored over time (a walking capacitor)
- Slicing modules to assist smugglers - could increase smuggler effectiveness
- Reduced effect slicing modules - useable by anyone, would be nowhere near as effective as a smuggler
- Juke Box module - could play music - possible dancer skill enhancer
- Light show module - could provide a light show for entertainers
- Mini-Factory droid - could operate as a factory, but at a much slower rate (another possible BLL use). Perhaps specialize these modules as doctor (stim pack) factory, cloth factory, etc.
This is all I can think of right now - it is late. I am sure that there were plenty of other ideas that were raised here that I am just forgetting now.
Wow a Dev post in the DE forum. Thanks Q 
Allot here have mentioned more attack droids. I agree. But we also need different type service droids. Ones that can go out and power, fix harvestors, and gather resources from the hopper.
Anything to make droids play more of a role in this game instead of them just being mobile crafting stations.
Please also consider removing permadeath from droids. This makes no sense having droids die.
Allow talking droids to talk more. Currently they say very little. More people would be interested in droids that do more talking.
If those are the top 5 then #1 should be permadeath.
-Cod
"Its easier to fix a car then put my arm back on." -Vinny on the creature/Driod permadeath debate