Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: SWG Correspondent Summit
SantiClaws wrote:
apart from all the above mentioned...I'd like to try askill in de-assembly of droids for parts (broken droids anyone?).
Broken Droids? If only......
I for one am sick to death of seeing med Droids that I made a whole YEAR ago still being used by Docs for buffs at 14k a shot...and yes I know this should be in the Droid Decay discussion..but still. I dont think de-assembly is possible (I think this was discussed long ago and it not technically do-able..though I wish it was)
As for looted components and schematics..what a lovely debate that was above *grins* --- so civilized, my how this board has changed over the last few months 
Anyhow my tuppence on the subject of loot is that on the one hand I am all for it in principle..the problem is what it has always been..the cost of purchasing those items from the combat classes. On my servers at least the costs are WAYYYY out of reach of the average DE for anything worth having..the AV21 being a fine example. I don't want DE to go down that route ..I really don't.
Some sort of reasonable balance has to be struck on the issue..it should be VERY hard to get these lootable items, but not so hard that its impossible for a crafter to achieve without being followed around by a pack of fully buffed Commandos. Should it be in Crafter Quests? maybe..but only if they are very very difficult. I have no issue about having to play co-operatively..maybe with 2 or 3 others to get these items..but as things now stand you need to get a full group of 20 to even stand a realistic chance of putting your sticky crafting fingers on an AV21 powerplant..thats not really fun now is it?
So there's another tuppence. I'm so glad TK fancies us ladies from across the pond 
*waves at TK, /blowkiss hun
Message Edited by Daker-Naritus on 08-02-2004 10:33 AM
Droids getting the option to repaire houses and harvesters over time, instead of pumping money, pumping resources
In dealing with Dev teams on MMO projects, I have found these very useful.
Zorkk wrote:
Thanks TK
Straker, forgive me if i'm wrong, I have only been playing the game for about 3 weeks now, so still learning a LOT of stuff
1. the DH class is uber, and everyone wants to play it, suddently all the merchants and money maker players are thinking geeze, we should get into the DE business to make some more money. DE profits now go down the drain, because everyone and their dog is making droids for the DH class. Of course... after a couple months of this, from what I can tell, SOE would nerf the class, so no one will wanna play it anymore.
or
2. The DH class is horribly underpowered, and no one plays it, so we're really just in the same boat we've always been, except now we can't even use the advr3 4500 ham droids because their "pet" rating is higher than we can handle. Everyone who was ever a DE switches, so that even if someone did wanna play a DH, there isn't a droid in the galaxy to be bought.
I admit my scenarios are probably a bit extreme, but I needed to make the piont that if you have 2 classes so closely intertwined, that the possibilities of ruining both of these professions are many.
I guess we just need to wait for this so called 'design document'. I have an open mind, and am willing to look at things from all angles, but unless the DEV's have put a major amount of time and thought into how it will work, I just see it being a big failure.... and I'm usually an optimist.
oh.. 1 last thing... as i understand it BE's and MBH's can make a pet out of ANY creature in the game? (or at least 90% of them), yet we only have what? 10 possible droids? (i'm just talking looks the r3 looks just like the adv r3, etc)..... things that make you go hmmmmm...
Thanks for listening
Z
**Droid Commander
Zork,
Ask the devs to create new combat droids for us (whatever CL higher than 10) and fight for players. Now we know the Devs don't want to make us rely too much on these droids, else the game won't be 'group-ish' so why not make it such that they can't call the droids unless there are a certain # of players? And limit the # of such droids per group.
Decay issues ... I think there should be some sort of decay involved for all droids so that the DEs can earn some small side revenue. Or maybe a DE only decay repairing droid that DEs can whip out in their homes or in the field?
Power - ups for droids, craftable only for DEs?
I don't know if this has been suggested before but what this idea does is take advantage of our present combat droids and players can then 'use' a droid powerup on these droids and WHAM! they can fight like a CL 25 creature for a limited time. Of course Decay rate increases when using these droid powerups. And of course more schematics for DEs to learn. Then again, maybe these powerups can be lootable... ah the cycle continues... Roleplaying - I always wondered why the droid personalities were not tied in together with player moods. I don't have any real or definite thoughts, just springing the idea and see where the community can take it.
= DE Vision =
I always envisioned the Droid Engineer to be the 'tweakers' in SWG. Their creations spring from whatever the DEs can get their hands on... new modules, spare components, salvaged parts... they like to fiddle in the garage or backroom. And I envision that the droid modules take on a sort of 'LEGO' interconnect system. Well I don't know if the Devs would allow the droid chasis to have the same level of 'LEGO' interconnect system, but we can always wish
< i know, i know... the above paragraph should be in the DE vision thread. you can all run me over with your MSE droids later >Would also like to see droids in the homes, in player cities (welcoming visitors and giving new comers a tour guide sort of feel). BHs can use assain droids to take out their marks from afar, CMs use their droids to drag back the wounded from the field and assist in field hospitals, rangers to use their droids to track beasts / herds, players can have general droids as a companion who will assist them in stuff like clicking keypads remotely while his Jedi owner delay attackers etc. Helper droids who warn users if their homes / factories / properties need maintenance, storage droids who are slow but contain lots of storage for the travelling salesman... make droids be companions and helpers in SWG.
Let us DEs make droids that players get attached to, like we got attached to R2D2 and C3PO in the movies. The only way to do that is make the droids 'useful' to the player. (ok enuf of my ranting, let loose the MSEs!).
Also, I would really like if DE's can have more the 5 droids in the datapad at once...not being able to display a droid before selling it is a bummer....
My 2 credits
DaiTengu wrote:
I don't know why anyone hasn't mentioned it, perhaps it's just tied into the DH profession (Which I'm not really thrilled with) , or I just skimmed over too many posts and didn't notice it,but the ability to have more than 1 droid active at a time would be great. I'd love to be able to let my barker droid go in a city, and then run a few missions with my R3 Combat droid.
I hear ya DiaTengu. I have a Power Droid that hardly ever comes out because it is not useful for anything except for powering up other players' droids. And usually I have my probe droid out anyway, so I keep plugging batteries into that, even though I have a perfectly good power droid that can't come out because I already havea droidout. Totally obnoxious.
And here is a really good oxymoron: R3 Combat Droids. I always have to laugh that the best combat droid in the galaxy is an Astromech droid. (And yes, I am really trying hard not to get in to the whole DC-DE thing. I will leave that rant for another thread.)
Anyway, there is no reason that we or anyone else can have out more than one droid, except that the Devs don't want to throw off the "combat balance" because they feat that we might actually have an advatange over something by having two combat droids out at a time. I just hope that in JTL at least that a Doctor can be in his ship and still be able to pull out his medical droid to heal people, even though he has to use an astromech droid to use with the ship. Something to think about I guess.
zarko669 wrote:
You say that a DE should be able to use any droid he crafts? Should a weaponsmith be able to use any weapon he crafts? A DE is first and foremost a crafter, and I hope it stays that way.
Sorry, Zarko I have to disagree. Weapons are not autonomous 'free thinking' objects. With a weapon you have to understand how to use it. With a droid, you tell it what to do and it either does it, because it is built and programmed to it, ordoesn't, because it is not.
And actually, this kind of goes along with the whole Creature Handler argument. Droids are built for a specific purpose or a very small number of set specific purposes. Creatures can be trained to accomplish set specific purposes, but there has to be some 'trust' between the CH and the creature for the creature to actuallylearn it. This is sort of visable during the training process of the creature. It might take 2 or 3 tries to teach it, or even more depending on the creature. Droids don't require any type of bonding between it and its owner.When you train a droid it gets it the first time.
Even though a creature may havebeen'constructed' by a BE, it is still a free thinking entity that needs sombody to control it and keep it under control.If left on its own, it can survive on its own (or at least try). Droidshave to havesombodyto tell it what to do and take care of it. If a droid was leftalone, it would eventually run out of power. It can not take care of itself.
The point of a droid is to be able perform tasks that its owner either has no desire to do, or has not the skills to perfom. A weapon is just an extension of its owner. Their operations are two different philosophies.