Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Poll: DE Question for TH's next 19 Answers thread (coming Wed. 06/30)
Ke_la
Fri Jun 25, 2004 2:29 pm
#40
I agree something about the prevoalnce of R3s now is probly something we CAN acually get a real answer on (if worded right) and is something I personaly beleave most DEs don't like cause I know I would like to see more of the Lower leavel Droids about. I mean the MSE was everywhere in the movies.
Gavvot
Fri Jun 25, 2004 4:33 pm
#41
Ke_la wrote:Um what your missing here is that Tk allready knows the answer to this question, because of how TH has answered other simalar Questions, for some reason the Devs are very big on "descovering for yourself" how to do even the "simplest" of tasks.
And you think I don't know the answer?
So far, I didn't saw any question on wich I don'tknow what they will answer.
And the discovering part, I would love to know why we are the only profession to have to discover everything.
Discover what crafting module was on a droid before they fix the bug that prevent it to be shown on the deed was fun for who?
The DE that has lost a customer?
The customer that will not buy another droid for long?
BE don't do pet that have ham, a combat rating and no info on armor.
Harvester do show the BER and capacity.
BE clothes do show their bonus in an uderstandable way.
Food had this problem, but now with the food revamp and the buff window, we don't have to find out that eating this does that and so on. It's written on the damn thing.
Armor do show the ham cost and effectiveness.
They even sow the number of sockets.
You don't have to find that out.
The discovery is part of the fun is a very old one. Didn't worked in other games, won't work here.
At least not for me.
Ke_la
Fri Jun 25, 2004 10:43 pm
#42
I guess you read until you found something you dodn't agree with then you stoped because if you had read the hole thing you would know I AGREE WITH YOU, the droids should have from the start shown what mod was in them, the droid SHOULD show more then the CR, I was only telling you what the Devs Faulty reasoning is when it comes to "descovory" being part of EVERYTHING, BTW it was not that long ago that the only way to "Descovor" whether or not you where Certified on a gun was to equip it or to check a huge unsorted list. Now there is a Cert Yes/No line. I believe though I could be worng that, I was not in Beta< but that feature was requested in Beta and it took til like Decmmber to add it.
I would like to see you list of "brocken" things in DE, they must truely be NOT fuctioning as intended. IF any of them are Profession breaking (like the Probot Nerf, or ANYONE having a Vendor without losing SP) then DE is broken, if not then while DE can Be VASTLY improved it is NOT brocken.
RancorBeastofFear
Sat Jun 26, 2004 12:45 am
#43
In Star Wars GalaxiesI was woundering if it is logical to have the droids be capable of launchinga singleweapon to its owner? some thing to thelikesof whenLuke gave C-3PO and R2-D2 to Jabbaand hid his lightsaber in R2 and and on the skiff he gave a command to R2 to launch his weapon. This could be done in a module type form where the player would be able to put it in the module and then a cool animation could be shown as the item becomes applied to the persons avatar. I am thinking this would add depth to the game as well as a sense of coolness.However, I am not sure this is capable of being done before JTLS.
So here is my question for pre JTLS
I had hoped to see the possabilty in the Droid invasion the schimatics of new droids. I was hoping that maybe for the GCW we could have special droid schimatics that were GCW only and could be crafted by DE's that take part in the GCW. I think it would be a awesome bit of flavor for the game.
TheRealTK421
Sat Jun 26, 2004 8:42 am
#44
/bow
Straker_Atrella wrote:
My idea of the best use for these questions is to bring something to the notice of the Devs that they may not be all that aware of already.
Since they read the boards, they are aware of most everythingwe discuss here. I'd be pretty surprised if we could surprise them.
Bugs like the naming of Prot and Surgical Droids, bugged storage mods and non-working Maint Modules are 100% important fixes. Yet we KNOW they know about them. Those fixes are on a list somewhere and are obviously being held up by programming time. Let's face it, SOE wants SWG to be bug free as well.
Yup...and if we want, there's a publish coming up just to deal with Correspondent/Profession issues, such as these types of bugs. We'll need to decide if that time will spent on those types of fixes.
Droid decay isn't really something new either, while again important, TK has brought the issue up before, and hopefully will keep bringing it up.
Yea...we've tried perma-death and took it back out again. There likely IS a 'death'/decay system out there that will work, we just have yet to put our finger on it.
So what questions do we have that are relativly new and not already on a bug list?
#1. About crafting tool organization. Probably known about, but doubtfully high on a priority list. Asking it could maybe bring it higher. Yet IMO this shouldn't be a priority, make Droids for a couple of weeks, and you learn the list, and can find everything easily.
It's not a matter of finding stuff..it's a matter of it being inconvienent and annoying. Keep in mind that if there are new DE/droid items added at JTL, the list will grow more...and still more when the DC thing comes up.
Eventually, the list will get totally out of hand unless we get new categorization sooner than later. I have yet to hear back on how easy/hard this change might be, so this one's sort of in flux in terms of whether or not it's really a good thing to have them spend time on.
#2. Droid information on Deeds. Very important, I hate having to write a book on Droids as well. Yet realistically, they can't possibly fit everything about Droids on the deed. We may be able to get profession liimits and combat power, which would be fairly good. No matter what were always gonig to need to write stuff in the description.
..or in the name of the deed itself. I agree that the deed info can be even better. They went a long way with adding the ability to show all installed modules, etc. It would be cool if we can have them finish what was started and put this issue to bed forever. This might not be too challenging of an issue, code-wise. I know it's right up toward the top of the annoyance list though.
#3. About the R3 chasis being by far the most popular, with little reason to use others. This is a relatively new issue, brought about since the addition of the new modules. Since many modules (Harvest, Auto-repair, Effect, Combat) work better the more you have of them, this means that Advanced R3's, are used / requested the most. Sure we may dabble in other "cool" looking configuration, but that's just for looks, no real purpose. Of course the Devs know that some chasis's like the BLL and Treadwell serve no purpose, yet they "may" not know how much the R3 really overwhelms the market. For reasons of "newness,"I think this is probably our best question.
I dunno....
We wanted them to make our Master 'perks' more...'perky'. So, they turned a chassis that was only a 'sometimes' sale and turned it into an 'almost always' sale. I agree that we need to consider how to spread out functionality so that the R3 Adv. is not THE default answer to any selection of chassis.
For this reason, I think the chassis-specific bonus changes would be a good thing. It gives a lot more of variety but still leaves the ultimate choice in the hands of the buyer.
It also helps to address those that would really love to see chassis serve the purpose for which they are made. So, a Surgical droid should be the best as a Med bot....yes? It IS a Surgical droid, afterall. There have always been a lot of DEs that found it desirable that the functionality should follow the chassis. The 'bonus' system leaves the choice in place to bypass this but will also naturally cause the market to start to adopt this.
As for the R3 overwhelming the market, it was foreseeable. It's the best droid possible, really. People will often only want to purchase the best. Is there a reason to choose a DH17 carbine over an EE if you're a Master Marksman?
No?
Why?
Cause the EE is a better product....the same thing is true of the R3s. I'm not sure we should try to monkey too terribly much with that, lest we devalue the perk that's there for the Masters.
I'm not sure what the answer is (yet) to ensuring that we see more variety in droid types but I think the chassis bonus ideas is about the closest idea that I've seen yet for the answer.
Is there anything else that might help...??
Respectfully,
Straker_Atrella
Sat Jun 26, 2004 2:19 pm
#45
TheRealTK421 wrote:
/bow
Straker_Atrella wrote:
My idea of the best use for these questions is to bring something to the notice of the Devs that they may not be all that aware of already.
Since they read the boards, they are aware of most everythingwe discuss here. I'd be pretty surprised if we could surprise them.
Bugs like the naming of Prot and Surgical Droids, bugged storage mods and non-working Maint Modules are 100% important fixes. Yet we KNOW they know about them. Those fixes are on a list somewhere and are obviously being held up by programming time. Let's face it, SOE wants SWG to be bug free as well.
Yup...and if we want, there's a publish coming up just to deal with Correspondent/Profession issues, such as these types of bugs. We'll need to decide if that time will spent on those types of fixes.
Droid decay isn't really something new either, while again important, TK has brought the issue up before, and hopefully will keep bringing it up.
Yea...we've tried perma-death and took it back out again. There likely IS a 'death'/decay system out there that will work, we just have yet to put our finger on it.
So what questions do we have that are relativly new and not already on a bug list?
#1. About crafting tool organization. Probably known about, but doubtfully high on a priority list. Asking it could maybe bring it higher. Yet IMO this shouldn't be a priority, make Droids for a couple of weeks, and you learn the list, and can find everything easily.
It's not a matter of finding stuff..it's a matter of it being inconvienent and annoying. Keep in mind that if there are new DE/droid items added at JTL, the list will grow more...and still more when the DC thing comes up.
Eventually, the list will get totally out of hand unless we get new categorization sooner than later. I have yet to hear back on how easy/hard this change might be, so this one's sort of in flux in terms of whether or not it's really a good thing to have them spend time on.
#2. Droid information on Deeds. Very important, I hate having to write a book on Droids as well. Yet realistically, they can't possibly fit everything about Droids on the deed. We may be able to get profession liimits and combat power, which would be fairly good. No matter what were always gonig to need to write stuff in the description.
..or in the name of the deed itself. I agree that the deed info can be even better. They went a long way with adding the ability to show all installed modules, etc. It would be cool if we can have them finish what was started and put this issue to bed forever. This might not be too challenging of an issue, code-wise. I know it's right up toward the top of the annoyance list though.
#3. About the R3 chasis being by far the most popular, with little reason to use others. This is a relatively new issue, brought about since the addition of the new modules. Since many modules (Harvest, Auto-repair, Effect, Combat) work better the more you have of them, this means that Advanced R3's, are used / requested the most. Sure we may dabble in other "cool" looking configuration, but that's just for looks, no real purpose. Of course the Devs know that some chasis's like the BLL and Treadwell serve no purpose, yet they "may" not know how much the R3 really overwhelms the market. For reasons of "newness,"I think this is probably our best question.
I dunno....
We wanted them to make our Master 'perks' more...'perky'. So, they turned a chassis that was only a 'sometimes' sale and turned it into an 'almost always' sale. I agree that we need to consider how to spread out functionality so that the R3 Adv. is not THE default answer to any selection of chassis.
For this reason, I think the chassis-specific bonus changes would be a good thing. It gives a lot more of variety but still leaves the ultimate choice in the hands of the buyer.
It also helps to address those that would really love to see chassis serve the purpose for which they are made. So, a Surgical droid should be the best as a Med bot....yes? It IS a Surgical droid, afterall. There have always been a lot of DEs that found it desirable that the functionality should follow the chassis. The 'bonus' system leaves the choice in place to bypass this but will also naturally cause the market to start to adopt this.
As for the R3 overwhelming the market, it was foreseeable. It's the best droid possible, really. People will often only want to purchase the best. Is there a reason to choose a DH17 carbine over an EE if you're a Master Marksman?
No?
Why?
Cause the EE is a better product....the same thing is true of the R3s. I'm not sure we should try to monkey too terribly much with that, lest we devalue the perk that's there for the Masters.
I'm not sure what the answer is (yet) to ensuring that we see more variety in droid types but I think the chassis bonus ideas is about the closest idea that I've seen yet for the answer.
Is there anything else that might help...??
Respectfully,
I agree 100% with everything you said. The Chasis specific bonuses I agree is the best fix.
/bow
Redskuller
Sun Jun 27, 2004 8:13 am
#46
I'd like to ask : "Any chance of the DEV Team puting a Item Storage HARD CAP on MSE's? I so hate seeing those droids on the bazaar with a level 6 Storage module. It just ISN'T Star Warsy"
Shian_Tavkin
Sun Jun 27, 2004 8:44 pm
#47
Binary Load Lifters
The most complex (and useless) droid we can make. A Master level product, and for what?
So: The question is-
Can the module capability of a Binary load Lifter be made at least the same as an R3 Droid, i.e. 6 modules. It's ok if its not offensive capable, its ok if its still Armour 6 max, but can it at least be able to carry more than the 10 item storage cap ?
If not, can 6 module slots be allowed as per current R3 capabilities (minus the combat capability of an R3)
Here we have the 'ultimate droid' and I have sold 2 in a year..it maketh no sense.
I think thats a question worth answering..and no, I don't accept the database overload answer, its a huge forklift, it should be useful, it should be able to carry things better than a MSE.
Just 2Cr from an old DE 
Straker_Atrella
Sun Jun 27, 2004 8:53 pm
#48
Shian_Tavkin wrote:
Binary Load Lifters
The most complex (and useless) droid we can make. A Master level product, and for what?
So: The question is-
Can the module capability of a Binary load Lifter be made at least the same as an R3 Droid, i.e. 6 modules. It's ok if its not offensive capable, its ok if its still Armour 6 max, but can it at least be able to carry more than the 10 item storage cap ?
If not, can 6 module slots be allowed as per current R3 capabilities (minus the combat capability of an R3)
Here we have the 'ultimate droid' and I have sold 2 in a year..it maketh no sense.
I think thats a question worth answering..and no, I don't accept the database overload answer, its a huge forklift, it should be useful, it should be able to carry things better than a MSE.
Just 2Cr from an old DE
Shian, don't get me wrong I agree with what you said.
However, if you have plenty of resources, you CAN sell plenty of these as medical and barker droids. I sell them really fast at 80k.
Blatz
Mon Jun 28, 2004 1:31 pm
#49
Okay, here's my question: Will Tolium Reactive gas ever spawn on Valcyn again (3 months and counting) in my lifetime?
Sorry, just had to vent that somewhere...
On a more reasonable note, perhaps we can ask the devs if they would consider a simple change like doubling (yes, again) the duration of a Droid Battery charge. We all know that batteries are a pain, and since they have already increased the charge length, no new development required.
That's my two cents.
Blatz
P.S. Anybody know where a hungry DE can get his hands on some Valcyn-grade Tolium Gas?
AudioOrgana
Mon Jun 28, 2004 4:27 pm
#50
Kellisanth wrote:
Q: Is it possible to have the stats of the Droid deed "translated" properly, so that potential customs will not be confused, as in regards to CR, DP and such? Not many people are keen on guessing, and not every DE would know of the answers (if they don't read the forums that is) if asked about it. CH and BE pets/deeds don't have their stats mystified and secret.
This is my #1 issue right now.
All droid naming is right behind it, though.
AO
TheRealTK421
Mon Jun 28, 2004 7:33 pm
#51
Okay...well...
After thinking about this and watching the recent threads here on the DE boards, I think I may post the following (in Green).
Feel free to suggest any changes, additions, tweaks, etc.
DE Question Draft - For TH's 19 Question/Answers thread (06/29/04):
Feel free to suggest any changes, additions, tweaks, etc.
DE Question Draft - For TH's 19 Question/Answers thread (06/29/04):
"Recently, the topic of Droid decay has become 'hawt' on the DE boards. It's apparent that we do not enjoy a very robust market in repeat sales. Once a droid client purchases a droid from a DE...that's pretty much it. We are likely to see one-time sales of droids to users (aside from the 'consumables' market). The droid client may well never purchase another droid ever again (of that particular type, anyway) or for a very, very long time. As the holo-grind comes to its end, the DEs have very valid concerns about the repeat/recurring market for droids.
"There have been various suggestions thus far but the best proposals seem to be related to connecting Droid Battery use to an updated Droid decay system. This would potentially do some/all of the following:
Note: We understand that the specifics and details of said system would need to be worked out down the line. What's important is knowing that an overhauled droid decay system is possible and/or you agree that it's needed.
Note: We understand that the specifics and details of said system would need to be worked out down the line. What's important is knowing that an overhauled droid decay system is possible and/or you agree that it's needed.
- Battery use would tied toVitality loss and/or droid wounds.
- Vitality loss leads to the need for "Droid Vitality Repair Kits".
- When Vitality equals 0/100 (or something close), the droid is "disabled", can't be pulled from the datapad or some other similar 'incapacitated' state. The user can then choose to have the droid repaired or destroy it.
- As a droid's Vitality dropped, it would have wounds applied to it(i.e. At certain Vitality levels (80%, 60%, etc.), Droid wounds are applied. So, when the droid went from 61% vitality to 60% vitality, a droid wound would be applied that represents 20% of it's total HAM. This ties together battery use to both vitality and wounds at the same time.)
"What I think the DEs would love to know is (our actual multi-part question):
- Is this sort of decay system workable, in terms of balance, code-wise, etc.?
- Would it be desired/preferable to get this new Droid Decay system in place prior to working on the post-JTL revamp to add Droid Commander (DC) or some other DL20+ combat droid system?
- Is this the kind of change that would be possible to perform during the Correspondent mini-publish or should that
really be reserved only for bug-fixes?"
/bow
Respectfully,
TheRealTK421
Mon Jun 28, 2004 7:54 pm
#52
Okay...I thought it would be good to come let you all know why I bypassed some of the great questions posted.
First off, I had to choose something. Invariably, someone's very important question couldn't get asked this week so I had to try to pick something that I thought would be of most importance to most DEs (especially those that don't visit/use these boards).
Secondly, some of the questions that have come up have seen 'answers' in the past. So, it seemed to do little for us to ask a question for which we already had a pretty strong feeling of the answer.
Some of the examples:
First off, I had to choose something. Invariably, someone's very important question couldn't get asked this week so I had to try to pick something that I thought would be of most importance to most DEs (especially those that don't visit/use these boards).
Secondly, some of the questions that have come up have seen 'answers' in the past. So, it seemed to do little for us to ask a question for which we already had a pretty strong feeling of the answer.
Some of the examples:
- Conversational droid fixes (naming):
TH has told me in the past that these changes (droid naming filter, etc.) would take weeks of workapparently. While an important issue to many, I'm not sure that it really hampers either useor sales of droids. Sure, it's not as fun to not be able to have a cool and appropriate droid name. But I don't think I've seen many people flat out refuse to buy a droid cause of what they couldn't name it. They are after the practical benefits first....all else is a distant second.
In my way of thinking, this issue WILL get its day in the sun. I'm just thinking that we have bigger fish to fry right now.
- Conversational droid fixes (storage modules):
It seemed folly to waste our bi-weekly question on something so simply as, "Hey! When are you gonna fix storage working in Surgicals?!?".
That's the kind of thing that I can push on the Corr. boards as a possible item to get addressed during the Corr. Issues mini-publish coming down the line. So, I figured we better focus on a larger issue that would have an affect on all droids....not just Surgicals. - More chassis-specific 'bonuses':
I considered this a great contender. However, I'm not sure that it was overall as important as addressing the issue of recurring markets for droids. We can, and will, work on the issue of chassis-specific bonuses related to 'logical functionality'. We can definitely revisit this as a possibility for the next round of DE 19 Q & A. To be honest, I'd like to see more specific proposals on this, so that we can have solid well-thought items to include in the question.
So, to those for whom this is a 'pet issue' (pardon the pun), get your thinking caps on and let's crank on a list of what bonuses should apply where...and how much, etc. - Making droid's more user-friendly (i.e. a better 'droid manual'):
It was hard not to ask this. Believe me...I've answers just the same questions as most of you DEs. I really, really want some ways to make this better. However, we do now have a ton of droid-related information in the SWG in-game Knowledgebase as well as info on the boards, stickies, etc.
In addition, it crossed my mind that there are now so many droids and droid users out there in the game that a lot of people can (and do) get a lot of help just from droid-using friends. So, the playerbase sort of becomes the 'manual for dummies'.
In the long run, it would be cool to see the "Helper Droid" system possibly tweaked/altered and applied to droid types and such. I think that would be super cool (i.e. the first time you try to use a droid's installed feature, a dialog window pops up with info on the how/when/where and why of how to use it).
Again...this just didn't quite make it as a key issue for most DEs at this time. Decay was a far bigger item of concern.
If you'd like me to address why I didn't answer a question, let me know (here in this thread) and we can work on it for the future.
Keep a' crafting, mateys!! (/emote ....still missin' the Wood man.)
/bow
Respectfully,