Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: After Reading the Posts this Morning, a Compromise Proposal
When do I get my certs?
Ywi,
I still completely disagree with your concept that good battle droids should be reserved for those who are already combat professionmasters.
I think that combat droids should be available at low levels to everyone, and at higher levels tosome form of droid handlers.
Perhaps "Droid Use" should be distributed among several lines, such as the DE line, the Artisan Engineering line, the Squad Leader line, etc. You have to takea non-combat profession like Scout (excluding traps) to get CH, you should have to take on some non-combat skills like Engineering in order to be able to handle battle droids.
Devs, PLEASE don't grant battle droids only to Master Combat characters, it makes no sense.
As for utility droids and medical droids, a certain level should be available to all, such as basic medical andrepair droids. But Droid Use or Droid Certification for an advanced, crafting station, 110 medical droid, which can hold stim-packs and self-revives, (or whatever else they imagine)should be earned only at high level medic/doctor professions. This will help prevent novices from becoming overpowered, while providing an opportunity forambitious medium levelcharacters to compete at a higher level.
I don''t see how this is different from dabbling in Droid Handler to get the droids. So you spend 30 skill points on one skill tree to get the best droids.. well then...
Droid Handler as we know won't have enough skills to justify an entire profession, so stick all the droid handling in one or two skill trees, then put combat skills in the others. This means a DE who wants to control the droids they make can dabble in DH to the degree of 30 or so points, yet someone who wants to dedicate themselves to droid combat can put all their points into it and gain combat skills aswell as droid handling skills.
If you make the requirements for DH suitable that a Master DE / Master Art, still has enough points to gain all the droid handling skills from it, then I don't see how this would be different from your mini skill tree.
Yet it would give people like me a chance to be a droid handler full time and have combat skills to back it up without having to master Marksman or Commando or something else. Possibly add certs for a range of stun damage weapons or something, but this would open up the market a lot more for droids sales, give the MDE's the droid handling they want, give the non-MDE's a profession they want AND not unbalance combat by giving them to elite professions who are already balanced to a degree.
Feel free to find offense with this idea, but I really can't see how this is different to your mini skill tree idea, cept more widely appealing imo.
Not convinced.
All I have to say is: CH+mini-DH = too powerfull. I've yet to see any convincing arguments for the mini-DH tree. I think the mini-tree opens up a Pandora's box of possibilities for other mini-professions that will become VERY DIFFICULT to balance in combination with the existing professions and skill tree system. The developpers are barely even half done with reworking existing classes, and this mini-tree sounds like an overhead they can't afford (at least not in the near future).
Thunderheart wrote:
I agree. This direction has the strongest likelihood of success, but it will depend on a couple of things. It has to be put in so it can be balanced with the combat system as it will be and not as it is (that makes assessing things kind of tricky).
Secondly, handling droids is bigger than a single tree, but smaller than a whole profession. Technologically whether its 1 tree, 2 trees or the typical 4 trees is going to have a bearing on things (as it relates to coding the changes).
Going forward, keep mulling these things over. Runesabre had to go out of town on personal business but I know you guys really want to voice your opinions on this (though in reality we are a week or two away from any kind of development).
Im working on the In Dev post now. I would encourage you folks to play devil's advocate with the arguments and look at everything from all angles.
), droid handling (which as you go up the ability list you can command more powerful droids), luck (could decrease critical failures, or increase loot chances), etc.. The potential for this system is unlimited, and it takes advantage of some of the draw backs with the current game system (ie: I'm a master, now what?)Here's my thoughts on the matter (this is also in the Considering our Future post in the DE forum)
I like the idea of having experimental values controlling the level of the droids. I think that is a solution that allows everyone to be able to use all the droids (the lower level droids would have decreased HAM, attack vaues, etc), and still allow for the higher level combat droids that our customers seem to want.
I like the suggestion of giving DEs a little bonus to controlling droids of a somewhat higher level and getting the additional droid at master.
I'm still not convinced that there is enough "content" to justify an entire class (with skill point requirements similar to CH). I think that if there is a DH class, then it would need to have something else in it other than the ability to control high level fighting droids, maybe (*puts on flame retardant suit*) it could be some of the additional utility functionality we are looking for. Perhaps the "handlers" could be spun as Advanced Programmers, and in addition to being able to use higher level fighting droids, they could also have the ability to program specific functions in droids to give some of the utility uses that many DEs are wanting. Perhaps the DE could create the droid to have a communications module in it and an Adv. Programmer could program commands to allow the droid to query structures (like harvesters or factories) about their status. The modules could be leveled like the existing modules, and each level of module could allow access to that many structures (or something to that effect - going off the cuff here).
This approach gives the "handler" (or Advanced Programmer) class a little more depth than just being combat machines.
Squad Leader
Give MSLs the ability to call up to 3 combat droids totalling 60 CLs...you could put the ability into one tree or spread it out to reduce dabbling but give the ability to call multiple droids only to a Master.
HOWEVER
I hate the idea.
Droids are tools that everyone should have access to.
Combat droids are automated weapons, not pets, as such they should be limited on combat skill or DE skill alone much like weapons and schematics are governed. You place into one skill line of each combat profession the ability to call ONE increasingly more powerful droid (based on CL) with the most powerful droid being available at master. This encourages players to master their professions and not dabble. It also gives crafters the ability to spend their few available combat skill points on a skill line that gives them more defense ability for clearing lairs from harvestors or resource sites.
The ability to call MULTIPLE combat droids should be governed by FACTION RANK to encourage participation in the GCW and reward players who have achieved higher faction ranks. For instance a Warrant Officer 2 could call two droids, while a Colonel could call three. Additionally NO PLAYER should be allowed to call more than one droid if they are not in the war -- there is no reason for a non-combatant to be walking around with a personal army of droids. This is why having a Droid Handler profession is a bad idea. Perfectly good combatants would have no access to droids because their skill points are used elsewhere and Faction Rank will still go un-rewarded.
Bad_Bad-Leroy
I agree.
Master degree in aCombatant Profession shouldn´t be prerequisitefor droidhandling. There should be different ways to get hands on Droids.
Furthermore please skip that Crafter-Profession / Combat-Profession thinking, make it more hybrid. I hate the Idea ofbeing unable to usedroids I crafted myself. Droidsshould be bodyguards and Man of War of Crafters. (Keep these two ugly merchant-frogs from Episode 1 in mind).
I do understand, that BH spend a whole bunch of skill points to become Master-of-Combat andafter introduction of Droids they shouldn´t become joke-in-combat. BUT I can´t remember that BHgot bigger CH-Pets oreasier admitance to CH-Skill-Trees.Don´t get me wrong, I dont say, BH shouldn´t be able to use Combat Droids, butthere isn´t a real necessity tomove"DH-Trees" where BH and Commandos are sure to get the whole advantage.
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By the way: Please, I don´t want to have to use a camp, to pull my droid (or vehicle) out, I really can´t afford these 15 Extra Points for Scout just for this nonsense (especially not as lomg vehicles (and perhaps droids) just vanish 3k m away from next town, without any reason).
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