Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: DE Plan CONCERN Thread
Quest list :
1) Fix current issues
2) Add ham to actual probot and certifications
3) We'd like to have new droids
4) Don't make protocol droids Krayt Dragon killers
5) Create a way to call two droids so the first can repair / recharge the second
6) If any auto-heal : allow only surgical droids to heal with pre-loaded stims, provided you have the certification
7) Get back the ability to store non mission wp in data storage
8) Delete the mouse droid bomb from the list, ... or make it fly 
9) Let the droid BIP loudly a before running out of power
10) Implement a quick and easy way to name / program a droid
11) Let the owner loots randoms parts from his dbed droid
12) let non scout call a droid everywhere in the wilderness. Or nobody call them elsewhere than from town or declared residence refleting the fact that you left them behind.
My 2 (constructive) creds
Here are my concerns....
1) We moving away from a "Crafting Class" and more into what Creature Handlers were, a Combat Pet class that people will invest a few skills in solely to reap all the benefits of the combat assistance. We are a Crafting Class, and should make droids for the market, not only for ourselves. While I agree that the most powerful combat droids (IE Droidekas) should be limitted to Droid Engineers only, I think the combat droid changes will not give us a new market, but instead will only see an increase in "Part Time DE's" who do so only for those benefits. Mouse Bombs? DE-only Combat Droids? DE-only multiple droids out? Sounds a bit too much of an independant combat class, which we are not.
2) What is our place? I see Medical Droids were upgraded (it gives Surgical Droids a reason), but we allready had a market for those. The change to Power Droids will be a good addition, if they tweak it right, and Repair Droids are going to be good as well. But then we have all those other models that don't matter.....the Astromech series, teh DZ70, the Treadwell, the BLL, the Protocol Droid (which they said they're looking into). They're on the right track, but I'd rather they focus on opening up new markets for us with new uses for certain droids (as they're doing) rather than giving DE's themselves particular benefits (Combat Droids only we can use).
Most of my concern is that what was presented is not a plan. What they presented to us could barley be considered high level design notes. There was no commitment. There were plenty of declaimers on timeing and Explanations for the need for lotsmoredesign work that still needs to be done. Someone has decided that allocating resources to creating player cities and mounts is more important to the game than fixing a minor and obscure profession like Droid Engineering. It became apparent that they seem unsure as to wether theywill be able to get the resources to"acualy" flesh out anddevelop these things. I appreciate that the effort was probably a grass roots attempt "to do the right thing". Kudos for theeffort!! It does seem apparent that it is not being supported by whoever is responsible for the overall vision for the game.
The plan sounded tired like theyhave run out of gas! There is no oomph to the plan. It feels like a token a gesture. Justlike the droid customization tool ( that still does not work ) Itis clear that they do not see the real potential for this profession or for this game. It was an attempt todo the least amount of workthey coulddo to hold us off. Well I am not here to be held off. I am herefor entertainment. To see that most of the responses to the plan were" well it's a start" is SAD.
I have seen 10 times more imagination and creativity within the Droid Engineering forumsthan anything I saw in this "plan". The ideas for new modules thread has plenty for them to have pulled from. For them to offer up this token 4 and half months into the game says theyare not excited or happy to be the people assigned to the Droid Engineering proffesion. Or is it that they are just tired and frightend that they will not be supported when they request the resources to do a good job? Either way .... this is not a good thing.
It is time for me to cancel my accounts.
May the Force be with you all. May life offer up all the joys, and bounty of the light side to you!
Ithoe Evi - Master Droid Engineer - Intrepid 
#1 concern is with the latest plan to limit everyone to one pet. Very few will choose droids over creatures unless there is a significant advantage to droids. There isnt one now and the "plan" does not illustrate that there will be.
No new combat chassis. Where are the Droidekas? I know no promises were made, but this is the only thing that could save DE. Needs to be available to everyone or certs added so that every basic profession can have it at a certain level. Engineering 4 or ranged support 4 come into mind.
We dont need droids healing us. A droid should increase substantially the ability to heal or use higher level medicines even in hospitals. Realistically where would you findmedical droids? in the hospital. theyshould give a 20-30% boost in healing. The medical field is already plagued by too many part time BH/medics and commandos. There will be no use for a medic if this is instated.
The whole plan was very sketchy. I dont see a vision and/or a path forward on the issues that DEs face on a daily basis.
Un nerf the probot and increase the stats of the DZ 70. The Probot should be equivalent to or better than the highest level pet that a non CH can have and the DZ 70 shouldbe a notch down. Maybe add a little extra punch for screwing the DE profession since the nerf of the probot. This would be the advantage to swing people to droids instead of creatures. Disadvantage is the # of batteries required every 5 minutes.
Morning,
- I believe that the CH class should be in direct competition with the DE class. The highest level pet that can be trained and distributed to other classes we should be able to match.
- Currently vitality grandfathers pets. Vitality is something that requires action from the user maybe once a month (depending on how much they allow their pet to die). Batteries are highly required and cause daily, if not hourly use. There is imbalance here due to the simple logistics of owning a CH pet vs. a Droid. This also should be balanced. Either increase power of the droids that others can use so that the invoncience "pays" off to the user, or create a new action thats required by CH pets that increases the daily labor of owning a CH pet.
- The concept of only de's owning combat droids should be abandoned. The simple logic of a society being able to create droids for all needs except combat doesn't seem to have any logical grounding at all. Especially when we see combat droids sucessfully defending bases.
- Create a level requirement for DE ownership similar to the CH requirement for pet ownership. The stronger you are as a user of droids,the more capable your droids can be. This not only applies to combat, but across the board. This will allow you to build up the droid capability without giving noobs to the game an unfair advantage in any area.
Commentary
Naturally it seems that the focus is on the most used classes and on the new functionality that's being implemented that is not class specific; global features if you will. This is all very logical and is the business side of any development effort that yeilds such a fantastic response. It is very obvious to anyone that reads the boards that the focus of development is not on Droid Engineers. My support to you is to set expectations appropriately.If the class errors that were made to CH's happened to DE's, you'd have an overwhelmed galaxy of DE's. As soon as these issues are addressed, it will cause more DE's to take hold and give us the weight and attention we deserve. At this point we really need you to push the efforts since our numbers are small at this point.
Thanks
The "plan" is nothing more than a sugar pill to pacify us.
GIVE THE POTOCOL DROID SOME FUNCTIONALITY. REMOVE THE ABILITY FOR EVERYONE TO SPEAK ALL LANGUAGES (why else would the smuggler have a skill that makes them fluent in all languages????) MAKE PROBOTS WHEN USED GIVE YOU THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND ALL LANGUAGE.
2. PLEASE, A DROIDEKA... OR EVEN AN AUTOMATA FOR COMBAT... BUT NOT AN ASTRO DROID WITH BLASTERS... how lame is that??? There are so many ways to make good content.
3. MSE BOMBS? who comes up with this nonsense? How about you make MSE droids that can find a player to deliver items then return to their original spot (or even go poof, since they're so cheap to build)
On the bright side THANK YOU for letting us have more tham one droid out at a time. That was dead nessasary.
Xeco Freemoon <TSA>- Tempest
Master DE / Whaterver the holocron tells me to do (cause it knows best damit)
- Power droids on harvesters? COOL! um..........will we still have to run out every 15 minutes and throw a battery in a droid with a small fusion reactor in its gut that could 'power a small starship'???????????????
- Will maint go up ONLY on harvesters that are using power droids? Hmmmm? Or will we be forced to use them to keep competative?
- Are exploding mice our only new combat droid?
- ONLY DE will be able to use combat modules. They mean in construction (duh) or when the droid is called? Would these be usable by learning one branch of the DE tree (similar to CH higher level pets) so players can train to use them?
I actually liked some of the ideas, just wish there were more items than I can count on one hand.
YEAH I have 7 fingers - I'm Mon Cal - WHAT OF IT 
We need:
1. Droidikas for Master DEs -- at least as powerful as best CH pets. CHs are getting newcreatures to tame tame, we deserve at least one kick @ss droid. Droidika advanced with shieldgenerators (armosmith component) for MDEs and Droideka basic without for Droid Designers.
2. New combat droids for non-DEs -- How about those trooper droids from episode 1? No weapons when built, but they can be equipped with weapons that their owner can use. We are a crafting class; we need better droids to sell. We are not a combat class. Many of us pride ourselves on having no combat skills. That's actually one of the cool things about SWG; that you can make a living crafting.
3. Unnerf probot HAM and dmg -- We need AT LEAST more damage on these, like 100-150. We are a crafting class; we need better droids to sell.
4. Droid repair/healing tool -- five charges per tool, lets ANYONE heal droids in combat. We NEED to be able to heal droid damage in battle and wounds outside of battle.
5. Don't waste time on multi-droid controls. We'll do it with macros. Help us by implementing easier programming scheme: /programfollow follow
6. Power droids -- depends on implementation; too high a cost and its not worth it with 1/unit energy out there. Attached power droid should not count toward droid limit and should be "redeeded" with the structure not placed back into datapad. Additional maintence cost + decaying power droid cost needs to be caluculated carefully. Most people run more than one harvestor, adding one power droid to one harvestor does not eleiminate the need for energy harvs -- unless we can attach power droids to all harvs and redeed them attached.
7. MSE bombs? Sounds dumb, but if your serious, it must do serious damage. Need to be able to call anytime/anytime including combat must not count toward pet limit or no one will ever use them. Granade damage sucks. High level/cost MSE (w/ usual droid limitations) + granade = Really, really,reallysucks
8. Medical and Repair droid changes sound great. Balance medics so as not to screw medical professions but still be very useful. Medic droids must use player-made stims for balance
9. Implement these changes soon. You've already tinkered with CH to death. DEs are the heirs to a great and lasting Star Wars legacy: droids, droids, droids. Increase droid prevalence in the game! Droids played CRUCIAL, LIVE-SAVING roles in EVERY star wars movie. They should kick and save @sses in SWG.
Thunderheart and Sintrosi,
These ideas apaul and shock me....
Droid engineers are CRAFTERS that have 2 main problems:
(1) Droids are not functional enough - Other than for a medical module and occassionally a crafting module. no player every has a reason to buy a droid. People are BEGGING for ways to justify buying droids from droid engineers. I myself have a R2 unit with nothing in it but a med module and repair module, a probot with nothing but armor modules, and a power bot (I limited the modules in each droid to self-impose a purpose I felt was appropriate upon each droid). Nothing has been proposed by you to fix this problem.
(2) Droids don't wear out in any way - There will arguably never be any demand for droids in the future, because the people who use droids for their medical and crafting uses never usethe droids in combat (so no decay or death).
The proposed solution for these problems TOTALLY FAILS to address EITHER of these problems, and instead creates a new creature handler profession, thereby totally recreatingdroid engineer profession. Please accept the following reasons for why this proposal needs to go back to the drawing board:
(1) Instead of fixing the decay and functionality problems, you are instead attempting to turn the droid engineer into a combat profession - Droid engineers are ENGINEERS. Droids and smart, and there is noprecedence in any of the movies for the concept that you need any special skills to tell a combat droid to attack. Droid engineers are CRAFTERS who sell their droids to others. The basic jist of these changes is that you are improving the combat functionality of droids, but making it so that ONLY droid engineers can use the abilites.
So let me get this straight...you want to improve and preserve the market for droids, and you propose to accomplish it by adding functions that ONLY droid engineers can use? The result of these changes will be:
(a) because you are adding no combat abilitiesfor non-droid engineersplayers willcontinue to ignore droids for combat (ESPECIALLY now that all playerswill only be able to have one pet outat a time and will not choose a droid over a faction pet or creature);
(b) because you are not changing much about decay and functions for crafters and doctors, demand within these professions will remain low;
(c) because of A and B, demand for all droids will be low;
(d) droid engineers will have few people to sell to and will instead take advantage of the new combat droids to hunt;
(e) droid engineers become creature handlers
I can't fathom that this is what you think droid engineers should be. If you want to fix these problems, give droids diversity, function, and more compelling repair (and replacement) needs. You do NOT need to recreate the class into a creature handler to do this.
(2) The Combat Droid Proposal is TOTALLY inconsistant with everything that is Star Wars - Where in ANY of the episodes do you EVER see anyone directing droids? They have a thing called AI...they think for themselves. The battle droids had battle droid commanders (also droids) that ran the battle. Droidekas ran and worked on their own accord. C-3P0 and R2 traveled all over several planets totally at their OWN direction. Since when do droids NEED handlers?
(3) These changes are MAJOR...why spend so much effort changing droid engineering into a combat class, when you could have the devs spend it making droids more cool and usable? (note: cool droids = sales...I can't count the number of people I know that own protocol droids, which are totally worthless, just because they look cool).
(4) Players WANT combat droids...BADLY. If you had a droideka to sell me tomorrow, I would buy it no matterHOW MUCHyou wanted for it. If you made them wear out fast and useful you will have more sales and crafting to do than you can imagine. This would solve many droid engineer problems.
(5) If you want to wield a bunch of pets in combat, you have the means to do so...its called Creature Handler. Why do we need to redefine one of the crafting classes to add another pet profession? (especially that the pets have AI and don't need handlers)
I am floored by how much off the mark the new combat droid suggestions go. Droid engineers SHOULD be getting things to improve sales and crafting satisfaction. Instead the devs are giving them combat abilities. As I have with every single one of Thunderheart's major posts in the last week, I have to ask...what the hell are the devs thinking. (NOTE: I am NOT by any means criticizing Thunderheart...I think he has improved dev communication 300% in the short time he has been working with us. I am instead questioning the sanity of the sources of the information that Thunderheart is passing along.) Really...all we want is function...not another CH profession.