Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: *publish day* findings so far...the good bad & ugly! (for those at work)
BriaArtisan wrote:
-Droid "deed" now shows the droidunit correctly instead of the paper.
Kutan wrote:
Just bought a barker protocol no options to program barking...must have to be merchant.
Sucks
Kutan
If you'd read the release notes, you'd know it requires Advertising IV and personally I think this is a very good thing.
I mean do we all really want MORE spam? The odd 'bot here and there is ok, but could you imagine Coronet starport if just about anyone could use these droids? You cannot currently ignore them, so it would be unbareable.
Bogoa wrote:
A jerk sold me a Structure maint.droid I used it and I was able to add 7 flora harv it took 45 min. standind next to the harv for the droid to maint. I only added 5 credits to each harv-45 min thats insane plus I was standing next my harv when I employed the droids. Extra info the droid just disapears it doesn't zoom off like BH droids. SWG you couldve added little more time on this publish.
/emote shakes head sadly
You should've read the threads. I'm not saying the guy wasn't a jerk - I'm sure he is 
. I make sure my customer are aware of what a droid actual does before I commit an order. I have had many requests for survey droids, but a lot of ppl think its a module for an R2 
MrWizzard wrote:
Bogoa wrote:
I read my post and I'm in tears any how thanks for added info. I'm posting this note on surveying droid forums.
CSR MeliisaL says their is a known issue that surveying droids are returning a blank email . she further states a Post will soon follow.
How many others had thisblank email issue?
SWG.Eclipse.interplanetary survey droid
Interplanetary Survey: Corellia - Mineral
TIMESTAMP: 1083063112
Incoming planetary survey report...
\#pcontrast3 Planet: \#pcontrast1 Corellia
\#pcontrast3 Resource Class: \#pcontrast1 Mineral
\#pcontrast3 Resources located...\#.
Radioactive
Known Radioactive
Class 1 Radioactive
\#pcontrast1 Carbneopegafiam\#.
Class 2 Radioactive
\#pcontrast1 Renaesat\#.
Class 6 Radioactive
\#pcontrast1 Avisis\#.
Metal
Ferrous Metal
Steel
Rhodium Steel
\#pcontrast1 Quadaiko\#.
Kiirium Steel
\#pcontrast1 Kesou\#.
Carbonite Steel
\#pcontrast1 Orier\#.
\#pcontrast1 Tribaga\#.
Iron
Doonium Iron
\#pcontrast1 Aemivaism\#.
Non-Ferrous Metal
Aluminum
Agrinium Aluminum
\#pcontrast1 Nooma\#.
Copper
Kelsh Copper
\#pcontrast1 Disaile\#.
\#pcontrast1 Okaisohium\#.
Polysteel Copper
\#pcontrast1 Ododip\#.
Low-Grade Ore
Igneous Ore
Intrusive Ore
Ionite Intrusive Ore
\#pcontrast1 Emir\#.
Sedimentary Ore
Carbonate Ore
Barthierium Carbonate Ore
\#pcontrast1 Lede\#.
Zinsiam Carbonate Ore
\#pcontrast1 Ebinikaiam\#.
Siliclastic Ore
Robindun Siliclastic Ore
\#pcontrast1 Ebahiene\#.
Gemstone
Amorphous Gemstone
Plexite Amorphous Gemstone
\#pcontrast1 Dagaite\#.
Crystalline Gemstone
Byrothsis Crystalline Gemstone
\#pcontrast1 Tricivotite\#.
Message Edited by MrWizzard on 04-27-2004 11:41 PM
Stomping my feet-I'm tellingThrawn so he can send stormtroopers and they prog the DE to death, very slowly then boil him in batha oil., hand him over to me so I can drag his body across mountain of Tat.
Bogoa wrote:
Please understand I'm not saying all DE are heartless creeps, I salute anyone that masters ther Prof. and fully understand the math. I shout in praise to all Artisan that go's beyond the call of dutyfor their customer-knowind SWG dev. will screwup by not updating the holocron faqs. I always patronize merchants that take the time and add additional information. I wish noob Artisan would take in consideration when adding products to venders. I also just learn the stats on my servey droid sucks that what another DE told me, 80K down the drain. Maybe that whyI havn't got email.
SWG update the FAQ please. So when CSR direct us to the holocron their something to read.
This is my golden key rule, it does no good to be dishonest about something and being vague adds up to about the same thing. I always provide as much info as possible to ensure customer confidence. I have just stated selling droids since the patch so I hope to obtain a loyal and trusting customer base over the next week or so before I get my vendor up and runnng.
I get all my information from these boards so I recommend you check here oftenfor updates to new content - that way you'll be one step ahead of the con artists 
Harvest Module Test Results
Okay. I've done extensive testing of the Harvest Module and have come up with several observations that I'm going to share here.
First of all, the module does work. More or less as advertised. You have a droid with a harvest module and you have at least novice scout, you can send it off to harvest things while you keep killing more. And if it doesn't have an inventory of its own (storage module), it just dumps the resource into your own inventory. The droid does NOT automatically harvest, it follows your command to harvest, so as soemthing falls (becomes a corpse), you have to tell the droid 'Harvest' (or whatever you have it programmed as) and wait for it to start moving before you can change target. Or get your next attack started and then select the corpse and tell it to go.
As for the thought of these droids being bonuses to your own skill - this is where it gets confusing. I'll do my best to explain what I have observed.
First and foremost, this is not a straight up bonus like Veghash is. It is much more subtle than that. A +27 veghash will increase ANY person's harvest rate. A +27 droid will only increase, say, a Novice Scout's rate. Here are some numbers to help illustrate that.
Using Gurk Trackers to sample and a player with +45 Creature Harvest, we get 79 units of meat. With +27 veghash, that's pushed up to 89u. A +31 droid only increases it from 79 to 80. And a +16 actually DROPS it to 77. A Ranger coming in at +90 (not master, that'd be +100) harvests 97u. With the same veghash, that's pushed up to 115u. With a +31 droid, they FALL to 94u. And with the +16, their take is a pitiful 91u.
So, we've proven that the +XX droid does not have the same type of effect as +XX veghash. So how DOES it work? Well, it's a relationship of your skill to the droid's bonus. It seems like the 'break even point' is where the droid has 70% your skill, though to verify that I need the +90 ranger to use a +63ish droid. Anything above that point can bring in larger returns. Sort of. Here are two examples:
The +45 harvesting scout can bring in 79u. 91u with the +105 droid. 89u with Veghash. And 104u with Veghash AND droid. That means the 105 droid is a 15% gain over the player harvesting for himself. That's slightly better than the 13% boost the player gets from using the veghash. But the player on veghash sees an additional 17% boost using the droid, which means a total boost from no-veghash, no-droid of roughly 32%. Not insignificant.
Now, let's look at the +90 player, who brings in 97u without any help. 109u with the +105 droid. 115 with the +27 Veghash. And 122 with both Veghash AND droid. This player only sees a 12% boost using the droid, but a 19% boost using the veghash. And only a 6% gain using the droid on top of the veghash for a total boost from no help of 26%.
So, as you go up in skill, the bonus a droid can provide decreases. Furthermore, if your droid is too far below you in 'skill', it will actually hinder you. And the higher your own skill, the more outstanding the droid has to be to show any real gain for you.
Finally, it should be noted that droids with harvest modules act as the player when it comes to harvesting. The droid can harvest or you can harvest. Not both. And if you are grouped with another player, you take a 40% hit to your harvest rate, which the droid will then boost. The droid is not immune to grouping 40% penalty - it's only immune to getting hit with the penalty when it's grouped with you.
The big advantage to droids, really, is the ability to be harvesting WHILE you're fighting. In large groups, there's invariably someone who runs around harvesting while everyone else is fighting, which means that by the time everyone else is out of the combat, corpses are starting to disappear. With this droid module, everyone can harvest right away, fight or no fight, eliminating all the yelling at impatient players who harvest right away no matter how many times they're yell...reminded.
You're quite welcome! I've gotten lots of good info from these boards over the last couple weeks, least I could do is try to give a little back.
One other note, it looks like a low-end player with a very good droid can use that droid to compensate for lacking in skill. At least, to some extent. The best take of the +45 Scout with the +105 droid was 91u, which is close to the +90 Ranger's 97u. Which means that if you want to be "effective and ahead of the pack", everyone has to play "keep up with the jonses". It would be interesting to perform the same tests with a straight up Novice Scout with no Hunting at all, just to see how far that +105 can push the baseline.
It also means that all the MDEs out there are going to be happy and rich as scouts and rangers (not hordes of them, as this is still just a 'convenience tool', really) come looking for +120 Adv R3's.
-V
As far as Enternatiner effects go, I put three effects into the combat ready module and they worked fine. Very nice in fact and I recruited a master musician to advertise for me.
I think the key is to cluster them into a combat ready cluster module.
Yes, There is no problem (that I found) with the Entertainment Modules. I put all six into 2 Combat Clusters then stuck them into an R3 Droid. All six worked fine according to the Entertainer I gave it too. I saw most of the effects as well, looked good.
I am not sure why people are complaining about the having to put the Combat Cluster Modules into some Droids, its been like that since Publish 7. Any Droid that Accepts Combat Clusters, only takes Combat Clusters, and you can either put Combat Modules into them or regular Droid Modules. Works just fine.
Even when you examine the finished product, shows all the Modules installed (about time!) That is going to make it a lot easier to sell these droids. You are not limited to the Name of the Droid any more, people can just click Details before purchasing to see exactly what is in it.