Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: DE Plan CONCERN Thread
BlueMorgoth wrote:
- Combat droids that only DEs can control. Bad idea. We are artisans, not fighters. There must be a cert system in place for the combat classes to use combat droids.
Exactly! I'm not really sure about you folks, but I picked up this artisan skill to build things, and make money! I did not roll this character to go out and conquer the galaxy, I rolled him to build and sell droids and make a profit. Once again, I'm not sure about you folks, but what good is making myself a combat droid and using him, sure I can kill some random things, but in the long run, I dont make any money.
If you want to pull people away from CH and the dreaded 'P-word" wars, you have to entice the player to do something different. Like maybe utilize a technology highly touted throughout the whole star wars canon and EU. Droids! Giving a DE a 'DE only' bot that is great at killing pulls the DE out of the Artisan skill and drags them twoards the combat family. I only speak for myself, but that is something I do not want. I want to be able to sell my wonderfull killing machines to every Commando, Bounty hunter, Pistoleer and Squad leader I come across.
If you want to give the DE a special droid, give said droid some function that would really aid the MDE and give more incentive to finish out the title (a 'perk droid' that houses a Droid only crafting station that gives bonues or even special chasis to be built i.e. an EV9D9 or even an EU chassis) That gives us the incentive to finish the trees, adds to the ability of the artisan in question, and gives us the perk your looking for.
those are my two cents, I await the communities response..
DE= Not droid handler!!!!
since SOE feels that there must be checks and balances for combat (understandly so i used to dm/gm alot i had to do the same thing to not kill of the pc's to quick...) a cert system seems the best way to go BUT
DE's make droids and should not be the galaxies only Droid users. if they feel a cert system is required...
here is an outline for a very simple cert system...ironically much like CH....
Combat Droid Levels:
Probot 10
Basic Combat droid (aka Episode 1 fodder) 10
adv Combat droid (better armor, wpns, ai ect..) 15
Super Battle Droid (aka episode 2 big droids with wrist blasters) 20
Adv Super Battle Droid 25
Droidekas 30
Adv Droideka 35
IGG Assasin Droid 45
These would be the CL levels of the droids.
Certain addons might increase there CL levels or differing versions so the CL level might increase...
Now the certs would work as such:
Player Base points: 10
Novice Marksman/Brawler: For mastering any one tree of either +5 (one time only)
Scout novice +3, master any one class +3, master scout +4.
Novice Elite combat class +5
Mastering any one tree of an elite combat class +5 (one time only)
Mastering an elite combat class +5 (including smuggler)
Medics: Mastering any one tree +3 (one time only), master medic +3
Artisan/Entertainer: +3 for mastering any one tree (one time), +2 for master
Any elite non-combat profession + CH: +2 novice, +3 for mastering any one tree, +2 Mastering Elite prof.
DE: Novice +10, mastering any one tree +5 (one time) master DE +5
So there you go, a fair system that would allow any player to use droids based on what combat xp they have...
oh and for those probots/basic/adv battle droids you would be able to have a group of 3 assuming you had the points. for the adv battle droids groups of 2, and well thats it.
And 1 non-combat droid out.
Voila!
Mouse droids carrying bombs? What the heck is that... It's rediculous. And droids causing an increase in maintenance costs for extractors?
Weapon modules? What happened to a month ago when we had an answer about a new combat droid in the works (I don't care enough to dig up the DEV remarks).
Sintrosi, there's NOTHING in this "plan" that remotely follows the Star Wars Universe "genre". Here's a URL you might relay to the DEV's, and to get them back on track:
http://www.starwars.com
Just voicing my concerns and disappointment over this DE "plan".
First, I have to reject this "plan". The mere fact that this isn't a plan, not even close to being an outline, but something that you would find scribbled on a napkin during lunch. Someone at SOE needs to take some time to properly go through this class and prepare a better road map on how DE can be a more viable and helpful class to the rest of the community. Listen to the community cause you have a wealth of pure interest and knowledge available to you.
Item #1: I disagree with this in so many levels that have been previously discussed within this thread. We are crafters first and what is the point in being able to craft something that we aren't going to be able to market; everyone should have access to combat droids to a certain level.
Evolving the idea of combat droids on a poorly designed system will only put SOE and its customers into hard place as it will fail not too far after it has been implemented. The idea of having MSE bombs is an insult to our profession.
Item #2: Being able to take out more than one droid out at a time SHOULDN'T just for DE.
One Suggestion:
Allow droids to run mundane tasks, such as supplying power to harvestors/extractors. (Should SOE implement some sort of Remote Administration for harvestors/extractors, these droids would come in very handy.)
I have to admit that after reading this "plan", further doubts over SOE's inability to fairly judge the place of professions in the world. In essence, you have crafters and attackers . . . but SOE seems to want to bring everyone to the attackers side of things.
The next step is to send a letter to SOE about their misconception about their game.
Thank you Thunderheart and Sintrosi for your efforts.
Combat droids...Droid Modules...ONLY Droid Engineers will be able to make and use these modules.
I would vote against. A Weaponmaker cannot be the only one to use his gun, an armorsmith is not the only one to use his armor. We are Artisian. We make things for other people. It goes against the whole design of the artisian tree.
I, personally, am against combat droids quite frankly. We are support...we do not replace medics, architects, bounty hunters, etc. We should not replace combatants. We *should* be able to make assistive droids (maybe modules) which can increase accuracy/damage (like a Target Tracking Module) and the like. In any event, we should not have sole custody of combat robots or have ANY combat robots better than animals CH can provide (though ours may be able to provide complimentary capabilities like the tracking idea as opposed to the CH's philosohy of replacing a combatant). New modules should focus on assistance, such as decreased HAM costs, increased accuracy, increased skill modifiers, etc.
Droid engineers should be able to take out more than one droid at a time
YES, YES, YES. I am not sure what the difficulty is since it seems to be the exact same control scheme as CHs. I could see 1 droid for non-DE, 2 during the tree, 3 at the MDE.
We also need to be able to store more in our datapad. Since we are not combat (and since I would not want critically powerful combat droids anyways), I would prefer a larger number than CH so we can showcase them to customers instead of the stupid deed icon. I like to be a travelling salesman.
Increase Repair Droid functionality
Sounds like fun. I could live with either expendible items for the droid (maybe requires it to have a Storage slot where you put stuff), or a slow healing.
Add stim and health pack functionality
For them to use on people? NO. We do not replace medics. Maybe something which increases the healing amount, lowers the time to reheal, etc though.
Increase Medical Droid accessibility
Why? Tents, towns, etc are a good set of places. Heck, buy a stack of tents off a scout for a few peanuts...
MUSICIANS, however, could benefit by a droid module which allows them to play while it is out.
Give reduced mind cost to medics
YES. YES. YES.
Automatically stim incapacitated players
And, after it does it 3 times stupidly, cause the death of the individual who is under the aggro? Ummm. No. Besides, I don't want a droid sticking a needle in my butt..
take power and wound damage
Freaky sentence ommited ... As long as they don't drag wires in water, shorting the batteries and sucking down power like the current bots do. Better: if they have a storage compartment (see! more uses for it), have them able to auto-take a battery from a crate.
I also think, and I know people hate it, the idea of decreasing durability. That there is only so much that can be fixed on an old banged up bot, but at a very, *very* slow rate.
Power droid
Um, seems freaky, but in a cool way. As long as the cost ratio of bot vs maintenence fees was good enough to encourage their use.
MSE Bombs
I like the idea, except for 'high level DE'. This should be a low level DE item to allow low level DEs a revenue source. Maybe equivalent of a grenade (or a bit more given the relative costs of making it). Even better: What about being able to integrate existing weaponsmith (I think them) or scout bomb/grenades into a MSE chassis? Would encourage inter-profession work.
Animations, Protocol
Too late. You already blew it with the Protocol droid. It could have been great if you did not make language such a non-issue. It is a shiny tin man...
OTHER:
MORE CHASSIS!!!
I would like to see the major difference in chassis be that each one have a type of module which can be added without cost to it's free module slots (so more that each one has a 'dedicated' module slot in addition to generally open ones). So a 'Power Droid' could have a 'power module' slot + a free general purpose module slot, etc.
- I think I speak for a lot of DE's when I think an actual combat droid is a good thing. for those who don't, have you seen the first 2 movies?
- I would like to be able to name droids as in the movies/toys...R2H7 or something. Please let us use numbers.
- Weapon modules. A good thing for Combat only droids. Giving them to astromech droids or protocal droids...or worse a treadwel, is laughable. PLEASE we really do not want to see this. "Look it's R2 with a fricken laserbeam taped to it's head"...hmmm, yeah a big NO here. Oh, and the Probot is a PROBE droid...not a combat droid, remember that.
- From a DE perspective batteries are a good selling item now but they do wear off to quickly. I only remember droids recharging once and a while...not every 10 minutes.
- Customization. When I create a droid I can choose certain colors but they never come out this way then I use my droid customization tool. Ok, maybe colors may fade if in combat or something but for general use no way...you see your car outside? How often do you have to paint it? Again potentiallytaking money away from DE's but really this is silly.
Thanks
-oh and please let the droid repair tool actually work!!!
The DE plan would not suck so bad if...
1) you give us a Shield Module that we could stick in along with our Combat Module. This way our Droids would last longer then 1 hit. With 40% Medium Armor, and a rechargable Shield on a Probot, it would be a viable Pet in combat, and more people would buy these things from us. Even with the 810 HAM. I have not sold 1 Probot as a DE, its sort of Pathetic. Its our only sellable Combat Droid, and no one wants one.
2) Give us more droids, after the current ones are fixed and do what they should do. Man, I was so looking forward to Droidekas. What a disappointment. But #1 would give us a decent Probot at least.
My biggest consern is we need help NOW !!! Not some unforseen time in the future.
Graf VonSoden MA, DE {1/0/0/4}
Valin Duroth
No, master artisans cant do didly squat. What is the Nemodian Bird Cage all about.
We should be used for something. If you want electronics become one or be-friend one.