Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Non-DE take on droid decay
Message Edited by Mr_pepsi on 02-18-2005 11:53 AM
TAfirehawk wrote:
As a former Architect, I firmly believe ALL crafting profs should be selling all or most of their items that decay. Repeat business is key for the longevity of a crafter....and the main reason I dropped Architect 13 months ago.
I would actually be able to accept that so long as it didn't include factories/PA halls. Simply put I don't want to log in and find the factory gone or the pa hall gone.
Eceen wrote:
Dont mess with the Star Wars continuity. How long was R2-D2 on Naboo as a mechanic, before being picked up by Anikan? He is still around and healthy. C3PO is still around after how many years in a blistering hot and dust infected planet. Which are the 2 major killers of electronics. Droids should not decay. This is an easy fix for a bigger problem, and will only serve to cause bigger problems down the line.
Could you go further into what the "bigger problem" is? How else does an economy keep running if items don't wear down and things don't have to be replaced? Even R2 and 3PO I'm sure had tons and tons of repairs and replacements over the years. I'd be willing to bet that they're hardly the same physical droids they were when they came off of the assembly lines!
Message Edited by jefmes on 02-18-2005 10:38 AM
Eceen wrote:
Dont mess with the Star Wars continuity. How long was R2-D2 on Naboo as a mechanic, before being picked up by Anikan? He is still around and healthy. C3PO is still around after how many years in a blistering hot and dust infected planet. Which are the 2 major killers of electronics. Droids should not decay. This is an easy fix for a bigger problem, and will only serve to cause bigger problems down the line.
Actually if were going to talk about the movies, lets be accurate.
R2 was destroyed in episode 4. The only reason that he didn't meet the scrap heap afterwards was because Luke said to save him. At the time he was the Hero of the day, so they fixed him. Otherwise, it would have been far more cost effective to replace him.
If droids don't wear out or decay, then what were all the broken droids in the back of the Jawa Sandcrawler?
Sure some droids last long in the movies, far more money was put into them then it would have cost to replace them. This is because those Droids were actually characters in the movies. The only way to achieve that is if people played droids, those would be the exceptional ones.
The Droids we craft are the normal ones, they wear out.
Jenden wrote:
Ok, I want to get some input from non DE's on droid decay. Just some background info for those that don't know, currently droids do not decay, wear out, or get old in any way. There are still perfectly good droids from launch floating around. This is causing some stagnation in the droid market, and is currently the number one issue to the DE community. Please post your feedback to droid decay in general and/or the specific droid decay proposal in this thread.
Here is my feedback:
I feel really really bad for DE's at the moment, there are too few of them, and they are not really integrated into the game enough. I certainly think droids should decay, and that sounds like a reasonable solution (I especially like the bit about smoke coming out and changes in its functionality). I think 1 month is too short however. That is shorter than most other things that I have last, but I'm sure a compromise can be reached there.
HOWEVER... from my perspective, I don't think this is a good time to make such a change, and here is why. I think too many of the droid offerings right now would be difficult to justify a purchase of, if they needed constant replacing/fixing/maintenence. Things like trapping droids, maintenence droids, entertainer droids, stimpack droids, combat droids, and so forth, while fun toys, would be all the more undesirable if they were made harder to own. Also something like a harvesting droid which costs a bunch of upfront money, and requires quite a bit of hunting before you break even on it, may no longer be a sound financial investment if it required a bunch of upkeep (aside from it's already insatiable appetite for batteries). Personally, I think you'd be better off getting a new droid or two, then worrying about some renewable sales later.
That's my $0.02, strictly from the standpoint as a customer.
Message Edited by ArthurDentOnBria on 02-18-2005 03:41 PM
I firmly believe that droids are one of the few star warsy craftable items in the game but are also the most ignored facet of the game.
To START with, they, like armour, vehicles, and weapons, should decay. Repairable 5 or 6 times, then integrity becomes an issue, eventually leading to a new purchase or 'overhaul' on components.
After that, someone has to make battle droids.. battle... and the rest of them have to be better than gigantic lunchboxes for storage and med chips.
ZallusNuranxis wrote:Now I don't propose that a droid goes *POOF*, but there should be a way that they need repaired over time. Maybe droids should have a new stat bar called "Wear" added to the HAM bars. The Wear Bar starts out maxed and decays over usage. Once this bar gets to a certain level, the droid won't obey commands and/or have deminished module functions.Can't seem to spell today
Message Edited by ZallusNuranxis on 02-18-2005 12:34 PM
im sorry I have a POS tandy that requires a floppy with 32k of ram that STILL works after all these years. its doing nothing but sitting next to me looking like my medical droid for deco. i dont see its bar wearing out until I die quite hoenstly
/bow
ArthurDentOnBria wrote:
I think too many of the droid offerings right now would be difficult to justify a purchase of, if they needed constant replacing/fixing/maintenence.
Please understand...DEs don't want "constant" replacing either. We want a decay system that's fair for both sides.
Right now, the equation is massively slanted in the buyer's favor. That's what needs to be balanced.
Things like trapping droids, maintenence droids, entertainer droids, stimpack droids, combat droids, and so forth, while fun toys, would be all the more undesirable if they were made harder to own.
Okay...so what would make themeasier to own such that a fair decay system wouldbe workable?
No more batteries?
I agree (and think many DEs would) that we'd love to see more "need" for droids. Right now, they can give a smart player many types of 'edges' in many situations but they aren't really a requirement for anything in the same way weapons, armor (and even housing) are...
Also something like a harvesting droid which costs a bunch of upfront money, and requires quite a bit of hunting before you break even on it, may no longer be a sound financial investment if it required a bunch of upkeep (aside from it's already insatiable appetite for batteries).
Perhaps you think we mean you to have to bring the droid to a DE every few days or once a week.That's not the case.I do agree that it would be nice to see some changes made to make Harvest droids even more attractive to Rangers especially but also higher end Scouts.
Personally, I think you'd be better off getting a new droid or two, then worrying about some renewable sales later.
But decay, as a single change, affects us across the board. That's why it's such a key change that's needed.
A new droid feature will spike in sales initially and quickly drop off and plateau. We saw it with every droid revamp (and JTL). There needs to be a sustainable renewable sale market regardless of what new droid features might come down the line.
Respectfully,