Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Post-CU Droid Engineer (AKA I'm not asking for FREE COOKIES TH!)
CH now has the health bonus, they just updated it a few days ago....
darkmane wrote:
Ok, so the CU is coming. I kind of like it, I won't be a Novice TKM anymore but that is ok. I'm starting to think of what DE should be like afterwards.
So here is my idea, not a lot of detail yet, but the general idea is solid.
So first we move DE to be off of Master Artisan rather than Engineering 4. This increases our cost, but we've been dependant of MA so long most of us are already. This will increase our cost above that of almost all of the CU professions, the only one DEs won't cost more skillpoints than is Ranger, which includes no specials, weapons certs or armor certs from what I've heard.
Why should we let this happen? More powerful Combat Droids, more droids out at once. Finally a power droid capable of powering OUR droids.
We've basically accepted the creation of the Droid Commander profession. I'm still not a fan of it, why shouldn't DEs be the Droid Commanders? I'm not asking for parity with CHs, I know that being a crafting profession and not having to spend time "raising" the creatures gives us some advantages, so we should cost more SP than they do. I don't think we should get health bonuses like any of the CU professions unless CHs start to get that bonus.
Anyway, I know that we've discussed this ad nauseum, but we're losing non combat functionality with the CU, it will probably be easier for the Devs to give us more combat functionality than more non combat. There are changes coming, I'd prefer to have non-combattant content as rich and deep as combattant content, but I doubt that will be a reality in ANY MMORPG in the near future.
darkmane wrote:We've basically accepted the creation of the Droid Commander profession...
Really? When did we do this? Last I heard, the idea was shot down by the *majority* of the DE community because we didn't want another BE/CH combo. I frankly tend to stick by that decision...
RasalTheWise wrote:
darkmane wrote:We've basically accepted the creation of the Droid Commander profession...
Really? When did we do this? Last I heard, the idea was shot down by the *majority* of the DE community because we didn't want another BE/CH combo. I frankly tend to stick by that decision...
ohhh..I see. You must not of gotton the "memo".
*clears throat*
We will have our people get in contact with your people.....
RasalTheWise wrote:
Really? When did we do this? Last I heard, the idea was shot down by the *majority* of the DE community because we didn't want another BE/CH combo. I frankly tend to stick by that decision...
KnightHawk420 wrote:
move to master artisan... can I get a hell no?
Even if it got you Droidekas, Roger-Rogers and the ability to have more than one droid out at a time?
theorb22 wrote:
CH now has the health bonus, they just updated it a few days ago....
darkmane wrote:
Ok, so the CU is coming. I kind of like it, I won't be a Novice TKM anymore but that is ok. I'm starting to think of what DE should be like afterwards.
So here is my idea, not a lot of detail yet, but the general idea is solid.
So first we move DE to be off of Master Artisan rather than Engineering 4. This increases our cost, but we've been dependant of MA so long most of us are already. This will increase our cost above that of almost all of the CU professions, the only one DEs won't cost more skillpoints than is Ranger, which includes no specials, weapons certs or armor certs from what I've heard.
Why should we let this happen? More powerful Combat Droids, more droids out at once. Finally a power droid capable of powering OUR droids.
We've basically accepted the creation of the Droid Commander profession. I'm still not a fan of it, why shouldn't DEs be the Droid Commanders? I'm not asking for parity with CHs, I know that being a crafting profession and not having to spend time "raising" the creatures gives us some advantages, so we should cost more SP than they do. I don't think we should get health bonuses like any of the CU professions unless CHs start to get that bonus.
Anyway, I know that we've discussed this ad nauseum, but we're losing non combat functionality with the CU, it will probably be easier for the Devs to give us more combat functionality than more non combat. There are changes coming, I'd prefer to have non-combattant content as rich and deep as combattant content, but I doubt that will be a reality in ANY MMORPG in the near future.
Message Edited by JavelinCatcher on 04-19-2005 07:01 PM
darkmane wrote:
RasalTheWise wrote:
Really? When did we do this? Last I heard, the idea was shot down by the *majority* of the DE community because we didn't want another BE/CH combo. I frankly tend to stick by that decision...THere have been a few people who have said they changed thier minds since until now it has seemed to be the only way to get more powerful combat droids in the game. Maybe I'm over generalizing when I use the all inclusive "we".So what do you want for the future of DEs?
Seriously, I hear what you're saying, and I would absolutely LOVE to see higher-end combat droids in the game, but there has to be a better way than the DC path. What other paths do we have? Well, that's what we've been struggling with since publish 7 and 8 came out. Some people like the idea of having anyone from any profession be able to spend skill points in "droid handling", but then that starts eating into CH territory. Some proposed quest-earned droids, but you start running into balance issues then. Yet more people think they should just have the Creature Handlers handle droids just like pets. But that would create such a small, niche market that it just wouldn't be worth implementing. And of course, there's allowing DE's to handle them. But as the first point, it eats into CH territory.
So this is our quandry, and may be the reason we may never see high-end PC controlled combat droids in the game.
"It's our lot in life to suffer..."
Message Edited by RasalTheWise on 04-19-2005 04:37 PM
darkmane wrote:
KnightHawk420 wrote:
move to master artisan... can I get a hell no?
Even if it got you Droidekas, Roger-Rogers and the ability to have more than one droid out at a time?
Yes even then. I guess maybe if you threw in that only DE's would be able to use these awesome droids, then there may be more justification... but I don't see a crafting profession turning into a quasi combat profession based on droids... if they are going to relase droids such as those, people other than DE's are going to be using them, thus no justification for the increased requirements.
KnightHawk420 wrote:
darkmane wrote:
Even if it got you Droidekas, Roger-Rogers and the ability to have more than one droid out at a time?
Yes even then. I guess maybe if you threw in that only DE's would be able to use these awesome droids, then there may be more justification... but I don't see a crafting profession turning into a quasi combat profession based on droids... if they are going to relase droids such as those, people other than DE's are going to be using them, thus no justification for the increased requirements.
I'm sorry, I must have been unclear in my original post, I did mean for the higher level combat droids to be DE only droids. With the ingame justification that only a DE can manage a droid unstable enough to go into combat.
We are pretty certain that in order to get Combat droids in there will be a "droid commander" like profession. Nothing we came up with as a suggestion seemed to make a dent in the Devs determination to follow that route. My reasoning for floating this suggestion is to keep droids as an integral part of Droid Engineering yet keep the balance of power correct. Rather waiting for the Devs to come up with a suggestion that would prevent DEs from ever commanding their own creations. You know the Droid commander with Master Scout, Master Marksman prerequists sitting on someones hard drive waiting to be checked in.
RasalTheWise wrote:
What other paths do we have?
The GCW revamp...
This how I see it playing out.
The droid schematics offered by a faction recruiter are changed to include - Battle Droids, Droidekas, Super Battle Droids, and possible other variants of the droids that we currently have, like a Combat Protocol droid, etc.. The schematics are only avaiable to a Master Droid Engineer, for Faction Points. Each schematic has 10 uses.
Each droid is base CL 20ish and above, dependent on the droid chassis. (IE Battle Droids would = CL 20, Droidekas would be = CL 30, etc {the CLslisted are just a possible example}). For different Faction ranks, you would gain the cert for a different Droid. (Battle Droids could be rank 3, Droidekas could be rank 5, etc {again, rank and droid listed are just an example}).
The droids could also be 'bonded' to the owner, in much the same way that CU Faction armor is bonded to its owner. This makes it so that the droid can not be traded to someone else.
Finally, the decision would need to be made as to whether or not the Faction droid could be used to target non-faction targets.
This is the direction that I really think the DEVs will/should take the implimentation of higher end combat droids, since it would lock Droid Engineers into a GCW role and would allow for higher end combat droids to be accessable by a large playermarket, without infringing on the role of Creature Handlers, yet still keeping the droid use limited to those that have spent time int the game.
Note - For those that think that this doesn't make sense, from a 'Star Warsy' point of view....
Both the Rebels and the Empire, more so with the Empire, have been known to employ the use of combat droids, according to many EU sources. The IG-series is a prime example of the Empire using combat droids to do its bidding. As for the Rebels, Nym is a sort of ally to the Rebellion. Its not that great of a leap that Nym could offer schematicsof the droids on Lok, to the Rebellion.