Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Post-CU Droid Engineer (AKA I'm not asking for FREE CHECKERS TH!)
Drashk wrote:
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.
I disagree, I think you remember similar ideas being floated during the Droid Invasion/Droid Revamp and the only response we got (repeatedly) was "No Free checkers". Ifno skill points are being spent, the Devs won't go for it. It would be too simple for someone to use pilot to grind FP and get Major then instantly be on parity with what ever level droid they can get. Even if you limit it to faction targets I doubt very much the Devs would go for it.
darkmane wrote:
I disagree, I think you remember similar ideas being floated during the Droid Invasion/Droid Revamp and the only response we got (repeatedly) was "No Free checkers". Ifno skill points are being spent, the Devs won't go for it. It would be too simple for someone to use pilot to grind FP and get Major then instantly be on parity with what ever level droid they can get. Even if you limit it to faction targets I doubt very much the Devs would go for it.
Actually, it has been mentioned a few times by the DEV team, in the not too distant past, that they were looking into adding droids with the GCW.
Skill point use was only a part of the reason behind the 'No'. The DEVs didn't want to add in combatdroids that anyone could use, fresh out of the box.
Something else to keep in mind... The 'No Free checkers' was during an era when combat was completely out of balance. With the CU currently in testing, that imbalance is no longer there, with the exception of AT-STs. Take into consideration the changes made to how Weapons and Stims are now going to 'certed' for anyone with a certain combat level. With these changes coming into play, I think that the era of 'No free checkers' is no longer relevant to the concept of making the game 'More Star Warsy and fun to play'.
Drashk wrote:
Something else to keep in mind... The 'No Free checkers' was during an era when combat was completely out of balance. With the CU currently in testing, that imbalance is no longer there, with the exception of AT-STs. Take into consideration the changes made to how Weapons and Stims are now going to 'certed' for anyone with a certain combat level. With these changes coming into play, I think that the era of 'No free checkers' is no longer relevant to the concept of making the game 'More Star Warsy and fun to play'.
darkmane wrote:
I saw that discussion, while that is an interesting idea, it actually reduces the effectiveness of the character. The character only has his full 250 SP when he has the droid out, so his average skill points is R + (N * A) Where R is the remaining skillpoints, N is the number commited to the droid and A is the %age of time the droid is out. Plus it would be a total departure from the mechanics of the current system, which greatly increases the time to develop it.
So this leaves either adding a DC profession, or coming up with some other way for people to control such droids. A DC profession is a lot of work.
They wont just "give" droids to people because they are getting extra power with no cost. Everything in the game would need to be balanced to assume that people had such droids. Some people don't want to control droids or pets, this would leave them at a disadvantage.
Letting people spend skill points to control higher level droids wouldn't weaken players any more then them going CH does now. Their weapons are simply pets, the droids would be the same way. If you spent 20 points on your Droid, then you get 20 points of combat power, what you lose as a toon is made up with the droid.
This actually involves a lot less "work" then Dc proposals and others as well. Very little is done from the character side, an interface for fgiving skill points is all that would be needed. All that would need done is droids of the proper levels would need created to fit those skill points.