Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Combat Module suggestion (it was lost in the clutter)
Let's get this straight before I propose my combat modules suggestion. I believe that there is a better way to implement higher level combat droids than creating a whole new profession. I am against the idea of giving combat modules to non-combat droids of CL10 or lower. I am very much for making SWG more star warsy by adding in more droids and more functionality to droids to simplify and reduce the tediousness of playing (harvester runs, factory monitoring, deliveries, etc).
But if the Dev team feel that they need to add in "combat" modules before bug fixes, then here is a suggestion that maybe everyone will like:
Combat Modules - What are they?
Combat Modules shouldfit into aspecial socket module slot totally separate from the armor module and general socket module slots we already have. This will allow a droid to basically have an attack ability. They also should not have different Levels associated with em, just like the Repair Module.
The Combat Module should be built using resources, a pre-made weapon, and some other components that help to explain how they are mounted or usable by the droid. Using a pre-made weapon will define what that Combat Module will add to the droid in terms of damage type,weapon speed, range modifiers, and damage dealt. Being able to use pre-made weapons will open the door for droids to be highly customizable for combat.
The Combat Module should only be used in the DZ70 (defined as a light combat droid from the beginning), the Probot (defined as a medium combat droid and should be the top of the line for non-DH users), and the LE Repair Droid (cause no one wants to see a protocol droid shooting a blaster and surgical droids look too stupid be it either) and the BLL. Without this Combat Module, these droids should not be able to attack.
On top of this addition of the Combat Module, the Armor Modules need to be seriously looked at. They need to be varied. They need to have experimentation working on them. Medium Armor rating should be the max. The quality of the resources used (not counting the composite armor segment) should determine the resist values. Experimentation should change the resist numbers vs damage types, allowing a deeper resist vs one damage type at the sacrifice of another.
HAM values for the 3 droids mentioned above should be slightly increased, especially for the LE repair and DZ70 droids.
What is the reasoning behind this?
Well, I figure that any current combat droids should be either a weapons platform (i.e. Probot or DZ70) or a believable humanoid (LE Repair). The ability to have a high damage output (and also varying damage types) by using pre-made weapons comes at the cost of high usage of resources to craft this droidwith thecombat module (coupled with the cost of the weapon built in) and low HAM. In the movies, the "grunt" type droids died fairly easily. They were basically expendable. But if not destroyed, they can dish out lotsof damage because they carry the same blasters the humanoids used.
To add combat ability to any other current chassis is to invite disaster thru uncontrollable fits of laughter. Seriously, forget the R unit cattle prods, the protocol droid carbineer, the exploding MSE, etc. Having choice in how you build your droid (varying DPS, damage type, and resistances) will go a long way to appeasing the "pure crafter" in us.
Lastly, BEFORE design work on higher level combat droids and this new Droid Handler profession begins or gets very far, the proposal should be presented to the DE forum as a sounding board for droid types, damage output, variance, etc.