Droid Engineer Archive

I just read a thread posted by the devs that states New Changes are coming to You DE's

http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/content.jsp?page=In%20Development

Just to save You time incase Your lazy:

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Droid Invasion

Welcome to Star Wars Galaxies second In Development overview. During the first 3 months of 2004, there will be many upcoming game features up for addition and design changes. The second will be a set of changes made to the game world that will add combat functionality to Droids.

There are two parts to the "Droid Invasion". The first component is the adding of combat functionality to droids with "combat modules" that can be crafted by Droid Engineers. The second component will be a reiteration of the Droid Engineer profession. In Development ideas will be considered for the month of January and planned for implementation in Late February. Points of focus will be:

Droid Combat Functionality

New Combat Droid Models

Combat Module ideas and basic rules for combat modules for all droids

Things to Consider

The role of combat droids in MMO combat and

The repair of combat droids and the crafting of repair kits

Droid combat and owner's Faction modifiers

Droid Engineer Revamp

The Droid Engineer profession will be reiterated as much as possible with a focus on combat droids. Many of the existing profession issues are In Production and will be In Test In January.

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QwiqShot wrote:

Many of the existing profession issues are In Production and will be In Test In January.

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This little blurb got the majority of my attention. I certainly hope this is true. If it is, the combat droids will just be icing on the cake! If they can make being a Master DE worthwhile and different from just a glorified novice, I certainly will be happy.

Information is good, now we just need more specific and detailed information. (vague information tends to spark riots on these boards).

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Jenden wrote:
Information is good, now we just need more specific and detailed information. (vague information tends to spark riots on these boards).

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Read the link he has up on top. It sounds very good. They sound like they are going to be a lot more open with what changes they are making and invite feedback on the changes they have made. Sounds like a great start.

I know, but just the general statement that the skill tree would be reitterated with a focus on combat droids is going to bring back a lot of arguments.

The letter of the day is "B" for "Balance" . . . don't hope for a lot . . .

I will withhold judgement on the new communication process and DE changes until I see them in action. Previous communication attempts have not been very successful, and previous DE changes have not, for the most part, been beneficial to the profession or the game (IMO).

Second, the timetable they listed in that post is an adjustment to one that was previously given which had low to middle combat droids in January, with the heavier droids coming in February. The current timeline places "discussion" about what should be done in January (5th-21st), which leads me to believe that we will see nothing come of it until March at the earliest, and that being on test center. February will be the "In Development" phase of the cycle.

That being said, and from past experience, I will expect to see something come of it on live servers in late April or early May, so as to not get my own hopes up regarding these changes.

With that timeline, SWG will be almost one year old before DE is, in my opinion, a viable profession.

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Jenden wrote:
Information is good, now we just need more specific and detailed information. (vague information tends to spark riots on these boards).

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/agree

But also so far it sounds good! Woot and stuff!

As much as I welcome this news, it's hard to not be skeptical. The Dev team has a lot to make up to those of us who stuck it out and had more hope for the game than anyone at SOE.

And will someone please staple Raph's nutsack to his leg.

Woo, we're asked to suspend our disbelief again. Oh well. At least the devs are putting more effort into pretending, which is better than no effort at all.

Since we have to wait a few days to post in the official threads about it, I figure why not start here. And right away I have a massive concern:

[quote]The Droid Engineer profession will be reiterated as much as possible with a focus on combat droids. Many of the existing profession issues are In Production and will be In Test In January.[/quote]

The focus os Droid Engineering should absolutely NOT be on combat. Combat oriented droids make up less than 10% of the droids in the Star Wars universe, and although there is a lot of reason to adjust this here, it doesn't have to be overwhelmingly combat based. There are plenty of applications for droids as it is, applications that are being completely ignored.

Rather than all of these flora farms being specific to architects, why not have agricultural droids? A droid takes up one lot of land for it's farming. It can do less work than the hydroponics, but costs less and uses less resources? Cheaper MOBILE mining/harvesting droids that can be packed up even more readily than something can be re-deeded? Slicing droids, maintenence droids, there is room for all of these. We all want to have an R-droid with the arc welder working on our harvesters like we see in various starports. How about guard droids to keep overts of opposing factions out of a player city? They don't exist now. Maybe a droid or two to staff the larger factories for an efficiency boost? How about using MSE droids for artisans to deliver single items to customers (yeah, that one's a stretch)?

I'm glad to see that there's going to be an extended range of combat droids, but they aren't the only problem. I'm curious to know what is meant by 'reiteration,' and if it just means it changes to a variation on creature handling. Because that is not what most Droid Engineers want to see happen.

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TyeDyeBoy wrote:

Since we have to wait a few days to post in the official threads about it, I figure why not start here. And right away I have a massive concern:

[quote]The Droid Engineer profession will be reiterated as much as possible with a focus on combat droids. Many of the existing profession issues are In Production and will be In Test In January.[/quote]

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Well, I point to the above. Combat droids are an existing gripe of the DE's, but I wouldn't call it many. I am crossing my fingers that they fix the existing stupid bugs that have existed since launch that makes playing a MDE completely worthless and not worth the skill points. The stacking of modules needs to be addressed, obvisouly the stacking of clusters, the talkies not utilizing certain modules, the insane use of batteries, the absolute uselessness of the BLL, the lack of any kind of differenatition between droid types, the list goes on and on. They need to fix these first and hopefully show us some respect finally and give us a little bonus ON TOP of these issues such as new combat type droids.

Fix us and give us something special to make us not feel stupid for having stuck it out for so long is my answer.

I agree, combat droids are less than half as important as any others. To me too it seems that the devs always ask questions but in the end never even listen to the answers. They just come up with some other crap. Oh well...

Sounds like back peddling to me, IF they got some designs in mind. Why are they asking for our advise between the 5 - 21. Either way will be interesting to see what damage they do to the profession now. MDE Battle Droid woooya. CL 14 Ham 1.4k lol J/K I am ust not getting my hopes up. They never even fixed the darn probots...