Droid Engineer Archive

Now that we have cities and mounts (and all the issues that are sure to follow), it is time to get some attention from the developers. It is time for DEs to get real combat droids.

Read "combat droids" as:

• real probots (pre-nerf would be fine)


• DZ-70s that are like our current probots


• IG-88


• Droideka


• Battle Droids


• Super Battle Droids


• Dark Troopers


• dwarf spider droids


• hailfire droid


• homing spider droid


• super battle droid

Also, it is time for our existing general-purpose droids to do something.
Start with:

• Binary Load Lifters should....lift something. Let them have large item storage (>100)
  
• Data storage modules should....store data besides schematics (hello? Waypoints? What other data is there, really?)
  
• Let surgical droids be the only droid to even accept a medical module; and while we're talking about it, let them heal their owners automatically at a slow rate (but faster than the med center)
  
• Let protocol droids translate languages and make it so that it's not so easy to just teach someone a language without xp or cert requirements.
  
• Let LE Repair droids repair things...and not just droids. How about structures, vehicles, harvesters, armor, weapons?
  
• Let power droids and BLLs service your harvesters
  
• let treadwells accept a survey module that has a range of 100 m or so and let them have the ability to place a deed at the highest waypoint that they can find that is buildable
  
• let us make entertainment enhancement modules. How 'bout an R5 unit that can do enternaining holograms that help the entertainers somehow?
  
• How 'bout a waiterbot (like the vendor) that chefs could use to sell food in a cantina?
  

It is also time for some basic design fixes.

• different droids should have different module capabilities and maximum ability ratings. i.e., the probot can get a maximum of medium armor with 40% resists. Why not make it so that stacking L6 armor on a more powerfulc ombat droid would give it heavy armor with 70% resists? Likewise, maybe a general purpose R droid could accept up to a level 3 medical module while the surgical droid can get up to 110 rating? Same with item and data storage. an R3 should have a higher maximum data storage capacity than a BLL, for example, and a BLL should have a MUCH higher maxiumum item storage rating than an MSE droid. Wait a minute, I'm getting ahead of myself....
  
• BLLS need to be able to be crafted with modules, particularly item modules. If I can carry 50 items in my leather backpack, then the BLL should be able to carry like 200 items.
  
• experimentation should give various good/bad properties to crafted items, like special protection on armor plates, based on experiment results and resource properties
  
• We should be able to name upright "conversation" droids. We should also be able to bypass the whole conversation menu and get a regular radial menu if we choose not to put a personality chip in them
  
• we should be able to pull droids out anywhere. Pets too, for that matter. WTH does it matter if I'm in a city or in a swamp? The droid/pet shouldn't care.
  
• we should be able to /tell our droids once they have names; or did you miss the scene in Episode III where Luke talks to C-3P0 and R2D2 via a little walkie-talkie thing?
  
• we should be able to color the domes on an R2.
  
• if the droid has item storage, we should be able to put a crate of batteries in them and they can recharge themselves. Also, give droids a battery charge meter (why not just use the blue HAM bar?) so that we don't get burned in combat trying to tell a low-power combat droid to attack and have it not respond.
  
• let us make mobile droid vendors. Let "personality-capable" droids be able to accept a vendor module that would allow them to function as a vendor that doesn't require a structure (but are also not registerable on the global map so as to not kill off competition from static vendors)
  
• let anyone use a seeker droid if they just want to find someone: "joe: hmmm, my friend is online, but AFK. I wonder if I could run to them and wait for them to come back and then we could go hunting without wasting time meeting up." Joe whips out seeker droid, says "seeker find jane" (or whatever BH folks do) and does /follow on seeker (or at the very minimum gets a waypoint)
  
• mouse bombs...pretty cool idea, but it should be dependent on weaponsmith components.
  
• how's about letting power droids and BLLs work with your factories as well as harvesters? Power droid should have a "maintain harvester" command and BLL should have a "retrieve resources" command that would also work on factory output hoppers
  
  I could go on, but I have a major project to work on.
  
  Please developer team, it's time.
  
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  ;lkjsadf;lkjsdf
  ;lkjasdflkjsf
  [post flooding defense]
  ;lkasjdf;lkjsadf;lkjasdf;lkj
  ;lkdsf;lkjd;alfkj;laksdjf
  ;lkjsdaf;lkjdflkj;ldsjf
  
  
  
  --
  Colbe
  
  Master Droid Engineer | Master Artisan | Novice Teras Kasi Artist | 3-0-0-2 Merchant | 3-2-3-2 Scout (The Holocron made me do it)
  Located in Syn City, Naboo.
  Visit Colbe Droid Corporation at http://swg.ath.cx!
  

Nice Colbe.. Good stuff..

Elitros

The only problem I see is that how does this help the Creature Handlers?

You are right on, and it all makes perfect sense. Which, I'm afraid, is why the devs wont use it.

Maybe if enough people really like this idea and comment on it, the devs will then ask us if we really, really like it, and ask us what 2 things specifically.

every thing u said was right on the money

/agree

totally agree but...

now who wants to buy a DE account?

Some of your AI stuff is too complex -- it may happen but it will never happen soon. I'm particularly thinking about an automatic survey droid. Finding a 'suitable spot' near a high concentration is *just* do-able by itself, but it becomes very complex if there's any construction or lairs around the spot.

I think protocol droids should be portable chat recorders - they can record and play back one person's speech, or all the speech that occured in spatial near them. That would give them a function that you could use -- to keep minutes at a guild meeting or play back announcements. It would take some programming but it would be cool.

I like the idea of crafting custom vendors, perhaps even a factory droid that can be loaded with materials and some recipies, and turn out product on demand. Combine the factory code with vendor code, and voila -- should only take 3 or 4 months to get right (maybe 6).

I think JustG leaked some info about upcoming combat droids in the next quarter. Search for it, I don't remember where

Rather than give BH seeker abilities to everyone, how about a messenger droid -- you put an item, some data, or a short message (again with chat recording code) into the droid, address it, and zoom.... it goes to the target (and adv version can go interplanetary) and presents itself for attention -- asks to trade or whatever -- for 2 or 3 mintues then expires (or returns if the delivery fails).

and I totally agree that /tellpet should exceed line of sight for droids. /tellpet follow to summon a droid from a distance (provided it was previously called) would be very useful.

Your post is quite reasonable, and I salute you. But...

I find the title unnecessarily whiney and confrontational. Sorry but I have to talk about it.

I urge all DE's to avoid "demand" or "threat" language (i.e., I'm going to quit if you don't give it to me now) in their posts and especially titles.

It's almost a guarantee that the devs will bypass your post, they'll assume that you keep that tone throughout and they have a lot of other posts to read. I don't blame them, I'd just as soon people who say that follow through, and make room for reasonable people.

Sorry, I'm not trying to flame you, just trying to say that you have good points, but your presentation under this title is liable to keep them a secret.

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Colbe wrote:
Now that we have cities and mounts....

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This should be made into a poster and used to wallpaper the offices at SOE.

You forgot... don't make power droids use batteries! They run off a fusion generator that can go a long long long time I beleive.