Droid Engineer Archive

You know, something struck me that I wanted to comment on......

What does it mean to say we're the most screwed up profession in the game? See, there's different types of being screwed up. Different types annoy different people more, so....well, let's analyze them.

1. Chefs: For them, nothing works as it should. Not a single product. They were supposed to be the Buffing class in the game, but sadly the Smugglers stole that role, and now every one of their products is obsolete. This profession had a low profile though....I mean, a Chef is a rather basic profession. Not specifically Star Wars-like, but they were made with a definate purpose and that purpose has not been fulfilled whatsoever.

2. Squad Leaders: I don't know an awful lot about them, so I'll make some guesses. The idea is a good one, that being that it is a combat-support class that helps out their group. They have a definate purpose and they're Star Warsy.....and they have abilities that *could* be useful, except none of them work as they ought to. One of the very simple and straight-forward broken classes. You know what's broke, and you know what must be done to fix it.

3. Droid Engineers: Okay, we're a quirky kind of screwed up in that nothing is black and white, nothing is simple and clear. First, we're *extremely* Star Wars-like.....however, we don't have a clear purpose. Do we make Combat Droids? Do we make Utility Droids? What are we supposed to do specifically? Do we do all these things to some degree? Next, we have very few things that do work, and many that don't. Unlike Chefs (whose work, but are inferior) and Squad Leaders (whose simply don't work at all), the droids that do work are very limitted in use. Medical Module and Crafting Module. We have a couple other droids that sorta work.....but are pretty much inferior. Sure, Item Storage works, but why do that when you can carry 5 times the amount in a simple backback, even at the highest level of module? Sure, we have Probots that take a beating, but why have them when you can have a superior CH Pet? Especially with the upcoming "One Pet Only" change. Then, they'll either (1) get a Faction Pet or (2) dabble in CH to get something much better at very few skill-points spent. Now, after that, we have a *ton* of droids that simply aren't necessary. It's not that they're broke, it's just that by a huge design flaw they're rendered completely and utterly unnecessary. I am a master Droid Engineer and I have never, ever seen a Treadwell droid in person. Never made one. There's no reason to. Between bugs and severe design traumas, we're pretty messed up.

So which makes the "most broken class"? Well I don't know, depends on how you define it. Chefs and Squad Leaders are literally and directly broken, no doubt about it. Perhaps even more than us, since they have nothing that works, and we have just two items that do. However, our problems are intricate and complex....we are what I would call "artistically broken." I feel like we aren't broken due to bugs or things not working, we're broken because someone sat down and worked out a detailed plan to screw us up in the most twisted way imaginable. We are the horrible knot of string from hell, the kind that you can't undo and just need to cut in the end. Our problems lie so deep that to even try to fix it requires (apparently) months to think about and then more months to test ideas on how to fix it.

Now that we've recognized what the types of "screwed up" are, let's see how they affect people. Chefs are a crafting class, and go through their lives with one worthless schematic after the other. Well, they aren't worthless, they're just inferior. So I say the chefs have a pretty rough and meaningless life. Squad Leaders are generally combat-type classes, who take the profession under the hope that they'll be able to help out their groups. Then, they learn the abilities don't work and cuss and rave. Sure, it annoys the hell out of them, but combat classes are pretty repetative anyways, so they're not entirely unaccustomed to things not working. Droid Engineers are also a crafting class, but always go into it with high hopes thinking that, since we're an intricate part of Star Wars, then surely they must've completed the profession. We all get a huge, huge letdown, and then become embittered by the serious "tangled knot" problems we have. Couple that with the psychological mockery which is the two droid modules that do what they're meant to, and we have some pretty messed up crafters.

So in all, considering both the types of "messed up" and how they affect the types of players who play them, I'd rate things like this...

1. Droid Engineers

2. Chefs

3. Squad Leaders

Thoughts?