Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droid Module Focus (Creature Harvest): Information, discussion and bug-reporting (04/17/04)
Creature Harvester module (available at 1/0/0/0):
Items of note:
- Available for use only Novice Scout (or higher) players.
- The Creature Harvest bonuses *do* stack (i.e. 2 modules, each with +20 Harvest bonus, in one droid will give +40 bonus total).
- You should see 'harvest' (amount) spam and Harvest XP messages...
- Experience from the droids harvesting should be about half of the XP from player-harvesting. Note: It has been reported (by Morturr) that the XP was the same. I will be checking on this to find out how it should be acting. For now, I'd assume that you get 50%, so that if it's really 100%...you'll be pleasantly suprised.
- The droid will attempt to place harvested material into its own inventory before the players. (TC update - 04/16)
- The range for harvesting is (until known for sure) between 30-45m. Note: We do not know yet but there is a chance that range is affected by the experimentation on the module and/or the final bonus stats. Note from JavelinCatcher: It seems to depend on where the player is and the droid is in relation to the corpse. If the droid is within range, it will use the distance from droid. If the player is in range, it will use the distance from player.
Schematic / Resources:
- 50 units of Copper
- 20 units of Inert Gas
- 55 units of Steel
Durability: 50/50% Conductivity and OQ
Effectiveness (Quality): 50/50% Conductivity and OQ
Description of functionality:
Note: A huge thanks for sciguyCO (Chef Corr.) for putting this together.
The Harvester module on a droid allows the player to extract meat, hide, or bone from slain creatures. You must have Novice Scout in order to order the droid to harvest resources. {things to check: what's happens to the "Harvest Options" menu if you don't have NS, can a droid be "trained" then transfered?}
- The player calls the droid, and uses left-click-and-hold or the ~ key to bring up the radial menu. Droids with the Harvester module installed will have the menu item "Harvest Options".
- Clicking "Harvest Options" itself doesn't do anything, but it does have a submenu with two choices:
- Program Target Harvest: used to program the droid with the voice command to tell it to harvest.
- Set Target Interest: used to select the type of resource the droid will extract. This can be "Random", "Meat", "Hide", or "Bone".
- "Program Target Harvest" works the same as any other droid programming. Selecting this option will have the droid prompt you with a "?". Then, the next word(s) you say in either spatial or with /tellpet will set the command to trigger this action. Successful programming will result in the droid responding with "!".
- Use "Set Target Interest" to choose the type of resource the droid should extract. "Random" will have the same effect as when a scout does a "/harvest" on a slain creature, picking one of the three types at random.
"Set Target Interest"
Harvesting resources
- To have the droid gather resources, the owner gives it the programmed command while the corpse of the creature is targeted. There is a range limit on how far away the target can be, it appears to be at or around 30m. If the player (or perhaps the droid) is farther away than that, the droid will not respond.
- After giving the command, the droid rolls over to the corpse, and the owner will see a system message "Your droid has successfully harvested X unit(s) of {resource type}". The owner does receive scout xp for this harvest.
- This harvest acts if the owner were the one who did the harvest, so he/she cannot multi-harvest the corpse, even when grouped with the droid. However, they also do not get the 40% resource reduction in resource quantity (incidently fixed whenever you are grouped with only pets).
- {thing to check: if grouped with another scout, can they harvest a corpse harvested by your droid}
- The droid will not harvest if it is at 0% power.
- {untested} If the droid has a storage module in addition to the harvest module(s), the harvested resources will be stored there. If the storage module is full, the resources go to the player's inventory.
Benefits of droid harvesting
- The droid's harvesting ability is tied to the "Creature Harvesting" skill of the owner. As the player's "Creature Harvesting" skill goes up, so does the harvesting ability of the droid. However, with enough stacked modules of decent quality, the droid's harvests can be greater than the owner would get doing it themselves. For example, with a droid having "Harvest Bonus 95" the droid would get about 20% more than the player.
- The droid can be commanded to harvest resources even if the player is in combat.
- The droid can be sent to harvest from a corpse 30m away.
Message Edited by TheRealTK421 on 04-18-2004 11:00 AM
Is there a cap on this bonus? Or is it just the +120 you would get with an R3 with 6 harvesting modules?
TheRealTK421 wrote:
Fellow DEs,
The Creature Harvest bonuses *do* stack (i.e. 2 modules, each with +20 Harvest bonus, in one droid will give +40 bonus total).
- The droid's harvesting ability is tied to the "Creature Harvesting" skill of the owner. As the player's "Creature Harvesting" skill goes up, so does the harvesting ability of the droid. However, with enough stacked modules of decent quality, the droid's harvests can be greater than the owner would get doing it themselves. For example, with a droid having "Harvest Bonus 95" the droid would get about 20% more than the player.
While this seems like a good start to anidea for a module, I personally do not understand the (presumed) utility.
In many ways, I relate this module to a medical module. It does not grant any real abilities by itself, it only enhances a player's existing ability. With a medical module, that's a big enhancement because it allows the medic to use abilities outside of a hospital that are not normally usable. With a sufficiently high-quality droid, it even enhances the abilities themselves by providing a 10% bonus.
This module does the latter (a sufficiently high-quality droid provides a bonus to harvesting), but it does not do the former. In other words, there is absolutely no use for a droid equipped with anything but maximum harvesting capability. It is therefore rather pointless to allow the modules to stack unless the entire purpose of doing so is to ensure that a harvesting droid cannot do anything else.
As a solution, I recommend that the harvesting module simply be increased in power and made significantly more difficult to produce. It should provide a 10-20% increase to the player's ability to harvest but should cost 5-6 times as much as the current design.
A second option would be to allow a harvesting droid to harvest from the same corpse that the player can harvest from, but only at the droid's own rate. This would make low-quality harvesting droids useful because they would be harvesting additional resources (but notthe same resource that the player is harvesting)while still allowing high-quality droids to be superior. Even if modules harvested 10% of a player'sharvestingcapability inresources per installed module this would be useful at all levels, whereas the current design is not.
I doubt this will happen. BE's for one would be upset as they can't harvest a creature they killed in a DNA sample accident. So allowing a scout with a droid to harvest 2 animal resources from the same corpse would be unbalancing I think.
Kollos wrote:
A second option would be to allow a harvesting droid to harvest from the same corpse that the player can harvest from, but only at the droid's own rate. This would make low-quality harvesting droids useful because they would be harvesting additional resources (but notthe same resource that the player is harvesting)while still allowing high-quality droids to be superior. Even if modules harvested 10% of a player'sharvestingcapability inresources per installed module this would be useful at all levels, whereas the current design is not.
Message Edited by Kaldeth on 04-19-2004 03:41 AM
Kollos wrote:While this seems like a good start to an idea for a module, I personally do not understand the (presumed) utility.
...
I am really looking forward to this module. As a rifleman, I like to hunt by kneeling or going prone at about 45m from a lair, and picking off the creatures. Currently, if I am hunting in order to harvest, I either have to run up to creatures as I kill them or kill a round of them and hope they don't poof out before I get out of my position. This module will allow me to stay in position the entire time, and have the droid do the legwork. Not to mention that any bonus to harvest amount, even if it is a small percentage, can add up pretty quickly.
The 30m range seems a bit skimpy to me, I don't know that I can think of a reason why it should be that way. I am interested the answer to the question as to whether the 30m is from the droid, or the player giving the command. If it is from the droid, then this problem is easily solved by having the droid "follow other" on the target or the lair before issuing the harvest command.
In any case, there is at least one paying customer waiting to get their hands on one of these...
I still see this as being one of the most requested new droid types (apart from the new improved CL13 combat droids) This is one of the few where I haveno real issues with.Well - i finally got some time last night to log in my character i am working at becomming a Bounty Hunter. So i decided to plop a trap and creature harvesting tool in it and see how it worked out.
From my experience:
I did get the exp - but i got the full exp (59 points for harvesting a nargalatch cub - the same for harvesting it myself). That however might be a bug still.
Now - i specifically tested the range for its effectiveness. When i was kneeling at 50m away from a corpse (the droid was a lot closer) - it would not let me harvest. so i inched forward (centimetered forward didnt sound right) till it harvested at 45m.
But as i was training in carbines at the same time - i had to keep them in the middle of the field range. Once i trapped them and they got stuck for a short bit - i was able to blast one and have my harvester go and pick up the hides. The fun part was that i could send it a "throw trap" command and it would target and throw the trap at the next creature- yet it still remembered its original command to harvest the corpse! I was very plesently supprised. i could do a lair in about 3/4 the time if i am trying to work on scout too.
So all in all - I think its one of the more worthwile droid modules in this patch!
Yea, the combination harvester/trapper droids are great combinations. I've been using it with my riflemans andI can't tell you how nice it is to kill, send in the droid for havest and not have to get up from my position. I can even start killing other stuff while my droid goes and havests for me. Its the little things that really make it worth it.
Morturr wrote:
Well - i finally got some time last night to log in my character i am working at becomming a Bounty Hunter. So i decided to plop a trap and creature harvesting tool in it and see how it worked out.
From my experience:
I did get the exp - but i got the full exp (59 points for harvesting a nargalatch cub - the same for harvesting it myself). That however might be a bug still.
Now - i specifically tested the range for its effectiveness. When i was kneeling at 50m away from a corpse (the droid was a lot closer) - it would not let me harvest. so i inched forward (centimetered forward didnt sound right) till it harvested at 45m.
But as i was training in carbines at the same time - i had to keep them in the middle of the field range. Once i trapped them and they got stuck for a short bit - i was able to blast one and have my harvester go and pick up the hides. The fun part was that i could send it a "throw trap" command and it would target and throw the trap at the next creature- yet it still remembered its original command to harvest the corpse! I was very plesently supprised. i could do a lair in about 3/4 the time if i am trying to work on scout too.
So all in all - I think its one of the more worthwile droid modules in this patch!
/bow
Morturr wrote:
Idid get the exp - but i got the full exp (59 points for harvesting a nargalatch cub - the same for harvesting it myself). That however might be a bug still.
I've put this on the list of 'uncertain' items. We need to know if the XP should be the same or different. Right now, I guess we'll have to assume it should be the same (til we hear otherwise).
...it harvested at 45m.
Interesting. The report from TC was that the range was about 30m. I wonder if range is tied to the module's stats in some manner. For now, I'll make the reported range from 30-45m, until we know for sure.
Respectfully,
TheRealTK421 wrote:
...it harvested at 45m.
Interesting. The report from TC was that the range was about 30m. I wonder if range is tied to the module's stats in some manner. For now, I'll make the reported range from 30-45m, until we know for sure.
JavelinCatcher wrote:
TheRealTK421 wrote:
...it harvested at 45m.
Interesting. The report from TC was that the range was about 30m. I wonder if range is tied to the module's stats in some manner. For now, I'll make the reported range from 30-45m, until we know for sure.
I can confirm also harvesting at 45m. It seems to depend on where the player is and the droid is in relation to the corpse. If the droid is within range, it will use the distance from droid. If the player is in range, it will use the distance from player.
Nope - i tested that as well. I had it "chase" the corpse while i was way out of distance - did not harvest untill i was in range (which is kinda silly if you ask me - there should only be a "viewable" distance limit)
But i tested it rather extensively and it always could harvest ifI was within 45m.(tested while droid was on the opposite side of me compared to the corpse, traveled the full distance and harvested)
Duplication from the other threads I posted on (fyi)....
Ok, I finally got a droid on test and now that a "professional" harvestor tried one of these babies, it's review time.
- It harvests ONLY the body you designate.
- You cannot sequence commands. If the server has not told you it harvested, and you tell the droid to do the next one... you don't harvest the previous, you HAVE TO wait.
- no loot option. That wonderful /loot all;/harvest bone macro is going to server you better.
- will not draw aggro. You can drop the Reptillian Flyer, harvest it, all in full view of the 5 Rancors around it w/o fear.
- you cannot generate more harvest then you would normally. I got an R3 packed full and the skill mod is 103%. Pretty much the same as you would normally harvest. There is no you harvest-droid harvest benifit. It's you or the droid and then you're done.
- grouping with the droid DOES reduce harvest... but they claim to be working on that soon so that you don't loose harvest. It was also stated that grouping with pets would be fixed as well.
- I could pull out the droid with pets. The droid had a CL above what I normally could pull. I'm guessing that sense I bought a droid w/o any combat ability that they let you do that, which is good.
- The little bugger can go as fast as my speeder
There are a few things that will have to change if I'm going to buy a harvesting droid, or recommend it .
- Loot Option. This alone would cause me to not buy one. I can walk up, loot and harvest in a single key with a macro.
- harvest of all qualifying bodies in range. Currently, you have to choose the body and tell it to harvest and wait till the harvest is done. I can walk up and /loot all;/harvest bone in rapid succession much faster (the commands que up as well).
- I got an R3 FULL of modules. I am NOT seeing this much ballihoo'ed increase in harvest.
I would like to see Auto-harvest(harvest as the bodies fall): a team of hunters with droids would not have to worry about timing harvests so that some folks don't get missed due to the 30-second corpse rot rule. If the body falls the "droid army" goes in automatically harvesting. This would be a great boon to professional hunting parties, especially if the loot option is enabled.