Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: What about this solution? Suggestions/thoughts welcome.
This is a repost from another thread that died shortly after I wrote this, however I thought that this in fact may not be a bad idea. Feel free to comment. I will say this now... I am not a DE, just in case you are wondering. I'm just a guy who thinks too much.
REPOST:
Ywi wrote:
I think it should remain without prereqs except either mastering an elite/hybrid combat profession, or mastering DE (or any elite profession as discussed in #3). The reason is I want to include every combat profession. Again, with BH only having 33 points left, getting the engineering line would leave them with 4 points (that's a pretty skimpy mini-profession).
I must reiterate that I have issue with this point. Why are we reserving combat droids for combatants, when it is not the combatants that would make the most of combat droids? It is not only possible, but probable that a well to do politician would use a droid as a bodyguard. No talkback, no paycheck... But he still has to learn the basics of droid handling to program and maintain the droid. Even autonomous droids in the movie required assistance to perform maintenance and repair. And while there may exist a Droid repair&program-o-matic 5000 that requires no skill to use, it would simply be too combat upsetting to let anyone use a powerful combat droid. There must be some investment.
Also... why should we be obliged to make sure the droid handling mini-profession is available in its entirety to BH? Regularly in the films, we see BH as stealthy individuals. And the game should maintain that status. Sending a Droideka or rabid Protocol droid after their mark is in no way stealthy. I can see a BH using lesser droids, primarily as distraction, but a full blown assault droid? 33 points is simply too low of a cost to justify the use of heavy assault droids. Novice CH alone requires 49 skill points, and even then they don't get much for that.
My envisionment of a possible implementation... take with a grain of salt if you wish.
Droid Technician (not a full profession, let's call it a proficiency if you wish, as it is only a basic skill set.)
Novice(15 skill points) +2 Droid Use(DU)
2 lines(2,3,4,5 skill point boxes respectively) for a total of 28 skill points. Each line gives +9 total DU(maybe 1,2,3,3?)
So, "mastering" the Droid Tech proficiency allows you to use 30 CL combat droids at the cost of 15+28=43 skill points. Respectable though not insane.
But, DE's need their own bonuses too, since while they are primarily focused on assembly, a certain level of familiarity with maintenance, programming, and repair will obviously come as a result of that. A DE might get +2 DU at MDP, +3DU at MDCT, +2DU at MDR and +3 at MDBP for a nice clean additional 10 CL levels. Possibly another +5DU at MDE, such that a "master" DT and MDE could use a 45 CL droid. Respectable, but not a small investment either.
At this point I hear you saying, "But wait Tick, for135 skill points I can only use a 45 CL droid, when a MCH can use a 70 CL Kimobunny for only 106 skill points!" This is true, but there is a big difference that is I feel inline with the Star Wars universe, and that is availability. In this system, a CL30 droid requires a significantly lower expenditure of skill points than a comparable CL30 pet. So what choice do you make? Get a CL30 droid with mod bays that you can fully program on your own for 43 skill points, or a CL30 pet that has no mod bays, and you can't even teach it half of its commands for a minimum of 63(I think)skill points? That alone right there is 20 skill points. That's a novice skill and 2 boxes, and any medic who buys stim B's can tell you what that is worth.
So what we have here is a system where a very nice combat droid is available to anyone for a smaller skill point cost than an equivalent pet. This translates into a larger potential customer base than CH's, which is good since DE's are artisans, and simply put CH are not.
EagleShard wrote:
I'll just post one thing in this thread, but basically the reason to limit it to combatants is balance. A CL20 droid won't help a TKM half as much as it will a Politician with no combat skills.
There is no shame in wanting a DE class that was promised to be working before we went Live.
TickTock wrote:
My apologies, but /shamelessBump
I feel an understanding of THs 'Checker Speach' is valuable here. (g)
Basic drift is, if you keep adding (combat power) checkers to existing (combat) skills. Some one is going to lose. If it;'s to some players and not others the others lose. If its to all players in balance the NPCs lose. (and so do we all) because PC/NPC balance is important too.
This means unless a combat profession is too weak to begin with. It is generally a bad Idea to sprinkle them with droid certs.
What he didnt say, is that adding combat power 'checkers' to skillpoints that have no (or inssuficient) combat power in the first place. Will not cause this problem.
Im not advocating using droid or creature pets to try and fill in everywhere there is a little imbalance. But it could be an option. For say, DEs. Or even SLs if they are imbalanced on the weak side.
I think crafters in general are good candidates for 'droid love'. Especially DEs !