Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: How will droid Merchant Barkers improve the game?
Without having any super-hard data on this, that's what I suspect as well...I'll know more soon, I think.
ideas wrote:
My hope is that by getting "spamming" out of the hands of players and into the automated systems, the game can control it better with automated time delays (rather than the 5-second spamming loops some players run)and options in your Ctrl-O to turn it off.
/bow
Respectfully,
Here's my question about this barker droid: Will it be standing there spamming it's message like everyone seems to think, or will it be simply standing there, ready for you to access it to get it's message? Even if it were to address you like the "smarter" vendors do, and then have a menu full of questions you could ask it like an NPC... this would be better than seeing people standing there spamming a paragraph every three seconds...
From the description, I imagine a droid standing in a public place, saying nothing, or maybe addressing you by name as you walk past. You put the crosshairs on it and see that it's name is Jansos' droids Ltd. So you target it and /converse or open it's radial menu. If you /converse, it tells you something about the shop. If you open the radial, you can choose to recieve an email with waypoint, price guide, or whatever the owner has programmed it with. This sounds to me to be a much more pleasant way to advertise than what people do now. I'd like to see it.
If it's just going to be a way to automate spamming.... well, I can't imagine the devs choosing to implement something that would increase spamming. Not with all the negative comments you see about spammers in every forum.
Lacking any details beyond the limited description, this could be one of the best additions to the game in recent months, on a par with vehicles. I have posted on the merchant forum about what features are needed, but here is a short version.
The droid should have, behind its radial, real waypoints (no typos for trips to nowhere!), room for text explaining the product if it is unusual (like an event :-), and if possible a live connection to a vendor showing the actual current stock and prices. It would really lubricate the economy if players could know what they were going to find if they travel to your shop!
The spam it would generate is trivial compared to the spam macros being run in popular places now. The details don't have to be spammed, anyone interested by the tagline can get them off the droid.
Last night I spentmost of the eveninggetting something for an alt that was only a little rare. The macro spamers in theCoronet lookedlike they were helping, but between inaccurate descriptions of vendor contents (bait and switch or just bait for exp), and typoed waypoints with nothing there (can't say for sure whose typo, but it doesn't matter), they proved useless.
The planetary map was worse, given thecouple of words about the stock and the likelyhood of empty vendors. Eventually, I met someone helpfulwho knew a source -- the only useful advertising now is word of mouth.
No wonder some crafters have more business than they can handle, while others starve. And willing customers go unsatisfied for days. The lack of advertising in SWG is a major pain.
ideas wrote:
My hope is that by getting "spamming" out of the hands of players and into the automated systems, the game can control it better with automated time delays (rather than the 5-second spamming loops some players run)and options in your Ctrl-O to turn it off.
I have a fear though that the spammers won't see it as a replacement for themselves, but rather an addition. They'll setup their barker droid in one city, then go to another to continue their spams and get even more sales.
I recommend /addignore - ing anyone who spams their shop at a starport....or anywhere for that matter. If no one asks you, keep your mouth shut
I only hope you can /addignore driods with this patch
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I'd have to bet that they are aware that this is an issue...and are likely hoping that, if anything, this droid module will actually reduce the amount of spam (in addition to doing other cool and useful stuff).
When I know more (that I can talk about), I'll be back to report....(but likely in a new P8 module thread/sticky).
/bow
Respectfully,
My hope is that by getting "spamming" out of the hands of players and into the automated systems, the game can control it better with automated time delays (rather than the 5-second spamming loops some players run)and options in your Ctrl-O to turn it off.