Droid Engineer Archive

Hi,

Let me introduce myself, I am Augustine (Master Merchant/Power Broker) Iam the largest supplier of Radioactive Power on Ahazi (and have been the largest power broker since release) I have many different customers, so while I am an artisan, I am technically a miner, although I produce nothing (except large amounts of power)

So what is this merchant doing on your boards?

Well it is my feeling (for a number of reasons) that perhaps the DE's will be intuitive enough to ponder some of the "maybes" and "what ifs" about the release of vehicles (since this profession has some tangental similarities) I mean you guys build mechanical devices (that move) and we have to assume the overburdenend DEV's are going to build on what they have already done with another profession.

Now I have a few assumptions about this myself but I need some further guidance:

1) Vehicle Crafters (we'll call them VE's) will either be an elite> elite profession (I assume off of DE, surely not architect) or a stand alone off of artisan (ala archictect, et al.)

2) VE's will likely bear a strong resemblance to DE's in schematic types material use and abilities.

3) VE will probably have an elite profession branch off of it for the creation of starships (for the space release)

4) Vehicles will run (I am almost positive of this, off of radioactive power)

So my questions are as follows to the insightful DE community:

1) What matrials "types" (steel, copper etc) do you use the most in construction of droids

2) What materials "types" do you get bottlenecks on (i.e. They are rare and dont pop on the server alot and/or are hard to come by)

I ask you this (and any other constructive comments you want to make) as I am going to be harvesting resources and storing them until the release of vehicles in an effort to power craft to master ASAP...

Thank you guys and gals!

Augustine

This will not happen untill expansion for many reasons:

IF AND ONLY IF they will add vehicle creation profession they will NOT add one untill space expansion, untill then even when vehicles come out the only things you can make are the commen land speeder and swoop bike..not plural theres only two types... yes they will probably run off power, i highly doubt they will release a profession commiting an entire elite elite profession to just 2 vehicles.... yes there can be slightly different models and modules and what not but its still a very large streatch, and all those modules may dissapear when the expansion comes out due to the larger number of craftable ships ... land vehicles will be tier 1 box and then very small spacecraft teir 2...etc..

Honestly, I've never hurt for a resource after I got some MMIs and HMMIs. The resources that are rarest for us are also the least used. 20k of Dioxis Inert Gas, for example, will last me a heck of a lot of droids. Looking for rarest/most bottlenecked resources in my opinion is not going to happen with a good DE.

As for most used, I go through lots of Generic Metal, followed by Generic Steel. But with my extractors pulling at their rates, I honestly don't see how you can sell to any DE's unless they're not mining themselves.

And assuming our class will have anything to do with vehicles is probably a lost cause. The Dev's mentioned a droid handler, which, assuming that they've already got ideas on vehicles due to the fact they're closest to coming out, probably means the DE's won't be dealing with those directly.

Alexia Corban

Master DE, Valcyn

Heh, is it just me, or did the comments about the VE have little to do with the DE questions? *grin* But all the same....first, to comment on the VE, then I'll answer the DE ones.

VE:

1) Why would they surely not be off of the Architect line? As a matter of personal opinion only, it seems to me that a vehicle has more in common with structure than with a droid.

2) Well, they may....I don't really see why, but indeed they could. We always have to use sub-components, and there are a few "standard" ones that most every droid needs, so if that's what you mean, then I could surely see that as being a quality of VE's.

3) I agree.

4) Now this I'm not sure. I agree wholeheartedly that Vehicles will (at least definately should) consume power when being driven. Why, though, just Radioactive power? I could see some of the earlier vehicles requiring, say, Petrochemical Fuel, while the later and more advanced ones use Radioactive.

Now, for the DE questions:

1) It depends. My repetoire always consists of (from most used to least used) Steel, Copper, Chemical (usually Fiberplast), Ore (usually Silicastic), Inert Gas, Aluminum, Extrusive Ore. For grinding, Droid Engineers use Steel and Fiberplast, so those two are always in big demand. Don't worry at all about quality, since right now the quality of materials does not, in any way, affect the quality of the droid.

2) Well, there are a handful of rare ores that are needed starting at the Intermediate Level. Duralloy Steel, for instance, is necessary to make Medium Armored Probots, while Extrusive Ore is very commonly needed in Astromechs and above. Silicastic Ore is needed for Droid Brains (though not in horribly large quantities).

From the limited amount of information I have seen regarding vehicles, it is my understanding that a couple of vehicles (as stated one-seater types: land speeder and swoop) will simply be incorporated into the Engineering branch of Artisan. In the future a Vehicle Crafting profession will be introduced. It follows that the Vehicle Engineering profession will be an elite profession directly off of the Engineering branch the same way Droid Engineer, Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, and Architect are. (It is only speculation that there will be a Starship Design profession and that it will be an elite-elite profession off of Vehicle Engineering, but it is the most logical path of development).

As far as requiring components from other professions, aside from the electronics from a Master Artisan, I could very well see additional components made by Droid Engineers, but that remains to be seen. It would be nice if at the very least droids will be a useful "addition" to a vehicle/spacecraft, but not necessarily a requirement.

On the subject of resources. It is annoying to have to sit around and wait for some of the more specific types and it may actually be nice if someone were available to sell them if he/she had stockpiled them. But, as was stated, a DE who knows what they are doing will also be able to stockpile those resources once they are available. I would say, keep a stockpile of whatever you want, there may always be someone who needs something.

Since this is all speculation on vehicles I thought I read somewhere that speeders will probably be in Eng IV. I thought I also read that for space expansion there will be a add-on for each elite profession, being able to make different types of spacecraft.

The only resource I can think of, and that may because Im on bloodfin is Lidium extursive ore, howevere this may be plentiful on other servers. Scilistic is another resource that is some times rare however it seems a little goes a long way, same for inert Gas.

Hey darth I found a spot of siliclastic by Theed yesterday that wasnt too shabby if you're looking for some

-K

Thanks Kralis, I actually have quite a little pile myself from a few shifts ago.

I have a hunch that in order to build a starship of any sort, you are going to have to purchase various components from a variety of sources...Weapons from weaponsmiths, shield generators and armor from armorsmiths, structural components from architects,navigation droids from DEs...you get the idea. I think someone is going to be hard pressed to grind out VE (If there is such a thing) if this is the case.

I personally don't see why vehicles would not fall within the Droid Engineer realm. Many cars today are on a track toward fully computer operational...and we are far behind the tech curve when compared to the Star Wars technological levels. Many vehicles in the star wars novels are spoken of as posessing droid brains and artificial intelligence. Basically, that is a droid. It is just a big droid that happens to carry people like a mount would.

Several of the star wars tech manuals also contain things like a Droid Freighter, Droid Fighters, Droid mounts etc. Why can't I make a horse-like droid that trots around carrying me on it's back? Or a tracked tank droid...or a...or a...

The possibilities are endless, and well within what I would consider the realm of the Droid Engineer.

-Vixyn Renault, Master Droid Engineer.

-Wanderhome. Coronet, Corellia.

I seem to recall a post by Q or Holo that mentioned that player vehicles would not be player created. I don't know if this is regarding the initial launch of vehicles (a la Bounty Hunter Droids) or if it's a long term plan.

The devs (Q or Holo, forget which) have already said that single-seat swoops are going to be in the Engineering tree. The "every eng. profession will have an elite-elite that's a part of starship crafting" thing was something somebody made up. There have been no direct statements to support it.

The most sensible arrangement I can come up with (though there's still no evidence) is that Vehicle Engineer will be a new elite off of Engineering, and when the Space Expansion arrives, Starship Engineer will be an elite-elite off of that. No guarantees that they'll do what makes most sense to me, but if they did, that would be it.

I understand that everybody wants a piece of the enormous potential vehicle market, but it's not really a "fit" for any existing profession. DEs will have a significant role in the starship market, because people will need astromechs. If people don't need astromechs, then something's seriously wrong.

As an aside, I'd love to see the E-Wing and the R7 make an appearance.

With regard to vehicle power use, who knows? Many obviously powered things in SWG do not consume power at all (or maybe that's why only torches work as light sources in houses, but even the torches never run out of oil). If vehicles do require power, I'm sure they would accept the same range of fuel types that harvesters do. In fact, I was flipping through The Essential Guide to Vessels and Vehicles the other day, and I seem to remember that the most common vehicle engine was a particular type (don't remember the name), which could be easily adapted to accept basically any kind of energy source as fuel. So there's even continuity support for not restricting vehicles to a single kind of power source.

Thanks for all the good input guys...

Hopefully we get some posts sometime soon releated to vehicles

I think a few posters underestimated the DEV frame of mind...I just highly doubt ANY vehicles will be in the base artisan line its to easy to grind up to ENG IV in 1 day.....

Also I think those vehicles will be very heavy in resource/component utilization...I agree with the above poster about the use of multiple compenents from different professions, walls from architects, brains from DE's weapons from weapon crafters etc.....

I think some may underestimate the cost of a speeder and a swoop as well.. they will sell for well over 500k if not more Im sure( 2 million for a speeder is in the realm of possbility)....by the time they come out people should have a good amount of credits...they already do...

As for the cost of a starship...Im betting at least5 million credits....probably much higher...

Why radioactive? why not, the technology clearly relies on fusion power, fusions = radioactive, radioactive was recently changed to be more/less effective based upon PE, thereby making it a question of (should they use radio)

How good is the fuel you have for your speeder? how long will it last?...

They sure are not going to let people drive speeders around for free man....

Although you know getting a bantha is going to be much cheaper...those with some style and class will want a plush leather speeder seat.....LOL