Droid Engineer Archive

I was watching Star Wars: A New Hope last night, after several rousing hours of Star Wars Galaxies, if only to remind myself what Star Wars really was, and had an idea when I watched the scene where Luke and his Uncle were purchasing several more droids for their Moisture Farm.

As it currently stands, we as Droids Engineers produce, for the most part, permanant products (droids). They have no decay, and last as long as the owners' wish to hold on to them. Thanks to Publish 7 and 8, we now have several expendable items at our disposal, such as Droid Repair Kits and Interplanetary Survey Droids (along wit bounty hunter droids, of course), but the one reason, in my opinion, that we as Droid Engineers can't compete with Armorsmiths or Weaponsmiths as Elite Artisans is that all of their products decay, and require replacement over time.

So when we sell a droid, that droid is placed in to circulation and benefits the owner for as long as it isn't destroyed. This is bad for business.

However, as I mentioned above, I had an idea when watching that particular scene. I'm an avid Roleplayer, and as such I grow attached to my droids, like they're my companions, and I would hate to have to replace my befriended, trustworthy friend due to decay. That's why I thought it would be a fantastic idea to have every component (not subcomponent, like EMM's) subject to failure, over time. Just like the R5 in A New Hope that blew it's power converter, Droids in SWG would, over time, blow out their components, which would then require replacement.

Example: You're out in the fields of Talus, hunting Sludge Panthers with your trusty R2-Unit, equipped with a Trapping-Module. As you traverse the rolling hills and grassy terrain, your droids Motive Module malfuntions and blows, sending sparks and a plume of smoke from all corners of its Chassis. It stalls. Now what? You take him to your local Droid Engineer, and have him replace the Droid Motive Module, and the next thing you know your R2 is good as New.

Until his Droid Sensor Array blows a fuse.

This would implement a system where one could keep there current droid, while giving Droid Engineers constant return-busines for more than just Batteries. Nobody buys Repair Kits anyway. I'd like to see every module, including all the optional ones such as Storage and Combat, become subject to malfunction. Once a module fails, it would be listed in the Examine window, and your droid would smoke and or spark while called until repaired. I'd also like to see relavence between the malfunctioned module, and the droids behavior. This meaning, when the Sensor Array blows, the droid can no longer target objects/people/enemies. When the Motive System breaks, the Droid becomes incapable of movement, ect.

What d'yall think?

... If I could edit that post, I would. I know I repeated several words into redundancy, but I wrote it up quick-o' like, since I tend to get a little excited with new ideas. And I personally love this one.

Anyway, hope this catches your (collective Droid Engineer's) attetion.

First the Star Wars fan in me has to nit-pick. The line is:
"Uncle Owen, this R2 unit's got a bad motivator!"

Now onto your idea. It's not bad, but they would have to change the display so we can see the condition of all of the parts and i don't see them putting that kind of work into droids for a while now. It is definitely something to keep in mind.

Ah. I recalled the line off the top of my head, which manages its best to forget.

Though, speaking as if this were feasable, I'd like it to be where you couldn't examine the condition of the modules, since they would work perfectly until, by random chance, one blows. This would negate the necessity of programming condition timers and what not in to each and every module. It would be completely random, and not very common. And I agree that it probably would take more programming than we're, well, alotted, because it would require droids to be backward-constructable, in a sense, where a Droid Engineer could take a busted droid, open up a sort of replacement window, and swap out the bad module for a new one.

Actually, I hate to double-post but the droid wasn't an R2. So the line was more like:

"Uncle Owen, this one's got a bad motivor!" I believe.

*Dopey grin*

Just to pick nits, modular doesn't have anything to do with being able to swap out pieces. All it means it that components are built separately and then assembled together.

As an example, the International Space Station is modular, but you aren't going to see anyone swapping out sections or connecting it together in alternate configurations (though I now have visions going through my head of astronauts reassembling the ISS like Legos to make a giant robot because they are bored and giant robots are cool)

While I love the idea , I'm sorry to say this isnt going to happen anytime soon because its a LOT of work. Problem is - a finished Droid is an entity, not a collection of modules.

Now, there may be a way for them to have a function fail, and have us repair it..and that would be good (but dont be surprised if Mr Angry comes knocking at your door when his storage module fails destroying all his sliced composite)

The idea of 'hot swappable' modules is a bad one for business though. If someone wants a R5 with Weap/Gen craft altered to a Chem Craft...well --sell them a new droid..preferably with all the craft stations in it. I really think 'hot swapping' is bad for business.

Decay with use? Nice..but please not ever at the silly rate implimented for vehicles for example.

You do have a valid point, and I'm sure it will be addressed one day, but for now we have to settle for vitality..and that lasts far too long.

There is actually a roaring trade in second-hand droids...and we see none of that income.

Ahh well eh - ever upwards

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Auladan wrote:
[snip] Droids in SWG would, over time, blow out their components, which would then require replacement.

Example: You're out in the fields of Talus, hunting Sludge Panthers with your trusty R2-Unit, equipped with a Trapping-Module. As you traverse the rolling hills and grassy terrain, your droids Motive Module malfuntions and blows, sending sparks and a plume of smoke from all corners of its Chassis. It stalls. Now what? You take him to your local Droid Engineer, and have him replace the Droid Motive Module, and the next thing you know your R2 is good as New.

Until his Droid Sensor Array blows a fuse.
[snip]

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I hate it. Did you ever try to find a Weaponsmith to repair your gun? They get much better results, though you can try it yourself if you dare. They don't want the little bits of low-profit busywork, they can use their time to much better effect.

A similar effect is built into the current patch with the wound repair, how much business does it generate? Players don't want to have to hunt up a DR on a regular basis, and you don't want them chasing you for repairs. If you want that social interaction take up Entertaining.

The current crop of disposable (bomb and survey) droids is a better source of continuing income.So would be the repair kits if the droids lasted longer in a fight. You sell them and forget them.

Adding a newway for droids to fail in the field would be a nerf, not a benefit.

no way, but somthing must be done so you guys get more business.

a way to make this more palatable might be to not have the 'main' modules decay- ie crafting modules, combat modules, etc, but have the modules like the motivators decay to the point where the droids speed slows to a crawl until the unit is replaced, or have the sensor packages decay to the point where the droid takes forever to lock onto a target, etc. just my thoughts.

Message Edited by JohnnyGridloK on 04-26-2004 06:09 PM