Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: DE Focus Threads: A Preamble
Fellow "sub-optimal" DEs,
It seems that, at long last, we are finally the focus of attention.
As best as I can tell, this will the first time that this has truly taken place (perhaps since the original profession code was written).
To assist the striketeam, I've decided to start my personal series of "Focus Threads" that will help all of us to consider different aspects of our profession. After some careful consideration, I came to realize that no one post (however long) could ever answer our concerns. Therefore, it seems logical to break it into pieces. To outline our own plan.
Keep in mind that nothing I put forth here should be taken as a replacement of Gorantoth's Centralize DE issues thread or Sintrosi's official posts on our future. It is simply a way for us to bring all the best information into categorized areas for ease of consideration and discussion.
I started considering my own personal vision of how droids should operate in SWG and what kinds of practical benefits they should bring their owners. This is the basis of all of my decisions.
Here are some of the base practical concerns that I thought it important to remember when considering any kind of "plan":
- Droids cannot simply become the new iteration of the "pet problem".
- Droids need to provide practical benefits to all professions, directly or indirectly.
- Droids need to be designed/built in a way that's logical to their intended function
(i.e. MSEs shouldn't be able to have crafting stations...sheesh!) - Droids need to be integral to the players' SWG experience (as they are shown
to be indispensible to characters in the movies/EU). - Droids need to enhance what players do, not replace them (interdependence).
- The Droid Engineer profession itself has to be able to be fun for both the "pure"
crafters and the 'Combat DEs' alike. - Droids need to add (heavily) to the immersiveness of the game world.
- What droid types should each level DE be making/selling and how can we ensure
that each level has a market?
With these concerns on the table, I broke down the topics I thought we all needed and came up with the following list of categories:
- Skill Tree (it all starts here)
- Chassis (current and new)
- Experimentation and resource selection/use
- Combat
- Crafting Services
- Medical Services
- Droid Repair
- Item and Data Storage
- Power
- Customization
- The Future
Note: I will be launching the Focus threads in the order listed above.
Over the coming days, I hope to start up my Focus Threads on each of these very important topics. Note that many of my thoughts will cross over from one post to the next, since it's all inter-related.
I ask in advance that you start to get your own comments and ideas ready.
/bow
Respectfully,
It's quite a hefty task, but it really needs to be done. I'll be collecting my thoughts so I can be prepared to add my input when you get these started. Thanks TheRealTK421 
Maybe Sintrosi can help by sticking the threads as they come out?
And so it begins.
Please, if you see anyting from the thread(s) that I started a few days ago that would fit in with what you have in mind by all means use them. I'll help by offering any comments or feed back that I can.
Drashk wrote:
And so it begins.
Actually...it just continues.
Please, if you see anyting from the thread(s) that I started a few days ago that would fit in with what you have in mind by all means use them. I'll help by offering any comments or feed back that I can.
This is a pretty large thing I'm taking on here, so I'll leave this to you. I can't do TH's job for him.
When you see the appropriate Focus Thread pop up...just add your categorized ideas and opinions. This seems the best way to move forward and will keep the "focus" aspect intact.
/bow
Respectfully,
*cheer*
TheRealTK421, glad your stepping up to the plate to help us all get it together. Your expressed dissatisfaction closely mirrors mine and I am glad to see you channeling it into this.
A Heartfelt thx for this.
=D
I don't see this happening right now. I think that restoring the Probot will just put us back to the same 'pet problem' that the Devs were trying to address in the first place.
I'd think it better to try and get to a longer-term solution (to me, that means upping the damage on Probots but leaving the HAM alone).
I'll have more on this in my future Focus Threads.
/bow
Respectfully,
TheRealTK421 wrote:
- Droids cannot simply become the new iteration of the "pet problem".
- Droids need to provide practical benefits to all professions, directly or indirectly.
- Droids need to be designed/built in a way that's logical to their intended function
(i.e. MSEs shouldn't be able to have crafting stations...sheesh!)
- Droids need to be integral to the players' SWG experience (as they are shown
to be indispensible to characters in the movies/EU).
- Droids need to enhance what players do, not replace them (interdependence).
- The Droid Engineer profession itself has to be able to be fun for both the "pure"
crafters and the 'Combat DEs' alike.
- Droids need to add (heavily) to the immersiveness of the game world.
- What droid types should each level DE be making/selling and how can we ensure
that each level has a market?
With all due respect, you've made a fatal error at premise 1.
When the designers implment any content in the game, they are now looking at that content with the expectation that the Player approaching it will have a Pet. They have no choice, it must be assumed all content will be approached by Player+Pet, because failure to do so generates an Uber-Class that can breeze through all content.
As all content is generated with the expectation of Player+Pet, and the disparity between Mob and Player is huge, this results in all content becoming out of the reach of any Player who lacks a pet. As an example, the final part of the Imperial Quest this month, which is to destory a group of creatures that cannot possibly be killed without a pet. As this effect increases, it rapidly creates CH as a "Must Have" portion of every combat template, just so people are able to participate.
This effect is already seen in many other ways, such as the way nearly all high-level Planets and upper end Mobs on newbie planets have been altered to Social Mobs to adress the expactation that the Player approaching has a Pet. As it stands now, much content that is deemed level appropriate at mission terminals is in fact impossible d/t the changes.
The recent changes to CH and Non-CH pets exacerbate this to a new level, rather than address it. By taking away a minimally effective Pet, they in fact force more people to move into CH to be able to compete. It's a never ending cycle they cannot break without removing Pets from the game entirely.
Which is exactly why DE's should produce the Every-Mans pet. It should be gated by certifications within Combat Proffessions, and should reach at least Mid-Level CH pets in power. This stays within continuity, restores diversity, and allows all Players to participate. Failure to do so just skews CH numbers ever higher.
And if you have any doubts, go and investigate Asheron's Call, and what happened when they failed to address War Magic ignoring Armor. Short version is, War Magic became necessary to play for a long time, or you sat on the sidelines. It's the exact same thing here, Either you address it now, or you find everyone on your server is one class. As above, nerfing CH isn't possible anymore, it's at the point where it's remove them or find a way for everyone to have them, and DE is the way.
All Non-Combat droids, by their very nature, are a limited market. Similiar to what's happened with Med 6 droids. There's only so many people to sell them to, and once that's done it's over. Further, there's only an extremely limited number of options as to what they could do. Outside of a harvester droid to run to your harvesters, a slicing assist droid, a wandering merchant droid, and maybe a healing droid there aren't many options. Out of those, most cater to a limited market, several of which would be tapped in record time. Wandering droids, IMO, would tank the servers at record pace as it tried to track and maintain their inventories and transactions as they move through the world, given they'd be present in huge numbers.
Therearentan,
Therearentan wrote:
<some very worthwhile observations>
I think you failed to understand what I was alluding to there (on point #1).
The "pet problem" that I describe dealt more with the "Pet Wars" aspect of combat/PvP. I believe that droids do need to be more prevalent.
However...
When pets become the focus, instead of the players, we have a problem.
This is the problem to which I was pointing.
Your statements are very valid. I fully expect that players will have/use droids (obviously, I hope so, since I'm a DE and would like to make/sell them droids). It's the imbalance of this system, as witnessed by the problems with creature pets, that I seek to point out and hopefully avoid.
That's all.
/bow
Respectfully,
