Droid Engineer Archive

This list is updatedas neededand is meant to supplement the work done by the current correspondant and provide an idea of where this profession currently stands. Please read it over and provide any information you have regarding any of these issues, or any new issues you may have discovered.

I am a Master Droid Engineer on Bloodfin (Lime Akob). I also participated in the beta as a DE and bring a lot of knowledge of the profession from those days. I also read just about every single post in the DE forum and have a good idea of where this profession stands. However, I am one person and need your help to make sure that we've got all the real bugs nailed down, so we don't have DEVs chasing issues that don't exist due to confusion on our part.

Many, many, many thanks and respect to all those who have contributed to this list and to the Droid Engineer profession in general. Thanks to Sin (our correspondant) for continuing to sticky this thread for all to see and read and learn from... And my personal thanks to Tyim for starting this thread during beta. Special thanks to any dev that cares to respond to this post.

1.Recent Updates
2.Bugs
3.Uncertainties
4.Dev Issues
5.Wishlist

1. Recent updates
A.Moved a few things around, made some clarifications.
B.Added new uncertainty for medical modules mysteriously breaking.

2. Bugs still in evidence
A.Droids are not giving any UXP.
B.Droid names use the standard name filter.Droids should use a modified name filter that allows for numbers in the name.
C.Droids with no attack capabilities none the less have attack speeds and damage base modifiers in the datapad.
D.Resource properties and experimentation on droid parts has no noticeable effect on final droid.There is no point to experiment either on droid components or the final product.
E. Droids often stop following without reason.This is a generic pet problem as it happens to all pets, not just droids.Pets seem toget stuck on invisible zone boundries.Walking up to about 10-20m from thepet and re-issuing a 'follow' command fixes it (most of the time).
F.Item Storage Module 2s come out as Data Module 2s during the assembly stage.What you seem to get at the end is a Data Module 2.This is only a NAME/ICON problem.The module is said to function as it should - as an ItemStorage Module 2.
G.Multiple crafting stations in a single droid breaks the crafting modules in the droid. Only one of the modules seems to work when this happens.Crafting modules also seem to break when the droid's crafting field intersects crafting fields from other droids orstationary crafting stations.
H.EXPLOIT: Cluster modules not only fit into cluster module sockets, they fit into service module sockets.This allows cluster modules to fit into cluster modules ad infinitum.Clusters should only fit in cluster sockets.Otherwise you're further exploiting the idea that the droid frame used is irrelevant.
I.Droid Customizationskill onlygoes to +64 at Master.
J.Repairmodules do not functionat all when placed in an LE Repair droid or Power droid.
K.Medical modulesaffect the effectiveness of stimpacks.Reports say that a stimpack is more effective when a medical module-equipped droid is nowhere to be seen (unless it contains a level 6 module).
L.Some experimental values for droids and droid components are always 0% regardless of the resources used. If they're going to bealways 0%, don't show them.
M.Droid deeds need to show ALL the modules installed and any important properties associated with those modules.
N.EXPLOIT: By telling a droid to stay, running 800m (need to cross a server zone?) or so away and calling another droid, you can effectively call all your droids at once.
O.Droid Storage Compartments use Artisan Experimentation instead of Droid Experimentation. It's a DE craft, it should use DE skills, not Artisan skills.
P.Item storage modules do not work with Surgical Droids (basic and advanced). The option to use item storage is not available in the radial menu.
Q.Droid customization isborked. No xp is gained from colouring droids, the colours don't always hold (use the first white box to reproduce). R# units have random colours when they are first tamed and randomly change until the droid is customized. The number of colours available with the customization tool are different than the colours available during crafting.
R.Droid customization tools give General Crafting xp instead of Droid Crafting xp when crafted.
S.Droids suck batteries like there's no tomorrow ever since they no longer recharge on store. Please find a happy medium.
T.After calling or storing a droid, the datapad radial menu doesn't immediately update to reflect the status of the droid, causing the store item to appear after storing the droid.This seems to be a general radial menu problem with 'optional' items in the menu.
U.Armor resists sometimes degrade.The armor resist changes to a vulnerability and it isn't just visual.
V.Crates of droid batteries don't tell us how many charges the batteries in the crates have until you remove them from the crate. Buyer beware until this is fixed.

3. Uncertainties
A.Patrol point list is not saved between store and call, is this by design?
B. Some droids, when given a repair module, gain a 'repair other droid' option in the program menu. Some, when out, add a 'repair' option in the radial menu of OTHER droids.I can only assume that both are possible.'Converse' droids do not have a programmable 'repair' command, but usually allow the repair option to appear in nearby droids (I've never seen this myself). Seems a little inconsistent.
C. Power droidsare the onlydroid with a non-modular function (ignoring combat capable droids here). Repair droids have had their repair systems removed and changed into a module.R droids have had their crafting functions removed and changed into modules.Power droids remain as an inherent function. Can we get some consistency here?
D. Some of the advanced droids are using 'Converse' instead of 'Program' for programming. Nobody seems to know how to name these droids. Can it be done?
E.Binary Load Lifters (both basic and advanced) seem rather useless. BLLs don't lift any loads, don't have room for any modules.So, from what I'm hearing, they're just a nice droid to look at.
F.Many of the 'level' based service modules stack.However, there arecaps in place which make stacking kind of pointless with thehigher level modules.Also,by stacking lower modules, you can achieve the same effect as a higher level module, reducing the point of using a higher level module.This is further enchanced by the cluster module bug.Also, when crafting the droid, the stacking results show values which do not take the cap into consideration.So a droid while being crafted can show a storage value of 15, but the final storage when the droid is tamed is capped at 10.Which is intended?Stacking or no stacking?
H.Information in the datapad for some droids no longer lists things like the commands programmed for the droid, customization, etc. some of them do.What's the deal?
I.I'm hearing that BH droids aren't using their last charge, making them infinite use.Anyone confirm?
J.Droidscannot be called while inside acity building.I see no reason to preventus from calling droids in a city. Shouldn't matter if we're in a building or not.If this is intended, then why?
K.Seeing several reports of 'broken' Medical modules.The modulesbreakand remain broken even after recharging the droid.

4.Dev Issues
A.Combat modules (usable only by DEs), granting abilities(combat modes, short range blaster, long range blaster, anti-droid reactions, anti-creature reactions).
B.Allow DE's to take out more than one droid at a time (with restrictions).
C.Increase droid repair functionality.Make droid 'healing'work similarlyto the current pet standards.
D.Give droids expendable items to be 'charged' by a repair droid.
E.Add stim and healthpack functionality to medical droids.
F.Increase thenumber of locations wheremedical droids can be called.
G.Allow medical droids to reduce the mind cost of healing.
H.Allow medical droids to auto-stim incapped players.
I.Have all droids take power and wound damage (requires rework of repair droids).
J.Allow power droids to power harvesters (increased maintenance, power droid degrades over time).
K.Allow MSE droids to act as remote bombs.
L.Have more commands trigger animations.Possibly a decoration mode to haveparticular animation repeated.Possibly more personalities.
M.Give protocol droids a stronger role.
N.Add adroid certification system for combat droids.
O.New combat droids in Jan & Feb

5.Wishlist
A.Give us information on droid power levels in the examine window and/or in the datapad.Also,since droid batteries repair mind,how about using mind as the droid's power level indicator?The action pool would also work.
B.Examining droid should give thesame data as in the datapad (for the owner).
C.We really want certain droids to only be able to take certain types of modules. There have been a number of really good posts on this topic, and due to space constraints, I'll leave it at that.
D.Consider droids that can survey and report back on a particular resource.Perhaps even a high-end versionwith the ability to go toother planetsto determine which resources are available.
Ea. Consider droids that can help maintain installations.Senda droid out to pay mantenance.Send a droid out to collect resources.Send a droid out to deliver power.There are many ways to implement this as a viable system.
Eb. Another viable idea for this is to add droid chassis' as optional components in the harvester schematics. One optional slot for mediums and two for heavy harvesters.Allow for apower droid chassis toremove the power requirement at the cost of maintenance and extraction rate.A BLL might increase the extraction rate at the cost of power and maintenance.A repair droid might remove the maintenance requirement at the cost of power and extraction rate.
F. Consider droids that can act as standalone vendors in cities, and/or droids that can act as Barkers. Perhaps even let droids deliver goods to a customer in another city or on another planet.
G. Droids to remember if they were stored or called over a logout.Running around in the middle of nowhere and logging out causes your droid to hide back in the datapad.This means having to go back to town or putting down a camp in order to recall your droid.This is undesireable.
H. Now that perma death has been removed and replaced with the pet 'vitality' system, I have to say kudos for the change.However, it doesn't make sense to give vitality packs to droids.Perhaps a DE equivalent could be used?Same deal, just a different name, and craftable by DEs?
I. There have been several complaints regarding the 5 droid in the datapad limit.While there are some compelling arguments AGAINST this wishlist item, it would be nice to at least have this limit reviewed.
J. Create aslicing module to boost smugglers' slicing ability.
K.Allow us to drop batteries into the droid's inventoryand have itrecharge itself as needed until the batteries run out.
L.Create an entertainment module akin to the existing medical module to allow entertainers to work ouside of camps, cantinas and hotels. This module would be also level 1-6 with each level giving a little extra boost to the entertainer's skill.
M.Saw a request for a training droid as seen in the movies that 'harasses' its target, pulling aggro. Thisidea is intended togive a little variety to the Novice DE's life.Could also be used as a consumable for training the combat classes.
N.Let usname our droids through the datapad controller.Droids shouldn't need to be 'taught' a name like pets do. The name is programmed into the droid separate from the other commands.
O.Add the creator to the droid view information, not just theowner. When you look at a pistol, you seewho made it. When you look at a droiddeed, you see who made it.When you look at a droid, you SHOULD see who made it.
P.Allow droids to be re-deeded forease of transfer.Since we can only have 5 droids in the datapad, it makes it really tough forDE's to take old droids astrade-ins for upgrades (like a car). We either have to immediately re-sell the droid or delete it. Would make more sense to re-deed the droid so that itcould be sold to another customer as a 'used droid'.
Q.Droid "macros" came up. Let us create macro-like droid programs to have a droid execute a series of commands.Not sure how this would be implemented, but it is an idea.
R.Make the droid deeds show pictures of the droid itself rather than a silly deed icon.
S.Enough with the 'tame' thing... let us 'activate' or simply 'use' the deeds to first create our droids.
T.Review thisdeal withprobots being nerfed because they were too powerful for newbies. In the light of every boy and his dog being able to get something 'better' from a CH, this argument holds less water than an MSE Droid without a storage module. (as it was pointed out to me that an MSE Droid with a level 6 storage module could hold 1M units of water... bigger on the inside than it is on the outside?Don't get me started on that one.)
U.Make BLL Droids useful in 'city planning'.Let us use them to move buildings around without re-deeding. Great for once the player city expansion is released.
V.Please review the customization lifespan.20 is too short. I have people complaining to me personally that they have to get their customization updated almost daily since they're always calling and storing their droid. I'm sorry, but if my car needed a new paint job because I took it out on the road 20 times, I'd be most displeased.
W. Weapon and armor components have modifiers tovarious properties of the final product.Do the same for droid components... like have the motive system affect the droid's speed.
X.Customization changes areonly visible to the DE until set.Would be nice if everyone could see the changes so that the droid owner can decide if they like a particular colour before it is finalized.

Any chance of getting a Limited Use droid that Jedi can use to get Jedi XP with? Something along the line of a BH seeker with Charges. I know there is one in the movies. I think it was called the Arakyd Jedi Trainer droid. It looked like a jeweled Seeker. The Jedi do need SOMETHING like that so they can stay in the PA hall to avoid the BH's.

The survey droid(s) on the wish list would be a boon for us too. They should be a charged use droid like the BH's Seeker. It would be nice to have a droid that could survey either a 3k meter radius or a single planet for one resource sending back the best 5 waypoints for vein concentrations. An ADV version that could be launched from say Talus and the droid could be "programed" to survey the AVAILABLE resources on say Lok would be a nice addition to our sellable wares. This droid should be a Charged Use item as well.

I'd love to see Power droids being able to add power to a Harvester. On droid creation, the droids capacitor is empty, it should take 3 days after "taming" to be use-able so this capacitor is charged. Give the droid a power capicity of 50k to 75k units of power. Also let the droid charge the capacitor once. Add an optionalBuilding Capacitor to the Schematics for Architects before the droid can be used to do this feature.

I concur with every point on the wishlist. Thanks for maintaining this list for us Gorantoth. Unfortunately it looks like you're going to run out of letters soon unless they do something.

Here are a few issues thatI have found while spending time on Test Center, and then verifiying that they exisit on my Live character as well

• All of the chassises are have the wrong resource value listed for experimentation. The Experimentation Effectiveness lists as being based upon 50% Shock Resistance and 50% Unit Toughness. It should be listed as 100% Overall Quality. This goes for the R4, R2, R3, LE, Protocol, Probot, and Binary Lod Lifter Chassises. The Chassis' experimentation should be displayed just like the non-Advanced Deed versions, with 100% Overall Quality displaying as being needed for the best Capability Rating.

• Experimentation on the Repair Module is erratic. You can get an Amazing success during the experimentation process and get a worse Mechanism Quality then when you started.

• Experimentation on level based modules needs looking into. I ran a few experiments on level based droid modules (Data Storage, Item Storage, Medical, and Armor) as a Master Droid Engineer and noticed a lot of less than 'perfect' successes during the process. I've been at the crafting biz for a while, so I know what to look for in my resources and tools, so that isn't the problem. When running experiments on all of those modules mentioned, I tend to get good successes, rather than great or amazing sucesses. This happens even on the lower level schematics. I am able to craft all other droid items, except those listed in 1 and 2, and max out the experimentation value approximately 91% of the time. The success rate of maxing out the experimentation values on level based modules tends to be approximately 70% of the time, even for a Master Droid Engineer

• Droid Complexity tapes are no longer reducing the Complexity of a schematic. This issue needs to be commented on, since many Droid Engineers have spent credits on buying these tapes, in hopes that it will help our abliities. I have seen these tapes sell for upwards of 100k for a decent tape. This is just like the issue that arose with the collector glasses and should be addressed accordingly. if the tapes are meaningless.

Just had a "flashpan" idea. Since meay REAL DE's are expecting to see some additional Combat Droid Schematics in the near future, I think it would be nice if we had an additional vendor-type house droid that could "repair and re-vitalize" a customers droid. Yes, we have the repair module to place in droids, but, this would be a nice service/small potential money-maker to add to our droid stores. Also, we have to be logged in to call out our droid and repair the customers droid.

I envision it working like this: Customer comes in store and approaches the "Repair and Re-vitialize House Droid. (RRHD)" Customer calls out damaged droid and, using the transfer command, Transfers the damaged droid to the RRHD. The customer then gets the system message "you must pay X amount (as set by the DE owner of the RRHD) to repair and re-vitalize your droid." Customer pays the fee, droid is fixed and returned to the customers datapad.

yes the owner DE should pay a share of maintainence for the vendor too. the DE can collect money from the vendor by withdrawing from the maintainence pool which is where the customer's money should be added. Architects get another Item to craft too.

Any other thoughts?

Well here's my wish list (an article I did for SWG Stratics):

http://swg.stratics.com/content/gameplay/guides/guides.php?uid=266

I'll gladly post it here, if you'd like,but it is rather long

Drashk's Possible Compromise to the DE/DC/Cert Debate
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=57023
Gipma Cha'pem - Starsider
Master Droid Engineer, Master Artisan & Novice TKA
Can't sing, can't dance, can use my fists a little

Verify that they're not in Cantinas.

Sorry yes, not in cantina's, just outside in cities and I myself had tried it in the wilds. These advanced Surgical droids both have

1 x Lvl4 + 1 x Lvl3 Item storage mods*

1 x Food&Chem PCS mod

1 x Lvl4 Armour mod

1 x Personality (each onehad a different type, cant remember which had which)

*Which as you've already reported don't work in Surgical droids, perhaps its those that are causing some kind of conflict?

I'll try various combos/levels of modulesout asap and see what may be causing it...

Drashk's Possible Compromise to the DE/DC/Cert Debate
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=57023
Gipma Cha'pem - Starsider
Master Droid Engineer, Master Artisan & Novice TKA
Can't sing, can't dance, can use my fists a little