Droid Engineer Archive

Posted this over on my server forum. Sodan's State of DE Dev Crapper Address....

They really screwed us over.

DEs have ben a patient bunch for a long time. Experimentation has never worked.We can paint droids now, but the paint only lasts one-day's use. They nerfed the probot early on, then gave CH dabblers even better pets. We have only medical and crafting droids to sell. The LE Repair droid does not repair. The Power Droid needs batteries to charge other droids. Personality chips don't add any charm -- or words - to a droid. Droid battery usage has gone way up; it annoys me and I'm a DE. Under the changes currently on the TC, Binary Load Lifters ADV (not basic model) will finally have functionality -- ONE module slot, meaning the MSE "Mouse" Droid ADV wil have twice the functionality of our "best" and most complex and largest droid. Thanks to expermentation being broken, all droids are cookie cutter droids which has lead to dramatic underselling with service being different DEs' only distinguishing trait. But though underselling has been rampant, the resources, time andcredits requred to make it to Master Droid Engineer and to craft droids have not dimished. Indeed, Droid Engineers have a HEAVY reliance on Master Artisan components (not to mention the need for architect power cores and armorsmith armor segments for our Power Droids and for our best armor).

For six months, I and a number of other DEs on this server have been waiting for fixes to the droid engineer profession. I bought this game to become a DE and dreamt of one day crafting and using a droideka. This week we found out that despite the fact that 90% of DEs oppose the idea, the much awaited "fix" to the DE profession will actualy not be a fix at all, but an entirely new profession: Droid Master. (Yes, that means that you can be a Master Droid Master someday soon).

Rather than fix DE, rather than give us new droids to make and use much like armorsmiths, weaponsmiths and CHs have recieved new or improved items to craft and pets to use, our "fixes" wll go into a new profession -- ostensibly to satisfy the minority of DE who wish to remain "pure crafters" unable to use their combat droids. (The majority of DEprefer crafting but also expect to control all of their non-skill based droids (like medic droids, unless they have medic abilities).)

The devs are right that there are important balance issues to address. The zoo that SWG became before the CH correction is a good example -- though query whether or not crap loads of droids is a bad idea in a Star Wars game. The approach they have taken really screws our profession in the name of balance. Many other systems have been proposed, many others are feasable, but the devs will instead cut and paste the CH code into Droid Master and rob patient DEs of the fruits of their patience.

Worse still, these proposed "fixes" are six months away. The fabled Droid Invasion is not occuring in January and February as initially planned.

Read it for yourself:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Developers&message.id=21175

Rialia, Fu'bar and I are actively contemplating whether there is a future for us in this game and in the DE profession. I would say we're taking a wait-and-see attitude, but that's the only attitude we've ever had. Be patient with your Droid Engineers. This game is really sucking for us right now.

Odano Akkori
First Mayor of Tempest
Jaxian Bay
Elder DE, Rifleman, Swordsman
Jedi will never be a starting profession...Looted items and quest items will never be better then crafted items, this is not a loot based game...CH will return shortly...CH and BE will not be back in game...Rangers are getting their revamp next!...The stealth system will not be changing in the spy expertise...Need any more examples of things the devs said that did not hold true?