Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Delivery Droids Proposal v1
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Javac
Wed Aug 25, 2004 10:22 am
#1
There was a bunch of brainstorming on this idea here recently, and it's been proposed in various flavors on the DE forum as well.
Ideally, they would benfit everyone involved. Merchants, DE, customers and non-merchants alike to different degrees. Bracketed items in this proposal are present for discussion, and not intended to be final.
1. The delivery droid would act like droids with the current storage modules to load and retrieve items but have a lower item cap. The lower cap would be to avoid it replacing the normal Level 1-6 Storage modules. [1-5 items?] An additional radial option would be present to 'deliver' the contents. A box would pop up that you can enter the players' name to deliver to.
2. Merchants would have a much higher limit on active deliveries than non-merchants, tied to either the number of vendors you have [x5?] or the number of items you can have on vendor [/50?]. Non-merchants would only be able to have a handful of deliveries out at a time [3?].
3. Deliveries can be initiated from anywhere, but would be made to the target player's [residence or bank?] via a new option on the terminal. The target player does not have to be online when the delivery is inititated.
4. The droids are one-use, and would be made relatively cheap to produce [1-5k cost?] The 'delivery module' should have low resource requirements, and no named resources required similar to a Level4 Storage Module.
5. Collect on Delivery [COD] is only available to Merchants. A 5% transaction fee much like the bank /tip option is present for this service.
6. Items not retrieved are returned to sender after [7?] days.
Fire away with thoughts folks. I think this would be a great addition to the game for all involved.
Ideally, they would benfit everyone involved. Merchants, DE, customers and non-merchants alike to different degrees. Bracketed items in this proposal are present for discussion, and not intended to be final.
1. The delivery droid would act like droids with the current storage modules to load and retrieve items but have a lower item cap. The lower cap would be to avoid it replacing the normal Level 1-6 Storage modules. [1-5 items?] An additional radial option would be present to 'deliver' the contents. A box would pop up that you can enter the players' name to deliver to.
2. Merchants would have a much higher limit on active deliveries than non-merchants, tied to either the number of vendors you have [x5?] or the number of items you can have on vendor [/50?]. Non-merchants would only be able to have a handful of deliveries out at a time [3?].
3. Deliveries can be initiated from anywhere, but would be made to the target player's [residence or bank?] via a new option on the terminal. The target player does not have to be online when the delivery is inititated.
4. The droids are one-use, and would be made relatively cheap to produce [1-5k cost?] The 'delivery module' should have low resource requirements, and no named resources required similar to a Level4 Storage Module.
Delivery Module:
Requires 15 units of Steel
Requires 10 units of Extrusive Ore
Requires 10 units of Inert Gas
Requires 15 units of Non-Ferrous Metal
5. Collect on Delivery [COD] is only available to Merchants. A 5% transaction fee much like the bank /tip option is present for this service.
6. Items not retrieved are returned to sender after [7?] days.
Fire away with thoughts folks. I think this would be a great addition to the game for all involved.
Message Edited by Javac on 08-25-2004 08:16 PM
Javac
Wed Aug 25, 2004 10:24 am
#2
Started a thread over on the merchant forum about the old idea of delivery droids. Got into a discussion about the possibilities there and a few folks liked the idea so I put something together. Would help us on multiple fronts since we do a lot of custom work, and then have another product to sell.
Message Edited by Javac on 08-25-2004 01:25 PM
YDI-Inc
Wed Aug 25, 2004 1:13 pm
#3
The items insideshould only go from person to person, not to a house.
It should go from Inventory to Inventory, not a bank.
It should only work when both parties are logged into the game.
The droid should only go to starports/shuttleports and tickets should be purchased and placed into the droid to designate it's destination.
Payment should be C.O.D. to avoid greif on either side.
Once the droid has arrived at the Star/Shuttleport the intended player target should have a set amount of time (say 15 minutes) to arrive and accept delivery. After that time the droid begins the journey back home.
The Items should transfer to inventory once payment is made and the droid should store and be usable again.
Droids should be scannable for contraband and if found with something that triggers the sweep alarms, the items inside (and possibly the droid itself, depending upon the severity of the infraction) should be confiscated.
The only reasons that I have for my thoughts above are that the game is supposed to be about how the players interact with each other. If we make the system too automated, too easy, people will lose interest as there is no challenge, nor even any need to interact with each other.
I'm a master merchant. I will soon have 12 vendors to use. If you want an easy way to switch things around.... make it so that I can transfer items from one vendor to another without making the trip myself. Charge me a small fee for the 'service'. That way I can have something like this...
Player X send me /tell "Do you have any (Item x) for sale?"
/reply "Yes I do. I have them on Dantooine right now for (Price"
Player X "Can you ship some over to Tatooine?"
/reply "Yes I can do that. Give me a few minutes. I'll have to raise the price to (Item Price, plus surcharge) but they will be there within 15 minutes. Is that acceptable?"
Player X "Yes that's fine. Thank you."
/reply "Thank you for your business. You can find my Tatooine Vendor at X,Y"
Much faster and easier than a droid, and I assume less coding involved.
Fhtagn
Wed Aug 25, 2004 4:10 pm
#4
go a bit simpler...
make the droids "one item, one use" (perhaps with a reduction in the resources needed, or an increase in the stack size when they're crafted? for example, similar to survey droids?) -- this will create a repeatable market, rather than just buying a few and recycling them forever.
COD option -- I'm not sure if that should be limited to merchants only (then again, I'm not convinced that this sort of droid should be merchant only either -- and yes, I am a Master Merchant)
timing of delivery -- requiring both the sender and recipient to be online for them to work kinda defeats the purpose, in my mind. after all, isn't the purpose of this droid to provide a "receive parcels" function for players so that the seller and buyer can still transact even if they're on opposite schedules?
what else?
Javac
Wed Aug 25, 2004 5:15 pm
#5
Did intend it to be 'one item, one use' so I'll make it clearer. Do you think 1-5k is too much per delivery?
Fhtagn wrote:
go a bit simpler...
make the droids "one item, one use" (perhaps with a reduction in the resources needed, or an increase in the stack size when they're crafted? for example, similar to survey droids?) -- this will create a repeatable market, rather than just buying a few and recycling them forever.
COD option -- I'm not sure if that should be limited to merchants only (then again, I'm not convinced that this sort of droid should be merchant only either -- and yes, I am a Master Merchant)
timing of delivery -- requiring both the sender and recipient to be online for them to work kinda defeats the purpose, in my mind. after all, isn't the purpose of this droid to provide a "receive parcels" function for players so that the seller and buyer can still transact even if they're on opposite schedules?
what else?
I thought COD would be a nice merchant 'perk' for these, since anyone can use them. The limit it just how many can be 'out' at one time. COD could be available to everyone, perhaps a Merchant would have a lower fee?
Timing - I'm not suggesting that both people have to be online at all! The recipient does not have to be online and can pick up the wares at anytime even if the sender is offline.
Message Edited by Javac on 08-25-2004 08:17 PM
CTRL_ALT
Wed Aug 25, 2004 5:31 pm
#6
HowI like to deliver:
They got a vendor? Fine I go there, simple enough.
If you can't take 5 minutes to meet someone in Theed or Coronet, maybe you should get a droid to do the work for you. Maybe we should have FedEx. I like the guy's idea who posted second (forget name) that inventory from one vendor can be sent to other vendor locales. Now that would becool and practical.
My suggestion: Invent the mailbox and hire UPS.
wabicajo
Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:12 pm
#7
This is a pretty good idea, except that its really lazy. Why can't a person go to the delivery site themselves? Of course, its tough running around to five places at once. I think I've seen stuff, and would be happy to see, about binary load lifters having this job. It makes good sense.
Sharp113
Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:46 pm
#8
Nice post, well thought out. it would be a good idea to have somthing like this. i really like the idea that it is a 1 use per droid. that would give DE's alot more business, 
but i do think the resources should be changed around.
but i do think the resources should be changed around.More like:
150 Steel
50 Ore
50 Non-ferrous metal
25 inert gas
But i really enjoy this. Thank you for your idea.
Great Job 
+Chilastra+
*Ecis*
-Master Droid Engineer- Master Merchant- Master Artisan-
Sharp113
Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:48 pm
#9
Nice post, well thought out. it would be a good idea to have somthing like this. i really like the idea that it is a 1 use per droid. that would give DE's alot more business, but i do think the resources should be changed around.
More like:
150 Steel
50 Ore
50 Non-ferrous metal
25 inert gas
But i really enjoy this. Thank you for your idea.
Great Job
+Chilastra+
*Ecis*
-Master Droid Engineer- Master Merchant- Master Artisan-
Ogge_the_Lizard
Thu Aug 26, 2004 4:00 am
#11
I'll leave the function discussion to you pro's... I'm just a passionate DE that would like to see it fair.
To be honest on the resource side it would be something more like:
Steel: 20
Iron: 10
Copper(maybe a rare): 15
Inert Gas: 20
Polymer: 25
Electronics GP Units: 2 (non-identical)
Electronics Memory Units: 1 (it has to remember location right?)
Droid Storage Compartment: 1 (doh!)
Maybe even add Control Units or Droid Sensor Packages (could be Micro Sensor Suites instead). Now this would be options for lvl 5-6 modules. Low lvl modules would be much easier to make with probably lower range and less items. Maybe even planetary delivery only for low lvl and interplanetary for higher.
The Survey droids would then be reworked and devided into a droid and a module, this delivery module could then be used in that droid model. It would be like a spendable long range droid, for delivery and surveying (maybe even some more functions for JTL).
Javac
Thu Aug 26, 2004 6:21 am
#12
Ogge_the_Lizard wrote:I'll leave the function discussion to you pro's... I'm just a passionate DE that would like to see it fair.To be honest on the resource side it would be something more like:Steel: 20Iron: 10Copper(maybe a rare): 15Inert Gas: 20Polymer: 25Electronics GP Units: 2 (non-identical)Electronics Memory Units: 1 (it has to remember location right?)Droid Storage Compartment: 1 (doh!)Maybe even add Control Units or Droid Sensor Packages (could be Micro Sensor Suites instead). Now this would be options for lvl 5-6 modules. Low lvl modules would be much easier to make with probably lower range and less items. Maybe even planetary delivery only for low lvl and interplanetary for higher.The Survey droids would then be reworked and devided into a droid and a module, this delivery module could then be used in that droid model. It would be like a spendable long range droid, for delivery and surveying (maybe even some more functions for JTL).
Egads! You realize how much more expensive all that crap will make the droids? I'd rather it have no subcomponents, perhaps one MM at most. I took the resource requirements for a Level4 storage module since I can't see a delivery droid holding more than that, and upped it a little bit. Note this isn't a complete droid ... just a module, so you'd have to drop it into a droid (probably MSE).
The reason I thought about it this way is that it would be easier for the devs to code, since you can already drop items into droids with storage. This version would just be a lower cap, and have the 'deliver' functionality.
Javac
Thu Aug 26, 2004 6:24 am
#13
CTRL_ALT wrote:How I like to deliver:They got a vendor? Fine I go there, simple enough.If you can't take 5 minutes to meet someone in Theed or Coronet, maybe you should get a droid to do the work for you. Maybe we should have FedEx. I like the guy's idea who posted second (forget name) that inventory from one vendor can be sent to other vendor locales. Now that would be cool and practical.My suggestion: Invent the mailbox and hire UPS.
See, there will be a lot less vendors to drop stuff at pretty soon. This idea is a 'FedEx' service from the crafter to the customer house that you have to pay extra for. Never thought of using them to send items from one vendor to another, that would be a nifty idea as well.
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