Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: A droid customer speaks out...
Salporin_Wookie wrote:
Ok gang... here I am... your target customer. An addicted starwars fan and avid droid user who spends a fortune on droids... you dream client.
I come before you today with requests and complaints and suggestions from the other side of the sales counter.
I see DEs saying things in this forum like "We DEs want..." but unless you only build droids for your own use, you'r elooking at the wrong side of the nickle.
DE statement 1... "Master DEs should be able to control 2 droids at once" Wrong! EVERYONE should be able to control more than one NON-combat droid at once. I frankly don't care if master DEs get an armoy of battle droids... all I want is to call my repair droid to repair my pitiful probot that got incapped while protecting me on a harvester run.
The Devs believe they have addressed this issue by allowing you to have a repair module in your droid. So that your friends droids can be repaired by your droid. Their droid can also have one to repair your droid. Stupid idea, isn't it? The already weakened droids would have to give up a Combat Module to have a repair module. The Reconstruction Kits are DE only, in case you don't know, these are used to repair "wounds" on a droid. There are now the equivalent of droid stims in the game that you can purchase to keep your droid up and fighting. Seek a DE on your server to get these. Even an A or B repair kit can keep your droid up and functional for good while, if used properly.
DE Statement 2... "I built an R2 with ### HAM and ### damage..." How freking stupid is it putting combat mods into an R2 unit? Cmon! Name the movie where you saw R2 shooting it up in a ship corridor? Ho wmuch longer before we see exploding MSEs or a 3PO with a blaster?
We agree. Believe me, we begged for combat droids. We begged for Humanoid combat models. The closest we got is the LE Repair droid model, and it's not as good as the Probot or R3. How much longer till you see Exploding MSEs? When is patch 8, because that's the day they arrive.
Suggestion... Push for the developement of a bodyguard droid. This droid should have only enough combat ability to capture aggro, and tank for its owner. This droid would be un-usable by anyone with an advanced combat skill. This is a droid used to defend merchants, entertainers and crafters who have spent all their SP on their craft and cannot defend themselves in the wilds on harvester runs. It should be fast enough to keep up with a x34 speeder so it could travel with it's owner.
This is a good idea. Surely it would be easier to put a droid in a X34 then a player character, since they have no autonomous actions and dont behave unpredictable (under most circumstances).
Im sure there are other customer issues, but I'm just saying that what you DEs discuss here affects your customers... think about them too.
Please know that we are thinking of our customers. Without you guys we are not going to make the credits needed to continue our craft. We want to see a diversity of droids in the game as much as, if not more than, our customers.
In closing I would like to ask you to do yourself, and us, a huge favor. Try to get a pro-droid, and pro-droid engineer thread going in your favorite forum. If we are going to see the changes we want in the this game, as these changes relate to droid at least, we are going to need wide public support.
Thank you,
Deidre
((As another non droid engineer, but someone who likes droids, I will say that from what I have read here, droid engineers are one of the most customer concern oriented professions I have seen.
From what I read, a *huge* part of the big thing that happened over the Droid Handler idea is that DEs hated the idea of a specific class getting to use their droids. They pushed hard for droids to be useful for *everyone*. I admire that, and I don't think they are out of line to push for perks for themselves, either; especially after they have fought so hard to make droids that everyone can use.
Thank you, droid engineers! Good luck bringing more Star Wars into this game!))
Salporin_Wookie wrote:
DE Statement 2... "I built an R2 with ### HAM and ### damage..." How freking stupid is it putting combat mods into an R2 unit? Cmon! Name the movie where you saw R2 shooting it up in a ship corridor? Ho wmuch longer before we see exploding MSEs or a 3PO with a blaster?
Buddy, if you are on the Tarquinas Server, you see me with a F* TON of these puppies...er...MSE's. I am trying to vote for every thread to get M. DE's the ability to call out 2 combat droids at once just so I can get in a good vantage point, have two of these in a patrol pattern looking like innocent "advertise bots," and then use my /tellpet <blow'em up command>! 
Salporin_Wookie wrote:
Suggestion... Push for the developement of a bodyguard droid. This droid should have only enough combat ability to capture aggro, and tank for its owner. This droid would be un-usable by anyone with an advanced combat skill. This is a droid used to defend merchants, entertainers and crafters who have spent all their SP on their craft and cannot defend themselves in the wilds on harvester runs. It should be fast enough to keep up with a x34 speeder so it could travel with it's owner.
I disagree with the part I bolded. A bodyguard should hit very hard, and let the owner tank. A rich owner can afford plenty of armour and buffs, but without spending skill points can't hit very hard. A droid set to guard will never attack unless the owner already has agro, and it is usually hard for the droid to take it away unless the owner runs. If Ididn't mind havingto run away, I wouldn't have bought the droid. With armour and buffs, I can burst run away from most anything safely.
Tank capabilities are not really important in a bodyguard, they are more useful for gaining experience. To use it as a tank, you send it in first and only attack after it has agro. While this is useful for clearing an area, many mobs will just re-spawn anyway.
The big thing about a tank pet is that it doesn't take away the owner's experience. That is why newbies and bottom feeding higher levels want them.
I really agree about keeping up with a speeder, but my experience when there were only mounts was that you often lose the pet because it draws agro from something that attacked you and stops to fight it.Then you are left recalling it anyway. With the camp requirement to call going away, this is now less important.
Thanks to the DEs who took the time to respond. I appreciate your cander. To the one star bandit... go pack sand!
To the issue of the tanking bodyguard, I think you misunderstood my intention, and your issue is probably why we will never get one. I don't want a bodyguard to help me hunt. I need a bodyguard to keep me alive. I want him on constant guard status. If im attacked while surveying, I want him to charge into the fray while I run away. When I'm a safe distance, I /tellpet follow and he catches up. Its not safe out there for soemone who spent all their skill points on craft skills.
Salporin,
You have this bodyguarddroid in the game. It's the LE Repair Droid outiftted for combat.
I had mine out yesterday as I approached my factory on the edge of town. There were 2 giant dalyrakes near my factory, one aggroed and came after me. I ordered my LE in and he got the Dalyrakes attention instantly. I could have run away and been long gone, (had I chosen to do so) before that LE would have fallen. Instead I chose to stand behind him and watch the fight. Whenever his HAM got low I hit him with a Repair Kit and brought him back up. Doing this didn't aggro the Dalyrake. Eventually my LE won the fight and I went off to my factory.