Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Proposal for DE Changes
Since the devs are about to post a bunch of focus threads regarding future DE changes (despite that fact that DEs have already answered the thread questions repeatly on these forums for the past 6 months), I thought it might be a good time to dust this off as ammunition for the upcoming debates:
I think the perfect solution for DEs consists of the following:
(1) Leave current droids out of this (no retarded combat modules that give guns to 3P0s)...add functional modules for all droids and droid specific functions. Functions need to include slicing bonuses, crafting bonuses, etc. (see Sintrosi's and the 100's of other posts on neat proposed functions).
(2) Add 2-3 new combat droid chassis. Limit these new chassis to ONLY armor modules (no crafting stations, etc). Make all of these droids usuable by every class, and more powerful than the probot (by at least double).
-NOTE: To preserve combat balance, droid certifications limiting all droid more powerful than probots to elite and hybrid classes may be required.
(3) Give DEs the ability to control TWO droids at once.
Currently, there are 3 camps of DEs: (1) those that craft and don't give a **edit** about combat and want new droids to sell; (2) those that craft and want droids to sell, but think it would be neat to have come combat advantage; and (3) those that want DE to become CH, part 2.
The current dev plan is to cater to #3, and to ignore the other 2 camps of DEs by strapping guns on droids that people already buy and limiting good combat droids to DEs (thereby failing to increase sales in any way).
The above plan does the following:
(1) It creates sales for DEs. Non-DEs will want a combat droid to replace the creatures Sony just nerfed (because people were complaining about poke***). However, all functional modules will be limited to non-combat droids, so players will have to buy more than one droid. This is a substantial improvement from the current "one droid does all" probot. Additionaly, new droid functions will differentiate droids, thereby creating a demand for multiple non-combat droids.
(2) DEs who want a combat advantage get one: A DE gets double the combat droid power of any other class through being able to control double the number of droids. DEs also get the advantage of having multiple non-combat droids. Combinations like Droideka/Repair Droid or Droideka/Powerbot become available.
To sum it up, for the most part, the DE community is in agreement on what we want. We have stated it time and time again. For now we are waisting our time and energy discussing it amoungst ourselves. Lets let the Dev Focus Threads get started and then unleash on them. Before that will just piss you off.
- - - - -
You're right, of course. I think some of us (inclufing myself) fear that, by the time we're given some concrete ideas about what the plan specifically contains, it will be **too late** to change their minds about some of the daft aspects of their plan.
...Like welding Rocket Launchers to 3PO....
Some johnny-come-lately DE's seem to like this idea, so even though the rest of us don't, It's important to remind and remind and remind the powers that be that we don't want these silly combat clown droids.
You're right about most of us being in agreement on what we want... but with Sintrosi gone, we have no official voice. So yes, we could all agree on the color of sh*t, but with no recognized voice to remind the Dev's about said color, we all need to do our parts and keep the discussion alive.
keylargodave wrote:
I think that everybody is making asumptions on what the dev's plan is. I don't believe I've read anywhere that they are proposing welding a cdef blaster on an R2. Nor have I read anywhere where they came out and said that their plan is that we are the mechanical equivalent of a CH. Can we wait until they actually tell us their plan before flying off the handle about this?
Heh... Riigggghhhhttt...
Post by TH in October:
For the Droid Engineers, I have listed the top three items which the developers are going to work on first and then included a bunch of other items below that to give you an idea of the direction the Profession is going in. Please understand that I need to help set realistic expectations. Some of this work requires a lot of people, more than one team and a fair amount of developing and coding. As we go forward, I will include the progress of these changes in my updates.
Without further Adieu:
Item #1
Combat droids. We want to add Droid Modules that will convert many droids and give them combat abilities. ONLY Droid Engineers will be able to make and use these modules. Setting expectations, these changes involve a lot of people and its not something that’s going to happen fast.
Some of the abilities Combat Droids would have (barring any unforeseen difficulties) would be:
* Multiple combat modes for droids
* Short range blaster
* Long range blaster
* Anti-droid reactions
* Anti-creature reactions
Item #2
Droid engineers should be able to take out more than one droid at a time, but only one combat droid. The big challenge is integrating multi-droid controls. It’s too early to tell what the impact is going to be.
Item #3
Increase Repair Droid functionality. What is planned is to Make Repair Droids work similarly to current pet healing standards. One of the ways we would make Droids more star warsy is to give the Repair Droids expendable droid items to charge up.
Current Post on the In Development Page:
There are two parts to the "Droid Invasion". The first component is the adding of combat functionality to droids with "combat modules" that can be crafted by Droid Engineers. The second component will be a reiteration of the Droid Engineer profession. In Development ideas will be considered for the month of January and planned for implementation in Late February. Points of focus will be:
Droid Combat Functionality
New Combat Droid Models
Combat Module ideas and basic rules for combat modules for all droids
Things to Consider
The role of combat droids in MMO combat and
The repair of combat droids and the crafting of repair kits
Droid combat and owner's Faction modifiers
Droid Engineer Revamp
The Droid Engineer profession will be reiterated as much as possible with a focus on combat droids. Many of the existing profession issues are In Production and will be In Test In January.
If you read the two, you will see that both are talking about the EXACT same thing...blasters on R2 units and DEs becoming CHs. You can sit there and wait for developers to finish developing (when it will be too late) or you can comment now....