CUEmu - Thread Posts

Kade_Deveron

Fri Jan 30, 2004 10:41 am

I've been thinking about the issue of DEs and the proposed Droid Commander profession and it occurs to me that there may be a better way of introducing combat droids to the game. I submit this solution here, inthe core systems forums, because it impacts many professions and significantly changes the dynamics of how we see pets.

Reconceptualizing the professions

One of the real problems with the current pet system is that different dynamics play out to obtain and use different pets. Creature handlers can get and manage their own pets. These pets never "die". DEs make droids, and anyone can use them. They have limited deaths before they die permanently. Faction pets rely on faction points to be bought, but when they die, they stay dead.

Fixing this system, in my mind, takes a fairly radical set of changes to balance things out. So here it goes.

Bio-Engineers - Two major changes to bio-engineers. First, they should gain ALL of the taiming abilities of CHs. Second, they should gain the ability to heal creatures with increasing levels of results up to master.

Droid Engineers - One major change. They should gain the ability to repair droids, again scaling against their levels and abilities.

Creature Handlers - Lose the ability to tame pets or make them mounts (yes, yes, I can hear the screams of nerf!). However, they gain the ability to manage both creatures AND droids. This class would be renamed to something else more appropriate, but for this discussion I will call them Handlers. Handlers would require the engineering tree of artisan and the hunting tree of scouts as pre-requisites to their profession. They would function much as they do now, with level and number limits, but could use mixes of droids AND creatures. Handlers would have some limited repair abilities for their droids and creatures. Handlers have two sets of caps, a cap on how many pets they can manage at one time, and a higher cap on the number of pets they can store.

While radical, these changes would create a more balanced enconomy and system. BEs and DEs fit within a proper role of creation and repair, and the handler profession gains the role of managing these creations. While MANY will see this as a major nerf for CHs, consider this. Handlers under this new system now have access to creatures to use for tanking AND droids which will likely be ranged units that carry secondary features (crafting stations, medical abiility, etc..). This will make the handlers much more powerful in the long run. All creatures and droids would operate under the same death rules. For the economy's sake, my belief is that after x deaths, pets should STAY dead, leaving DEs and BEs with a regular stream of business.

The last peice of the balance relates to faction pets. Unlike droids or creatures, faction pets arent "created". However, a similar system can be implemented for faction pets.

Rank - Rank should be used to determine the total "level" of support personnel available to an individual.

Squad Leader - With increased levels in squad leadership, squad leaders gain the ability to lead more and more faction pets up to their rank cap.

Faction pets that die follow the same death process as pets in other professions, they have x number of deaths and then they are dead for good.

For non-squad leaders or handlers:

For folks that arent in the two "pet" professions, the old rules apply. One pet up to a max of level 10. Faction pets are an exception, as their rank limits the power of their pets. However their pets can only engage in faction combat so this is fairly self-balancing.

So, I am curious what everyone thinks about this proposal and its implications for gameplay?

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Khade Deveron

Puck_Starfire

Fri Jan 30, 2004 3:39 pm

#2

Khade, I was just about to give you a 5-star because someone gave you a one-star and I hate people that do that. But...after reading that proposal, I'll leave it alone.

BE's taming beasts?!? Creature Handlers getting the ability to handle Droids?!? Have you even watched the Star Wars movies? I don't care about game balance or game mechanics? What I do care about is making this game as close to the movies as possible for the sole purpose of having a Star Wars "feel" to it. If I had gone to see Episode 4 as alittle kid and seen Luke Skywalker coming out with his 2 Astromechs and 2 Rancors, I probably would have lost all interest in the movie right there. Luke Skywalker - "Pet" Handler, Force-Sensitive, Artisan, and Pilot. Just imagine putting something like a Droid Handler/Pet Handler in this game. That would utterly destroy the game for the "real" Star Wars fans, leaving an uber-game for all the kiddie groupies.

DarkMist25

Sat Jan 31, 2004 2:12 am

#3

Yup, i'll come at ya from a different point of view. I'm not interested as much in the starwarsiness aspect of things, i'm more into the game balance and mechanics aspect of it. And i gotta tell ya, some of it makes sense in a crazy way but it wouldn't fly with anyone. Everyone already has their characters set and planned and created. In order to change anything like your talking about, everyone would pretty much have to start from scratch again.

BE's taming pets...nah, thats just not what a bio enge is supposed to do. They make better pets then what's in the wild and sell'em, among other things. They just don't have any use for taming at all. I'm sure they'd love mount training, but thats beside the point.

And giving droids to CH's...well i just don't ever see that happening. It's bad enough that a droid handler was proposed and every de went ballistic. Actually giving the droids to a creature handler..heh i don't wanna know what would happen in the community here. I'm thinking theres a good chance that doing that would cause CH hatred to hit an all time high.

But i'll give you abrownie pointfor managing to get someone to quote at yawhat would or wouldn't be seen in a movie.

Azahlun Nai'Shadrin--Artisan,DE,Swordsman--Ahazi

Droid Engineer Archive

Thread: Pets Reconceived A Fix for the problem of Droid Engineers?