Droid Engineer Archive

I was talking to my DE in game the other day, and he told me there was a change coming for probots, and something for a combat droid...

I don't use 'pets' except for Droids as it feels more 'starwarsie' and I'm a combat class... so pets are sometimes a really good thing to have

So what is this big change I have heard about

Pretty much EVERYTHING about the Droid Engineer profession is supposedly going to be rebuilt and revamped in the January and Februarypatches.A fewof the droids are going to have new inherant uses (Surgical Droids being able to revive you if you get incapped during combat, for example) and new Combat Modules that will allow you to "upgrade" existing droids (protocol droids, R2 units, etc.) to have "Attack" commands like the Probot has have been mentioned by the devs.

And of course, theBIG buzz is that there will supposedlybe 4 completely new Combat Droids...not just upgraded protocol droids with blasters. Which droid modelsthese will be is still pure speculation, as the devs haven't been forthcoming with any hard data about them. And it is also rumored that one of these combat droids will be a DE-only droid that can only be used by Master Droid Engineers. All thatIS known at this time is that:

January Patch: Low and Medium-grade Combat Droids will be added.

February Patch: Heavy-grade Combat Droid (MDE-Only Droid?) will be added.

Hope this helps to clarify things a little.

The Probot changes are coming with the patch that should be out later this week with vehicles and a major change to all CH and non-CH pets. The Probot is getting a slight damage increase, but with an increase in attack speed aswell.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=43522&highlight=#M43522

As to the reference to a combat droid addition; recently, comments have been coming from the DEV team regarding new combat droids, or modifications to currect droids, which would give them combat capabilities. None of this is solid information at the moment, since the code hasn't even hit the Test Center yet, but from what has been stated by Thunderheart and JustG, new combat droids are slated for the first couple of months in the new year. The ability to actually heal normal damage on a droid is also supposed to be included with the combat droids.

I talked to someone from the SWG team the other night, while trying to track down a problem witha Surgical droid, and was told that from what the person has heard, the new combat droids should make quite a few people happy. This is yet to be seen, but just hearing this information from someone that earned my respect, from the discussion that we had, is promising news.

Combat droids that can only be used by a crafter? Does that make much sense?

Wouldn't you guys rather some classes got 'droid usiage' points (kinda like a CH, verses a BE)... so that you can SELL these bots?

The whole "Pure Crafter vs. Droid Handler" issue has been argued and debated to death in SEVERAL threads. It all comes down to the fact that as things stand right now, no Droid Engineer gets any XP from other people using our droids...so many DEs feel that getting our own MDE-only droid is a sort of long-overdue "consolation prize" for our profession (and droids) being pretty much useless right now, aside from being mobile crafting stations.

The DE population is pretty well split 50/50 on this issue. There are those DEs that feel that we should be a pure crafting profession, never venturing out into combat or even being able to use the very combat droids we make (they've used the Weaponsmith profession as a template for their arguement). And then there are those who feel that we should push for a hybrid profession...or sort of "Droid Handler", where we can build combat droids and even use a high-level combat droid that no other profession can use, unless they become a Master DE to get it.

You see, since beta, the DE profession has been broken for the most part, with very little being changed or implemented in the 6 months since launch, while other professions have seen complete overhauls and major additions (the Creature Handler profession with its mounts, for example). Within the last two months, our profession has seen further damage reputation-wise because of the whole "Holocron-Chaser" phenomenon. Suddenly all these "combat-types" that are told by their Holocrons to master Droid Engineer are seeing just how broken our profession is...and telling everyone they know exactly how much the DE profession "sucks". This has actually caused a sort of "Anti-Droid" sentiment on the Naritus server: It goes something like this...DE profession sucks, the droids suck, no "uber tanking" droids...conclusion: they are a waste of money.

The camp of DEs that want to have our own combat droid are those who want to actually enjoy other avenues (combat, high-end missions, etc.) without having togive in tothe inevitable and end up taking Creature Handler to do so. To take on any of the really hard mission, you pretty much have to have a couple of Rancors or Graul Maulers to follow you around like lost puppies. Many have argued that this has turned this game into P O K E M O N instead of Star Wars. Droids are supposed to be MUCH more prolific in ANY Star Wars game...unfortunately in SWG, they have been delegated to a much less interesting and vaguely peripheral role.

The other camp of "Purists" want us to remain along a Crafter/Merchant path and simply be able to build and sell these combat droids, with no chance of actually using them. In other words, just make them a money sink to keep our bank accounts full...nothing more. They are content to sit in their shops and craft droids all day without ever putting them through their paces.

There are some long-time players that still ask "What do droids do?" or "What good is a droid?" This pretty much sums up how "in-demand" our profession is...or lack thereof. And because of these, and several other reasons not listed here, Droid Engineers as a whole are ready for a BIG change. If that means that we get our own MDE-only droid, then so be it. Anything is better than the status-quo right now.

Bail_Runningrider-

Good summary, Bail, but there is one aspect that you left out as far as the two camps, and that is a certification system that would allow both high level combat players who have mastered their own professions and DE's to use the new high level combat droids. I won't go into detail of the ideas that have been posted here, but in short, they involve having the number of skill points spent on various skills grant "cert points" that allow for the use of different types of combat droids.