Droid Engineer Archive

I am kind of new to the DE community. I have been reading the forum about the controversy over DE only combat droids. I have read a lot, but I know I have not seen it all, so I don't know if this suggestion has been brought up. One of my other characters is a CH/BE so my idea is based on what I know of those two professions. I know that DEs to not want to be turned into CHs with mechanical pets, but please read the whole post before you pull out the tar and feathers. This is not something I am pushing, just trying to see if it would work.

From the sounds of some of the developers talk, we will be getting one or more new combat droids, and the probot will be getting an upgrade. I don't think I have heard anyone against that. I know we all want other utilitarian droids as well, but I have not seen anyone say that there should be NO new combat droids. We don't know much about their plans for these droids, although there has been mention of long range, medium range, and short range attacks. I don't know if they are planning on giving droids "special" attacks as well, but they are planning on letting BEs put special attacks on their clones, so I don't see that as an overpowering impossiblity. I am assuming that we will never be allowed to build any single droid with ALL the attacks and ranges in one droid, but it is entirely possible that one droid could have more than one of these. If a BE makes a pet that spits acid, and that pet goes into battle, it will spit acid randomly just like the wild ones do. Someone just informed me that our probots now have both melee and ranged abilities, but again they are randomly under the control of the pet. So, I picture the DE having the ablity to manufacture a combat droid, with one or more pre programmed combat abilities. If someone wants a long range sniper droid, ONLY, he can have one made that way. The droid will only be able to use a long range attack, and when the enemy closes, he will be pretty much usless. Or, he could order a droid with both long and short range attack, but the attacks would be up to the AI we install in the droid. We would be able to sell any and all of our droids to whoever the developers decide to certify for them. With the recent non-ch pet nerf, I can't believe they would let anyone have anything stronger than the probot without some kind of certification.

Now we come to the CH part of my proposal. In the next big patch, high level CHs will be given the ability to call up their pet's special attacks on command. At, master level, they will be able to call up the pets ranged attack, on command. Would a system like this added to the DE skill tree be acceptable to the community? Or, would it make us too much like CHs for all to be comfortable?

I have seen people ask for the "justification" of why a DE should be able to make a droid that only he was good enough to use. I have not seen a good, logical explaination of why we should. But, to me at least, it would seem supportable that we would be able to use any of the droids that we make, better than anyone else. When we make a droid, we put in all kinds of safety codes, so that an inexperienced novice, can handle the droid safely, especially some of our higher level combat droids, which could really be quite dangerous in the wrong hands. But, as we progress up the DE skill tree, it is not unreasonable to suggest that we be given the ability to go into the "backdoor" so to speak, and hack in and bypass some of those codes on our own droids, giving us the ability to call up the special attacks on demand.

Again, I wonder if some would complain that letting us use the combat droids in this way is still going to turn us in to a combat profession. I guess I could understand if some feel that way. But it still seems to me, like a logically defensible ability for high level DEs to have. Weather the community WANTS to have that ability is a whole different question.

Ok, I guess I am done. Be gentle, I am just a seeker, looking for an answer, not a revolutionary looking to destroy our profession.

Thanks for listening.

There could still be a DE only droid added to the game, but like I just saw suggested in another post, it would be a droid that makes us better DEs, and not better fighters.

I couldn't sleep last night, so I got up an posted this. No one has said boo. Was it put up at a time when no one saw it, or has this already been discussed to death elswhere, and I just didn't see it?

Ok, I see the one star. Apparently some one didn't like the suggestion. I just wish he had bothered to explain why. Oh well, no big deal, I didn't really expect to see the idea used anyway. I was just trying to stir up some conversation.

Too wierd, now I am up to 3 stars but still no comment :>

I think this sort of idea goes against the concept of droid pets vs creature pets.

Droids are meant to be largely autonomous, more like servants. They are able to operate indepentantly while following orders from their 'master'. Creatures are meant to be slaves, trained to jump through hoops for their master, much like teaching a dog to sit or stay. Special attacks then should be viewed as tricks, and thus a pet should be able to respond to a whistle or a command.

Droids should be treated as smart enough to operate on their own. If battle droids are added, they should be smart enough to attack as effectively as possible without any help from their owners. This goes back to my idea of adding battle-oriented droids as a separate profession. Combat droids are a little more complex than a mouse droid designed to follow and let you heal.

just my 2 cr

along with this, droids should be smart enough that anyone can use any droid. they shouldn't require 'taming' to use. creature pets are wild animals and the stronger ones should require a CH to use.

along with this, anyone canoperatea can opener, but only a lion tamer should 'operate' a lion

okay, 2 more cr

QuralRief,

I thought about how smart the droids should be vs the intelligence of creatures as well. I couldn't decide which is actually smarter, a droid with a preprogramed AI that might come up against a situation the programer had not forseen, or an animal that had evolved over millions of years, with each generation getting a little better at its survival skills.

As for anyone being able to use a droid, I agree. I still think it is not beyond belief that the one who actually programmed the droid, might be able to get a little bit more out of it than someone who just picked it up off the shelf at their locale Droids-R-Us. Again the droid could come up against a situation the programmer had not forseen. The programer, i.e. DE being right there could fine tune the droid's response, where someone who just bought a droid, would only be able to use pre programmed responses.

QuralRief,

But thanks for expressing your opinion