Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: A Modest Proposal for More Useful (but non-combat) Droids -- 12 suggestions
First off, I'm a consumer, not a droid engineer. But I am against the notion of combat droids. I think they're unbalanced and it'll just lead to the mechanical version of the Poke-mon phenomenon we've seen with pets. Bad idea allaround. You'll have the same imbalances and inherent advantages that the pet players have right now, you'll have the same attempt at dabbling, and it'll be the same power-disparity between haves and have-nots as you see currently. Everyone will have to buy a droid to remain competitive, the same way everyone has to buy a pet currently or an AT-ST or whatever. But, while this may provide a short-term boost in droid sales, combat droids are not the solution to this profession's economic viablility. Sooner or later, people will just pick up DE and make the droids themselves. And remember, you guys are droid ENGINEERS, not droid HANDLERS. No, I think that more interesting and useful, and more importantly, more FUN droids ARE the solution. So, I'm proposing general revisions to the basic droid chassis that I know about.
Please excuse me if I forgot to include a particular chassis, and excuse the lack of the advanced chassis here. I figure the advanced models would just be better functioning versions of the ones I describe.
Second, I'm not actually discussing the particular modules, but I don't think it'd be hard to do any of what I suggest. Simply make certain new modules that have particular functions. Allow these modules to be installed on limited types of droid chassis. Or, permit them to be installed in different numbers (IE: better functionality).
So, with that in mind, here goes.
Instead, I offer the following suggestions for making the existing droids more FUN to use and more USEFUL overall:
1.) Mouse Droids -- Currently decent for storage and that's about it. The mousedroid bomb idea is a REALLY bad idea. I'd say a better solution is to make mouse droids more useful in terms of the GCW. This would require fixing the base issue, but the current TEF/house thing may help there. I'd like to see mouse droids used as remote cameras or spy units. You could use these when preparing to assault a base. A competent Droid Engineer would be able to craft a Spy module which would let the mouse droid get past the bases defense and report back on the status of the base (what kind of defenses, troops, etc. are present). You could also make a counterspy module which would allow defensive mouse droids (mousetrap droids?) to catch incoming spy droids. Mouse droids could also act as remote alarm units that could warn you when someone crosses a particular perimeter or is within scanner range.
2.) Probe Droids -- leave the blaster function, but give them very light/weak armor and a self-destruct mechanism. Probe droids could be used similarly to scout out areas while not exposing the owner to any kind of significant harm. Less concealable than a mouse droid, but able to defend itself. Same goes for the sentry function. It could warn you, but also defend itself and act as a picket for bases or PA halls.
3.) R-series droids -- give them different levels of functionality, but allow them to become MUCH more interactive with the environment than they currently are. When vehicles and spaceships are implemented, allow astromechs to repair ships if they carry a specific type of repair unit. This unit could be consumed over time, or could be less effective than human interaction by the vehicle crafting profession. Also give them the ability to interface with computer terminals. Smugglers could use droids to help with slicing weapons, armor, and terminals. Other players could use R-series droids to help take over or better automate a base's defense systems (perhaps, if programmed with a tactical interface module). Data storage could be useful as well. R-series droids should also be able to scan for hostile creatures and report back with more useful data, similar to the extended information that scout players see (maybe for humanoids, it could tell you what kind of weapon they're wielding and that sort of thing).
4.) Power droids -- You can keep droid batteries, or you can buy a power droid. The power droid would degrade over time (unless you maintained it with the help of a repair droid -- more on that later), but could provide your droid stable with an otherwise inexhaustable supply of power. Let's be honest. How many people ACTUALLY sell droid batteries anyway?
5.) Medical droids -- Allow them to heal people or control specific structures (IE: bacta tanks) that players could craft in their own hospitals. Bacta tanks could be something you give to artisans or architects. Operating tables, bacta tanks, etc. could all play an integral role in the upcoming player cities. Rather than the usual medical center, where people simply stand around, you could allow people to open their own healing buildings which could run automated, similar to how factories run currently (for purposes of XP, I mean). Any player who used your bacta tank or whatever would pay an access fee, be healed quickly, and this would result in a gain of XP for the player. Of course, hands-on experience pays off better XP-wise, but this could help boost the medical players' economic abilities. Concordantly, by requiring that medical droids (the current one is good, I'd throw in the FX7 as well) be employed along with the bacta tanks, you create interdependency among professions and give DE's useful equipment to sell to the public.
6.) Repair droids -- Similar to medical droids, you could permit repair droids to operate automated repair facilities for DEs. Of course, a DE should be able to repair a droid up to full health (I support MAINTENANCE decay, in that if you don't repair your droid it will decay over time, but I do NOT support that decay even AFTER you get your droid fixed up-- hell, R2-D2 was functioning for, what, 50 something years?) and gain DE experience for doing so. But when they're not online, you could visit the DE's shop, talk to his repair droid, and get your own droids repaired up to full functionality. Maybe even throw on a new coat of paint. Repair droids could also run customization stations, or customization could be an additional feature of the repair station. Anyway, this offers more functionality. Higher level DEs could craft these for lower level DE's to use when they're away from the shop.
7.) Treadwells -- I'd make treadwells the "jack of all trades/master of none" droid as far as the following functions go: they'd be able to perform limited repair for you, they'd be able to do limited maintenance for you, they'd be able to interface with computers for you in a limited way, they'd even be able to perform limited patrol duties for you, but they wouldn't do it as well as any of the other droids out there that are built for the specific task. Alternatively, you could make treadwells the new mobile crafting stations, a function that no other droid would be able to perform at quite the same level (other droids could do crafting, but could hold fewer crafting modules maybe -- those are details to be ironed out).
8.) Binary Load Lifters -- I think these guys should be the workhorses of the droid line. MAJOR storage capacity (since we can't implement that they haul boxes around). They could act as walking warehouses for you. Not too bright, but a strong back and plenty of storage. No fighting capabilites, though. What would these guys be useful for? Well, especially when the space expansion comes out, how the heck are people supposed to get things on and off their ships in mass quantities? Load lifters, my friend. Load lifters. You could also use these to operate automatically when you're not around, in order to maintain your factories, harvesters, and the like. Provided you keep the droid within a particular radius of the facility in question, the droid could stand as sentry for you, depositing power and credits into your harvesters and removing resources when the harvester fills up. Or, you could set waypoints so that the droid patrols between a power generator and a harvester/factory. When your factory is full, the droid could remove the crates for you if you're not online.
9.) Protocol droids -- This will require a major overhaul of languages, but personally, I think that's entirely necessary. I get sick and tired of everyone talking the same in this game. Where's the gibberish? Where are the subtitles? I never hear anyone say "Ooota goota, Solo? Som pichale. Mi paratraski chi-sa. Jabba wa ninchi koch-pa..." Instead it's just the same old stuff I always see. Wookiees speak perfect english, Rodians speak perfect english, EVERYONE speaks perfect english. It's boring. Enter the language nerf. That's right. I said it. Language nerf. Everyone is given the choice of two or three languages that they can learn in addition to their native tongue. After that, you need a protocol droid to translate, or a friend who understands the language. This might help make Undeworld I in smuggling a little more useful (FYI it gives you the ability to understand all languages), though frankly, I'd drop that from the skill line anyway. Anyway, so you'd need to have a protocol droid to do translation for you. Additionally, I'd have protocol droids be programmed in DROID languages, which no player (except maybe DEs) could speak. You'd need a protocol droid to program your binary load-lifters at least to perform the higher end functions like maintenance while you're offline.
10.) DZ-270 (or whatever) tracking droids -- I honestly don't know much about these things, so I don't really know what they're used for. I'd make them capable of traking people down for bounty hunting purposes, naturally, or possibly use them to deliver goods from one person to another. IE: I send craftsman X a request for a gun. He crafts the gun, places it in his tracker droid, and then says "Go find Solo4114." The droid takes off, finds me, and delivers the gun or message or whatever you stored in it. R-units and probe droids could have similar functionality, but on a more limited basis (IE: "R2, go find Obi-Wan and tell him topick up bread on his way back from work.") The more sophisticated the unit, the faster it can get to the player. But I figure that tracking is tracking, and why not let them be delivery units as well?
11.) Miscellaneous Customizations -- Well, obviously, Droid customization needs an overhaul. Pre-patch droids don't customize properly, which is a pain. But, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Painting your droid is a minor thing. I'd want to see personality chips come back in a big way. I've never figured out why the devs couldn't implement something like a personality chip for non-verbal droids (IE: R-units). Simple messages like "Bleeps indignantly" or "Chirps obediently" would make droids infinitely more interesting than they are now. Also, PLEASE let people name their droids with alphanumeric names. Droids should not be named Sparky, or Chip or whatever. Droids should be R5-X2, BL-24, etc. If people want to name 'em Bollocks or Blue Max or whatever, that's fine too, but give us the option to call a droid whatever we want.
12.) Droid calling abilities -- Give people the ability to call and have out multiple droids. Don't treat them like pets. Maybe DEs can call more droids than anyone else, or maybe not. Personally I don't think that's necessary. Droids are not pets, nor should they be treated as such. Droids are independent, highly sophisticated mobile computers with extended functionality. They're 100% obedient, they don't need to be *PLAY*ed with, and they can operate independently of player interaction for greater periods of time. This is the real value of droids. Remember why they exist: automated labor functions. A droid is fundamentally created and designed to perform tasks FOR you, especially laboring functions that you'd rather not perform yourself. To me, it's VERY starwarsy to walk by someone's house or estate and see that they're not signed on, but ten droids are wandering around performing various tasks ranging from basic sentry work, healing, repairing, maintaining, etc. Think about the Lars homestead in Ep. IV. There were tons of droids just trucking around doing their own thing. If no one talked to them for days, they'd probably still be doing their own thing, assuming that they didn't break down or something. That's my ultimate vision.
And think of the benefit this would be for crafters. Right now, crafters have to work overtime to fix their harvesters, check power supplies, remove excess resources for storage, and on and on and on. It's a grind, and it's a pain, and if I could get a droid to do it for me, you can bet your boots I'd buy one faster than you can say "Roger roger!"
So, there you have it. A modest proposal for howto avoid Pet Wars II: Droid Wars, and yet still make DEs economically viable, and make droids actually really REALLY cool. Hell, I'd love to buy a whole stable of droids and just have 'em wander around outside the house I plan to buy. If they could actually FUNCTION for me, that'd be even better.
Spoken like a DE himself
That's basically what I've been thinking about for a LONG time.
I just don't want to see the DE's become the new CH's. And I'd REALLY like to have a bunch of USEFUL droids. I think it'd really help enhance the Star Warsiness of the game, it'd give DE's plenty of stuff to create, it'd encourage people to BUY droids, and it'd make them a real part of the economy and the game universe itself, which, unfortunately, they aren't currently.
I guarantee you, though, if combat droids become the new flavor, people will just pick up those skills to have yet another tank. And then other people will cry out for nerfs. And we'll end up in the same pile of bantha poodoo we're in with the CH's.
Be happy with crafting. Pick up real combat skills if you want to fight. All you guys have to do is master ONE line of artisan and you're good to go for your elite class. That leaves plenty of skill points for combat mastery. Why not just make droids more useful, interesting, and fun, and leave the fighting to the fighters? Honestly, I think taht if the droids were useful and not buggy, people wouldn't be bothering with a desire for combat droids. You guys would be making plenty of useful money for your goods and services, and would basically be all set.
And besides, ultimately, I think that's what this class was designed for: creation of automaton assistants, not automaton battle platforms. Just think about what it'd be like if what you can currently make was actually useful for the support classes (of which there are PLENTY) instead of the combat classes.
Very good read, excellent proposals and ideas on how utiltiy droids should work. I'll write down a few additions when i'm not just about to walk into the next room to watch my fave show 
Glad you like it. Personally, I think this is all that DE's really need. Combat droids are superfluous and problematic, unless you set it up so that you can only use the combat droid and not use a combat droid plus carry a weapon (assuming you're directing the combat droid to attack/defend that is).
I'd also limit the max number of droids a person could have out to, say, five at most, including DEs. If you're not implementing combat droids, there's no real reason to limit the number of droids people can have out at a time based on profession. You'd only be shooting yourselves in the foot if you say that DE's get more droids out than anyone else. Wouldn't it make more sense to encourage people to buy multiple droids and use them frequently? That way you sell more droids and sell more TYPES of droids (IE: power droids to provide energy to all the OTHER droids I've got out).
Personally, I'd love to have a group of droids working for me, performing various tasks at my estate. I think it'd be cool and VERY star warsy.
Speaking of customizations, I'd love to see the Devs not just add functionality, but make what exists easier to use. I was making stims the other day and surprised to find I could experiment -- I totally forgot my R2 had a Food/Chem module, as it isn't visible in the datapad. The vague "customization wore off" message and inability to monitor power.
Regarding protocol droids, I have posted similar thoughts, although I never got a reaction. Nerf the crap out of languages! Give us reasons to buy protocol droids!
Solo4114,
Something very much like what you describe above was the reason that I started lurking the pre-release boards (and posting), playing in beta and upon release.
Alas, we're still some ways off from your vision but I think it's a good one for most ever DE that I've ever talked to, so far.
Now would be an excellent time for TH to step in on this topic and give it some eyes and validity.
Note: My personal favorite was use of MSEs as 'Spy cams'. 
/bow
Respectfully,
Again, glad you like it.
There are a number of what I see as pretty serious game-hindering flaws in the current iteration of professions. I'd redesign a LOT of what you see out there if I could and if it was feasible. But just on this limited issue, I see the solution as not new toys that will break things further (we're still recovering from the whole problem of how CH's have been implemented), but rather increased FUNctionality (emphasison the "fun") of the existing models in non-combat ways.
The spy-cam thing would be cool, but they'll have to make faction bases more useful and interesting as well (not that that's a bad thing, mind you, just that it's a big task). If DE's were to get anyunique droid-controlling abilities, I'd have it be the ability to use droids in a reconaissance function. That'd make DE's useful in the GCW, but wouldn't make it so that everyone and his mother decided to become a DE because of the "1337 skillz".
Personally, I'd be more excited about having droids to manage my equipment. If you listen to the radio dramatization of Star Wars, you'll hear how Luke heads off to work with a treadwell on some moisture vaporators out on the edge of the Lars settlement. I'd like to be able to do something like that. Head out somewhere, drop a harvester, leave a droid (or pull out my 3PO to program the maintenance droid), give it a stash of credits and a bunch of power (if it isn't a power droid itself), and then wander off somewhere else, confident that my droid will keep an eye on the harvester. Sure, I may head out there regularly to make cash on survey runs, but I won't have to be constantly dumping money and power into my harvesters. That'd be what the droid is there for.
Also, the medical droid and repair droid combined with med and repair stations would help medical personnel earn more money when not online (which, I gather, they're in serious need of -- you probably can't survive economically as a pure medic). Plus, it'd allow medics to set up healing centers away from the cities and out closer to where the action is: in the wilderness. The repair station would serve the same purpose for DEs.
There's a whole host of things you could do with droids to make them more interesting and fun to use without resorting to the potential can-o-worms that combat droids could (and likely would) be.
I don't like seeing a constant menagerie of pets when I wander around town. I doubt I'll like seeing a menagerie of combat droids either.
/bump
By the way - Droid batteries are always for sale at the EGC Mall (Corbantis/Tatooine) in convient factory crates.
And as for the DZ-70 - see my thread on what I think they should be used for...
Solo4114 wrote:
9.) Protocol droids -- This will require a major overhaul of languages, but personally, I think that's entirely necessary. I get sick and tired of everyone talking the same in this game. Where's the gibberish? Where are the subtitles? I never hear anyone say "Ooota goota, Solo? Som pichale. Mi paratraski chi-sa. Jabba wa ninchi koch-pa..." Instead it's just the same old stuff I always see. Wookiees speak perfect english, Rodians speak perfect english, EVERYONE speaks perfect english. It's boring. Enter the language nerf. That's right. I said it. Language nerf. Everyone is given the choice of two or three languages that they can learn in addition to their native tongue. After that, you need a protocol droid to translate, or a friend who understands the language. This might help make Undeworld I in smuggling a little more useful (FYI it gives you the ability to understand all languages), though frankly, I'd drop that from the skill line anyway. Anyway, so you'd need to have a protocol droid to do translation for you. Additionally, I'd have protocol droids be programmed in DROID languages, which no player (except maybe DEs) could speak. You'd need a protocol droid to program your binary load-lifters at least to perform the higher end functions like maintenance while you're offline.
lol, I don't know what server you play on, but half the people I run into barely speak English at all 
Ever try to teach someone who doesn't speak English how to program & use a droid? It's tough enough to teach Americans how to use a droid... 
Good ideas... Hope someone "important" reads this...
Au-Ru Blasterkin - Master Droid Engineer of Intrepid