Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: The Effective Droid Part 1: Combat Droids
The Effective Droid Part 1: Combat Droids
Having worked on droid engineering for a while now, I have noticed their lack of combat use. We have the fancy DZ-70, which dies at the slightest flick of a lesser womp rat, and the Protobot that was “nerfed” to be less effective. Now, in my opinion, a good combat droid should not be a tank like the classy Creature Handlers use. They should be used more for support combat roles, something that stays back and plinks off a few rounds to help contribute to damage inflicted. In this installment of The Effective Droid, I have outlined a few ideas in an attempt to solve the combat droid problems and create some interesting new customization options.
Idea 1. Combat Droids for All Players
I think that combat druids should be handled somewhat like CH (Creature Handlers) by giving us the option to build at least three different levels of combat druids (with a variety of body types at each level to add some personality.)
a.1st Level Droids should be able to help the average hunter in simple tasks and missions at the early stages of the player’s life, much like a CH animal that only non-CH members can use (i.e. Cu Pas). As I said, the droid should not be a tank, but more of a support character, with some kind of ranged weapon, to help in damage-dealing. It should be able to withstand somewhat of a beating, unlike our fancy DZ70. Make it strong enough to handle blue creatures, and white ones will be iffy.
b.2nd Level Droids should be designed for people that are at a master marksmen/master brawler level, or within the fourth block of their specialized weapon (i.e. carbine 4 under marksmen to the advance blocks in their specialized profession, like advance carbine assault tactics under Carbineer). Once again this droid is for support, but it should be capable of a few special moves like head shots and leg shots that drain from its pools just like a PC. The abilities can be random with something like a one-out-of-ten or one-out-of-twenty chance of accomplishing the special move. Perhaps with this droid there should be the option of making it ranged or close-combat oriented.
c.3rd Level Droids should be designed for those people nearing the last stages of their advance special profession. The droids won’t be nearly as powerful as the uber-player next to them, but will again support them with enough power to take on an average white creatur (this droid should not be able to help a master commando take out an AT-ST all by themselves). We should have the option of making them close combat or ranged combat fighters, providing a few choices for weapon systems to implement.
All of these droids types should be non-biped like the Probot, Droidekas and so on. Customizable, bipedal humanoid combat droids is the next idea I will talk about.
Idea 2. Customizable Humanoid Combat Droids
a.There should be several different body types for these droids to give each player the ability to make original-looking droids, after-all this is SWG. We could use a greater variety of primary and secondary colors, as well as perhaps paint jobs/designs, but I’ll cover that aspect in a later installment. Don’t limit body variety to what was in the movies, there are other resources for interesting looks (the comics, novel, etc.). We should have anywhere from three to six different body types that are generally the same (humanoid and bipedal), but their appeance should different. For instance, one type of droid could have a look commonly associated with an Imperial droid, and another as a Rebel. Logically, Rebels would not be confined to Imperial Probots. You don’t see Rebels flying around in Tie fighters. The have their own look for everything.
b. Combat chipset is something else I was thinking about. This would be a chipset that allows the DE to give the droid access to combat programming in a certain field. This programming should be the equivalent of training under the marksmen and brawler classes. The DE should choose the level of training on the chip (for example, a young combat droid with the ability to use rifle 2 skills and weapons under the marksman table). Provide a random percentage chance for executing special moves that will drain from the appropriate bar. DE’s should not be able to put more then one chipset in a single droid. This makes it so that droid are not too powerful, so it will not be skilled in 2H swords and Carbines, just one of the two. The chipset should be designed to use the skills from one to four of the combat skills in a single combat profession, allowing the DE to make different levels of combat droids for different levels of players at appropriate costs.
c.After the chipset is installed, the DE will need to seek out a bazaar or weaponsmith to craft the appropriate weapon for the droid’s chipset. For example, a rifle 2 combat chipset should allow the droid to use a Tusken rifle. The weapon will then be equipped in a slot on the droid. Combat chipsets are installed first, allowing weapons it supports to be equipped. Going back to the example, a rifle 2 chipset will not support an E11 carbine, and the weapon slot on the droid will not take it. Not only will this allow people to customize there droid’s weapon, but also their skills. The weaponsmithing industry will have one more reason to bloom.
d.For the variety of combat players in the game, there needs to be an equal variety of customizable droids to suit them.. Once again, I think the three levels of droids I talked about before should be considered for this. The external look of the droids should not dictate how powerful it is; rather its internal structure should be what matters. We should be able to create three different levels of internal structures that give the droid the range of health pools necessary for its level of combat. With young droids, the internal structure requires fewer resources to keep costs down, and has a health pool suited to work with that level of character. This creates financial stepping stones for characters buying droids. Instead of new players trying to figure out how to afford the 50k uber-droid, they can settle for an appropriate 10k droid that will suit their present needs. In turn, this gives the droid business a much-needed boost.
That wraps up my two ideas for combat droid engineering. Take a good look and read through it before you respond, I hope you enjoy them. I am a DE and am a little disappointed about how useless our droids are in the game.
Tibwik
Sunrunner
Owner of: Tibwik’s House o’ Droid
Not quite sure where to put this so I am posting it here and in the discussion forums.
Something else for DEs to condsider is varying the approach of the combat droid versus the combat critter. Critters in the game are clearly tanks, High HAMs and low damage. To provide a different incentive to droids, why not go for higher damage for lower HAMs than critters. differentiation being the name of the game.
Part of the allure of a critter in this game is not just the tanking ability, it is also the many and varied shapes and sizes they come in. I myself have chosen the spineflap handmaiden over the, IMHO, ugly krevol or the catlike cowardly gurreck... why, because the handmaiden is so much smaller and doesn't get in the way of my harvestor maintenance. Thus, I would like many different sizes and shapes for the combat droids. For myself give me something small like the probot, for other, I am sure, would prefer something the size of the BLL.
Last but not least, something i personally would greatly appreciate is a droid stim of some sort.. sounds silly in the heat of battle, but doggone it critters get'em. Right now I am doing the datapad cycle method of keeping a probe droid out, just a bit ineffecient. Kinda tough to keep 'em out when on dantooine, even with three of 'em.