Droid Engineer Archive

OK, I have an idea how to make DE's more useful and how to help turn this into less Pet wars and more droid wars without going overboard.

This info is reposted from Discussion Forum Boards here:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=709413

I left out the Pet ideas, since this isn't the place for them. You can read the original thread if you want to see those, but that is what started the thoughts on the Droids.

From Rosslek:

If the DEVs want to implement more or better combat droids they need a new chassis. A probot is not a combat droid, it is reconaissance. And the nerf to 800HAM and reduced attack brings it more in line with a recon droid. 3100HAM was to high for it.

I for one think the DE profession need a lot of love, but Combat Droids?No way! What's the difference between this and everyonehaving attack Creature Pets? The same argument applies in this case, did you see everyone in the movies running around with a combat droid? No... In fact Eps IV-VI showcased more mounts then combat droids.

The best way to help DE profession IMHO, is to implement more modules. Surveying or harvester gathering (Hell that's what the purpose of a BLL is supposed to be) for example.And to merge the four skill trees into three inserting vehicles as 4th tree. Since their are only two vehicles going to be available, it doesn't make much sense to have a new mechanic profession.Do the above andrename DE, electronics engineer or something.

From me:

I agree with Rosslek. I don't want everyone running around with monster droids. There does need to be a cert system, but in what Prof? Essentially you end up with the same problem that we are facing now with CH dabblers. Watch Ep4-6 again...not many combat droids... why? Because they are outlawed by the Empire, that's why! There are special permits for security droids and the like, but that's a whole different story. I think his ideas about making over the DE prof into a basic engineer/mechanic are good too.

I like the Survey Droid idea. It could find X WP's of a certain resource (based on module level) and then return with them. You could also have separate modules for the different resource types (mineral, Chem, gas, etc). This could even use the Seeker droid Chasis, with a Survey Droid chip and modules.

Also the Harvester Droid idea. This droid you could 'program' with WP's for your harvesters (datapad module)and it would have to have a storage module, and a 'Bank' Module. You could drop power into the Droid, then tell it to "Run Harvesters." It would then proceed to all WP's in it's datapad, and provide the Harvester with a specific number of creds and power (likely the amount of creds/pwr divided by the number of WP's), and unload the resources, and return to you. That would be cool. Should be a BIG droid though.

The other Droids ideas can be made into chips or modules for droids I think though. I would like to see Ents/Musicians get a schematic for HoloRecording Chip to be able to record them playing or something, for DE's to install in droids in a Sound System Module or something. Ent's could get UXP for Ent Healing I think for it too. Would also give Ent's a way to make money.

• Tank droids cert (high HAM, armour, low accuracy, dmg) for Master Marksmen (or give the Riflemen some love here). (Droiddeka with shield module {allowed only on this chassy}, bad weapons on chassy)
  
• Ranged attack droids that fire a lot of suppression fire for Brawler Masters (and subsequent specialty/eliteprofessions). (Better Probe Droids and/or Suppression Fire Module?)
  
• Multi-droid Cert(2-3?) for SL (with CL limits for total droid levels, but the actual droid certs would have to come from other professions that they are in).
  
• We've already discussed Harvester and Survey Droids for Artisans and subsequent profesions... (Binary Load Lifter Chassy, and Seeker Chassy, respectively)
  
• AndHawker Droids (up to vendor amount limit, called at once)for Merchants (place in city limits, will shout out info at set intervals) 3PO unit w/ Hawker module?.
  
• Obviously Seeker and Arakyd droids for Novice BH
  
• Cant think of anything for Rangers and Scouts since I think of them being more Creature based anyways.
  
• Sampler Droid Certs for Bio Engineers (so the Droid can take the Aggro first, and not the player - Current Probe Droids with Sample Module?)
  
• Duh- Med and Surgical Droids for Docs and Medics (med droid cert for N.Medic, surg. droid cert for Doc- is there any real difference here? There should be!)
  
• Entertainment Droids (see previous post about Ent recording chip & Sound System Module[Sound System Modulecan be put in any droid though], include modules for light shows and pyrotechnics), obviously for Ent's (muscial accompanyment for Dancers, light shows for Musicians) (Also 3PO's?).
  
• Bartender/Server Droids for Chefs (uses storage unit Realistically Vendors can more easily fulfill this role.

I separated by colour for the different posts. I'd like to hear consensus thoughts fom the DE community. Additionally whioch of these things would require new Chassies, and which would just need new modules? Some seem obvious, but others?

ok, care to explain why? I personally dont want everyone running around with pre-nerf probot-type droids tanking for them and have a switch from everyone having creature pets and using them to fight for them to everyone having droid pets and using them to fight for them.

I would like to hear why the droid cert is a bad thing. I would think that some droids would be avail to all and not need a cert (MSE's, repair, r2?).

/agree

I've posted something similar on the forums before. I wouldn't want to change SWG from Pet Wars into Pet Wars With Machine Wars.

I think alot of DE are setting themselves up for a whole lot of grief when comparing themselves to CH. Thats like a BE thinking he should control his Kimos because he can make em.

You see Ton, You've touched upon the root of the problem. The only way a cert system is going to be viable is if the DE's can call and fully utilize every type of Droid.

At this point, the DE's are pretty fed up with the state of our profession, and I believe it's very likely that if a system was implemented that did not give DE's full access to droids, the majority of the DE's would either cancel or surrender(Immediately after making themselves sufficient schematics to serve their purposes for a long time).

What I wouldn't be surprised by, is if DE's were turned into another Hybrid class, the only Crafting/Combat hybrid. One where Master Artisan becomes a necessity for Novice DE, likely with existing DE's being Grandfathered in as long as they had sufficient Skill Points to Master Artisan at the time of Patching. This then would allow them to implement a string of Certs, restricting Mid-grade droids to other classes, and allowing High-grade droids to remain the providence of the DE, similiar to how CH functions. Thus answering their question of how to prevent a situation similiar to the one experienced on release with CH's where a Novice could call the most powerfull droids.

Alternatively, DE's could be given access to all droids, while Novice and Master Combats receive each access to a different model of Droid, similiar to the system existing within Weaponsmith, but this time giving the DE's full access on the Basis of Hybrid.

In the end though, it all comes down to DE's having full access. Without that, the Dev's are going to have an enourmous problem on their hands. Lack of crafters. Nor is DE an easy profession for other classes to step into the vacuum. DE pretty much requires Master Artisan now d/t the volume of MA parts used. For the other crafters to step in, they'll have to sacrifice virtually all skills but crafting. On top of that, due to the volume of resources required to follow DE successfully, few if any crafters could support a dual crafting proffession.

Certainly a few would step in tofill the void, a few might stick around, but many would actually outright cancel in extreme frustration.

To be honest,NOONE in any other proffession has any idea what it's like to be a DE. Virtually every one of our products requires us to give an apology for something as we make the sale. Whether it's "Yes, the Probot does suck at combat", or "No, I can't put 9 Item Storage 6 modules into an R2 for 90 storage slots no matter what your friend told you", or "I'm sorry, the Binary Load Lifter doesn't actually carry anything despite it's name" or the almost constant "I'm sorry, I know what your friend says he's seen, but we cannot make Droidekka".

After months of this, Denying DE's access to the Droids would likely push most of us over the edge.

Yes, I know you didn't propose that But I just have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that the Dev's aren't quite done leaving DE's screwed.

WOW! I guess it wasn't obvious for the DE's to get all the certs then. Sorry about that.

Yeah, the DE's would get the cert for the droid at the same time they'd be able to craft the droid...and the DE would be able to bring multiple droids much like a CH (addl called droids at varying levels...and additional stored droids ant varying levels). I would propose that a Master DE would be able to being any 2 droids out at once (+1 of a different type), while lower levels wouldn't be able to bring out two of any same droid type out at once (type being combat, medical, etc).

I also like the idea somebody posted (not sure if it was here) about Binary Load lifters being able to be used to move houses or structures without having to redeed them...and keeping all the items safe inside.

I also think you are right in making the correction/assumption that with these changes, making DE require Master Artisan would be balancing...but then again, it would likely screw a lot of people. I realistically dont see SOE changing prereq's anytime soon, though.