Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: No, no, no. Have the Squad Leaders control the big, powerful combat droids.
its really not that bad of an idea. Better than a Droid Commander profession.
Biggest problem is it moves from having no market to having a market so small as to not being noticable.
Then agian, maybe SL will become Uber with their love. Its clear there's a lot of left over Uber Love that wasnt used in the DE revamp. Maybe SL will get it
i will point out that the devs probably wont do it for the same stupid balance argument.
The SL profession is intended to boost the power of other professions, not give combat power to the SL. Adding droids makes SL into a combat class by way of dev thinking. (and if it doesnt, then DE should of been able to become hybrids).
I know, you're going to say, but SL is already a combat class. Look again, it really isnt.
Lonkley wrote:
The SL profession is intended to boost the power of other professions, not give combat power to the SL. Adding droids makes SL into a combat class by way of dev thinking. (and if it doesnt, then DE should of been able to become hybrids).
Message Edited by Shian_Tavkin on 04-07-2004 08:15 PM
Right now, I'm hearing that a lot of SL's are interested in being a pet class. The whole point is to 'run' with real folks.
/shrug
We'll see....
Respectfully,
the devs hardly consider DE being able to use the new profession as a criteria for the profession.
Lonkley wrote:
i will point out that the devs probably wont do it for the same stupid balance argument.
The SL profession is intended to boost the power of other professions, not give combat power to the SL. Adding droids makes SL into a combat class by way of dev thinking. (and if it doesnt, then DE should of been able to become hybrids).
I know, you're going to say, but SL is already a combat class. Look again, it really isnt.
I think more to the point and related to balance the Devs have said that they will not add the certs for the heavy combat droids to any existing class because it would give that class a sharp boost while giving all the other classes nothing.
This, one assumes, is the reasoning behind the Devs shooting down Sodan's droid proposal. I really do not seem them altering their stance on this any time soon.
It should be noted that I am not against the idea itself. Early on when there was talk about certs for the heavy combat droids I said that I thought Squad Leader would be an excellent place to put them. All I am saying is that any proposal like this is counter to statements made by the Devs as to what they would do.
We accuse the Devs of not listening to us, but when ideas like this keep coming up and don't at least acknowledge that the statement was made (I know the Devs said this, but I think this is really a good idea...) then we show that we are not listening to them, either.
At first glance I like it, although I’m not sure about those numbers.
Balance is less of an issue with this proposal in my view as it is not giving high-level pet capability to an individual but to the group and is dependant on the size of the group, which dilutes the droid’s effectiveness somewhat and doesn’t throw the entire MOB balance range out of whack.
Probably even less market potential than DC, but it’s an interesting approach.
Allow a squad leader to control a new, powerful combat droid (how about the "Battlemaster Droid" or the Droideka), with the droid's CL determined by his SLs skills and the number of people in his group. The supporting fiction is that the droid become more and more effective as it gets more inputs - that is, people in the squad - to process.
An example is below.
A 3/3/3/3 squad leader can control a Battlemaster droid and, at the 3/3/3/3 skill set, the droid can range from CL 30 to CL 40.
For every 5 people in the group, the droid's CL moves up. Minimum of 3 people. So 3 to 4 people, the droid is CL 30; 5 - 9 people the droid is CL 33;10 to 14 people the droid is CL 35; 15 to 19 people the droid is CL 38; at 20 people the droid reaches its max of CL40.
(I put the full table of SL levels / people in the group/ CL droid at the end of this note.)
Here are some advantages -
- Gives the droid engineers a new market
- Allow the introduction of truly powerful droids; makes things a little more Star Warsy
- Makes the Squad Leader profession more attractive
- Encourages large groups to form
- Successfully brings forward something like a "Droid Handler" without introducing a new profession
Restrictions -
- Only player characters are counted, and not creature pets, factional pets, or normal droids. You cannot group with 5 player characters each of which has a pet in the group and have that count as a group of 10. It's a group of 5.
- Only player characters within, say 256 meters, are counted. You cannot group with some guild buddies, get the CL boost to your Battlemaster Droid, and then go solo on another planet.
- The minimum group for this feature to be enabled is 3 people. A solo SL, or a SL grouped with one person, does not get access to the Battlemaster Droid.
Lastly, do **NOT** view this as giving the SL a droid pet that makes the SL a "Droid Handler" - view it as the SL having the ability to bring a powerful droid into a squad.
Ok, that's it. Have it.
* * * *
Full table -
Squad Leader Level
1/1/1/1 2/2/2/2 3/3/3/3 4/4/4/4 Master
Group
Size
3 - 4 10 20 30 40 50
5 - 9 13 23 33 43 54
10 - 14 15 25 35 45 58 <=== The intersection is the
15 - 19 18 28 38 48 62droid's CL
2020 30 40 50 65
Message Edited by Grimhand on 04-09-2004 12:06 PM
That's just what the SL Corr. has put forth and I need to stand up for that. If they don't want it, they don't want it.
We'll get some stuff happening a different way, I guess.
/bow
Respectfully,