Droid Engineer Archive

New patch, not a whole lot of love for us...

This list is updatedas neededand is meant to supplement the work done by the current correspondant and provide an idea of where this profession currently stands. Please read it over and provide any information you have regarding any of these issues, or any new issues you may have discovered.

I am a Master Droid Engineer on Bloodfin (Lime Akob). I also participated in the beta as a DE and bring a lot of knowledge of the profession from those days. I also read just about every single post in the DE forum and have a good idea of where this profession stands. However, I am one person and need your help to make sure that we've got all the real bugs nailed down, so we don't have DEVs chasing issues that don't exist due to confusion on our part.

Thanks to our correspondant for all the work done so far. Try not to makethe correspondants' lives difficult bybadgeringthemfor answers that they may not have. They're still only players like the rest of us. Players who have volunteered to organize and prioritize this information and present it to the DEVs. I'm sure any discussions between the correspondant and the DEVs will be shared with us regardless of how insignificant it may be.

We now have a voice, and the DEVs are listening to that voice. Hopefully I'll be able to start removing items from this list instead of just adding new ones.

Many, many, many thanks and respect to all those who have contributed. My personal thanks to Tyim for starting this thread during beta and for starting it up again now that we're live. Also, thanks to the devs who have worked like fiends only to be ranted at and badgered. Special thanks to any dev that cares to respond to this post.

1.Recent updates
2.Bugs still in evidence
3.Uncertainties
4.Wishlist

1. Recent updates
A.Removed bug regarding droids and colour. The new droid customization tool allows this.
B.Moved bug regarding datapad information to uncertainties, and updated entry.
C.Removed uncertainty regarding friends using droid modules. It seems that 'area effect' modules can be used by anyone in the area, while others cannot.If someone wants to make an issue out of it, I'll add it back in.
D.Added new wishlist item to point out the whole probot nerf vs. non-CH pets.
E.Added new bug regarding the storage units using Artisan Experimentation.
F.Removed the datapad control context menu being semi-broken bug. Seems to be fixed from what I can see of both the patch notes and personal experimentation with the controls.
G.Added new wishlist item for BLLs.

2. Bugs still in evidence
A.Droids are not giving any UXP
B.Droid names use the standard name filter.This may beby design, butwe're calling it a bug because droids should use a modified name filter that allows for numbers in the name. Yes, Artoo-Deetoo works fine, but I've seen NPC droids wandering around with REAL droid names. So we should be allowed to do the same.
D.Droids with no attack capabilities none the less have attack speeds and damage base modifiers in the datapad.
E.Experimentation on droid parts has no noticeable effect on final droid (experimentation seems to alter the part quality, but no end effect is observed... 5 point HAM difference on a probot doesn't count). Resources also fall into this area since resource properties influence the experimental property values. There is no point to experiment either on droid components or the final product. The droids seem to all function about the same.
F. Droids often stop following without reason. This is a generic pet problem as it happens to all pets, not just droids.Pets seem toget stuck on invisible zone boundries.Walking up to about 10-20m from thepet and re-issuing a 'follow' command fixes it (most of the time).
G.Item Storage Module 2s coming out as Data Module 2s during the assembly stage. What you seem to get at the end is a Data Module 2. This is only a NAME problem. The module is said to function as it should - as an ItemStorage Module 2.
H. Droids dragged from the datapad to the secure trade window are invisible. Secure trade itself DOES work, but until we can see the droid in the trade window, this is a bug. If it does not exist for bazaars and vendors as well, then this should also be implemented for them. Secure trade is important when you're selling something like a droid.
I. Droid repair kits are fubar. With the droid out in the world, or in your datapad, you always seem to get the error message 'You don't have anything in need of repair (make sure your weapons are unequiped)'... Yes, this was a DROID repair kit.
J.Multiple crafting stations in a single droid breaks the crafting modules in the droid. Only one of the modules seems to work when this happens. Crafting modules also seem to break when the droid's crafting field intersects crafting fields from other droids orstationary crafting stations.
K.Droid deeds shouldn't be tossed into the misc area of the bazaar. They're deed versions of entities. Give droids a proper home so that people can actually find them with ease.
L.EXPLOIT: Cluster modules not only fit into cluster module sockets, they fit into service module sockets.This allows cluster modules to fit into cluster modules ad infinitum. Thishas the added effect thatcluster module slots are nowpointless and allows any number of modules to be placed in any droid. Clusters should only fit in cluster sockets. Otherwise you're further exploiting the idea that the droid frame used is irrelevant.
M.Skills for the Droid Engineer don't reach +100 at Master. Droid Assembly and Droid Experimentation only go as high as +55. Droid Customization (currently useless) goes to +64. Other engineering professions get skill adds like assembly/customization/experimentation at novice. Droid Engineers get squat.
N.Repairmodules do not functionat all when placed in an LE Repair droid or Power droid.
O.Medical modulesaffect the effectiveness of stimpacks. Reports say that a stimpack is more effective when a medical module-equipped droid is nowhere to be seen (unless it contains a level 6 module).
P.Droids and components have been changed so that some of the experimental values have been removed from the schematics. However, these values remain during crafting and experimentation. As such, they are always 0%.
Q.Droid deeds need to show ALL the modules installed and any important properties associated with those modules.
R.EXPLOIT: By telling a droid to stay, running 800m (need to cross a server zone?) or so away and calling another droid, you can effectively call all your droids at once.
S.Droid Storage Compartments use Artisan Experimentation instead of Droid Experimentation. It's a DE craft, it should use DE skills, not Artisan skills.

3. Uncertainties
A.Is your droid supposed to travel with you when you take a shuttle? The datapad now thinks that the droid has returned to the datapad. Can anyone verify that this is what is really happening? Is the droid being left behind (have someone ELSE check after you leave the shuttle port to see if the droid is left behind)?
B.Patrol point list is not saved between store and call, is this by design?
C. Some droids, when given a repair module, gain a 'repair other droid' option in the program menu. Some, when out, add a 'repair' option in the radial menu of OTHER droids. I can only assume that both are possible. 'Converse' droids do not have a programmable 'repair' command, but usually allow the repair option to appear in nearby droids (I've never seen this myself). Seems a little inconsistent. Also, the power droids and repair droids with a repair module do not grant the 'repair' option in other droids.
D. Power droidsare the onlydroid with a non-modular function (ignoring combat capable droids here). Repair droids have had their repair systems removed and changed into a module. R droids have had their crafting functions removed and changed into modules. Power droids remain as an inherent function. Can we get some consistency here?
E. Some of the advanced droids are using 'Converse' instead of 'Program' for programming. Nobody seems to know how to name these droids. Can it be done?
F.Protocol droids(basic model only)and Binary Load Lifters (both basic and advanced) seem rather useless.Protocol droidsdon't help with languages, since everyone who cares about languages already knows all the languages. BLLs don't lift any loads.Neither of these droids have room for any modules. So, from what I'm hearing, they're just a nice droid to look at. Anyone find a good use for either of these?
G.The only difference betweenmedical module 1 and medical module 6 from what I read is the boost it gives to medial skills. Some people believe that it should also restrict which medic skills you should be able to use.What's the real story behind them?
H.Item storage modules do not seem to be working with some converse type droids. The option to use item storage is not available in the radial menu. I have one report that they work with the basic LE Repair droid, and several stating that they do not work with Surgical droids. Anyone care to test all the converse droids (both regular and adv models) and give feedback as to which ones work and which do not?
I.Many of the 'level' based service modules stack. However, there arecaps in place which make stacking kind of pointless with thehigher level modules. Also,by stacking lower modules, you can achieve the same effect as a higher level module, reducing the point of using a higher level module. This is further enchanced by the cluster module bug. Also, when crafting the droid, the stacking results show values which do not take the cap into consideration. So a droid while being crafted can show a storage value of 15, but the final storage when the droid is tamed is capped at 10. Which is intended? Stacking or no stacking?
J.Nobody seems to know if the armorrating is working properly. Is Medium armor on droids acting as Medium armor should? Or is the damage reduction simply based on the resists?
K.Some people are reporting that armor resists sometimes degrade. Can anyone confirm this? (Screenshots are always nice)
L.Information in the datapad for some droids no longer lists things like the commands programmed for the droid, customization, etc. some of them do. What's the deal?

4.Wishlist
A.Advanced droid engineers should be able to call more then onedroid at a time. Repair modules and power droids might see a little more use if this were changed.
B.Give us information on droid power levels in the examine window and/or in the datapad. Also,since droid batteries repair mind,how about using mind as the droid's power level indicator? The action pool would also work.
C.Examining droid should give thesame data as in the datapad (for the owner).
D.We really want certain droids to only be able to take certain types of modules. There have been a number of really good posts on this topic, and due to space constraints, I'll leave it at that.
E.Take another look atthe “only able to callpets in city or camp” thing. I understand the logic and personally have no problems with it. However, many disagree with it and I think it would work better if it was that you can only call a droid when not in combat, or acertain distance from a battlefield.
F.Consider droids that can survey and report back on a particular resource. Perhaps even a high-end versionwith the ability to go toother planetsto determine which resources are available.
G. Consider droids that can help maintain installations. Senda droid out to pay mantenance. Send a droid out to collect resources. Send a droid out to deliver power. There are many ways to implement this as a viable system.
H. Consider droids that can act as standalone vendors in cities, and/or droids that can act as Barkers. Perhaps even let droids deliver goods to a customer in another city or on another planet.
I. Droids to remember if they were stored or called over a logout. Running around in the middle of nowhere and logging out causes your droid to hide back in the datapad. This means having to go back to town or putting down a camp in order to recall your droid. This is undesireable.
J. Now that perma death has been removed and replaced with the pet 'vitality' system, I have to say kudos for the change. However, it doesn't make sense to give vitality packs to droids. Perhaps a DE equivalent could be used? Same deal, just a different name, and craftable by DEs?
K. There have been several complaints regarding the 5 droid in the datapad limit. While there are some compelling arguments AGAINST this wishlist item, it would be nice to at least have this limit reviewed.
L.Give us Droidekais and other combat droids.
M. Create aslicing module. This module would allow smugglers to get a boost to their slicing ability. We're not interested in putting anyone out of a job here. R2 could slice terminals in the movies, why not our droids?
N.Allow us to drop batteries into the droid's inventoryand have itrecharge itself as needed until the batteries run out.
O.Create an entertainment module akin to the existing medical module to allow entertainers to work ouside of camps, cantinas and hotels. This module would be also level 1-6 with each level giving a little extra boost to the entertainer's skill.
P.Saw a request for a training droid as seen in the movies that 'harasses' its target, pulling aggro. Thisidea is intended togive a little variety to the Novice DE's life. Could also be used as a consumable for training the combat classes.
Q.Let usname our droids through the datapad controller. Droids shouldn't need to be 'taught' a name like pets do. The name is programmed into the droid separate from the other commands.
R.Add the creator to the droid view information, not just theowner. When you look at a pistol, you seewho made it. When you look at a droiddeed, you see who made it. When you look at a droid, you SHOULD see who made it.
S.Allow droids to be re-deeded forease of transfer. Since we can only have 5 droids in the datapad, it makes it really tough forDE's to take old droids astrade-ins for upgrades (like a car). We either have to immediately re-sell the droid or delete it. Would make more sense to re-deed the droid so that itcould be sold to another customer as a 'used droid'.
T.Droid "macros" came up last post. Let us create macro-like droid programs to have a droid execute a series of commands. Not sure how this would be implemented, but it is an idea.
U.Here are some ideas that people have for Protocol Droids. Allow them to have a custom converse menu, programmed by the owner so that the droid can act like a walking FAQ. Turn them into magic 8 balls. Language translator (for non-pc languages?)
V.Make the droid deeds show pictures of the droid itself rather than a silly deed icon.
W.Enough with the 'tame' thing... let us 'activate' or simply 'use' the deeds to first create our droids.
X.Review thisdeal withprobots being nerfed because they were too powerful for newbies. In the light of every boy and his dog being able to get something 'better' from a CH, this argument holds less water than an MSE Droid.
Y.Make BLL Droids useful in 'city planning'. Let us use them to move buildings around without re-deeding. Great for once the player city expansion is released.

Missed BH Seekers not using their last charge up =infinite charge seekers.

Also read that some droids don't KEEP their customization.

Will add these to the next issue, unless they get fixed before then.

Also suggest adding that crafting the customisation tool does not give any XP at all. Also, not seeing any Xp from using it to colour droids either.

1. Droid Customization Tool grants General Crafting Experience (about 40-50xp on final construction)


2. Droid call option in the Datapad menu is bugged. When the options pop up, droids will list the store option 3 or 4 timesinstead of and before the proper call option it shown.


3. BH Droids don't use up charges.

• Rumoured that some droids do not retain custom colourization after being stored.

"Droid call option in the Datapad menu is bugged. When the options pop up, droids will list the store option 3 or 4 timesinstead of and before the proper call option it shown. "

Never seen this one, myself. Seems to be working fine for me.

Gorantoth,

When I signed in this morning (first time I tried on Kauri since the patch) I found that all of my datapad droids were in a state where I had to 'store' them two or three times before 'call' became an available option.

Oh, and on droid customization:

I colored both the frame and trim on an R2 unit, then stored it.

When I called it, it was back to it's default gray/red colors.

So I colored it again, this time ONLY the trim, to a nice R2D2 blue.

The frame jumped to the color that had been selected before!

So now I took my grayish-lavender and blue R2 unit into Coronet, and I set him on patrol around the spaceport/bank/crafting area, and pursued some business of my own. The droid never got more than oh, say, 200 meters from me. At some point I looked at him, and he appeared default gray and red to me again!

Oh, and WHY can I even SELECT customize on a protocol droid, if it's only going to give me one enormous gold bar to click on?

Well, it seems that enough people are having this store/call problem. I'll have to throw it up on the next thread even though I've called 4 of my droids without the problem. Guess I'm just lucky.

As for the customization, there's a number of threads showing actual tests with various droids. But then, I've already made a note to add it to the list (see above).

The colorization tool gives me more colors than I can currently use through frame customization. Not sure if this is intended - since otherwise what is the point of a droid customization rating.

"A.Is your droid supposed to travel with you when you take a shuttle? The datapad now thinks that the droid has returned to the datapad. Can anyone verify that this is what is really happening? Is the droid being left behind (have someone ELSE check after you leave the shuttle port to see if the droid is left behind)?"

I leave my droid at the shuttle port often, and this is the way I think it SHOULD work, too, so I don't want to see it changed. Once you reach your destination, you can always store your droid, and then recall him if you need him. Otherwise, you can withdraw ANOTHER droid, if you choose. When you get back, your first droid will still be there. This is perfect, I think. I really don't want my droids to stop doing what I tell them just so they can follow me on a trip.

Don't forget armor, the only real advantage our Probots had was the Medium armor 40% resists which now means nothing since Armor is Borked! I'll paint all my Probots Red so I won't notice the blood all over them, mine mostly.

I love the new droid customization tools, it works great and you get alot more options then what is available while making. That being said, as stated before the droids that I have customized have lost their colors as soon as I have stored them.

Second problem. I like the fact that the factory crates put items right into their available slots in the schematics and returns them back into the crates if you back up. But I am getting a few crates that won't highlight their prospecting available slot. Not sure if anyone else is having this problem. I have Adv frames, Food crafting stations and adv motive that aren't working. I can goto my inventory and get the item from the crate and then place it into its slot, but not directly like the other crates. I will have to see if this is certain parts and just random crates.

But a problem that is driving me nuts right now is that people aren't able to tame the droid deeds. Says that they don't have any avaiable slots. The people that have had this problem have no droids at all and maybe one pet. So I thought ok maybe I will tame it and transfer it to them, it sometimes work. Now I can't tame the deed. I have 4 droids in my datapad and no pets and I can't even tame a droid. This is keeping people from buying droids right now and killing my business.

Oh and this has nothing to do with droids, but a Meatlump Gang Outpost lair spawned right in the door of my house and no one can get inside, including myself. So my patience is really being tested today since my vendor is in desperate need of maint fees. Wasn't able to log in yesterday since all servers were down and now cause a lair is blocking my entrance.

My experimentations shows that all R series droids do not keep thier customization...

Kamayyk

Master Artisan

DE 4-3-2-4

Looking good, but just one thing. Droideka needs to be bigger.