Droid Engineer Archive

Hello friends, allys, semi-sentient droids, fully sentient droids, rebels, loyal members of the empire, and others who are not entirely certian where they fall under the above catagorys.

I've got my suggestions here for what to do with droid engineers. Thought I'd make a single forum for people to look at to go to all of them. For the novice DE who's just started, to the most experienced professional, and anywhere in the middle. This post is for what droids should have what special abilitys. I want a collection based on the thoughts I've given for all the world to flame. Now you might disagree with my previous posts. Might love them. Thats for you to decide and post under those links.

If you haven't yet I suggest you get a bookmark for http://www.swgcraft.com as the information there is invaluable.

My first posting is based on what the basic level of droid engineer should be allowed to do. A few items in this post I respectfully wish were changed as some people are using droids in a manner which I feel is inapproiate. Please keep flames for this post within it and not here as this post is for what special abilitys droids should have. This stage covers: MSE droids, HAM bar change for droids, thebasic manipulator arm,the motive system, storage compartment,armormodule 1,diagnostics module 1 (suggested item change), item storage module 1, and the stupid droid personality chip. This is a large subject though considering that the MSE droid can be equiped with many modules that I don't think is a good idea. I also briefly taped the data storage module and would rather leave those alone all together. As I have no practical use for data in a droid without these changes there is no point in speaking on it. I now present the link to the forum I made with hopse that you will go there and produce constructive statements:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=19027

As I have no way to tell if people are allowed to click that link yet I'm stuck hoping it works. I've heard that this forum doesn't support it well so I'm leaving it like this. I will NOT edit my posts there but will build on them further down the line in it when enough information is there on what people think and want changed. I might make certian droids less useful for the purposes that some people are using them for in there. There are reasons behind it as I'm not thinking "droids only" but many other classes. When you see something that you'd like to scream is a nerf think about who it might be giving back a reason to be. Medical modules for example I do not like as they are. I am not saying destroy all that are currently in the game, but please let the surgical droid have a special reason for being again. While this is focused on this tiny aspect of the droid engineer setting do not lose sight of the big picture. Making Droids of all types useful including specificly designed ones.

Next up would be my suggestions on what skills and items should be placed under which tree branch. I know far more things will be asked to be added to this eventually, it'll be a massive suggestion post on new items updates. I will not cover when a DE should be allowed a second personally owned droid in this forum. This is purely for what items should be where, and what skills should be placed where. I have not covered everything in this forum yet and wait for people to give a good suggestion on where to place items and what new items should be created where. Perhaps you want that R2 with a blaster pistol slot it can use. Name the item to be built (don't forget the fact that it's the dev's who'll decide resources) and where you think it should be placed. Got a terrific idea for a combat droid? Suggest it, and the level it should be at. Thats what I created stage 2 for. I recap a few things here and there on why I wish to change the location of a few items and why. Remember it's based off my personal ideas only right now. I hope for much feedback (and bonfires, perhaps even a few nuke bomb blasts) to improve the overall droid engineer class skills. Here is stage 2's link:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=19150

Again I can't say if the link works. But I'll leave well enough alone.

In stage 3 I start my /rant with why droids should have special abilitys and why some shouldn't.

I'll begin with the power droid,the backbone of energy for droids. The bartender for drinkers. The paycheck for underpaid fast food workers everywhere. This droids special function should be that it is the only one that actually generates power. While the droid isn't a power station (and thus can not power a house or harvester) I think it's presence should slow the rate of consumption of power. Diffrent houses should have diffrent limits on droids but thats the architecht department, I ain't going there. Still... a house with a power droid has aminormobile generatoronhand. And while I thought about the power droids being the only ones capable of transporting energy from generator to building I only see this as a programing function for any droid. Load the droid up with waypoints to, and from whatever it's supposed power and it'll deliver it. The only requirement would be a manipulator armand a storage compartment of some type. Of course droids MIGHT die while doing this though and people might not like that. Still it's a lot better than having to do it yourself but you'll never know when this droid is dead or where it died. It's been programed to do a set of tasks and by garr it'll do them till it blows up.This droid is also the only one which recharges while moving. This "recharge" fuction is a link to my new settings of the HAM bars. Read stage 1 for a description. Now if you wish to rant and flame about the power droid please start your statement with "Power Droid:" followed by whatever you wana say on the same line, BUT remember all droids can self recharge by shutting down for a time. One of the effects of the droids in general is to always be capable of self recharging by shutting down all functions and going immobile for a time. This droid has a special ability to recharge other droids and it continues to be powered on by itself forever. It can also power some structures for a time on it's own... after 24 hours of doing this (more for smaller ones, less for larger ones) it will break and the place will be without power. While the droid is not "dead" it is just in need of external repairs (droid repair kit). The internal diagnostics package (stage 1 has it described) only works when there is power. Powering a station is a severely taxing task and something is bound to short out in the power circuits eventually. Having multiple power droids permantly stationed in a building isn't a bad idea. Not inexpensive but probably well worth it.

Next up the repair droid. Permanently station one of these bad boys at a building and it's now going to lower the maintenance costs for it. Eventually this droid will run out of power though. Once it does it needs a recharge shutdown cycle or a visit from your local power droid. The entire time it's functional it lowers the maintenance cost by a set ammount. A single repair droid is all you'd be able to use on some small objects. Like the basic harvesters are not that big... and too many droids working on it slow down the production and thats not allowed. The repair droids primary function is to repair objects. This droid will never need the package to repair other droids but can not fit any other packages into it. It excels at repairs of anything and can become a valuable droid at any building, in town to repair other droids, at a house as a permanent repair station for droids and other objects, or as a moving field armor repairs unit. Since it can do almost anything I do not think it should be allowed much other than armor as an advanced droid. For every benefit there is a loss of an ability. Rant with "repair droid:" anytime now.

My last one in this paticular section of this post is the surgical droid. IT is the only one which I feel is capable of letting someone do medical functions anywhere. I would consider it a mobile hospital. Now then, combat medics do not need this droid as they can (should if they can't yet)use medicines anywhere. Medics would beneift from the surgical droids advanced skills and get a bonus to healing of any type when using this droid in the hospital. When not in the hospital this droid allows wound healing without a camp in the field. Since this droid gives a bonus to the healing that medics make, it gives an even bigger bonus to doctors in the hospital but does not give this bonus when not in one. However (yes... has to be a negative) surgical droids are not medics and can only assist those who have medical skills. No buying yourself a surgical droid and using it to heal your wounds. It does that in the RPG books by WOTC but droids are not people and this game is about the people. Limit Surgical droids to those who have medical skills for use. Rant away with "surgical droid: anytime now.

My final statement is this: I am not nerfing droids, nor was the intent of this post to nerf everyones current droids. I will not ask for a retroactive patch and actually hope that it never happens to old droids. I do however hope that people start to give feedback here. Please doso. In my posts further down the line here I shall cover other droids primary benefits and negatives that I feel need work. I don't intend to talk about everything but I do want droids to be given a list of what is in them to give the intelligence chips a space to be at in stage 2. Any droid (when examined) will give a list of it's HAM bars, intelligence chip, Armor plate type and total installed modules. This will give people a way to examine what the droids have in them when sold. I also suggest droids become classified as entitys and become an ITEM slot object. Entitys can be droped off in towns to become data entitys. Entitys can not be carried as items or data in anything BUT a players datapad and inventory to prevent putting droids into droids into droids into... well you get the point. This would fix a nice exploit but would also need the bazaar to allow the sale of item entitys and data entitys and would change the droid engineer, and creature handler class to "how many can you carry at once" instead of limit of x droids and pets. While you can only have a set number out at any time you can own many. A pet store usually has 20 to 30 fish, 5 to 10 small animals, a random number of birds, and perhaps a few large cats and dogs in it. They're not all outside all at once thus there can be many out there but only a few out at a time. Perhaps Droids and CH should have the same limits on how many things they can have out at once. I'll leave that up to the devs to decide. I however have things to do now and must be ending my posting at this time. LET THE RANTS BEGIN!

With all due respect - please summarize! In your first three paragraphs I could not find the point to your post and gave up.

Summarize is for when the vast majority agree on what should be.

These are my thoughts and I hope that people might be willing to include their suggestions and perhaps even be willing to help refine and focus these things.You are welcome to ask other questions at any time but if you're not going to read the whole thing thats your decision. If I put section post after section post after section post up then im not doing what I hope this becomes. Getting something on the forums that the devs could check up on and see what the droid engineers want their droids to be capable of. Of course there are other people who are out there that are willing to do this I bet but I am doing this on my own.

Stage 1 I put down everything that I thought should be under the basics of the droid engineer. I suggest a few changes to put droids back into what they should be instead of what they currently are. Feedback on this topic is limited right now. There are only a few people who have read anything in it. Agree, disagree, flame, rant or rave about these things. No feedback = no update = droids not doing anything they're supposed to.

Stage 2 I put down what I thought should be whereunder the skill tree. Nobody has replyed to that one so theres no feedback from anyone here.

This post I speak about what droids should be specially allowed to do. Title of this post IS the description of it. I collection of links to my first two thoughts under this section and what droid abilitys should be. As I go surfing thru the posts on this board If I find anything that I like I'll link to it here. As is I think droids SHOULD have special abilitys attached to them, the specific builds should have some advantages attached to them. And if any droid can preform any function then whats the point of having diffrent types? Try thinking about it for a moment, right now anybody whos a medic with a MSE droid is considered a combat medic with the ability to use any medicine they can make anywhere. They should only be able to use surgical droids with this in my mind as what can a MSE do that helps medical situations?

You could say I'm nerfing, you could say I'm putting droids back to where they belong. You might even rant and choose to flame the post purely because you prefer not to read. Do what you want. Read if you want. Ignore what I wrote if you want. I make no requirements for anyone to agree or disagree with me totally. Now with the limit of MY thoughts on the subject only where is it going to go? Give me FEEDBACK people. Do we want droids to BE specific builds for specefic reasons or not? Maybe I'm the only one who thinks a surgical droid should be able to help people anywhere at any time with medical problems. Maybe everyone thinks a mouse droid with no manipulator arms at all should be able to help pick up and carry a tank long distances. I'm even looking at the basics of experimentation and quality of parts in the setting of how they directly effect a droid.

If I'm alone then I guess I shall just be. Just try making the droid engineer a useful set of skills sometime. You can build a droid to do anything... You can't build a droid to do everything.

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Igiveu Elko
Master Artisan, Master Droid Engineer, Novice Pistoleer, Novice Medic, and Novice Creature Handler
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