Droid Engineer Archive

I think the main problem is that we dont provide a service that you cant get from somewhere else.

Need a weapon crafting station? Just go to the one in town (save 5k)

Want some xp for healing? Just go to the hospital.

Need some more room? Clean up your inventory! If your inventory is full its cause your lazy.

The probot was good. Maybe too good. But, all they did was nerf it. They provided no alternative combat droids that were perhaps harder to make, but more powerful than the probot. In the end, the (uber) probot was all we really had that no other class could make. Could a CH make a pet that a non-CH could rename? or teach commands? No. But, since they nerfed it soo much, people would rather have a CH pet that is 2x as powerful but a little less convenient.

Granted, we arent as screwed over as squad leaders or maybe even bio-engineers. But I'd put DEs in the top five broken classes that need some love. They eventually got to commandos. I think that our time is coming, but we have to wait a bit longer.

Also, i agree that droids should be more for utility than combat. However, i think that we should get some more combat droids that are better than the current probot (devs i think said they would give us some eventually). And that is the way it appears now, as we have way more utility droids than combat. However, this was not implemented very well. I think that the original intention was to give each utility droid an inherent use that no other droid could have, however, they werent able to implement it before release (why in the world would the BLL be in if not?)

O well, my rant.

Also, to whoever the hell gave this thread a 1 star : please go kill yourself. This guy did not flame, he merely presented his idea and outlined why he felt that way. Just because you dont agree with it doesnt give you the right to keep other people from seeing it.

K, going to dissect your message and give reasons why I think you're grossly incorrect ;p

How much fixing do we really need? Aside from the obvious bugs (customization, multiple crafting stations[which is a game bug, not a DE bug], droid repair kits, only 1 droid out at a time, experimentation and materials quality being basically useless), what is really broken?

Obviously, right there you just mentioned several things that need fixing after saying we really don't need anything hehe...

1) We make portable private crafting stations that don't suck. I cannot tell you how many droids like that I've sold to people who want to be able to experiment while out sampling in the field.

K, have you not had countless times where the customer asks what's the rating on your crafting module inside the droid? We don't have a neat number like archie crafting stations do...We have to quote %s from experimenation lol...

2) We make portable medical centers that can be *better* than being in an actual med center.

Allrighty...The problem here is you can make a MSE droid, shove a level 6 med module in it and boom, you have a top of the line, best you can make medical droid with a med rating of 110 and you might be able to charge 2k for it. This thing lasts forever....No need to buy another one, ever....

3) We make portable item storage. Granted, it is only 10 units, and there should be levels and levels (based on the main droid chassis, I think - 1 for an MSE, 10 for an R2, 100 for a BLL) but it is there.

Again, you answered your own topic question within your supporting argument....

4) We make *ok* combat droids. A 40% medium armor probot *doesn't* suck as a damage sponge. It may not be an AT-ST or a stormtrooper, but it wasn't supposed to be. It is a helper, NOT a replacement for a player in a fight. (And a 40% medium advanced probot with 110 medical capability is an AWESOME help in a fight - a nice 10% bonus to heals, seems like)

Incorrect, it does suck as a damage sponge. A rock beetle beats a 40% medium armored probot with half HAM left...I know, I've done it...k, if it's a helper, why is the damage so minimal. It obviously wasn't designed to be a tank, but 50 dmg every 2 secs?? lol...

5) Future changes to droids will add other things, I'm sure. I would LOVE to see the data modules (worthless) exchanged for something that would let entertainers heal BF outside of a cantina. Call it a radio or something, and make it work like a medical module does. I could also easily see "delivery droids" that work like a BH's seeker - not really a droid, but you put whatever item in it, and, depending on the distance and model, it will deliver the item in a certain timeframe. Harvester maintaining droids would rock - as would power droids that could be hooked into structures to provide juice.

Again, making a case against your topic...You're comparing what could be to what is now and saying nothing needs fixed...What could be hasn't happened yet, therefore unless someone thinks things need changed, your "could be" will never happen....

Anyway, droids are great right now - IF you don't want them to be things they shouldn't be. That would be like complaining that Vibro Knuckles suck because they don't hit things 60 meters out - they aren't supposed to.

Yes, the BLL is a great example of how droids are great now.Ahh, and the LE Repair Droid which a repair module won't work in...

Also, people here keep comparing us to CHs. There *is* no real comparison - entirely different class. I mean, what do they really have to do with us, other than that they have pets and we have "pets"? It is like comparing tailors to armorsmiths - they both make things people wear, but... Anyway, I'll put this in just to address that.

Yes, you're definitely correct here...There is no comparison. Their class works, ours doesn't. They have pets, we have pets. They can heal their pets. We have to store ours for 30 minutes and it'll be healed. Again, you're absolutely right, no comparison...

Combat: They have the edge on us - though only if they are using the pets themselves (and that is as it should be). Non-CH pets are still pretty tough, but the patch really took out a TON of abuse. I'll put my 40% medium resist everythingarmor 820 HAM 50-60 damage probot up against someone else's 25% light armor resist just a few things 2200 Ham 120-140 damagerock-beetle or their no-armor, similar HAM and damageKamurrah. My droid may not beat them every time, but it won't do too poorly. Once "on the fly"repair is implemented for droids, I would *definitely* take that bet.

You're incorrect...I've dueled several times and it doesn't work out like you'd think the math would dictate. I believe the numbers stated on our droids aren't the actual numbers used when figuring outcomes via dice roll...Time after time a rock beetle will defeat your 40% medium armored probot HANDILY...

Utility:CH's have... nothing. Nothing at all. We have all of it, even if some of it is of limited utility. On top of that, the future may hold things like delivery droids, or harvester maintaining droids, or any number of other things. Who knows? Are CH's going to get crafting station pets? I could see a pack-mule kind of thing, but not a medical enhancer or a harvester maintainer etc.

Again you're comparing the future in your mind to the present. Apples and oranges...

Customization: Theyaren't able to customize pets and I've heard of nothing in the works for that (though a groomer function would be cool- ID offshoot? Practice on the bothans! ) and we, once the bugs are fixed, will. Also, to re-train a non CH pet (customizing its orders), you have to talk to a CH. To re-train a droid, you can do it yourself. I hate having to hunt someone down to change a command - and I have to trust them not to rip me off in the process.

Apples and oranges once again...Can we customize them now? No...So if nothing needs fixed and nothing gets fixed we'll never be able to. See my point here? How often have you really hunted someone down to retrain a pet...C'mon lol

Simply put, DE doesn't suck right now, not by a long shot. Our combatants aren't overpowering, but they aren't supposed to. We aren't a combat class. Our utility devices are great, our combat support droids are OK, and our prospects for the future are bright. The only complaints I have are about the obvious bugs. Once those get fixed, though... we will be beyond fantastic.

Wrong...DE does suck right now...Aren't supposed to be overpowering? Check out Ep. 1 where it took 2 Jedi to defeat a few droidekas...Utility devices are great? No...Differing crafting stations conflict, You can stack 6 level 1 med modules and produce same med rating as a master does with 1 level 6 mod. These things do not work as they should...Combat support droids are not OK, they're insufferably weak.

Thanks for the post...It reminded me how much work needs to be done to the class...

/Rant mode on

Think of weapons. Which droid makes you want to say wow I want one of those and I dont care spending 30K+?

My stab at what is broke.

DZ70 useless.

Protocol droid pointless.

All other droids are just containers to put in various dubious modules in.

Medical modules less than lvl 2 nobody interested - is level 6 the only thing that will sell?

Storage modules - pointless.

Data modules - pointless.

Armour less than level 3 - pointless.

Suspect Level 5 armour pointless as you will be Master DE by then and making Level 6 armour.

Mobile crafing stations - wow. Really wanted to take up Master Artisan and DEto become a mobile crafting station producer for all the other professions.

I think we are superfulous presently. If DEs disappeared today would anyone notice? My evidence:

Pets 2000HAM 200 damage. Who needs a combat droid unless it is WAY better than this? Who needs a combat droid when you can get AT-ST and faction troops.

Camps are comparable to Level 2 medical module I have been told.

Architects make crafting stations - are they better than ours? Probably unless you are a Master DE?

A major problem is this medical module 1-6, armour 1-6 etc issue. When there are Master DEs who can always make the highest level, lower level DEs are just marking time grinding as nobody will want a level 2 module when they can get a level 6 module for not much more money.

Droid Engineering will be fixed. Bounty Hunter Droids are at least a start and Droid Armour does look like it is working (at least to level 4).

/Rant over

Hope Droid Engineering is fixed by the time I am Master DE.

Spanners Ranaki

Droidwerks

Eclipse

Some of the serious droid bugs have been fixed, but what we need more than anything is for the class to be better balanced and have a more clearly defined and useful role.

If you think the probot is okay, trying going to an imperial outpost, go overt doing missions for 1 hour and get a storm commando with 9200 HAM and 300 damage. 1 hour is all it takes.... and how many days did you grind before you could build an 810 HAM probot with 50 damage? The probot may seem okay to you, but compared to any otherpet in the game its incredibly weak.

I think the probot should be at its pre-nerf stats, and the DZ70 should have the stats of the current probot. That would be much more balanced, though even a pre-nerf probot is still weak compared to a faction pet or moderate level creature pet.

BTW, you do know that droid armor is ALL AR0, right? so it only blocks as much as it resists say, it should be AR1 and be blocking atleast 50% of non-armor-piercing weapons ontop of the resists. Remember too that droid armor is bugged and seems to randomly loose and gain resists when called and stored across server boundaries.

Since droids suck for combat, what else can we do? We can make crafting station droids, I agree there is a small market for them, but nowhere near the demand that a weaponsmith or architect has for their stuff. I know an armorsmith who can make 500k a day. How many droid engineers make that much?

So whats left? making seekers for Bounty Hunters. Atleast we do have a market there, but only there. I personally don't find just being a supply-man for bounty hunters rewarding. The droids they use are expendables and the BH do their missions all over the galaxy, so we never see them use the droids we make. The effort we put into experimentation in the quality of those droids doesn't help them any either. It would be better if they could use probots for their missions. It would be rewarding to see him come back a few days later, with the same droid I made him then, a little banged up and in need of repair, and I could swap out the armor module while he was there.... there you go sir, good as new, happy hunting.... but no, its more like "another crate of seekers? here you go, 10k please".

You do realize that this game is set amidst the backdrop of a Civil War and 75% (estimate) of the content is combat related don't you? Probots should'nt have been our combat droids, theirpurpose was forinvestigation and surveying, watch the movies, read the Star Wars droid page.

Yup empire strikes back, Han solo destroys one thats surveying for the rebel base. And took it out with one blaster shot. But i agree wee need something a little better for a combat droid, and i think it would be a good idea to go back to the pre nerfed stat for probots till they put something better in.

They also took out stormtroopers with one shot to, there fore i should be able to take them out with one shot also right?

Metal is stronger than Meat, Meat Dies, Metal gets recycled.

Igiveu Elko
Master Artisan, Master Droid Engineer, Novice Pistoleer, Novice Medic, and Novice Creature Handler
Rori, Radiant, /wapoint 3665 3496 inside Sioux's shop
Another Good Friend Cancled his account today as a result of the recent nerfs and lack of respons to our request for explanations

Actually the probot self-destructed, as Han said " I didn't hit it that hard, it must of had a self destruct... " paraphrasing from memory at work, but you get the idea.

the thing that pisses me off is the reason they gave for nerfing probots (or at least the only reason i heard):

If a low-level player was to get one, they would be unstoppable. (or something along those lines)

**edit** about CH's? They can sell powerful creatures but we cant?

IMHO, i think that CH's shouldnt be able to sell their pets at all. Just DE's should be able to, because DE's are an artisan base, while CH's are a scout base. I think that some dev up there was either a big fan of pokemon or has not seen ANY of the star wars movies.

I think that whenever the devs add in creature mounts, they should remove the ability of CH's to trade combat pets, and make it so that they can only trade pets that have been "trained" to be a mount. That way CH's could still make money and DE's could get some better combat droids.

/endrant

That sig needs to be taken out in one shot

a bit off topic but i want to respond to the Jar-Jar killing droids by accident.

Jar Jar is the bigest tool of the force i have ever seen. Here is my theory.. Mdiclorians are actually peices of a single huge multiple demsional entity.

It became tired with all the abuse it was taking with all these jedi and sith running around. SO it created Anakin skywalker. With the intent of Him tracking down the Jedi and removing them so it could have some rest. JUst for a generation or so. Now it knew or planned that Jar Jar would be the fool that allows Palpatine to rise to power. So it protected Jar Jar at all costs. Its my beleeif if Jar Jar wasn't with Obi-wan and Quijan, they would never have met up with anakin.. Don't think they would have even landed on tatooine.

So its not that droids are weak its that Jar Jar had help..

Heh, the original poster Holo's alternate account? Pfft.

Does this guy even play the game? Or follow the fluff?

Besides the many things that various other people have pointed out to shoot down his argument (and despite the poster saying that we don't need many fixes, and then pointing out several problems himself lol), the fact is that our proffession is seriously in need of work.

This can be evidenced by even two facts...

A mouse droid is just as good as an R2/R3 ect. There is no need to build anything else as long as you have the module capability. If you don't see something wrong with the fact that a little (what was supposed to be) data droid is just as usefull as something like R2 did in the movies then there really is no help for you.

We have only one combat bot that's FAR below any other pet's combat abilities. Apparently you missed the part where they nerfed our 3k HAM probot that did 120 damage and then allowed everyone and their mother to control pets with HAM and attack ABOVE THAT! Now we are in a state where creatures and faction pets FAR outnumber any droids. In fact it's rare to see any droids besides the probot and the R5/mouse droid. This when the movies and fluff are LITTERED WITH DROIDS, NOT CREATURES. Yet the city landscapes are absolutely filled with other pets. Again you must be playing a different game than us...

Those are just TWO examples of things that are wrong. Not even mentioning much of the other stuff that others have brought up. Heh you'd think these things were common sense for some people... Talk about runnin through the stupid forest and hittin every tree =/