Droid Engineer Archive

As with most of the Droid Engineering community, I am completely against this idea of a new class for droids. If it comes down to Droid Handlers or no new combat droids, I vote no new combat droids.

In my eyes, droids are a universal item that should be allowed to be used by anyone. The weaponsmiths have an arguement that they have to take up training in marksman skills to use their items that they create, and it is a good arguement, but I don't think it is relavent. If you relate it to real life, if someone knows how to assemble a computer and program it, they are also going to be the experts in knowing how to use it, whereas someone who assembles a gun might not know all the technique into being able to properly use it.

Now toss that into Star Wars: Galaxies. 1st off, I am with a lot of people who have stated "What is with all of the focus on combat droids? Give us functioning utility droids". I will admit, I originally got into Droid Engineering to have combat droids... in games like this, I like to have pets. In EQ my main character was a Druid, who did have some pet abilities, but I also fiddled around with Necromancers, Enchanters, and Magicians to check out the different pets. In Morrowind, every character that I make has conjuration as at least a minor skill. And in Diablo 2, I only ever play Druids or Necromancers, with the occasional Amazon cuz I can't resist a good bow and arrow.

But back to Star Wars. Yea, I decided to get into Droid Engineer so I could make and use combat droids, and have my army of tamed animals, as well as droids, do all of my combat for me while I sit back in a camp and play on my bandfill. But after I actually aquired Droid Engineer and was looking through the trees and saw all the other cool stuff we could make, I was hooked. I love all the utility droids we can make, and as I said in another thread, my favorite droid right now is my WED Treadwell Droid with weapon / droid / generic crafting station, and a level 3 item storage mod. I want functionality before combat droids. And I would rather have no combat droids than a Droid Handler class.

I guess my ideal droid world would be... the combat droids that we have now... updated to make them useful, but not over powering. Good support for the main guns, whether that be a T21, or a Rancor, but nothing that's going to really hold it's own. Only other combat droid I care to see is the droideka. And I don't think there should be certs to go with it. Or a separate class. Just a droideka, that anyone could use... but give it very high maintenance to keep all the 133t d00dz from wanting to get one.

But that's probably not going to happen, so here's some ideas to hopefully get around the Droid Handler class.

1. (Probably in essence a cert system, but one that I could handle): ALL droids usable by ALL players, even the high end combat droids. But make the high end combat droids maybe justmetal shields who can't dish out a lot of damage really, used by normal people. But give some skills to the combat classes in which you could give special "tactics" to your droid, which these "tactics" would make the combat droid more than just a basic meatshield who won't dish a lot of damage. With what I had envisioned, if a 133t d00d starting today somehow got enough credits to get a super combat droid, sure, he could have it, but it really wouldn't do much for him, seeing as though he doesn't have the high enough combat points to be able to know how to effecively use it, so in essence, it might deal a little bit of damage, but having no real combat training to program his droid with, his droid pretty much just sits there taking hits, maybe dealing some damage, but nowhere near what the droid is really capable of. Enter Master Commando, who has a lot of combat experience, can train his droid with different tactics according to his own skills, and the droid could then be used to it's full potential. And to make droids be unique, maybe implement some way that different classes could program their droids in different tactics, so that a Master Rifleman's droid might have a different fighting style than a Master Swordsman, so to speak, based on the player's knowledge.

This could over balance PvE, and I suppose that's correct, because people with droids would have a much easier time than those without, and you can't raise the difficulty of the mobs, hence forcing everyone to buy a droid, even if they don't want to. So as somebody else also suggested in another thread (sorry, I forget who, and what thread), but how about if a droid in combat would take some mind points away from the player periodically, as suggested, by showing that the player is "paying attention" to their droid. So a Rifleman, who uses a lot of mind with their attacks, might not be able to do as much damage because they are losing mind on paying attention to their droid. For the different professions that require different part of the HAM, maybe droids could have different effects, so that it becomes universally balanced among all combat types... and maybe having a droid would give them an edge in fire power, but at the same time limits them by making them, in essence, weaker, therefore not unbalancing PvE.

I'm not too worried about PvP, because if you're going to be doing PvP, you better be well prepared for what you might be up against. If (hypothetically) there was a gunfight in the streets, and one guy had an assault rifle and the other had a handgun... well... the SOE of the real world isn't going to close down the streets and weaken assault rifles so the guy with the handgun has a chance, and then reopen the streets and let the gunfight resume.

I also had a second idea last night, but I can't remember it. But I think this post is long enough anyways. I'll just end with one final comment, and that is... I think -every- class should have some kind of helper utility droid. Medics have the medical droids. I think Entertainers should have an "amplifier" droid, which would allow them to heal mind more, and faster. Smugglers should have "slicer" droids. Artisans have the crafting stations, but how about surveyor droids? There should be modules for utility droids that help the specific professions, as well as universal modules (I.E. Inventory storage, Data, etc...).

With that said and done, I've stayed through DE despite everyone telling me to drop it because it's useless, despite the fact that my large house on Lok that I can barely afford gets no visitors to my shop, which I can also barely afford the vendor. Despite the fact that I cannot afford a harvestor and don't have Master Artisan, I've stuck through this class because quite frankly, it is -fun-, and has all the potential in the world. A Droid Handler class would completely destroy everything that I have worked for, and might possibly be the final straw to get me to leave this game for good. Sure, I got my Creature Handler... but it just isn't the same having my desert eopie without the DZ70 by his side.

Marr'Taan LeBeau
Imperial Mercenary - Professional Contract Killer

"Death is my business, and business is good"

Bounty Hunter, Creature Trainer, Droid Engineer, Rifleman
Former Musician and band member of the Tyrenian 3 (Marr'Taan LeBeau, Cale Amossoo, Bari)

"When Sony and Lucas set out, we said, How can we do this and not make another EQ? We didn't want it to be all about Luke, or combat, or lock our players into a class. So we created a system that would allow players to switch professions during the game, and there would be a lot of gameplay around making that change. If you want to go from architect to scout we've created a system to make that happen."
Julio Torres

If you dont want to read all that.. DH is retarded unless you are adding 20 new dorids!

How about posting this in the Droid Invasion thread so the DEV's can see it?

--- Enir Lonarus ---

Right now under the name Enirous Lonar on the Chilastra server

Veers - Master Architect / Master Artisan / Master Droid Eng. / Merchant from Dantooine (SWG Beta Tester)
Customer: what i can do with a droid? DE: hmm i dunno, but they are cute ask a Dev

Zuni Fhettisch - Future Uncertain
Ex-Master Droid Engineer/ Artisan/ Merchant - Loved his 'Droids but saw no love
Gone to Medical Academy like Mom always wanted him to - Master Medic/ Master Doc
Ex-Master Marksman, Commando, Swordsman, Brawler, TKA, Fencer

I see that this thread was a waste of breath, so to speak, since it's for sure and for certain that we're getting the Droid Master profession.

I might be leaving this game for good soon...

Marr'Taan LeBeau
Imperial Mercenary - Professional Contract Killer

"Death is my business, and business is good"

Bounty Hunter, Creature Trainer, Droid Engineer, Rifleman
Former Musician and band member of the Tyrenian 3 (Marr'Taan LeBeau, Cale Amossoo, Bari)

Sox na'Kreyte : Wanderer, looking for professional counciling
Retired Master Droid Engineer, Master Merchant, Master Artisan,
Titzosh Irssoko: Master Chef, TKM
Tyrena, Corellia (-4027, -2324), Bria