Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Get rid of Droid Batteries
Make each Droid have a Battery power of say 100,000 (maybe more maybe less.) When that power is used up, the Droid is dead, NOTHING (med, crafting, storage) on it will function.
Combat Droids will use power faster then others, which is fine. So now that Doc at Coronet may need to buy a droid every couple of weeks, which is fine, because he is making millions using it.
People who use Combat droids may end up breaking even since they don't need to buy batteries anymore. It will hit the people who use the droids without power the most. The key to this is it puts the money in the DE's pocket, not the person that can make batteries.
Could be interesting. Overall power life could be experimented onchassis (for models that have one), or final combine (for droids that don't have a chassis). Not saying the idea is without its flaws (I'd personally like to be able to use the 10-item storage indefinitely), but it has merit.
Need a little more work I think, but interesting.
Storage might be a problem. Once the droid stop working, what happen to the items?
You lost them? No one will buy.
They go to your inventory? What happen if it's full?
Actually, I'd be all for a system that did this :
1) Eliminate droid batteries.
2) Have crafting/medic use/etc. drain the action/mind/etc. pool of the droid with use instead of the passive system we have now.
3) Droid Repair Kits become useful for combat and utility droids, increasing their consumption without asking the customer to carry not one but two droid consumables.
I think the original poster was proposing this for a different reason, the "Issue-Of-The-Moment" decay, but decay is going to have to be much more complex than this for the balance between playability and integrity to be accepted by the playerbase.
AO
I thought about this some more and here are more ideas and some answers.
-Droid Storage. Once the battery is dead, you can take items out, but not put items in.
For me and other people I talk to, the number 1 annoyance for Combat Droids, and others like Stimpack or Harvestors is that they run out of power. Then when they do run out of power, you cannot recharge them in a fight. For people like my DE/Musician who's ONLY way to kill is a droid, you better hope that you don't run out of power.
I honestly think that if droids didn't need Batteries, MORE people would use them.
Let's work with a 100,000 charge right now, here are some numbers. I didn't make this battery burn rate up myself, I consulted with others. On Scylla batteries go for about 100-200 a charge. Meaning a crate of 25 batteries will go for 10-20k assuming they have 4 charges. Right now to go with a "cheap" battery cost, I will use 100 credits per charge in my calculations. Meaning a crate 25 with 4 charges is 10k.
Currently, there are 3 main types of Droids f the reusable kind.
1. Combat Droids, these include the ones with Auto Repair modules. While fighting or repairing, these droids burn batteries extremely fast. About 1 recharge every 5 minutes. That would mean 11 charges an hour. Meaning that the person is spending 1,100 credits an hour in batteries. So under the same scale with a "Battery Core" with a 100,000 charge, they could get 90 hours of use out of it. That is hard core combat use, not just called. *Under the CURRENT system, they would have spent 99,000 on batteries for the same amount of time.*
2. Support Combat Droids, Harvesting droids, Stimpack droids, trapping droids. If they are being used, they need recharged about every 15 minutes. For about 400 credits and hour. So with a "Battery Core," they would get about 250 hours of use out of the droid. Then you need to consider that, a droid like a Harvesting Droid allows the person to Harvest more of something, something they may sell for like 30-100 cpu. Them needing to buy a new droid after 250 hours of use isn't asking that much.
3. Non-Combat Droids. Crafting Droids, Med Droids, Maint Droids, Storage Droids and others. Currently if a Droid is just standing there, you don't need to even have a battery in it (which is lame.) However, if you did have to charge them, it would be about 1 time an hour. Meaning that with a "battery core," you would get about 1000 hours of use out of it. Meaning about 41 days. How much money did that Doc or crafter make using the Droid with 41 DAYS of use?
Now as you can see, using my above numbers, this is hardly extreme. In all honesty, the 100,000 battery core is probably to big. May need to make it say 50,000, which would cut the numbers in half. The other option would be to make it cost more power when you "call" it or when it dies. The power to use ratio could be twinked so that people only need a new droid like once a month, depending on how much you use it.
In this world of 10k buffs, 30k missions, 100 cpu meat, is spending an extra 50-90k a MONTH really that big of a deal. Especially since the annoyance of batteries would be gone. Some people would actually save money, since they wouldn't buy batteries.
DE's would lose money on batteries? Yes and no. Any artisan can make batteries. Only a DE can make droids. The above proposed change would make people come directly to the DE.
I honestly think the people who use Combat Droids would LIKE this change. Docs and crafters may gripe some, but their battery use is so low, it wouldn't be that bad.
Thoughts?
Straker
I thought about this some more and here are more ideas and some answers.
-Droid Storage. Once the battery is dead, you can take items out, but not put items in.
For me and other people I talk to, the number 1 annoyance for Combat Droids, and others like Stimpack or Harvestors is that they run out of power. Then when they do run out of power, you cannot recharge them in a fight. For people like my DE/Musician who's ONLY way to kill is a droid, you better hope that you don't run out of power.
I honestly think that if droids didn't need Batteries, MORE people would use them.
Let's work with a 100,000 charge right now, here are some numbers. I didn't make this battery burn rate up myself, I consulted with others. On Scylla batteries go for about 100-200 a charge. Meaning a crate of 25 batteries will go for 10-20k assuming they have 4 charges. Right now to go with a "cheap" battery cost, I will use 100 credits per charge in my calculations. Meaning a crate 25 with 4 charges is 10k.
Currently, there are 3 main types of Droids f the reusable kind.
1. Combat Droids, these include the ones with Auto Repair modules. While fighting or repairing, these droids burn batteries extremely fast. About 1 recharge every 5 minutes. That would mean 11 charges an hour. Meaning that the person is spending 1,100 credits an hour in batteries. So under the same scale with a "Battery Core" with a 100,000 charge, they could get 90 hours of use out of it. That is hard core combat use, not just called. *Under the CURRENT system, they would have spent 99,000 on batteries for the same amount of time.*
2. Support Combat Droids, Harvesting droids, Stimpack droids, trapping droids. If they are being used, they need recharged about every 15 minutes. For about 400 credits and hour. So with a "Battery Core," they would get about 250 hours of use out of the droid. Then you need to consider that, a droid like a Harvesting Droid allows the person to Harvest more of something, something they may sell for like 30-100 cpu. Them needing to buy a new droid after 250 hours of use isn't asking that much.
3. Non-Combat Droids. Crafting Droids, Med Droids, Maint Droids, Storage Droids and others. Currently if a Droid is just standing there, you don't need to even have a battery in it (which is lame.) However, if you did have to charge them, it would be about 1 time an hour. Meaning that with a "battery core," you would get about 1000 hours of use out of it. Meaning about 41 days. How much money did that Doc or crafter make using the Droid with 41 DAYS of use?
Now as you can see, using my above numbers, this is hardly extreme. In all honesty, the 100,000 battery core is probably to big. May need to make it say 50,000, which would cut the numbers in half. The other option would be to make it cost more power when you "call" it or when it dies. The power to use ratio could be twinked so that people only need a new droid like once a month, depending on how much you use it.
In this world of 10k buffs, 30k missions, 100 cpu meat, is spending an extra 50-90k a MONTH really that big of a deal. Especially since the annoyance of batteries would be gone. Some people would actually save money, since they wouldn't buy batteries.
DE's would lose money on batteries? Yes and no. Any artisan can make batteries. Only a DE can make droids. The above proposed change would make people come directly to the DE.
I honestly think the people who use Combat Droids would LIKE this change. Docs and crafters may gripe some, but their battery use is so low, it wouldn't be that bad.
Thoughts?
Straker
ChilastraBH wrote:
wont work, Im master armor & weapons and I can make all the batteries I will ever need
If my idea was implemented, Droid Battereis would no longer be craftable or useable.
Your comment is exactly what I mean, right now tons of people can make batteries. My proposed change would foce them to go to a DE.