Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droid Engineers opinions: Did Publish 8 do enough to improve droid functionality and marketability?
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Dustin_Asche
Sat Jun 12, 2004 7:18 pm
#1
Droid Invasion added greater combat functionality to droids. This was a useful but incomplete bone thrown to starving Droid Engineers because the marketability of their droids was basically Bounty Hunters and chassis as furniture. However, before the publish even went live, it was apparant that it wasn't enough to really make droids a working part of Star Wars Galaxies, and the thought of R2 units and repair droids chasing around Rancors still haunts me to this day.
Publish 8 Introduced some real functionality, but bugged modules aside, do you, as a community, feel that it really added enough to make Droid Engineer complete? What does it still lack, was anything added pointless or unsellable? Do you think any of the changes or additions detracted unfairly from other classes (like scouts or medics, who now have droids mimicking their abilities)?
I have some ideas that would add definition to the droids in starwars and add marketabillity to your profession, but I want to wait to see if you as a community are still unsatisfied or if you think you're"close enough."
Wirebiter
Sat Jun 12, 2004 8:59 pm
#2
Well, it could have been better. Definately better than before, but don't see anything coming our way for quite some time (other than the JTL bone we'll get). Too many other broke professions 
CHODA-----MDE/Droid teacher to the Kettemoor massess
Gribnitz
Sat Jun 12, 2004 9:07 pm
#3
It is a helluva better than before. The issue with mimicing other professions skills is not correct. In order to use the droids, you have to have the skill to start with. It just boosts the effectiveness of that skill for anyone with the droid called. If people are pissed about the droid'taking' away from thier markets, they need to get one for themselves and give it a try.
The Stim A issue is different. A doctor can load the droid, then transfer it back to a player, but it is only stim A's for crying out loud. No one ever used an A before this patch anyway, now they have at least a marginal market at best with margnal usefullness.
More is always better, but I don't have high hopes of them spending much time on DE in the near future. It took 8 months just to get this far.
OckVofad
Sat Jun 12, 2004 9:22 pm
#4
I dont think any profession will ever be "complete".
However I am happy with the current DE status and i promises to get better as noted above.
I think you can gauge the health of the profession by looking at each ones forum. When you read this forum there are no " <Blank> profession needs to be nerfed" threads, there are no "We hate the devs" threads, etc.
Go read the Artisian forums for an example of this. (Sorry artisans)
Dustin_Asche
Sun Jun 13, 2004 9:53 am
#5
Good points. Well, I'll go ahead and offer my suggestions anyway, since it can never hurt to make them.
For starters, I'd like to see the type of modules a droid can hold depend more on the type of chassis used. Having tiny MSE droids with a 10 slot storage capacity is kinda silly, having combat ready 3PO flies in the face of C-3PO's entire personallity. Now, every droid chassis would still be able to hold every type of module, but the level and number of a given module would depend more greatly on the chassis chosen. If Binary Load Lifters were the only droids that could hold more than a couple slots worth of item storage, their expensive chassis would be in more demand (and i understand it's in very low demand except as furniture).
Item Delivery Module. This would save a lot of time. It would operate off of charges, so inexpensive droid chassis like the MSE would be ideal. They would be able to deliver on command the contents of their storage compartment to any other player, making trades across the galaxy simple and increasing productivity by eliminating delivery time.
No more talking R-unit droids! Sorry, personal vendetta.
Crafting Assistance Module. This module, when loaded with a craftingtool and installed in a droid, would provide a bonus to crafting attempts the same way a high quality crafting tool or crafting station does (or is supposed to, I think they might still be borked). It would use the quality of the tool installed so it could provide up to an additional +15 for crafting assembly.
DigitalOne
Sun Jun 13, 2004 12:03 pm
#6
This is sort of the way i see it.
Patch 7 & 8 basicaly put us where we should have been all along, since beta. We are now at the 0 marker in a scale of -10 to +10 in achived potential. Its quite clear that the improvments have made us alot better than before, by economic principal diversity means increased market and profits, and i have been benifiting quite well from all this, so i can really complain, we're on the good side of things.
But we are also kind of vulnerable, we have to work on fitting into the economic structure as it exists, this includes decay and niche markets. Im game for a complete overhaul of the droid construction system as it exists, but thats a pipe dream at the moment.
Its not an easy task to cram a square block in a round hole, and i think thats the job thats at hand now concerning DEs, i think its one of those radical professions that i cant recall a counterpart to in any game. The Devs have done a decent job at trying to to that. Theres much, much more room to grow, and thats the optimistic potential of DEs.
Sunfire1
Sun Jun 13, 2004 2:00 pm
#7
It was a great improvement, but did not totally fix our profession. But I am waiting for the JTLS exspansion before I am willing to say anymore.
SkyeDarkangel
Sun Jun 13, 2004 8:03 pm
#8
I'm kinda happy. The eternal life of a droid makes the market rather dead though. Rush of sales for a few weeks, then, silence. I sell a few Adv. MSE's with Item storage and a Barker module in a few weeks if I'm lucky. Then again, I'm not huge Droid Engineer anymore either!
JedeyeRebel
Tue Jun 15, 2004 10:09 am
#9
Dustin_Asche wrote:
Droid Invasion added greater combat functionality to droids. This was a useful but incomplete bone thrown to starving Droid Engineers because the marketability of their droids was basically Bounty Hunters and chassis as furniture. However, before the publish even went live, it was apparant that it wasn't enough to really make droids a working part of Star Wars Galaxies, and the thought of R2 units and repair droids chasing around Rancors still haunts me to this day.
Publish 8 Introduced some real functionality, but bugged modules aside, do you, as a community, feel that it really added enough to make Droid Engineer complete? What does it still lack, was anything added pointless or unsellable? Do you think any of the changes or additions detracted unfairly from other classes (like scouts or medics, who now have droids mimicking their abilities)?
I have some ideas that would add definition to the droids in starwars and add marketabillity to your profession, but I want to wait to see if you as a community are still unsatisfied or if you think you're"close enough."
Unsatisfied you say? Unsatisfied? Why would we be unsatisfied? Hell, if your a MDE or aspiring to be one, you know the de crafting xp to attain the highest honor is mind boggling and relentlessly time consuming to say the least. And when we finally reach the top we can now build the lovely interplanetary survey droid. Maybe if the survey droid could also set up a deep crust extractor, input maintenance and power and deliver the desired resources to us on a daily basis I would be more temporarily satisifed with de, at least this month.
DE is turning out to be a grind not worth grinding. It doesnt really matter if you build mse, r2, protocol or probot, they can all be fitted to perform similar actions with more than similar functionality. Why would someone buy a protocol droid for 20-30k when they could buy a dz droid for a whole lot less to dobasically thesame thing except for looks? Does looks now dictate what droid will be bought with the exception of arakyd or seeker droids and survey droids?
I must say that the de prof is definitely incomplete. I have suggested some great ideas that hopefully someone will take seriously. Not to go off on a tangent but for one, a completeline of true SW battle droids complete with weapon slots, force fields and unique commands. These would not be able to be fitted with currentmodules or clusters, but be solely purposed for battle and able to be called along with a CH pet so that this DE addition does not hurt the CH profession or vise versa. I mean there are no true SW battle droids. If these droids did NOT last forever and were extremely advantageous to its owner, then it would boost the DE economy tremendously. As of now, we really are just selling BH droids, repair kits, batteries, a protocol droid here and there and the occasional probot.
Just some food for thought.
Live Every Day Like its your LAST
OckVofad
Tue Jun 15, 2004 11:00 am
#10
Well I dont want to flame ya but if thats all you are selling you are doing something wrong.
You should definately not be selling the protocol droid, which requires the Master box, for 20-30k. I sell the protocol for 100k minimum and people buy it.
The devs have stated that they are going to put high level combat droids into the game post-JTL. See the various threads on that issue.
Droid decay may or may not be addressed but if enough of the droid engineers are vocal about it we can get something done.
In order for that to happen it has to get into the top 5 list which it currently is not.
Anyways, dont get discouraged about being a MDE. You will not make as much money as a weaponsmith or armorsmith but I've played two months and have 2.2 mil in my back account. All from selling droids.
Malitevv
Tue Jun 15, 2004 11:17 am
#11
To answer your question. I think the improvements with publish 8 are great. It's not perfect, but the profession actually has a solid niche in the game now that extends beyond droid storage and decorations.
Regarding your suggestions: I agree that there should be more chassis related bonuses to certain things. Surgical chassis should get a bonus to the medical rating for example, and if doable BLL's should get a bonus to storage that goes beyond the 10 item cap, etc. I don't think storage capacities on existing droids shouldbe loweredthough. I don't consider an MSE that holds 10 items any more ridiculous than a backpack that holds 50 itemsor a player who carries 110 items (when wearing his back pack).
Item delivery modules are an interesting idea, but somehow, I expect that to be something that would take more time for the developers to develop than it would be worth. I don't see a big use for them.
regarding talking R-series droids: our droids don't talk. only those silly green R2's that they are giving to all the newbies now talk. the HAM and abilities on those little things suck though so I'm not too concerned about them.
And combat enabled protocol droids don't exist. Protocol droids don't have combat capable module slots. I'm pretty sure there is a bug that causes the droid to appear as though it has combat capable sockets in the crafting window on very rare occassions. But the droid doesn't really have combat abilities.
Regarding the crafting assistance module: We don't need that. we just need the existing crafting station modules to have that ability added to them so that experimentation will matter on these modules.
Dustin_Asche
Wed Jun 16, 2004 10:13 pm
#12
Nope, I'm not, nor do I have any immediate intentions of becoming a Droid Engineer. It does look like a fun profession, but I've got my hands tied with Master Architect (on Scylla) and grinding Chef (on Starsider). I love architect and Chef looks like fun, even if it does seem a bit more tedious at the moment.
I got the idea of the item delivery bot from the delivery service in FFXI, which is built into their bazaar/bank system. I thought that the MSE messenger droid was ideal for the purpose, since there's really no need to deliver an actual message, what with the comprehensive chat system and email, and no need to deliver data items since they can be delivered with emails anyway. There are other ways to deliver items, but most require you actually go there in personto deliver it, which can take up to half an hour round trip sometimes. Item delivery droids would allow people to expand business, especially in the form of custom orders, by more conveniently and more expediantly delivering purchased items to people.
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