Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Disposable droids
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Droid_Engineer_Rho
Sat Jan 24, 2004 2:54 pm
#1
Remember, back in the day, when probots were nerfed? One of the big breaking points killing us at that time was 'droid permadeath'. We actually DID manage to get permadeath removed, and there was much rejoicing.
Fast forward to today: they want an entirely NEW profession because it should take skill points to make use of high end combat droids. BUT:
What if SOME droids, in particular purely combat-oriented models such as battledroids, super battledroids and droideka were actually set up with perma death? Is there any good reason that a roger-roger which has been smashed flat by an ATAT should ever get up again, or should it just be so much slag? Is there any chance that a scheme like this would allow the developers the freedom to let these droids be used and enjoyed by a wide variety of folks, instead of just those who choose one new profession?
I'm grasping at straws here, people, trying to salvage the idea that droids are to be used by the masses, not by the Flavor-of-the-month chasers.
*sigh*
I can barely bring myself to sign on anymore, it's too depressing to look at the emails asking me when new combat droids are coming. I'm tired of giving negative responses to almost every question I'm asked by hopeful new potential droid owners. I barely even CARE that I'm making decent credits, I want to be happy, and I want to make people happy, and I'm finding both difficult.
Fast forward to today: they want an entirely NEW profession because it should take skill points to make use of high end combat droids. BUT:
What if SOME droids, in particular purely combat-oriented models such as battledroids, super battledroids and droideka were actually set up with perma death? Is there any good reason that a roger-roger which has been smashed flat by an ATAT should ever get up again, or should it just be so much slag? Is there any chance that a scheme like this would allow the developers the freedom to let these droids be used and enjoyed by a wide variety of folks, instead of just those who choose one new profession?
I'm grasping at straws here, people, trying to salvage the idea that droids are to be used by the masses, not by the Flavor-of-the-month chasers.
*sigh*
I can barely bring myself to sign on anymore, it's too depressing to look at the emails asking me when new combat droids are coming. I'm tired of giving negative responses to almost every question I'm asked by hopeful new potential droid owners. I barely even CARE that I'm making decent credits, I want to be happy, and I want to make people happy, and I'm finding both difficult.
BlueMorgoth
Sat Jan 24, 2004 3:20 pm
#2
Rho,
I vaguely remember somewhere in one of the Dev posts that they were going to be setting up the combat droids to be disposable. I don't have any quotes to back this up right now, but I think it was in one of TH's early droid plan posts that he mentioned something like that.
I vaguely remember somewhere in one of the Dev posts that they were going to be setting up the combat droids to be disposable. I don't have any quotes to back this up right now, but I think it was in one of TH's early droid plan posts that he mentioned something like that.
-Cereus-
Sat Jan 24, 2004 4:25 pm
#3
Thank you Rho. Reading your post made me feel better, because I know I am not alone in how this situation is making me feel.
Herbsman
Sat Jan 24, 2004 5:51 pm
#4
I like the idea of anyone being able to use disposable combat droids. Either that or a nice cert system would be fine with me.
Arcid
Tue Feb 17, 2004 5:01 pm
#5
I alo remember seeing the idea of having disposable "Pit Droids" to repair vehicles as an alternative to garages, also like the idea of the delivery droids
demosthenes810
Tue Feb 17, 2004 9:33 pm
#7
Great ideas here, I sure like it. Disposable droids are definitely the way to go to add some variety without unbalancing the game, and doing it fairly cheaply too on the dev side (though perhaps not the programming side). There are a great many uses for them, and I certainly hope to see some in game soon. Any chance some of you guys could further flesh out your ideas, perhaps make them more presentable and grab other people's comments, and drop down a good constructive 'idea' post on this kind of thing? I almost started one myself, but then decided those with the ideas originally would be the best bet to do so.
Squegul
Wed Feb 18, 2004 1:34 am
#8
I think we could stand to use some disposable droids, like seekers and probes. Right now, once you buy a good droid, you don't need another unless ya swap professions. A droid doesn't have to walk and talk and be your friend, and it doesn't have to stick around forever.I think adding some one-shot droids to our schematic list would be nice.Here are some ideas for future droid schematics we could build:
Motion Detection Droids: You place the droid down somewhere, and when a player comes within X meters of it, it can notify its owner. Perhaps based on resources used/experimentation, it could have different durations, or level of information. A basic one could say "Sir, a player has breached my perimeter" or an advanced one could say "Sir, a rebel has breached..." or "Sir, Squegul has breached my..." These would be good to place around faction bases or whatnot.
Delivery Droid: It could hold a storage module, and I can put stuff in it, and set it to deliver to a particular waypoint... One shot, one use... So i could be out doing stuff, run out of inventory space, plop some stuff in the droid and send it to my house. Wouldn't unbalance your inventory, cuz when in the droid you cant use it, and you'd still have to put the stuff in your house somewhere. You could use these to send stuff to your friends: I'm at the shuttleport, he's out in the middle of nowhere and needs a stim pack, so I use the droid to send him one... Once he gets to his destination and his inventory is emptied, he goes poof.
Survey Droid: Give it a resource and set it off in any direction... it travels in a straight line for X meters, and when it runs out of gas/hits edge of map, it reports back to you the highest concentration of whatever resource you chose and how far away it is... but can only sample along the designated path, no turns or zig zags...
Camp Droid: Just that, activate the droid, it makes a camp equivalent to a scout-made camp. It would naturally be more expensive resource/time wise to use this over a scout making a camp, but it still leaves a viable option for soloers or people who just can't find a scout to tag along.
These are just a few ideas i've had floating in my head. Any comments/suggestions/flames are welcomed and appreciated.
DarthIguana
Wed Feb 18, 2004 1:50 am
#9
I can think of a number of disposable droids that could be very useful in the game. A variation on the BH seeker droid would be a disposable survey droid. Set it to find a particular resource and let it go. It find the highest concentration of the resource within a certain distance of you and send back an email with a waypoint. Poof droid gone and you don't get any surveying XP. Only usable by artisans. OR a disposable collection droid. Feed it the waypoint of your harvestor, it goes out, collects the payload, returns the payload to you then dies.
Chris
Chris
Artistan
Wed Feb 18, 2004 1:50 am
#10
I like the Delivery/Motion Droids, no comment on the rest.
We'd need to be able to set the droids to only go off if a certain person or faction passed through, possibly on the advanced models, otherwise people wouldn't use them because we'd have one person walk by and poof, there goes your droid.
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