Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Duck's Droid Proposal v1.3
=======================
Please read this with an open mind. Dont let the first 7 words scar your thoughts
hehe. Something to keep in mind: droids are supposed to be everywhere, but not combat droids. Combat droids will have their place in the game, but the end-result should be that non-combat droids outnumber the combat droids.Please comment on this. Why it wont work, why it makes sense, whatever.
Why it won't work? It still sounds like a DE Mechanical creature handler. No one seems to want this but a very very small minority. which you are apparently a part of. You don't mention anything about skill points burned, which the devs insist on.
I like Drashk's plan which allows for both a new profession and for the other professions that may have afew extra skill points to spend. We aren't going to get droids with no pain of skill points invested. Might as well face it.
what do u mean no skillpionts invested? it costs novice artisan, up to engineering4, and then novice driod engineer just to control a combat droid *slightly* above a CL10 if at all. And then if you want to control better droids u have to spend more points on the combat tree of driod engineer. And remember that this plan is (as stated above) based on the assumption that droids will be weaker than creatures.
Also could you explain why it sounds like a mechanical CH and what is wrong with that?
-duck
new revision based on feedback from the forums...
Duck's Droid Proposal (v1.3a)
=======================
Please read this with an open mind. Dont let the first 7 words scar your thoughts hehe. Something to keep in mind: droids are supposed to be everywhere, but not combat droids. Combat droids will have their place in the game, but the end-result should be that non-combat droids outnumber the combat droids.
1. Redesign Droid Engineer to be a hybrid profession of combat droid controlling/driod crafting. Reshift the trees so that there is a tree for combat droid control, that requires combat xp to gain skillboxes in. This allows for dabbles who just want to have some basic droid knowledge, as well as expertise in handling combat driods. This would open up the combat droid economy because of dabblers, just like the medic profession dabblers who only gain boxes in Medicine Use but not Medicine crafting. These dabblers would not make their own driods, but instead would buy combat droids from the full-time DE's. Also note that the combat tree of DE would consist mostly of DriodLevel+ mods and perhaps a certification or two on some very special combat driods (read: not powerful driods, i mean special driods... special purpose, has vulns). Also remember that dabbling in DE combat would require novice artisan, engineering 1 through 4, and novice DE, and finally the skillboxes in combat droid control. The amount of skillpoints needed to dabble these in bigger combat droids seems to fit well. People who wish not to dabble will of course have access to CL10 combat droids or CL10 + X, where X is the small bonus given at master box of an elite combat profession (see #2 below).
2. In addition to the DroidLevel+ mods in the combat tree of DE, there should also be a small DroidLevel+ mod given at the master box of all the elite combat professions. This would further open the combat droid market because of this small DroidLevel+ mod. Because of the small mod, people would be buying not just the CL10 combat droids but slightly better and varied combat droids. Additionally, just as there are Pistoleer + CH templates (just for example), there could also be Pistoleer + DE templates. The pistoleer would get a small bonus of the DroidLevel+ mod at the master pistoleer box, and the player could choose to further specilize in combat droid handling buy taking up the combat tree in droid engineer. Balance is of course a concern, but balance is always a concern regardless of what plan is chosen. Also note: because the droid bonus is given at the master skillbox of an elite profession (it takes many skillpoints to master an elite profession) and because that droid bonus is small, it makes it virtually impossible to create an "uber-template".
3. Notes on the economy of DE's. DE's are concerned about selling more droids. I understand that concern, right now droids dont do much. This sytem that i have presented will allow for a larger droid economy because of A) the DroidLevel+ mods at each master elite combat profession box and B) the people who wish to specilize in droids further by dabbling in the combat tree of DE. Also remember that most of the growth in the DE economy will come from Non-Combat droids that will be usable by much more people. Remember to look at the medic profession and economy. Many people dabble in medic only to use med's crafted by others. The full-time medics craft the goods and sell them in a very large market to the people who dabble. The same thing would occur in here with DE.
4. This solves the problem of DE's not being able to use the droid they make. With the combat tree of DE, a full-time droid engineer would have full access to controlling the droid's it makes.
5. This allows for "special" combat droids that a master DE could *not* call on their own. At a later date, certificates could be granted to some of the elite combat professions which allow for special droids that only that profession could use, but not the DE itself. The dev's could strike a balance between how many droids require certs (read: how many profession-unique combat droids) vs. how many droids depend on only DroidLevel+ (read: how many droids will be craftable *and* usable by the DE).
6. In order to make DE feel like a true hybrid combat/crafting profession, and to keep at least a little something out of reach of the dabblers, i also propose that at master DE box, the DE would get a fairly nice DroidLevel+ mod: a mod greater than that of the DroidLevel+ mod given to the master elite profession skillboxes.
7. note that this entire plan is based on the assumption that combat droids will, in general, be weaker than creatures. There should not be a combat droid powerfull enough to kill a rancor or any other large creature. Combat droids should be more fragile than creatures.
8. A side-bar issue: Continuity. We all know that heavy combat droids are illegal by rule of the empire during this timeline. We all know that people break the law. So what needs to be done, regardless of whether or not the above issues and my plan is implimented, is that heavy combat droids need to fall under the new Contraband system.
2-A. A possible alternative to #2. Instead of putting that DroidLevel+ bonus at the master box of an elite combat profession (perhaps that is too strict in terms of opening up the combat droid market), the DroidLevel+ bonus could be placed at a level4 box within the elite profession tree. It could be placed in such a way that it offsets the tree that has damage mitigation or defense mods. This would present the dabblers with an interesting decision to make: do they choose to go up the tree with damage mitigation/defense mods or do they choose the tree that finishes off with a droid bonus at the level4 box. I would be careful about this alternative though, because it, as thunderheart laid out, makes it difficult to predict if an over-powering template could be found; but also remember that this DroidLevel+ bonus would be small, as stated above.
Please comment on this. Why it wont work, why it makes sense, whatever.
-duck
DuckMaestro wrote:
7. note that this entire plan is based on the assumption that combat droids will, in general, be weaker than creatures. There should not be a combat droid powerfull enough to kill a rancor or any other large creature. Combat droids should be more fragile than creatures.
I like lots of aspects of this plan. If Max CL level is lower -- maybe 30 or 40 for Master DE, the skillpoint investment for engineer 4 and 0040 in the DE hybrid tree is fair. Over the top MCH combat droids would be out of the question, but giving a lower droid CL lvl for a correspondingly lowerskillpoint cost is a good balance.
I like the analog to medics, with most dabblers using one skilltree and rely on the craftsman in the same profession for the products from a different tree.
Novice DEs would get lvl 15 pets, 0040 DEs would get lvl 30 pets, MDE lvl 40 (give or take some points). The Mater Artisan dependencies make it less likely the dablers will flood the market with product.
A lower CL lvl for droids is ok with me; the skillpoint cost should also be lower.
The problem with this solution is that it's beggin for the nerf bat. Remember the old CH tree? The reason it was redesigned was that by taking only half the tree you got all the CL power of the profession. This will end up the same way. The only way to safely integrate droid handling into the DE tree is to spread it around to all the branches. Otherwise, it's only a matter of time until it gets whacked.
Nyght wrote:
The devil is in the details.