Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Take a look at Star Wars -- DH is BACKWARDS!
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Xix13
Sun Jan 25, 2004 6:46 am
#1
I've been delving into Star Wars a lot more deeply than before I got into this game. This whole thing about DH has really gotten me to think that the designers/developers have played and read more Fantasy than SciFi, especially Star Wars.
Droids are artificially intelligent creations. At the highest levels, droids actually become sentient. They have rights, etc., in the Star Wars universe. Take some of the earliest Star Wars books. Read the Han Solo Adventures or, better still, the Lando Calrissian Adventures. In the beginning, Lando was a complete moron with technology. He rented droids just to pilot that ship he won, the Falcon. Han Solo HATED droids, but learned a new respect for them during the Adventures as the result of his association with a couple. (I loved Blue Max.)
So, really, the designers have gotten it completely backwards. The higher level the droid, the EASIER it is for a non-professional to control it, because it does more and more of the thinking for itself! It's the stupid droids that are difficult to control!
These aren't pets. Now, I realize that to create AI beings in a game would mean creating AI, something nobody's really been able to do yet. So I don't expect that to happen. And to allow a novice marksman control over 15 level 20 droids isn't right either. So I'm thinking about two things:
1. Level of the Droid -- Higher the Level Droid, the MORE effectively you can control them. So things like Power Droids and such would be restricted. I would also say that power droids be REQUIRED to power-up combat droids. The station droids would be controllable only by their respective artisan professions. Medical droids by medics and doctors. Droid brains should be added to reflect intelligence levels. A medic would be restricted to a REALLY high level droid (hence expensive) whereas a doctor could get by with a lower-level droid (less expensive but not as effective).
2. for COMBAT Droids, only Elite combat professions can control more than one of them, with Squad Leaders, Commandos and Bounty Hunters gaining control over the MOST number of droids due to their skills in command, support and tactics. And no more than 2 or 3 combat droids at a time either. This is small scale tactics, not the Clone Wars battles of Episode 2. Take away the flamethrower DOT from the Commandos if you must, but give 'em a decent combat droid.
I admit to not spending huge amounts of time designing this stuf. But it seems like cramming Droids into the UO/EQ/CH pet model is wrong and, in fact, backwards.
Droids are artificially intelligent creations. At the highest levels, droids actually become sentient. They have rights, etc., in the Star Wars universe. Take some of the earliest Star Wars books. Read the Han Solo Adventures or, better still, the Lando Calrissian Adventures. In the beginning, Lando was a complete moron with technology. He rented droids just to pilot that ship he won, the Falcon. Han Solo HATED droids, but learned a new respect for them during the Adventures as the result of his association with a couple. (I loved Blue Max.)
So, really, the designers have gotten it completely backwards. The higher level the droid, the EASIER it is for a non-professional to control it, because it does more and more of the thinking for itself! It's the stupid droids that are difficult to control!
These aren't pets. Now, I realize that to create AI beings in a game would mean creating AI, something nobody's really been able to do yet. So I don't expect that to happen. And to allow a novice marksman control over 15 level 20 droids isn't right either. So I'm thinking about two things:
1. Level of the Droid -- Higher the Level Droid, the MORE effectively you can control them. So things like Power Droids and such would be restricted. I would also say that power droids be REQUIRED to power-up combat droids. The station droids would be controllable only by their respective artisan professions. Medical droids by medics and doctors. Droid brains should be added to reflect intelligence levels. A medic would be restricted to a REALLY high level droid (hence expensive) whereas a doctor could get by with a lower-level droid (less expensive but not as effective).
2. for COMBAT Droids, only Elite combat professions can control more than one of them, with Squad Leaders, Commandos and Bounty Hunters gaining control over the MOST number of droids due to their skills in command, support and tactics. And no more than 2 or 3 combat droids at a time either. This is small scale tactics, not the Clone Wars battles of Episode 2. Take away the flamethrower DOT from the Commandos if you must, but give 'em a decent combat droid.
I admit to not spending huge amounts of time designing this stuf. But it seems like cramming Droids into the UO/EQ/CH pet model is wrong and, in fact, backwards.
Sumus
Sun Jan 25, 2004 7:41 am
#2
Good point, I have seen this as well (Became a DE and went out and bought The Essential Guide to Droids). But this is just a game and we can't exepect the droids we play with to act like anything we have read. Although we would like the droids we play with to WORK.
Nelus
Sun Jan 25, 2004 7:54 am
#3
giving the strongest classes and based on how advanced a player is stronger and more combat droids would imbalance the game. this is no option it will hurt the game and the fun and i dont think devs will allow this.
Droids are not possible without causeing skillpointscost over lv 10, and they have to cause as many skillpointcosts as ch pets or else they will be underpowered or overpowered. dont wanna see BH soloing krayths with droids like they did earlier with rancors.
so a profession for combat droids is requiered, this could be a new profession or DEs, but DEs didnt want the combat abilitys when the devs planned to give these to DEs.
OutlawEdi
Sun Jan 25, 2004 8:33 am
#4
bah. Simpler solution is to add new and tougher content to the existing content. No need to realign everything else.
Nelus wrote:
giving the strongest classes and based on how advanced a player is stronger and more combat droids would imbalance the game. this is no option it will hurt the game and the fun and i dont think devs will allow this.
Droids are not possible without causeing skillpointscost over lv 10, and they have to cause as many skillpointcosts as ch pets or else they will be underpowered or overpowered. dont wanna see BH soloing krayths with droids like they did earlier with rancors.
so a profession for combat droids is requiered, this could be a new profession or DEs, but DEs didnt want the combat abilitys when the devs planned to give these to DEs.
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