Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droids with Skills
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Rihtan
Mon Apr 11, 2005 11:46 am
#1
Had an odd idea pop up over the weekend that I don’t remember seeing before.
Droids with Skills!!
Create a set of droid professions and allow droids to earn XP like players. These droids could gain new abilities and bonuses that help their players.
To keep things simple I propose these Professions as one branch versions of the basic professions. Marksman, Brawler, Artisan, Medic, Entertainer, Scout.
Possibly a skill box for every elite profession, allowing droids to become customized helpers to every profession with useful skills.
Seemed a rather cool way of pretending that Droids were more than tools. We could even get a cool mindwipe command to drop unneeded skills.
Droids with Skills!!
Create a set of droid professions and allow droids to earn XP like players. These droids could gain new abilities and bonuses that help their players.
To keep things simple I propose these Professions as one branch versions of the basic professions. Marksman, Brawler, Artisan, Medic, Entertainer, Scout.
Possibly a skill box for every elite profession, allowing droids to become customized helpers to every profession with useful skills.
Seemed a rather cool way of pretending that Droids were more than tools. We could even get a cool mindwipe command to drop unneeded skills.
RasalTheWise
Mon Apr 11, 2005 11:59 am
#2
This idea is actually really cool! Good thinking!
But it should be no substitute for having a live buddy provide those skills. So maybe there should be some limitation, like no combat skills and no elite professions. Or even a very limited pool of skill points that makes it so it can't master a profession.
And I love the memory wipe thing...That is SO Star Wars.
5* if I could!
But it should be no substitute for having a live buddy provide those skills. So maybe there should be some limitation, like no combat skills and no elite professions. Or even a very limited pool of skill points that makes it so it can't master a profession.
And I love the memory wipe thing...That is SO Star Wars.
5* if I could!
Nell2ThaIzzay
Mon Apr 11, 2005 1:15 pm
#3
That's actually a good idea, and perhaps something like that could tie into combat droids... perhaps something along the lines of, each droid skill costs 1 (2 tops) skill points from a player. Like you said, give them basic trees (perhaps only 1 tree, of 4 boxes, per profession), and as far as combat goes, this way there is still a skill point cost for combat droids, but it's not profession specific.
Straker_Atrella
Mon Apr 11, 2005 2:18 pm
#4
Wow, this actually is a pretty cool idea. Heh just goes to show, that no matter how much we talk, people still come up with cool new stuff.
Let's spitball on this a little more.
It would fit right in with our current modules, use Scout for example. A Harvesting module woudl not have a flat harvest bonus, but instead a better modules would allow it to "learn" more. Letting it level up. So a lesser Harv droid would do at first, but max out sooner.
The same could be said for combat, med, trapping, and others.
Cool idea. Let's make sure Jenden sees it.
RasalTheWise
Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:03 pm
#5
So maybe there could be "skill modules", where the module would give the droid a certain amount of skill points, like ten, for example. So a fully configured R3 (the R3 model was supposed to be the most advanced droid of its time...it is military-grade) could learn the most skills at 60 points.
Onviously, the devs would have to balance out the number of skills per module, and whether there were different levels of modules. This is great! Let's get this thrown up with the other droid requests!
Onviously, the devs would have to balance out the number of skills per module, and whether there were different levels of modules. This is great! Let's get this thrown up with the other droid requests!
Rihtan
Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:59 am
#6
Nell2ThaIzzay wrote:That's actually a good idea, and perhaps something like that could tie into combat droids... perhaps something along the lines of, each droid skill costs 1 (2 tops) skill points from a player. Like you said, give them basic trees (perhaps only 1 tree, of 4 boxes, per profession), and as far as combat goes, this way there is still a skill point cost for combat droids, but it's not profession specific.
Ohh, I like that idea. I'd give up a few skill points to pay for a higher powered droid.
It even avoids the whole "free checkers" idea. Sweet.
Rihtan
Wed Apr 13, 2005 3:59 pm
#7
Nell2ThaIzzay wrote:Or for the combat droids... each combat skill box (each combat droid would have 1 skill tree, 4 boxes) takes up 1 skill point. Instead of the droid leveling up as it goes, when it's created, it's given a level (1-4), so to readying the droid deed will automatically spend those skill points, and of course deleting the droid gives them back.
Hmmm, I rather like the idea of leveling up a droid. Then if you sell it to someone who doesnt have the free points to control it they need to take it to Toshi Station to get its memory wiped so they can control it. Poor Luke obviously didnt have the skill points he needed to control a powerful droid like R2-D2 when they first met.
K_Corbin
Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:30 am
#8
This would be great for non-combat type players with skill points to burn.
Nell2ThaIzzay
Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:51 am
#9
Or for the combat droids... each combat skill box (each combat droid would have 1 skill tree, 4 boxes) takes up 1 skill point. Instead of the droid leveling up as it goes, when it's created, it's given a level (1-4), so to readying the droid deed will automatically spend those skill points, and of course deleting the droid gives them back.
I throw out the idea of droids predetermined skill point costs, because this could indeed add a variety to our market. Maybe some people don't have 4 skill points to give up, so they can only get themselves a 1 or 2 skill point cost droid. This would keep a large market open for lower level combat droids, and essentially give the newer and lower level Droid Engineers a VERY sellable item that they don't need to be master for, that can give them some good income while they work their way up.
The droids that we have now could be the "freebie" 0 skill point cost droids... but as you start to spend more skill points on the droids, they become a bit more powerful.
I honestly think this is a win-win situation. Players (fighters and DE's alike) get combat droids, and the devs get their skill point cost. Of course, it's only a max of 4 skill points spent, so these droids should -not- be top of the line (I.E. not on par with the high level CH and BE pets) but a viable option none-the less.
Straker_Atrella
Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:58 am
#10
Wow,
I really like this idea. People wouldn't be getting "free checkers" because they would need to actually spend skill points.
Take this a step further, if I give up say 20 skill points, I could control a Droideka or other uber combat droid. Honestly, this is like the best Droid commander idea so far, even though it didn't really start out that way.
Jenden.... Jenden.... calling Jenden. I know your busy with the CU, but this is a great idea.
Rihtan
Thu Apr 14, 2005 9:44 am
#11
The max level idea sounds really good. Each droid style could have a non-combat, combat, and total skill cap. Thus a mouse droid with a Cap set of (N 3, C 1, T 3) could only gain 3 skill boxes and of those boxes only one could be a combat skill.
On the other hand a Droideka with a cap of 2,8,8 could use all its slots and buy all 8 possible droid combat skills if they wanted to but could never buy more than two non-combat skills.
On the other hand a Droideka with a cap of 2,8,8 could use all its slots and buy all 8 possible droid combat skills if they wanted to but could never buy more than two non-combat skills.
Nell2ThaIzzay
Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:07 pm
#12
Rihtan wrote:
Nell2ThaIzzay wrote:
Or for the combat droids... each combat skill box (each combat droid would have 1 skill tree, 4 boxes) takes up 1 skill point. Instead of the droid leveling up as it goes, when it's created, it's given a level (1-4), so to readying the droid deed will automatically spend those skill points, and of course deleting the droid gives them back.
Hmmm, I rather like the idea of leveling up a droid. Then if you sell it to someone who doesnt have the free points to control it they need to take it to Toshi Station to get its memory wiped so they can control it. Poor Luke obviously didnt have the skill points he needed to control a powerful droid like R2-D2 when they first met.
Well, I guess with my idea, it would essentially be that utility droids could level up as you have laid out in your original plan. Since they wouldn't require player skill points. But the combat droids, since they would require player skill points, could be pre-leveled, so the player could choose according to how many extra sp's he's willing to spend on droid combat... and those who will be willing to spend less (0-2 or so) could buy the lower end droids from DE's, and that would leavea market for the lower level droids produced by aspiring DE's.
Or perhaps, to compromise your leveling idea, with my idea of a wide range of combat droids of all levels... the droid -would- level up on it's own. But certain droids would have a max as to how hight they could go. I.E., a player buys a level 2 droideka, for example. The droideka starts off as a regular CL10 combat droid. But it would level up, as you laid out in your original plan. But this specific droideka could only gain as much as 2 skill points worth of boxes.
This leaves a market open for all DE's, but still allows the combat droids to level up.
And Straker, just how high are you willing to go with this, as far as skill point costs go? I'm just wondering. I know myself personally, I only have 3 skill points left to spend. I'm not giving up any of my main skills just to use a droid. And I know a lot of people wouldn't either. So that's why I say 1 skill point a box, only 4 boxes, but since it is still such a small skill point investment, a combat droid would never be completely top of the line.
Are you suggesting either...
1. Droid skills cost 1 skill point per, but go above and beyond a 4 box max, allowing a player, if he chooses to do so, to control a very efficient high level killing machine?
or
2. The skill point cost for droids in general is increased?
1, I wouldn't mind. 2 however,I dunno if that would work, because people won't have a lot of skill points left over to spend in droids. Sure, as my model states, it is a fairly small skill point investment. But it is still a skill point investment, where people would have to determine if they might want to give up a box in their combat, to gain a box in droids.
Straker_Atrella
Fri Apr 15, 2005 12:48 am
#13
I am talking about pretty hefty skill point investments.
If you give up say 10 points, you could get a combat droid that is a good step more powerfull then right now. 20 would get you more. 50 would... well I am thinking SBD type power.
The key would be balancing it with CH and other weapons. A 20 skill point droid should give you an increase equal to about 20 skill points put into a weapon. The biggest ones would be on par with about an Elite profession.
So if you had 5 skill points left over, you could spend those, yet if you didn't want to get a second combat profession and wanted to control a big droid instead.
However, I don't think they should just automatically be that level, I think they should "level up" to it somehow, along with the origional idea. This would need to be balanced along with the time that if you spent actually spending the skill points on combat.
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