Droid Engineer Archive

GIVE DEs SOME LOVE

Hi all,

I am a commando from the Chiliastra server. I played the game for over a year from launch and left in disgust at the holomadness, CM/Rifle, TKA/Doc, Melee statcking FOM uber templates, and unresolved issues in my elite hybrid professions. I came back because it seems that the devs ( though it took them some time) are finally fixing the combat system and doing a darn fine job of it.

It has become apparent, however, that even with the CURB and other dev measures certain professions (most profoundly DE) are still being left out in the cold. I've read a lot of the posts from the DE community and most seem to have reasonable ideas on making the profession an important part of SWG. I have a couple ideas of my own I'd like to share. I'm not a DE, so feel free to slam them if you like or comment on them if you like them.

Droid Enhanced Armor (DEA)

What if DEs could modify armor? Not just DEs either, but BEs, and WS as well. Here's how it could work:

An Armorsmith crafts a suit of armor. Armor's current socket system could be replaced with a mod or component system like ships. DEs could craft a chassis, but instead of being a droid that follows you around, this will be a droid you wear. The chassis it's self as no protective value, it is only when it is combined with the armor pieces that it becomes wearable. The result would be a new thing entirely: Powered Body Armor.The armor would give bounces to terrian neg, acc, speed, as well as a protective bonus. The type of bonus would depend on the class of armor and the modules used by the DE. New art should be used to give the different armor a bionic edge, not too different from the stock armor suit, but something subtle and cool.The DE should also be able to integrate WS weapons into the suit itself. Each type of armor could have a certain number of integrated weapon slots. Hvy armor would have the most. The benefit of integrated weapons would be the removal of the item transfer delay in combat.

Bring Protocol Droids to Life!!! (oh and let me have a stinking imperial bug droid already...geez)

Ok this one I know is probably going to show just how little I know about DE. From what I gather droid function is determined by the modules placed in them. What if the devs came out with modules that held predetermined banks of questions, like the ones you get in the radial from NPCs. These mods could be added to droids and then (and this is the cool part) the user could program simple macros in response to the to the different question slots.

I know I'm making no sense so here is an example

I buy a protocol droid from Joe Droidmaker. In the droid is a module that contains question bank 1: social inquiry. The questions in the bank are things like: Where is your master today? What is your function here? Can you tell me about this place? etc...ad infinium you get the idea. I pull out my droid and tell him to stay put in my house while I go hunt. A friend comes by my house and I'm not there. My protocol droid greets him by name (like an NPC vendor) and offers his assitance as per my preset dialouge. My friend opens the radial menu and chooses the question "Where is your master today?". My droid spits out the brief macro I have put for that question letting my friend know I am out burninating Mokk and will return shortly. He even invites him to make himself at home (because I am a classy commando). I hope you understand what I'm trying to communicate. I know I've probably said it all wrong. I just don't see why player vendors ought to be cooler than player crafted droids. Also you could get rid of the /findfriend feature and give that ability to player protocol droids. Oh yeah, and lest I forget...GIVE ME MY STINKING BUG DRIOD ALREADY...geez.

This post was just spaghetti throwing...see if any of it sticks. In any event, hang in there DEs, I think most of the community will be pulling for you post CURB.

- I support a wife and three children. I don't have time to support a crafter, too. No decay without price caps.