Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: What 5 things would make you content?
Now today there's been a WHOLE lot of activity on the boards about Droid Engineers, so here's a simple question for all my felloe DE's What 5 things would make you content. Now sure for some it would take more than simply 5 things. But lets try and do this in a nice, calm, orderly, Xahn cant say were not being constructive and shut this thread down way. Dont list generic stuff like "FIX all the problems" or "Do everything we've already said" Lets keep this thread calm and fairly rational. Lets see how many droid engineers (heck even non DE's what five things do you think we should have that would make you want a droid) we can get to post here. I read someobdy say that CH's get responses from Devs because of the fact that there are more CH posts than DE post... fine cool whatever, well here's gonna be our big ol' post. Please dont flame it, just list things, if yoru five things are sombody else's five things, GREAT maybe with more unique people asking for it, they'll put it in. So with that here's my $.02
1) Droid Permadeath - doesn't make much sense... i mean, well its a droid, at the very least you should be able to like "recover wreckage" or something, give it back to a DE and he should be able to repair it adding back into it maybe a fraction of the resources, like replacing the armor module, and maybe a new Motivator (i mean why not, they went bad in the movies right?)
2) Combat Droids - We have two droids that can be used for combat, and only one of them is actually remotely viable (and that is very debatable due to the whole permadeath thing) It would be great if they simply added more, and made the ones we had effective. I'm no CH, but i know that pets are effective in a fight, and that probots really arent, and DZ70's... nuff said.
3) Droid customization - I'm a droid engineer, my job is to provide what my customers want, if my customer wants a neon hot pink R-2 unit with Tiffany's powder blue accents, then dog gone it, i want to be able to sell him a neon hot pink R-2 unit with powder blue accent. Sure the paint might get duller and duller over time, but if i could repaint it and touch it up for them from time to time, i'd have some repeat business to boot.
4) Inherent Functions - If its a repair droid, it should automatically be able to repair, if its a medical droid, it should automatically be able to provide medical assistance, if its a binary load lifter, it should automatically be able to binary load lift... and we should be told exactly what the heck that is exactly... i'm just saying...
5) Correspondent - The concept of the correspondent was a great idea, now please follow through with it and respond to her, even if its just to say that you've received the emails they've sent you, and are working on the issues, or some of the issues while valid just arent real feasable right now, you dont have to answer everything, just email back, its simple common courtesy.
Well that's my 5, like i said i have other issues as well but those are at the top of the list for me, what about you guys. Again lets TRY and keep it civil, just present your five, no comments about Dev's not responding or us being ignored or being the red headed stepchild of professions, just everyone post your 5 and see if anything becomes of it.
Zzyzzx Maver
Droid Engineer
Tyrena, Correlia, Chilastra
Perma Death (same issues at you)
Combat Droids: probots are not supposed to be the best for combat so give us a couple there is so we can compete in the market place with CH's and BE's
Commincation: Make comitmentts with care and live up to them.
Experimentation: Whats the point.. you only give about +50 to assembly and experimentation at master but give weaponsmiths +90, shouldn't every crafting skill be at +100 at master? and then how can we tell it improves.. (only thing i see it improves is + to the ham.. +10% equal +1 to ham.. again whats the point?)
Its been a month since you annouced a ratings system.. so where is it lets see it before implemntation so we can see where it might goof up..
5?! Hell, I'll give you only 3 things.
1.) Droid Color
2.) Remove permadeath
3.) Give me multiple droids called out at once
Everthing else I can wait for. Thanks
1) one good combat droid. Not the probot. HAM about 1.5K. something that could be sold about the same as a CL15. It dosen't need to be the top of the line.
2) No Perma-death. I would like to see a need to repair the droids to keep them running. May be a incap monitor. After 5-10Droid Incaps it would finally go Perma-death.
3) Unique uses of the droids and an explaination of them. Ie. MSE can only hold Data. Kinda a small droid to have a bunch of crafting mods in. What exactly does a BLL do? An R2 should be able to do something a R4 can't!
4) Droid Experimentation working
5) Custom Droids. Droid colors to be exact.
That is it. I will be satisfied if the first 2 are done. I can wait on the rest.
Do a search for 'satie' and find my thread titled 'this is abhorrent'. It's in the swg discussion board, maybe we could ressurect it.
Indere Gaillion
How about no aggro for non-combat droids? Breaks my heart when I hear that a customer got their R4 or R5 killed in combat. 
You should have heard me cuss out the guy who decided to kill one of the NPC R2 units in a starport. I never saw anything so horrible when that little fellow died.
All of my gripes stem from one basic tenet, that Isuspectevery droiderbelieves in:
We as players should be allowed to develop our favorite droids into permanent, enduringcharacters who have well-defined function-specific roles in our SWG lives, just like R2 and 3PO in the films. Currently the droid engineer profession does not really allow for that.
1) Yes, please, no more droid permadeath... some kind of repair/recovery shoud be possible. It shoudn't be too easy, mind you, but it needs to be possible. Itjust makes sense.
2) Inherent functions, just as Zzyzzx explains. Power droids should be able to pick up power from all manner power generators, and deposit them in harvestors or other droids, etc... anything that needs power. Protocol droids should be able to translate. Astromechs should be able to effect repairs and maintenance, etc. The possibilites for diverse function-specific roles for droids are rich andendless. Make it happen!
3) Naming - We desperately need a droidnaming system that generates and regulates *proper* droid names, with numbers, lettersand dashes. This is so, so essential to immersion...and it reallysurprises that it hasn't been implemented yet. It's just as important as playercharacter naming.
4)Get rid ofthe pet lingoin droid administration... for example, droids shouldn't be "tamed"... they should "activated." Droids are not pets... they're droids. They are unique, they stand alone!
5) Customization - extensive color palettes should be available for all models
1) Girls with big juggs
2) Hitting the1 Billiondollar lottery
3) King Crab Legs from Shaw's Crab House in Chicago for dinner everynight
4) A personal live performance by the Supersuckers (thebest rock n' roll band in theworld)
5) A new Aliens Film with Ridley Scott and/or James Cameron back at thehelm..
yup - I'd be content...
Mr. Moo
I have just 3:
1) Allow multiple droids to be deployed.
2) Remove perma-death, (or make them repairable).
3) Un-nerf the probot and strengthen the DZ70, (or allow some droids to be as powerful as creatures).
My list for contentment is quite similar. Some minor differences and my own slant on it:
1. Permadeath. Yep, no more. Give them at least a countdown for the amount of deaths they can have or put in a system like what the CH's have in place but completely die when they hit 0 vit.
My idea: when they get blown up, have them get stored in the datapad. When they are called out, have a droid engineer able to bring them back to life. Make cost materials and some sort of special tool and make it have the option of failing and the droid being lost forever. I could live with that.
2. Combat droid. Seriously, these would greatly help us. Battle droids would be a good start. I don't give a rats ass about the probot and dz70, these are not serious attack droids. Have the battle droid have variable 1000-2000 HAM, one armor slot, one personality chip, and different types of weaponry to be used, no other modules(my battle droid doesn't need a crafting station or med mod on it). HAM and weaponry would be dependent on model. Or, you could get really creative and let us equip it with weapons we buy from weaponsmiths (make them lootable when they die though). I can wait on super battle droids and droideikas, take your time, but regular battle droids would make an excellent bandaid.
3. Customization. This should have a point beyond making pretty droid shaped furniture. I want to be able to offer droids in different colors to my customers. If they want an R2 that looks like R2D2, then they should be able to have it. Make this changable and renewable through the use of a tool or must as a radial option for droid engineers. I don't care if droid colors fade, I don't care if the process takes more resources. Just make it happen.
4. Higher droid HAM around the board. I'd give all droids at least 250 HAM and have sturdier droids with a bit more. 40 HAM on anything is pointless.
5. Inherent fuctions: Yes. This would be mighty cool. A surgical droid that can heal wounds (perhaps require it to have chemicals on hand). A LE Repair droid that repairs (perhapsmake it require metal to perform repairs). PerhapsAstromechs that help with slicing,Treadwells making better crafting stations by default, etc etc.
I don't really list communication because I don't think it's going to happen.It's so incredibly obvious that we arevery veryfar down on their priorities list.
I posted earlier, but it didn't go through and I lost the message. Here's the top 5 things I'd be happy with:
1. Combat Droids - I am both Droid Engineer and Creature Handler, so this is a pretty unbiased viewpoint (at least I feel it is). The combat droids desperatley need to be made better. It sickens me that non-Creature Handlers can get creatures as it is (I wanted creatures, so I worked for it by going up the scout and creature handler points), let alone pets that are better than what a droid engineer can make at Blueprints 3 (a long and hard grind, mind you). Here are my suggestions:
*DZ-70: 1000 HAM, 100 damage. That is a good support unit that is actually viable to have. The 40 HAM, 50 damage is just unacceptable. Something that takes all that skill and resources to make, and the lowest gnort can destroy it? Unacceptable.
*Probot: 3000 HAM, 200 damage. With the skill that it takes to make these, and the resources and cost, these will in no way be a burden to the Creature Handler class, however, it still makes the Probot viable support for those non Creatue Handler types, as well as good support if a Creature Handler would like a new pet.
2. Droideka - I am currently content with the types of droids we have no, but I would LOVE to be able to make Droidekas. Either make them really powerful, and a Master Droid Engineer droid (Blueprints 4 at the lowest), or not all that powerful (Droidekas were in Episode 1, which was -before- when this game takes place. It could be an effective, yet out dated droid) that we can craft at maybe Novice or Blueprints 1 or something. If it were a low level, I'd say maybe 800 HAM or so, 50 - 75 damage. If it were a high end, maybe 5000 HAM, 250 damage.
3. Perma-Death - They really need to change this. If droids are to die all out, so be it. But not as easy as one incap. I would say something like this: When a droid is incapacitated, it cannot be used again until it gets taken to a Droid Engineer. The Droid Engineer could then repair it to functional order, however, just as repairing weapons, it could take away from the max durability. This would allow for repeat customers, because droids that have so many deaths would be pointless, and the customer would need to buy a new one. Maybe so thata person doesn't always have to find a Droid Engineer, we could make repair tools or something to sell that do the same thing, however without the Droid Engineer skills, you run the risk of getting an even lower max durability than what the Droid Engineer could do.
4. Higher Level Droids - R5 units should be more than just a cosmetic upgrade to an MSE unit. I would say something along these lines: An MSE droid with a level 1 storage module can hold 1 item. Well how about an R5 unit with a level 1 storage module can hold 3 items. An R3 can hold 5 items. An R2 10, so on and so forth, and have simular benefits for the medical, data, and crafting modules.
5. Mission and Pet Storage - More of an idea than something that would just make me content, allow so that a droid with a data storage module can hold missions and pets. This would bring some good business to us Droid Engineers when people could buy a droid with a data mod installed, and take more than 2 missions at a time. Us Droid Engineers could hold more than 5 droids at a time, non-Droid Engineers more than 3. Creature Handlers could hold more than the 14 max at master limit. Obviously you would have to have the droid out to be able to acess that stuff. And if a Creature Handler wants to spend the money on 3 droids that all can hold more pets, why the hell not? Could also help other business, as Droid Engineers could sell droid bundles on a little MSE droid, or Creature Handlers could sell pet bundles, or people who want to advertise their business could give away droids with waypoints to the person's shops.
1) Lower all probots one skill level down. ie you make probot at blueprints 2 and ADV probot at blueprints3 then maybe droideka at blueprints 4. ADV Droideka at master blueprints
2) get the certification system in place. Allow the number of droids a DE can control to go up along the customisation skill tree. 2 at customisation1, 3 at customisation 3, 4 at master. Give us a true incentive up the customisation tree.
3) Droid Permadeath. Give them a few charges like 5 or 10. After each charge give them wounds. The DE should be able to restore the charges and clear the wounds with the skillful use of LE Reapir. An LE Reapair in the hands of a non-DE can only heal dmgs.
4) Get the surgical bot working. Let it heal... i hate explaining to my customers about how my medical bot can only help medics to heal
5) Communication. I cant believe I have to teach you this SOE. Communication is the most important tool in any business. I certainly hope the recent out-rage by DE a good enough lesson for you. Listen to our correspondent