Droid Engineer Archive

Message Edited by Straker_Atrella on 08-02-2005 01:12 PM

/agree

I miss the days of experinmenint on droid chassis on final combine. I liked trying to beat my own personal best max ham on probots.

As a newer DE I guess I would be part of the target audience for this post. I'm all for having experimentation matterand having a maxed combat droid take more than a single combat module and a couple armor modules installed, but have we ever heard that droid crafting isn't working as intended? I don't think I've caught any officially confirmed communique to that effect in the couple of months I've been lurking this board. It's totally possible I just missed it though.

I think the devs need to be proactive and *gasp* post some info one way or another (ie:lack ofexperimentation is a bug or isn't a bug) and then announce (to DE's andthen thegeneral player base)the bug fix/mechanics change prior to implementation in live if they want tominimize cries ofnerf.

I can also seealot DEs with PO'd customers screaming at them when their 75K creditcombat droidthat could solo a couple of CL20-25 mobsthe night before can't take out a single CL10 if this process goes like the majority of past SWG fixes/changes I have experienced seemed to.

Thx for the input, I agree 100%, I recently asked Jenden to try and get clarification of if the armor and Combat system is bugged or not.

I don't think customers are really that big of a problem. In todays world of million credit weapons and armor, to most people 75k isn't much. Most people I know totally understand that the DE profession is broken and want it fixed.

I'm not against if the currently made droids stayed level 30 for example though.

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SidNitz wrote:

As a newer DE I guess I would be part of the target audience for this post. I'm all for having experimentation matterand having a maxed combat droid take more than a single combat module and a couple armor modules installed, but have we ever heard that droid crafting isn't working as intended? I don't think I've caught any officially confirmed communique to that effect in the couple of months I've been lurking this board. It's totally possible I just missed it though.

I think the devs need to be proactive and *gasp* post some info one way or another (ie:lack ofexperimentation is a bug or isn't a bug) and then announce (to DE's andthen thegeneral player base)the bug fix/mechanics change prior to implementation in live if they want tominimize cries ofnerf.

I can also seealot DEs with PO'd customers screaming at them when their 75K creditcombat droidthat could solo a couple of CL20-25 mobsthe night before can't take out a single CL10 if this process goes like the majority of past SWG fixes/changes I have experienced seemed to.

Just my thoughts on the subject, FWIW...

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Droid Engineer:

• Droids crafted without either a combat module or armor module are level 1. (Working as described)
  
• Droids with either combat or armor modules will now increase the level in 5 unit increments up to a maximum of 30.
  
• Crafting a droid with combat modules will increase min damage, max damage, to-hit, and give the droid the ability to attack your current target. Combat modules will also add a bit of armor.
  
• Crafting a droid with armor modules will increase its general protection armor value at a greater rate than combat modules, and will also increase the droid's defense value. Armor modules will not affect the droid's to-Hit or min and max damage attributes.
  
• Players with older droid deeds and pcd's will be fixed retroactively. (This worked too)

At the moment 1 combat module and 1 armor module gives you level 30. I would guess that the 2nd description could mean that a single armor of a specific level will give youa set value:

Level 1 - Level 5 , Level 2 - Level 10 , Level 3 - Level 15, Level 4 - Level 20 , Level 5 - Level 25 , Level 6 - Level 30

Now, regardless of how many combat modules you have in a droid the result is the same. Kinda makes the 3rd description slightly wrong as damage doesn't change.

Item 4 initially works but then it looks like some other code kicks in when you store the droid which then validates the armor effectiveness and corrects it. However, I can't recall where the armor min max values were taken from as they are not listed here. So maybe what we have now is correct (compared to other pets anyway).

So, even if we give the devs benefit of a doubt that most of what we have is now standard, we can't ignore the fact that the Combat Rating no longer has any affect on the end result. Which by their own description should.

Very pro-active post, but at the rate Devs "fix" anything, it might well be July 2031 before we see any changes that major.

I am also a new DE, butcompletely agree on putting experimentation and resource quality back in the equasion. For example, one would expect combat modules to increase a droids defensive/offensive capabilities with algorithms to dodge bullets/aim better/etc. The quality of the resources/experimentation used by a DE should be the main influence in a droids overall structural strength (health).

I built my first combat droid yesterday, and you can imagine my extreme disappointment when I realized that my freshly-harvested 995 OQ chemicals had no bearings whatsoever on the droids overall health.

From my first glimpses into the DE profession, it seems like there are so many opportunities to make DE incredible amounts better. And the devs seem to forego all of them

I like the new system. It fits the concept of a droid for everyone. Being more flexible in the configurations I think help the profession. You can max out a DZ70 now with one combat mod and one lvl 6 armour and still have one slot left over for whatever. You can make a CL 30 droid like that, and keep the price low or load up an R3 with a bunch of other modules to help out specific professions. If all the modules were working as intended you could tailor make a droid for scouts with trapping modules, a medic with a medical module and maybe a bunch of stim modules. A total battle bot with all auto repairs, etc., etc., etc., Maybe there will be a larger market with the way it works now.

If it is broken who knows how long it will take to fix it. I would like to see HAM working out a bit more along the lines of better resources creating more "HP's", but I can live with the way it is now.

And really these are only max CL 30 droids. If 80 is max they are still less than half as effective. Its not like they are game breakers or anything.

With the CL all I meant was if the max CL in the game is 80 (character) then 30 for the droid isnt that overpowering.

I understand where you are coming from. But I like the look and feel of these "unique" combat droids. A scout might actually use a droid now that he can get combat and still combine modules that allow him to throw traps. I can see him actually purchasing more than one combatdroid too, one with combat and 5 trap modules and one with combat and healing, or heck if he wants a good distraction one with combat and all auto repair.

Its not this system or the last system that have created the problem of "never decaying droids" that was always here. At least this way, the new characters might be able to get a straight combat droid for less (DZ70), discover there is actually a use for droids and after they "tweak" their character, come back for a little more diversity.

Im all for the chassis' having extra abilities. But in a way the Probot is still better combat than the R3 if it is now the only ranged droid, and it fires faster. You still can produce a better combat droid with a Probot than an R3, its just that the R3 has that extra module for any add on abilities. It just feels with this system, I can actually have more variety on my vendor instead of the LE with one combat and two auto repair, the Probot fully tricked out with combat modules or the R3 fully tricked out with combat modules.

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Squygxicus wrote:

With the CL all I meant was if the max CL in the game is 80 (character) then 30 for the droid isnt that overpowering.

I understand where you are coming from. But I like the look and feel of these "unique" combat droids. A scout might actually use a droid now that he can get combat and still combine modules that allow him to throw traps. I can see him actually purchasing more than one combatdroid too, one with combat and 5 trap modules and one with combat and healing, or heck if he wants a good distraction one with combat and all auto repair.

Its not this system or the last system that have created the problem of "never decaying droids" that was always here. At least this way, the new characters might be able to get a straight combat droid for less (DZ70), discover there is actually a use for droids and after they "tweak" their character, come back for a little more diversity.

Im all for the chassis' having extra abilities. But in a way the Probot is still better combat than the R3 if it is now the only ranged droid, and it fires faster. You still can produce a better combat droid with a Probot than an R3, its just that the R3 has that extra module for any add on abilities. It just feels with this system, I can actually have more variety on my vendor instead of the LE with one combat and two auto repair, the Probot fully tricked out with combat modules or the R3 fully tricked out with combat modules.

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I agree with you, it gives us the freedom to truly customize a single droid to our customers liking. I believe part of the problem is the Level or the Armor plates, if the devs got rid of each level we could then experiment on them to make the droid a better defender or make him a higher CL.

As for the droid not decaying,it used to be only combat droids decay. Well now we can add crafting stations and still have the droid a effective gaurd while out at your factory. Now you crafting droid can decay, or you Medical helper droid, cause you have him follow you around in the wild to check up on you factories for protection.

Sure someone only needs one all in one droid, but with each incapp the droid (is supposed) to be less effective. Sending the people back to us to buy another droid (albeit very slowly, infact we probably already have moved on).

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