Droid Engineer Archive

I just started in the DE profession, and I have to say, if I had known how screwed up it was I probably would never have gone this way. It's one of the more xp intensive professions, so I figured it would be one of the cooler ones. Like with more interesting powers and stuff. I was SOOOOO wrong. But, even after a day of running around, tending to my harvesters, and pounding out MSE after MSE, I'm not completely demoralized yet.

Anywho my two cents, I'm sure alot of it is repeats.

Combat Droids
If you are a DE, that means you probably spend more time crafting than fighting, which makes you weak in comparison to combat professions. As it should be, as roleplay wise, you're a craftsman, not a fighter. However! The investment in crafting should result in the ability to build something that can actually kill something.

The devs asked "what kind of droids?" Just model the system after that of the combat droids in the prequels. I suggest the following:

- The basic walkingtalking combat droid from Ep 1 and 2.
- It should be very cheap to build and require nothing rare.
- Slot for a blaster.You can put in anyregularblaster you want.
-Slot for armor.
- Slot for intelligence. This slot determines the droid's weapon accuracy.
- It's very weak (1000-2000 HAM).
-Any profession can master this type.

- The tougher walking combat droid from Ep 2.
- It should bemoderately expensiveto build and require nothing rare.
- Slot for personal defense shield.This should be a component.
- Slot forbuilt in blaster. The blaster should be a component.
- Slot for armor.
-Slot for intelligence.
- It should be reasonably tough (3000-4500 HAM).
- Only elite professions can control this type.

- The holy grail of combat droids, Droidakars.
- It should be expensive to build andrequire rare metals.
- Slot for personal defense shield (probably needs 2 slots, it's big).
- Slots for built in blasters.
-Slots for armor.
-Slot for intelligence.
- It should be very tough (8000+ HAM).
-It should have knockdown shot. Yes this makes it supreme, but haveyou seen some CH pets???
-Cannot be built in a factory.
-OnlyDE'scan control this type.

As for the number of droids on-call that a DE can have... I think it should be a point-based pool. Say you are limited to a pool of 10 points total, and you cannot control more than five actual droids at once. Basic droids count as one, mid-grade droids count as two, and high-end droids count as four. So you could have five basic units, or three mids and two basic, or two droidakars and a mid. Or one droidakar, two mids, and two basics. And etc. I don't think that the limit should increase with skilllevels- a lower level DE won't be able to build tougher droids anyways.

I think that you should not be able to command both pets and combat droids at the same time, also. They just don't mix. It's also important that only DE's be able to command droidakars- let's keep them rare, like our profession. It also might make it somewhat attractive to have a DE in a combat party.


General Purpose Droids
What are droids intended for? To do the menial labor that nobody wants to do, like program harvesters. Obviously the various modules already in the game need to be made to work. Also I believe the currently for-show protocol droid should be made useful. Add a vendor module and a harvester-management module. The vendor module is self-explanatory. The harvester management module allows you to remotely manage ALL functions of a harvester. Just make it so when you activate the module, the droid becomes a proxy for the actual harvester. This idea would work for a factory management module also...

When starships are implemented, a repair droid should be mandatory equipment. You never know when the hyperdrive motivator is going to break


Final Thoughts
Droids should have permadeath, butplayers should be able to salvage droid remains, and DEs should be able to repair remains (or perhaps turn remains into resources). This would make it more attractive for others to purchase droids, knowing that they could have them fixed if necessary.

You could add "droid workroom" as an architect built structure, increasing inter-profession dependance. You could then make it so that droidakars and protocol droids could only be built in such workrooms.

Hmm... whatelse. Repair droids should be able to fix other droids. Have factions offer improved droid modules, ie. Rebel droids can be better healers, Imp droids have better combat skills or better armor.

Anywho, these are just my thoughts. I'm trying to be as constructive as possible with them. I hope that the developers at SOE will consider them! I welcome all feedback and comments.

- aka Sadaharu -