Droid Engineer Archive

Right now the idea of Combat Droids are in chaos, I understand the need to avoid introducing combat droids piece-meal without a good balanced system in place, it would create problems later on and it tends to be hard to remove somthing once it's in place and accepted by the community.

The system I propose would be adjustment friendly without causing major upheavals in the droid community. In addition it would provide an easily understandable system that droid engineers and their customers can rely on.

(1) Make Combat Modules seperate from other modules.

(2) You and the Droid Community decide which droid skins (chassis) can accept combat modules. Although other (non combat) modules can be placed in acombat droid chassis, it doesn't work in reverse. In this way you wont have C3PO battle bots or R2D2 terminators running around. Only the droids you want combat capable, will be.

(3) Each combat chassis is then assigned a range ofvalues. This value is the number of combat modules that can be fit inside. The level of the combat module issimply added. So a level 1 module counts as 1, a level 2 as 2 etc. all the way to6. A higher level more complex droid chassis would have a higher range of values. DO NOT GIVE THEM ABSOLUTE NUMBERS. A well made droid chassis using high end components would have a higher value within the range you set for that particular chassis. This would give the Droid Engineers more reason to experiment and work hard to create better droids. If the number is absolute then it takes away the whole spirit of crafting and striving for excellent workmanship.

(4) Introduce the following new modules (combat only) and give them levels 1 thru 6 as has been done before.

(a) Combat Droid Health Module

(b) Combat Droid Action Module

(c) Combat Droid Mind Module

(d) Combat Droid Armor Module

(e) Combat Droid Speed Module

(f) Combat Droid Armor Module

(g) Combat Droid Melee Attack Module

(h) Combat Droid Ranged Attack Module

(i) Combat Droid Self Destruct Module

(5) Now you simply set the range of values for each combat chassis, and put numbers on the above modules. You have to decide what the absolute high end could possibly be. A master droid engineer using the best materials possible and having the luckiest crafting day of his life could produce a level 6 ranged attack module that does x damage? Work the same figures for the high end of the rest of the modules, then work down to level 1. In this way you can keep a balance on thingsfrom getting out of hand.

***Now here is the beauty of this system. It is self limiting, no one will be able to have the best of everything. Each combat chassis has a finite number of combat modules that can be put inside. The higher the quality of the chassis the more that can be put inside but only to certain degree. Each chassis has a possible range of values that is determined by the quality of workmanship and the luck of the crafter. The higher the level the module the more slots it takes.

What this does do however is create amazing variability in droid choices. If someone wants a straight tank then they would strive to have made a droid with level 6 armor, and the highest level hams, but would probally have to go much lower on attack damage and speed. If someone needs a combat droid that dishes out alot of damage from range, then they would probally have to go lower on armor and hams.

What this system does is allows a Droid Engineer to truly custom make droids for people, and because the system is self limiting, it wont get out of hand and turn into a Mech Warrior game. It also gives Combat Droids a real role that is helpful, without being overpowering.

(6) Just imagine what this would do for not only the Droid Engineers, but for the entire SWG community in general. The system is utterly user friendly and would allow the developers to tweak a module here and there without revamping the entire droid community. If you ever needed to add a Droid Ability, just simply make a new module under the same system. This would be so easy to balance and add too.

I hope you give this some consideration.

Fastgun

This is an incredible idea.

Awesome. Simply awesome.

Weaponsmiths get to experiment on so many things. With this plan so would us DEs.

I like this a lot.

I think it would bring an entire new level of playability to the Droid Engineer, and the entire SWG community would benefit.

Fastgun

Good work Fastgun.

This system could also be used for other droid functions.

With the Hams being modules rather than set it will allow some variability in designs. This would create a nice self limiting balance. Sure you could have a droid with all level 6 Ham modules whatever they decide that max would be, but the limiting factor would be that the droid chassis can only hold a limited number of modules, and the higher the module the more space it takes. So the maxed out ham droid would end up being much lower on armor, damage, and speed.

This give and take would allow the Droid Engineer to literally custom design the perfect droids for different situations. Since the modules and chassis are not governed by some static number but instead are a possible range of numbers, this would bring back the joy of experimenting (for a reason) and good craftsmanship, and make those rare metals and resources desirable for the DE.

Everybody is happy. The resource hunters have new customers, the combat players can have you guys create some good droids for different situations they may encounter, and you guys get to make some real credits, just like the weaponsmiths.

Fastgun

Nice!

Great to see some people doing some critical thinking instead of people just being critical. Great ideas like this need to float to the top.

Excellent.

This would allow such versatility in creating combat droids.

It would prevent creation of uber droids, and at the same time differentiate combat droids according to their intended use.

I would also open a huge useful market for DE.

And could be expressed in one (or a few) simple calculations that would be easy to program and adjust if needed.

Im impressed, I like this idea

Kamayyk

Master Droid Engineer

Master Artisan

I have this posted on the Discussion Forum, hoping that it will catch Thunderheart's eye. If your on the Discussion Forum from time to time this weekend bump this post there, and we can hope that it will bear some fruit.

Fastgun