Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droid Deconstruction Device
(been busy trying to get me one of those black sun ace helmets... 1720 dead black sun pilots later an I still dont have it!!)
This device would effectively give Droid Engineers a reason to "buy back" old unwanted droids instead of them simply being dumped on a junk pile in Mos Eisley waiting to be stolen by Jawa's...
The ability for anyone to deconstruct droids would take a bite out of new droid sales. Personaly I'd rather see droids on the "junk pile" that being deconstructed, resold, traded, or given away, but maybe that's just me.
Trying to recall the resources and subcomponents (serial numbers)of a droid that was created say 12 months ago would probably create issues in whatever database that tracks thisinformation.
The more droids the Jawas steal, the better. Hey....now there's an idea....actually have Jawas run up to players and try run off with their droids. Players have to attack the Jawas to get them back, or risk losing them forever 
- Rebel Pilot 4/4/4/3can a CL 380 droid defend itself and can you double kill the jawa if it gets away?
Kassuff wrote:
This device would effectively give Droid Engineers a reason to "buy back" old unwanted droids instead of them simply being dumped on a junk pile in Mos Eisley waiting to be stolen by Jawa's...
The ability for anyone to deconstruct droids would take a bite out of new droid sales. Personaly I'd rather see droids on the "junk pile" that being deconstructed, resold, traded, or given away, but maybe that's just me.
Trying to recall the resources and subcomponents (serial numbers)of a droid that was created say 12 months ago would probably create issues in whatever database that tracks thisinformation.
The more droids the Jawas steal, the better. Hey....now there's an idea....actually have Jawas run up to players and try run off with their droids. Players have to attack the Jawas to get them back, or risk losing them forever
Anyway, those are my concerns with it...
Vampiric_Hoshi wrote:
You wouldn't need the ID codes of any of the old parts that went into a droid and whether it had 2 level 4 or 1 level 6 module is also irrelevant. The device would look at what modules the droid has and deposit a module equal to that value.. it won't generate the exact same thing that went in, it will just give you something back to that level. So in the case of a droid with 10 item storage, it would give you back a level 6 module.
Since im not a master DE yet i could get the device and make a bunch of Adv. MSE droids with a level 3 and level 4 storage module in it. run it thru the machine and get a level 6 storage module out of it for use in a new droid. cool...........not. 
this would lead to getting better parts without the skills to make the parts in the first place. you will have max module stat droids every where, and no MDE's any where.
Vampiric_Hoshi wrote:
Ok, to go other the issues you've had with it:
I don't see how "deconstructing" a droid to get back a part is better than simply deleting it. There are a LOT of people that request I take a droid off their hands when they purchase a new one from me and I personaly would like to have a reason to do so. This won't harm droid sales. Its unlikely it will affect sales at all.
Then what would be the actual benefit of such programming time, other then a 'Neat' factor? Production time is still a very precious resource that should not be wasted on something that would have little to no impact.
Unlimited resources? You clearly havent been a DE for very long. I've been a DE since the game's release and there is always a period where one of the many rare resources required for parts has vanished from the game and don't respawn for several months. There was a period on Starsider before christmas where Extrusive Ore didn't spawn for nearly 4 months. It would beexceptionaly handy if when such a time happens again, and it will, I had the ability to grind down a few old unwanted droids and get those rare resources back.
I think that you are under the misconception that you would gain anything other than Generic resources. Take a look at the Resource Recycling kits that were introduced recently. Any resources that were gained from recycling a droid would be generic versions of Metal, Chemical, and Ore. Extrusive Ore not showing up on your server is a byproduct of a shift table not functioning correctly.
When I was refering to Unlimited resources, I was refering to the fact that there isn't a set limit of what can be pulled out of the ground by everyone on the server. The only limiting factor with being able to pull resources is the amount of space that a harvester can be placed in the area.
You wouldn't need the ID codes of any of the old parts that went into a droid and whether it had 2 level 4 or 1 level 6 module is also irrelevant. The device would look at what modules the droid has and deposit a module equal to that value.. it won't generate the exact same thing that went in, it will just give you something back to that level. So in the case of a droid with 10 item storage, it would give you back a level 6 module.
Again, I think that your thinking on how simple this would be is flawed, once again. Modules should not be reclaimed, without the system being able to track exactly what each and every module was installed in the first place. There is too much room for someone to exploit such a proposed system. By what you are suggesting, a 0001 DE would be able to create Level 6 modules by recycling. It may not be as easy as picking up Master, but it could be done.
This isn't a "wow this will totaly improve the profession" idea and its not a "this is really gonna fix DE and make it what we want it to be" but it IS an addition that could denitely be a bonus and helps to go along with the new idea devs are attempting to implement for re-using old things. Why delete something that someone spent time making when it can atleast reduce the amount of time and money it takes you to make the next droid? Would you not rather have the ability to deconstruct an old unwantedR3 and getback its Chasis to make the next R3 instead of having to waste time and components to produce ANOTHER chasis... seems a little silly to me.
I can't count the number of times I've sold a droid to someone and they simply destroy one of their existing droids because they no longer want it and don't have space for the new one and think to myself... "well that was a waste"
Being able to reclaim an Advanced Chassis would be a useful ablitity, however once again it goes back to unlimited resources. With the exception of BLLs and Protocol Droids, all of the resources that go into chassis building can be easily harvested, or bought.
We've all said we want the ability to swap modules in droids without having to rebuild them and the devs have said every time "no". We arnt gonna get that... this is the next best thing.
One of the biggests flaws with the concept is that it would become even less useful when Droid Decay was introduced. Droid Decay would make it so that it was un-necessary to Deconstruct a droid. With Droid Decay, a person would use the droid, until its life time was expended, and then would buy a new droid. The only consulation that I could see to reclaiming anything from a used droid would be a Jawa mini game, where the Jawa's would buy used droids and offer credits of loot items that could be installed in a new droid, such as a power regulator or improved armor components.
Vampiric_Hoshi wrote:
Ok, to go other the issues you've had with it:
Unlimited resources? You clearly havent been a DE for very long. I've been a DE since the game's release and there is always a period where one of the many rare resources required for parts has vanished from the game and don't respawn for several months. There was a period on Starsider before christmas where Extrusive Ore didn't spawn for nearly 4 months. It would beexceptionaly handy if when such a time happens again, and it will, I had the ability to grind down a few old unwanted droids and get those rare resources back.
You wouldn't need the ID codes of any of the old parts that went into a droid and whether it had 2 level 4 or 1 level 6 module is also irrelevant. The device would look at what modules the droid has and deposit a module equal to that value.. it won't generate the exact same thing that went in, it will just give you something back to that level. So in the case of a droid with 10 item storage, it would give you back a level 6 module.
You WOULD need the ID codes. That's the problem. When a droid is made, it has no "memory" of what components and what resources went into making the droid. It is simply given a rating that, while determined by the modules that went into making the droid, is not directly linked to those modules. Let's say I build one droid using 900OQ liquid petro fuel and another using 900OQ Fiberplast. These two droids will have the same HAM values (assuming identical or no experimentation). However, the droid has no "memory" of which substance was used to make it. The OQ ratings on the resources are simply used to calculate HAM on the droid and the "forgotten." The device you are suggesting be made would have no ability to "look at what modules the droid has and deposit a module equal to that value" since there's nothing in the droid's code to tell your deconstructer what to use.
It might be "doable" with modules. Devs could assign generic ID codes to a number of modules and have those always produced, much like the current resource recyclers do. But as for "retrieving" a rare named resource following a build: Forget it. Ain't gonna happen. The best you could hope for is getting the generic resources that the current recyclers produce, which all have poor stats to begin with.
Not a horrible idea, but probably not worth the coding time it would take to implement.
Omab