Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: How to balance the addition of Battle Droid Chassis
Page 1 of 1
Talmor1
Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:47 am
#1
Introducing Battle Droids into the game:
Pro: A LOT of people would love it. They would be cool to own and they were awesome to watch in Episode I and II.
Con: They are banned in the GCW era.
Well, some would argue that Jedis are running around rampant in the game (breaking the storyline and era that we are playing in) So why don't we go a bit further and include Battle Droids (e.g. Droid Dekas, Battle Droids, etc.)
Solution to problem: People who own them and people who sell them could be hunted by NPC Imperials/Bounty Huntersas someone who has an illegal item/distributor. If a vendor has a "Battle Droid" on them, periodically, a SWAT squad of Imperials would appear around the house and the player would have a TEF against them when he/she gets in sight. This would require Droid Engineers to hire Body Guards (PC players) to help clear out these players. The same could go for players who sell Sliced Armor/Weapons. Also, people who own them would create the same problems as a sliced weapon/armor on them. (One could argue that this would really hurt sales, because you would have to hire body guards, however these will be highly sought after commodities and one would expect good compensation for the creation of these.) Perhaps once a week or once a month there would be a "raid" on your vendor and you would get an e-mail stating that there is a raid in place. That way you can prepare for it.
What do you guys think? It would add some Missions for combat characters that are not game driven, but PC driven and could bring some good interactions between crafters/fighters.
Maybe a DE selling illegal droids / Smuggler slicing items / WS or AS selling illegally sliced weaponswould appear on the BH mission terminals?
Just some ideas that were bouncing around in my head, what do you think?
RaidenIV
Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:01 pm
#2
I think being raided and attacked is a bit much.
Maybe if these were ever added, crackdown troops would search for these too, with a good chance of them finding it. Hard to hide a droid.
Talmor1
Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:03 pm
#3
Hrmm... was just thinking of a way to introduce some PC driven missions for the Combat Professions, but I think you are right. Might be a bit too extreme.
Jenden
Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:05 pm
#4
The biggest problem with it I see is that it still falls under the "free checkers" analogy. If people are allowed to use combat droids that are much more powerful than they are now, then the environment must be scaled up appropriately to take that into account. Now that the environment is tougher to account for the droids, a player must have the droid in order to be competative. So now, a pistoleer that had no intention of becoming a pet handler is required to use a pet in order to use all of their "skills". The imperial crackdown has already shown that a little combat won't scare anyone away from better items, and you can't actually take the items away from players (makes for very bad customer relations for SOE) so the idea of raids isn't going to make most people think twice about carrying these illegal droids.
If you can figure out a way to solve this dilemma, then you might have something. But the devs have stated before that the only way people will get stronger combat droids is if they spend more skillpoints to get them (such as a droid handler profession).
If you can figure out a way to solve this dilemma, then you might have something. But the devs have stated before that the only way people will get stronger combat droids is if they spend more skillpoints to get them (such as a droid handler profession).
RasalTheWise
Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:28 pm
#5
Well, a happy medium might be to simply incorporate the "slicing" of current combat droids, done by either a smuggler or a DE. They would be more powerful (albeit not Droideka-class) and would grab the attention of the now-tougher Imp Crackdown troops if you used it. This wouldn't be a huge change in code, and could be incorporated into the CU upgrade.
Crustyfur
Tue Feb 01, 2005 3:51 am
#6
Jenden wrote:
If you can figure out a way to solve this dilemma, then you might have something. But the devs have stated before that the only way people will get stronger combat droids is if they spend more skillpoints to get them (such as a droid handler profession).
Do you mean in the same way a only a Bounty Hunter can use the Bomb Droids?
Drashk
Tue Feb 01, 2005 10:11 am
#7
Crustyfur wrote:
Do you mean in the same way a only a Bounty Hunter can use the Bomb Droids?
Detonation modules were made specificly for Bounty Hunters and Smugglers. If higher end combat droids are to be added, they too must have a specific target user.
The old arguement of 'Well droids should be usable by anyone!' only holds up in a Star Wars 'real world' arguement. SWG is a game based upon checks and balances. As Jenden stated, if everyone was given the ability to use higher end droids, then the bar would need to be raised to accomidate. The CU will be geared towards bringing much of what we see as being out of balance with combat back into scope. Adding higher end combat droids for everyone to use, after the CU, would be equavilent to fixing the problem and then creating the problem all over again.
Our best hope for higher end combat droids comes in three forms......
- The Droid Commander profession - This option would allow for the widest range of droid levels and would ensure that the Droid Engineer profession was given a lot of production time, in order to give the Droid Commander profession a wide variety of droids. I envision DC to be a profession that would be a combonation of Creature Handlers, Pilots, and an Artisan profession. CHs due to the similarities in the ability to control more then one droid at a time and have an increased storage capacity. Pilots due to the ability to create specialized programs that increase the droids range of abilities. And Artisan due to the ability to craft items such as Droid Powerups, restraining bolts so that non-DCs can use lower level versions of the higher end combat droids.
- Cert System - The concept has been brought down in the past by the DEV team; however with many of the design changes lately, there still may be hope for a Droid Cert system, if one can be proposed that includes XP and Skill point use and has other restrictions in place.
- GCW - Higher end combat droids would fit in nicely with possible changes to the GCW. Giving higher ranked GCW members the ability to control higher end combat droids, while Overt andthat are craftable to DEs, would not only give the GCW and rank more weight, but it would also give DEs an extended market.
Just my two credits on the matter.....
Talmor1
Tue Feb 01, 2005 10:36 am
#9
*sighs* why can't my insight and knowledge be as expansive as Drashk. Anyways, thanks for your insight and for the most part, it looks to me more well thought out than my arguement. Just was hoping to throw a couple fresh ideas, even if they weren't necessarily popular.
Jenden
Tue Feb 01, 2005 4:33 pm
#10
Talmor1 wrote:*sighs* why can't my insight and knowledge be as expansive as Drashk. Anyways, thanks for your insight and for the most part, it looks to me more well thought out than my arguement. Just was hoping to throw a couple fresh ideas, even if they weren't necessarily popular.
Its always good to get your ideas out there, just gotta remember that a lot of them may have been gone over at one point or another. Now, that being said, if you never try to bring what you think is new stuff up, then nothing new will ever discussed.
Page 1 of 1