Ranger Archive
Thread: Harvesting Droid Bonus Confirmed
Me: 18
Droid: 19
me (with veghash): 24
droid: 25
me (with veghash): 127
Droid: 133
Two final notes:
Iseult Master Ranger / Mediocre Pistoleer Bloodfin
Harvest Module Test Results
Okay. I've done extensive testing of the Harvest Module and have come up with several observations that I'm going to share here.
First of all, the module does work. More or less as advertised. You have a droid with a harvest module and you have at least novice scout, you can send it off to harvest things while you keep killing more. And if it doesn't have an inventory of its own (storage module), it just dumps the resource into your own inventory. The droid does NOT automatically harvest, it follows your command to harvest, so as soemthing falls (becomes a corpse), you have to tell the droid 'Harvest' (or whatever you have it programmed as) and wait for it to start moving before you can change target. Or get your next attack started and then select the corpse and tell it to go.
As for the thought of these droids being bonuses to your own skill - this is where it gets confusing. I'll do my best to explain what I have observed.
First and foremost, this is not a straight up bonus like Veghash is. It is much more subtle than that. A +27 veghash will increase ANY person's harvest rate. A +27 droid will only increase, say, a Novice Scout's rate. Here are some numbers to help illustrate that.
Using Gurk Trackers to sample and a player with +45 Creature Harvest, we get 79 units of meat. With +27 veghash, that's pushed up to 89u. A +31 droid only increases it from 79 to 80. And a +16 actually DROPS it to 77. A Ranger coming in at +90 (not master, that'd be +100) harvests 97u. With the same veghash, that's pushed up to 115u. With a +31 droid, they FALL to 94u. And with the +16, their take is a pitiful 91u.
So, we've proven that the +XX droid does not have the same type of effect as +XX veghash. So how DOES it work? Well, it's a relationship of your skill to the droid's bonus. It seems like the 'break even point' is where the droid has 70% your skill, though to verify that I need the +90 ranger to use a +63ish droid. Anything above that point can bring in larger returns. Sort of. Here are two examples:
The +45 harvesting scout can bring in 79u. 91u with the +105 droid. 89u with Veghash. And 104u with Veghash AND droid. That means the 105 droid is a 15% gain over the player harvesting for himself. That's slightly better than the 13% boost the player gets from using the veghash. But the player on veghash sees an additional 17% boost using the droid, which means a total boost from no-veghash, no-droid of roughly 32%. Not insignificant.
Now, let's look at the +90 player, who brings in 97u without any help. 109u with the +105 droid. 115 with the +27 Veghash. And 122 with both Veghash AND droid. This player only sees a 12% boost using the droid, but a 19% boost using the veghash. And only a 6% gain using the droid on top of the veghash for a total boost from no help of 26%.
So, as you go up in skill, the bonus a droid can provide decreases. Furthermore, if your droid is too far below you in 'skill', it will actually hinder you. And the higher your own skill, the more outstanding the droid has to be to show any real gain for you.
Finally, it should be noted that droids with harvest modules act as the player when it comes to harvesting. The droid can harvest or you can harvest. Not both. And if you are grouped with another player, you take a 40% hit to your harvest rate, which the droid will then boost. The droid is not immune to grouping 40% penalty - it's only immune to getting hit with the penalty when it's grouped with you.
The big advantage to droids, really, is the ability to be harvesting WHILE you're fighting. In large groups, there's invariably someone who runs around harvesting while everyone else is fighting, which means that by the time everyone else is out of the combat, corpses are starting to disappear. With this droid module, everyone can harvest right away, fight or no fight, eliminating all the yelling at impatient players who harvest right away no matter how many times they're yell...reminded.
-V
Veldcath wrote:
So, as you go up in skill, the bonus a droid can provide decreases. Furthermore, if your droid is too far below you in 'skill', it will actually hinder you. And the higher your own skill, the more outstanding the droid has to be to show any real gain for you.
Great post, thanks for doing the tests.
So, on the quoted section above it seems therefore that droids threatenMaster Rangers the most and hey-nonny-nonny if we choose to actually use one we get the least additional benefit..? Unless of course we purchase the Aston Martin of R2 units..?
Humph...
Well, it's not THAT much of a threat. At least, I don't think so. Without the droid, I (+45)pulled 79. With it, 91. That's still less than the +90 Ranger got at 97. And when he used it, that went up to 109. So the +90 (not a master) can still out-harvest me+droid with just himself. And if he uses a droid too, he can further outstrip me.
What this DOES do, though, is start a Harvesting Arms-Race. Pretty much everyone will want +100 or better droids, which require the Advanced R3 chassis loaded up with +16 or better (cap seems to be +20) harvesting modules. Now we all get to try to keep up with the Jonses too, like all the elite combat classes trying to buy the best sliced weapons and amor.
-V
..or alternativly I can completly ignore it and retain my near self-suffeciency, Hmm, I wonder what I will do
Veldcath wrote:
Now we all get to try to keep up with the Jonses too
All true.
Anyway I wasnt knocking your post, I'm very grateful that you did the tests as now I, well to put it simply, dont have to...! ...and indeed have decided that I think I will give droids a wide berth.
You have reminded me about camps, I dont know when I even made my last one, its a while back I know that much.
Veldcath wrote:
Or you can ignore it, yep. Besides, you, without a crutch, still out-harvest a 4040 scout with close to the best crutch available. I have to use TWO crutches to beat you (kickin' droid AND veghash).
Kiryoku wrote:
and although you may not see it, this is exactly what the rangers were fearing... the fact that you can use something (veghash and a droid) to actually beat a ranger at harvesting means that you have the same result as them without the skill point cost... granted it may be a hassle, consuming more time and money than actually being a ranger, but i don't think anything is as valuable as all of those skillpoints you saved... as far as i know, no other profession has this concern...
Veldcath wrote:
If that 6000 is true, thatmeans anyone can be better than a Novice CH now. A CL 18 combat droid hasbetter resists thanmy CL 25 BE Merek and the close to the same HAM and better resists than my nautral Shaupaut Hunters.
Kiryoku wrote:
Veldcath wrote:
If that 6000 is true, thatmeans anyone can be better than a Novice CH now. A CL 18 combat droid hasbetter resists thanmy CL 25 BE Merek and the close to the same HAM and better resists than my nautral Shaupaut Hunters.
heh, excellent point...i was being short-sighted... it's not just rangers getting hit in the skillpoints...
all of the natural professions (scout, ranger, CH, BE) have been in need of an overhaul for a while now, hopefullynowthey can get to that...even BE needs a lot of work, and they just got "fixed" a few months ago...
Hi - thanks for posting this - now the results I was seeing last night make a little more sense.
This does seem a little backward -- our greater skill point investment actually penalizes us when it comes to getting bonuses from these droids.
Iseult
Master Ranger / Mediocre Pistoleer
Bloodfin