Ranger Archive
Thread: A rookie Hunter wants to know if resource harvesting droids are worth it?
Fred_Skinner
Mon Aug 09, 2004 7:30 am
#14
I was lucky enough to find a DE that made modules that summed to 119% harvest for the 6 slots you get in an R3. In my case I use it for "production hunting", which usually means when alone but not in groups. Maintainance has never been an issue and droids are pretty low overhead (unless you use the customization tool all the time).
However, your mileage may vary.
Jolandir
Mon Aug 09, 2004 6:55 pm
#15
I have recently tried the harvesting droids and there a kick, but you need a droid that harvests 100+ to truly get any benefit from owning a droid for this purpose. I originally bought the droid to harvest in the middle of extremely dangerous aggro creatures that I kept finding myself surrounded by. Did a great job of letting me watch the aggros while the droid harvested, and it is a little touch of SWness for Rangers without loosing the Ranger feel. But again if the Droid doesn't have those stats it will not be able to harvest as much as you can, which kind of destorys the purpose of having a droid to help harvest.
He is also great in the midst of a heated battle of dangerous creatures. While I and my pet are fighting I can send him in to the latest kill and harvest while we continue.
Jolandir
DaveG
Tue Aug 10, 2004 1:07 am
#16
frightwig wrote:
Ack!
It's the bi-monthly (or is it weekly now) harvesting droid debate.
To sum up:
* There are those who hate them (melee fighters)
* There are those that love them (riflemen)
* Those that hate them are very vocal and are strangely bothered by others who like using them and will make long posts to convince you why you shouldn't use them.
* Never group your droid
* No maintenance required - just buy batteries (any 1/0/0/0 artisan can make them) and recharge when necessary
* Never get a droid with less than 100 rating..
* It's probably not worth the money unless it's at least 110.
* Yes, it stacks with Vegash
My take.. I like them (rifleman), and they're useful on adventure planets when you're trying to harvest a lair and don't feel like fighting off the klikniks or nightsisters standing over your kills. Send in the droid while you stand back at 64m. That's about the simplest and best reason to use them, and I pull out my droid at every similar situation.
I became a master ranger yeseterday and my +96 droid still harvests more than I do.
Owen-Lars
Tue Aug 10, 2004 3:45 am
#17
Yeah but why waste your armour and build up battle fatigue unnecessarily?
Im not saying run in all the time. Just if things go bad and you need to take a few hits, nothing will kill you. Its much faster to just kill em all one after another using the one target shot (riflemen can snipe 1 target out of a group with no social) camo/mask or prone. Then after they are dead charge in, spam your macro on every corpse you can see. Its even faster than pressing your macro for your harvest droid to run in.
"If you are shooting atlong range though (and if you're a MRM why wouldn't you?), you are also going to waste time running backwards and forwards, between harvesting range and sniping rage. The droid can do the running while you do the shooting."
Again im only talking about running in once; at the end when all the creatures are dead. The droids are slow and frustrating in turn around speeds. Instead of spending 15 seconds calling the droid and 2 seconds a time telling it to harvest for you, simply use that time to /mask /kneel/prone /kill /kill /kill /kill then run in and spam harvest macro.
Ive been testing both methods alot and not using a droid ends up being much more time efficient resulting in greater overall harvests. Thats why i say droids are........ PANTS.
By all means try these out, if the droiddoesnt slow you down then you'll know there is room to improve in your hunting techniques and equipment portfolio, however if it does, you will know your perfecting your 'art' and becoming a better hunter.
Me and a few friends find that using the droid as a training tool works pretty well. You set out and use your droid for an hour harvesting and killing away. Then you set out on your own. You aim to beet the droid and once you get your tech down, youll find all the droid does is train you up and slow you down.
Owen-Lars
Tue Aug 10, 2004 3:49 am
#18
Supose its just how you hunt, i find all they do is slow me down, perhaps some others are slower hunters or dont power hunt im not sure. But yeah its all personal opinion. I dont hate em, just dont think they are worth the fuss for me (rifleman)
Almagill
Tue Aug 10, 2004 4:06 am
#19
Owen-Lars wrote:Supose its just how you hunt, i find all they do is slow me down, perhaps some others are slower hunters or dont power hunt im not sure. But yeah its all personal opinion. I dont hate em, just dont think they are worth the fuss for me (rifleman)
Yup, it all boils down to Stock Answer 3e "Well, it all depends how you like to play it". Sometimes I use my droid, he's called Arfur 'cos he was an R4 unit, because am working a prey taht's going to take a while to drop and I'll still be slugging it out with its nest buddies when the corpse is set to pop.
Other times I could see the little bleeder far enough, when am hitting fast kills with the pistol and pretty much everything is fallin, in waves, within 20m.
Other days I'll drop out a pet and Arfur and let them do the hard work. I just pop at the target to annoy it, they kill it and harvest.
Ellisia
Tue Aug 10, 2004 4:12 am
#20
Bought a 90 Harvest Pro Botand have never looked back, Im a rifleman and breaking cover is a pain so I just send the droid in. Its got the same rating as me now so I dont lose out on any resources. Definately worth the money I paid for it.
I can understand why Melee charactors find them useless though, if your already there when they die, its easier than sending the droid in, but I take a long time in my kills using concealed shot (I hunt alone mostly, with a pet to cover my butt) so I usually dont have to wait for the droid to finish harvesting before I have another corpse for it.
DaveG
Tue Aug 10, 2004 4:23 am
#21
Owen-Lars wrote:
Supose its just how you hunt, i find all they do is slow me down, perhaps some others are slower hunters or dont power hunt im not sure. But yeah its all personal opinion. I dont hate em, just dont think they are worth the fuss for me (rifleman)
I'm settled with using my droid now. I get more harvest with it (even more stacked with veghash), and for me harvest is money as I usually do bulk orders. I've developed a technique, recently refined from advice in this thread, so that apart from the 15 call before I start, I don't loose any time.
I set the R3 following the creature I'm going to shoot, then there's no travelling for it to do when it's time to harvest. Then I tell it to go follow the next target, so by the time I've shot it it's already at the corpse to harvest again. Barely slows me down, and for what little bit it does slow me down, it's worth it because of the extra harvest I get.
JascoSmlee
Tue Aug 10, 2004 4:27 am
#22
Recently I was hunting avian on Naboo. I could take out whole (kaadu) lairssolo extremely quickly using my rifle (aoe attack), but I just thought that was boring. What I did has hunt while mounted. I would send inmy pet cowardly gurreck, then just autoattack whatever he was biting while still perched on my pet kaadu, then I'd send my droid in to harvest. Yes, it took longer - but it was a ton more fun 
Owen-Lars
Tue Aug 10, 2004 4:31 am
#23
Yeah thats the times i use my droid, when i want to make it more fun, when im in a large group or perhaps leveling up some noob mates.
DaveG
Tue Aug 10, 2004 4:43 am
#24
JascoSmlee wrote:
Recently I was hunting avian on Naboo. I could take out whole (kaadu) lairssolo extremely quickly using my rifle (aoe attack), but I just thought that was boring. What I did has hunt while mounted. I would send inmy pet cowardly gurreck, then just autoattack whatever he was biting while still perched on my pet kaadu, then I'd send my droid in to harvest. Yes, it took longer - but it was a ton more fun
Hi Jasco,
You rode your Kaadu while killing Kaadu's?
Your kaadu is gonna be one messed up creature
Cohen001
Tue Aug 10, 2004 4:45 am
#25
WORD of caution.
DROIDS DO NOT LIKE LAG!
Ive bug reported the fact that if u have any lag that causes the critter to fall dead 2-3 seconds after it dosnt have any ham left your droid will not function properly. It will run over to the corpse, it will harvest the corpse but you will NOT get any resouces in your inv/droid or even an onscreen pop up. So beware, and the csr are a complete waste of time as they cant read, and im fairly sure they dont even play this game.
JascoSmlee
Tue Aug 10, 2004 4:52 am
#26
Hehe yeah, I know I'm cruel 
DaveG wrote:
Hi Jasco,
You rode your Kaadu while killing Kaadu's?
Your kaadu is gonna be one messed up creature