Ranger Archive
Thread: HArvester Droids...Darn the little buggers.
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MrSclod
Mon Jun 28, 2004 11:03 pm
#1
Well after much hesitation..I finally gave in and purchased a Harvesting Droid.It was a pretty well built droid R3with a great deal of Harvesting modules and a Trapping Module.
I noticed that after using Vegash it always seem to laugh at me as it managed to harvest at least 1-3 units more then what my nimble hands could manage.So overall I'll openly admit they are useful.
#1 -You can have it harvest a creature you just wasted even if your taking on his buddies or family at the local lair without waiting until you finished them all saving a stressful situation of playing Hide-N-Seek with their corpses.
#2- You can sit back and have a glass of Vasarian brandy while you waste away creatures while you plug away with your rifle or other long range weapon while your loyal droid does the skinning.
#3- Creatures dont agro on your droid when you think its safe to go and get your reward..even thoughour camo works like perfection and they seem to notice us just as we close in to collect,starting a reason yet again why #1 is so good.
#4 You can tell it to launch one with out fumbling around with the mouse while you try and locate that trap of your choice.
#5- You have a droid to tag-along which adds to the immersion effect and really makes you say to yourself..now this is Star Wars
But I do have one complaint .I used to have a Cargo pocket that I renamed "Trap Pouch" and it used to be filled with handy little traps that I could throw at a moments notice.Now because I have chosen to use a easier way of getting by in our daily duties of harvesting I can no longer throw the traps while they are inside the pouch,instead they must be individually taken out and placed into my inventory which must be opened during a hunt and thrown.A small bit to pay but something I'd like to share with my fellow ranger friends.
So if any other rangers out there have had or has something setup like this...Beware!
These little buggers will force into the new ways even more and will make sure to make the old ones rendered useless
Calculus_Entropy
Tue Jun 29, 2004 5:19 am
#2
My buds and I hadthe perfect occasion to useharvesting droidslast night, but we managed to find a way around them.There were 3 of us fighting Kimos. The Kimos were are always in 2+ groups. We would kill one, and fight the next (usually not by choice). Since the bigger ones take a bit of time to take down, we lost a corpse or two. The workaround we (re)discovered...we had done this in the pat, but fogotter 
...was to simply have one of us tank while the other two peaced and harvested. Those two would then reengage the Kimo and the third guy would peace and harvest. Worked like a champ .
...was to simply have one of us tank while the other two peaced and harvested. Those two would then reengage the Kimo and the third guy would peace and harvest. Worked like a champ .
Ariven
Tue Jun 29, 2004 8:25 am
#3
Calculus_Entropy wrote:My buds and I had the perfect occasion to use harvesting droids last night, but we managed to find a way around them. There were 3 of us fighting Kimos. The Kimos were are always in 2+ groups. We would kill one, and fight the next (usually not by choice). Since the bigger ones take a bit of time to take down, we lost a corpse or two. The workaround we (re)discovered...we had done this in the pat, but fogotter
The biggest problem I have with the harvest droids is that they are doing the work and not us, and as a result I do not believe that we should get any scouting XP for that harvest work. With risk comes reward, and if we want to level up we should have that risk..
To put it in another light, they removed XP from factories so that crafters dont level THAT way, this is the same exact thing.....
Seraph00X
Tue Jun 29, 2004 8:50 am
#4
I agree. if artisans are not allowed xp for automated crafting, we shouldn't get it for automated harvesting.
Calculus_Entropy
Tue Jun 29, 2004 9:02 am
#5
My guess is, they left the xp for droid harvesting in, becuase, who would use it otherwise? People will always use factories, but those droids are barely scraping by as it is.....know what I mean?
Ariven
Tue Jun 29, 2004 9:07 am
#7
Calculus_Entropy wrote:My guess is, they left the xp for droid harvesting in, becuase, who would use it otherwise? People will always use factories, but those droids are barely scraping by as it is.....know what I mean?
I understand that point of view.. but there is, with the right droid, an advantage to using it over harvesting yourself... put that together with the lack of risk for the reward and I find it bothersome...
Just like I find it bothersome to get scouting XP for flying past an agro mob on my speeder while masked.. minimal risk for maximal reward...
If we are not doing the work, we shouldn't get the reward..
Iseult
Tue Jun 29, 2004 9:56 am
#8
Calculus_Entropy wrote:
My guess is, they left the xp for droid harvesting in, becuase, who would use it otherwise? People will always use factories, but those droids are barely scraping by as it is.....know what I mean?
I think I'm increasingly in the minority here, but I really like my harvesting droid. Was running gualama missions on naboo last night unbuffed (who needs buffs to kill gualama's right), but one of my missions spawned really close to one of those mauler spawns that has a mauler master (or is it a lord - the really tough ones that sometimes spawn).I could just send the droid in and have it harvest the gualamas without worrying about attracting the attention of the maulers.... In the past I would either have had to abandon the mission or brave the uber-mauler without buffs.
Still, I wish they would fix things so that we got more of a bonus from them and lower level scouts and rangers got less of a bonus from them -- it really sucks that someone with veghash and a 100+ rated harvesting droid can approach my harvesting rates....
Iseult
Master Ranger / Mediocre Rifleperson
Bloodfin
Master Ranger / Mediocre Rifleperson
Bloodfin
Manusara
Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:28 am
#9
I dont see how the harvesting is automated. We have to selected the corpse and send the Droid to Harvest.I still love that I can harvest while fighting, thats where the value comes in for me.
Ariven
Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:34 am
#10
Iseult wrote:
Calculus_Entropy wrote:My guess is, they left the xp for droid harvesting in, becuase, who would use it otherwise? People will always use factories, but those droids are barely scraping by as it is.....know what I mean?I think I'm increasingly in the minority here, but I really like my harvesting droid. Was running gualama missions on naboo last night unbuffed (who needs buffs to kill gualama's right), but one of my missions spawned really close to one of those mauler spawns that has a mauler master (or is it a lord - the really tough ones that sometimes spawn) . I could just send the droid in and have it harvest the gualamas without worrying about attracting the attention of the maulers.... In the past I would either have had to abandon the mission or brave the uber-mauler without buffs.Still, I wish they would fix things so that we got more of a bonus from them and lower level scouts and rangers got less of a bonus from them -- it really sucks that someone with veghash and a 100+ rated harvesting droid can approach my harvesting rates....Iseult
Master Ranger / Mediocre Rifleperson
Bloodfin
The last is my point... harvesting at a higher rate than they should and getting XP for it.
Dont get me wrong, I have one of these as well (in fact I just upgraded my model), but I think that the rewards should reflect the risk here... place yourself in danger (at times) and get the reward, not stand back at 64 meters and send in the bot..
I use bots for tanking, for saving my hide and for harvesting.. and I feel that unless I am a "droid handler" I should not get XP for the work that they do..
Almagill
Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:48 am
#11
Manusara wrote:I dont see how the harvesting is automated. We have to selected the corpse and send the Droid to Harvest. I still love that I can harvest while fighting, thats where the value comes in for me.
There is no real comparison between using a harvester droid and an artisan setting up a factory. We have to be there, making the kill, selecting the corpse, letting the little dustbin trundle about. OK, we get a benefit from not being agroed, and we can harvest and kill at the same time (a bit like PvPers looting while they work).
The artisan can make a schematic, pop it in the magic box, then toddle off and do something
else for the next hour or several. Log off even.
I use my droid when am on a lair that chucks out a high number of critters just so as not ot lose any valuable harvests when the carcasses poof out. If I'm honest, I just like having the droid trundle about at my back... but I'd hate to see the little XP I get from 'auto' harvesting getting wiped.
/think
Now, a trap shooting, harvesting storage droid and a nice heavy combat droid working together... THAT would be worth seeing.
Ariven
Tue Jun 29, 2004 11:01 am
#12
Almagill wrote:
Manusara wrote:I dont see how the harvesting is automated. We have to selected the corpse and send the Droid to Harvest. I still love that I can harvest while fighting, thats where the value comes in for me.
There is no real comparison between using a harvester droid and an artisan setting up a factory. We have to be there, making the kill, selecting the corpse, letting the little dustbin trundle about. OK, we get a benefit from not being agroed, and we can harvest and kill at the same time (a bit like PvPers looting while they work).
The artisan can make a schematic, pop it in the magic box, then toddle off and do something
else for the next hour or several. Log off even.
I use my droid when am on a lair that chucks out a high number of critters just so as not ot lose any valuable harvests when the carcasses poof out. If I'm honest, I just like having the droid trundle about at my back... but I'd hate to see the little XP I get from 'auto' harvesting getting wiped.
/think
Now, a trap shooting, harvesting storage droid and a nice heavy combat droid working together... THAT would be worth seeing.
One of the rangers I hang out with has a trap shooting harvest droid..
I have a tank droid with self repair that lasts longer than a normal tank does. I also have a harvest/tank droid, and I even have a stim-a droid if I want to get partictular..
but.. I am sending a robot in to do my job.. a mechanism is doing the hard and delicate work, all -I- am doing is killing something and pointing at it and letting IT do the work.. I do nothing personally, I am not there slicing that hide off or gutting that durni.. something ELSE is doing the work for me, not using MY SKILLS to do it.. so I should not get the experience for something ELSE doing the work..
The analogy stands.. as an artisan can load up that schematic and ingrediants and whip out a batch of fiberplast panels without doing the hard work of doing them by hand, I can whip out good old Harvey and have HIM do the skinning/deboning/gutting FOR me without me getting my hands dirty or without me doing any work other than standing back at a distance pretending to be an orchestra conductor with a gun.
The fact that I am there killing things should not enable me to get credit for the work of harvesting.. only if I -actually- go in there and harvest should I get that credit...
Ehope
Tue Jun 29, 2004 5:39 pm
#13
I only use "Harvey" when I'm solo or with a good friend. He tends to get confused which corpse he was going after and ends up standing on the hill sipping battery juice. I will admit, I laugh every time that little droid gets a critter on it's tail. Just looks cute spinning those wheels trying to get away. I also tend to talk to him if I'm alone. /ponder self. 
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