Scout Archive
Thread: Harvesting Droids: Buyers Guide
Page 2 of 2
RaafeSendron
Fri May 14, 2004 12:24 am
#14
Hey, don't know if this is a bug or not, but I can still harvest with my droid after I completely dropped scout. I was hunting avian on Talus when I noticed decent Lok Wheat had dropped, so I had to drop scout and retrain in artisan so I could survey. Went back to Talus and forgot to retrain in scout. First time I told droid to harvest, he did but I lost 33000 scout xp. Continued to harvest for about 4 more hours with no problems, other than the fact that the droid harvesteda littleless than he did before. Has anyone else ran into this?
Washell
Fri May 14, 2004 9:08 pm
#15
1) Make them automatically harvest what you kill. Droids arent totally stupid, Im sure an advanced R3 could keep track of which mobs you have killed and it hasnt harvested yet.
2) Remove the grouping requirement. It causes them to get additional agro.
3) Change the AI so that when they get agro theydont run away. Standing still bleeping for help or moving back to us would make them a lot more user friendly.
- Would be very nice, do give it an on/off option though
- They don't need to be grouped, though it can be hard keeping an eye on them when not
- Either add a combat module (droid can't harvest when he's in combat but neither can he when he's running away) or spam the follow me command (/tellpet follow;/macro follow;use /dump to stop) and use him as a tank, you can repair him in combat so keep those repair kits ready.
I'm currently halfway Rifleman so a lot of creatures run away before the final shot. It saves me a lot of walking atm, probably use it less when I'm master.
Washell Olivaw, Ranger/Rifleman, Eclipse
JBMat
Sun May 16, 2004 4:22 am
#16
Great post - but it begs the question - why bother?
I can have one pet out at a time - no CH skills - so it's a droid. Instead of having a defenseless harvestor out, why not have a fighter out. No more 40% loss, and some of the new droids are decent little tanks. And they can be repaired, so no loss there.
I figure, if I have to take time to control something, it best be something that can save my butt - and mine has, several times.
As a pistoleer, I am up close and personal to most of my kills. I know how to pull one at a time too, so the multiple aggro problem is not there, nor is kill fade out. The droid is sort of a waste for me.
Also, my harvest macros also loot - I use the same macro to loot meatlumps/Imps as I do to harvest hide - can the droids loot the creatures that do drop loot?
Still not a fan of the harvestor - I do like droids tho.
JB
RozhlokLightningskull
Sun May 16, 2004 7:16 am
#17
JBMat wrote:
Also, my harvest macros also loot - I use the same macro to loot meatlumps/Imps as I do to harvest hide - can the droids loot the creatures that do drop loot?
Still not a fan of the harvestor - I do like droids tho.
JB
No they can't get loot drops. You preset what you want it to harvest (meat, hide, bone or random) and when you issue the tellpet command for harvest it gets that resource.
Harvester droids are great for that 30-50cpu resource that spawns. IMO. I never miss a creature corpse like I used to and I get an 18% bonus. That usually works out to at least an extra 20K for my resource gathering session. Its free money. I don't understand what there's not to like.
joined42904
Fri Jun 25, 2004 10:29 am
#18
I'm a trandoshan ranger with tracking 4. I paid 50k for a droid with harvest 108. It harvests more than I do. But is it the best I can do for harvesting? (Adv R3 with 6 harvest modules.)
Keep in mind that a combat module would mean fewer harvest modules.
Fodder650
Fri Jun 25, 2004 11:05 am
#19
What i read during the DE changes last month were that 120% was the best you could get if all 6 were perfect.
Betatoxin
Fri Jun 25, 2004 2:49 pm
#20
As a correction I would sugges to this guide.
DO NOT under ANY circumstances group your harvest droid. This can result in it pulling aggro. If you do not group the droid it will almost never pull aggro (less than 1% of the time in my experience).
Think of the harvest droid as a passive tool that zips from corpse to corpse harvesting while you continue to drop your targets one after the other.
For rifleman it is particularly useful since you do not need to leave your sniping position to harvest and risk melee aggro, or wait so long so the corpses decay before you harvest them.
Even without the bonus this flexibility of the harvest droid is worth it to me.
DO NOT under ANY circumstances group your harvest droid. This can result in it pulling aggro. If you do not group the droid it will almost never pull aggro (less than 1% of the time in my experience).
Think of the harvest droid as a passive tool that zips from corpse to corpse harvesting while you continue to drop your targets one after the other.
For rifleman it is particularly useful since you do not need to leave your sniping position to harvest and risk melee aggro, or wait so long so the corpses decay before you harvest them.
Even without the bonus this flexibility of the harvest droid is worth it to me.
Enara
Mon Jun 28, 2004 3:34 pm
#21
Thank you for this wonderful guide, as well as all of the very informative posts. I found this entire thread VERY helpful. I had no idea that grouping my harvesting droid wound make it group aggro. I will try using my droid now without it being grouped, as I found this was a big problem for me andI had stopped using my harvest droid.
Buzz1096
Mon Jul 05, 2004 9:43 am
#22
Hey guys, MDE trolling here - just wanted to throw in a couple of cents that might help you.
Ok, some ideas for ordering and using a truly scout friendly droid.
You guys got some nice features here that I noticed are barely being tapped into. The harvester is nice, but in this case, the chassis is important. The R2/3s dont cut it here and don't bother with the 'talkies' they're all just too slow getting to your target and aren't really made for this.
The answer is Adv. Probots. For these reasons:
1) Sure it only has 5 slots vs. 6 on the R3, but it's built in combat capability keeps it from running during a fight. So after installing the combat mod in the R3, you're down to 5 mods anyway.
2) It's fast, it hovers over to your target and harvests quickly and is ready for your next kill.
3) Since you just need a 70 rating at the very most (even at ranger) you have an open slot to add a combat or trap dispenser.
4) The Trap Dispenser - c'mon guys, these things are way cool - use them! Why did you stop using traps? Because it takes a combat turn? Well now you can launch your favorite trap, with a 'to hit' bonus, without taking a combat turn.
Here's a scout probot configuration: 4 harvest (70 bonus), 1 trap (19 bonus, cap 24) or if you don't need so much harvest: 3 harvest (53 bonus), 1 trap (19 bonus, cap 24) & 1 combat (110 rating) or go with the full harvest on a probot at about 88-90.
BTW - there's a lot of mythology on how the harvest module rating works, but basically heres the deal:
If the droid rating is less than 50% of yours then the droid will harvest less than you do.
If the droid rating is between 50% and 100% of yours, the bonus will increase from 0%-20%
If the droid rating is greater than yours, subject to very diminishing returns, you cap out at about a 28% bonus - this would be a novice scout using a 105+ rated droid.
This seems to benefit the lower-rated players but remember 20% of a greater number is a much greater number.
WTS
Tue Jul 06, 2004 1:18 pm
#23
i have a droid with a trapping mod and harvesting mods (plus an inventory mod.) i don't like the droid having fighting ability. a droid in combat can't throw traps. all you need is a /tellpet follow hotkeyed, to keep the droid from running away when aggro'ed.
typically, i kill one creature and command the droid to harvest... then start working on the next creature. if i get too many creatures attacking me, i start having adhesive mesh thrown around, so i can continue fighting one on one.
using the droid for traps is great because it gets around the annoying 2 uses per mesh. i can load up my droid with 24 uses and not have to worry about clogging up my inventory.
i use three macros:
harvest-
/tellpet harvest;
/loot; (in case the creature has lootable parts.)
/deathblow; (saves a hotkey for unrelated uses.)
trap-
/tellpet trap;
/pause 5; (gives droid time to throw the trap before following)
/tellpet follow;
follow-
/tellpet follow; (in case the droid draws aggro and starts to run away.)
typically, i kill one creature and command the droid to harvest... then start working on the next creature. if i get too many creatures attacking me, i start having adhesive mesh thrown around, so i can continue fighting one on one.
using the droid for traps is great because it gets around the annoying 2 uses per mesh. i can load up my droid with 24 uses and not have to worry about clogging up my inventory.
i use three macros:
harvest-
/tellpet harvest;
/loot; (in case the creature has lootable parts.)
/deathblow; (saves a hotkey for unrelated uses.)
trap-
/tellpet trap;
/pause 5; (gives droid time to throw the trap before following)
/tellpet follow;
follow-
/tellpet follow; (in case the droid draws aggro and starts to run away.)
DeltaXi65
Fri Jul 16, 2004 12:34 am
#24
Gang,
I've unstickied this because I added most of it to my guide. 
One less bit of clutter at the top.
B
mutantman
Sat Jul 17, 2004 6:30 pm
#25
OK, dumb question time. From what I've read here and the Scout Guide, you train your droid to harvest either a specific or random resource. Does that mean that if I train my droid to harvest meat, it can't harvest hide?
Also, do you get Scout XP if it's your droid doing the harvesting? I wouldn't think so since you're not the one doing the harvesting, but I want to make sure.
Also, do you get Scout XP if it's your droid doing the harvesting? I wouldn't think so since you're not the one doing the harvesting, but I want to make sure.
DeltaXi65
Sat Jul 17, 2004 7:17 pm
#26
mutantman wrote:
OK, dumb question time. From what I've read here and the Scout Guide, you train your droid to harvest either a specific or random resource. Does that mean that if I train my droid to harvest meat, it can't harvest hide?
Also, do you get Scout XP if it's your droid doing the harvesting? I wouldn't think so since you're not the one doing the harvesting, but I want to make sure.
Mutant,
No - it means that until you train it to harvest something else, it will harvest meat.
You do get the Scout XP - it's just as if you're doing it.
B
Page 2 of 2