Scout Archive
Thread: Do not group your harvesting droid
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Betatoxin
Thu Jun 17, 2004 9:58 am
#1
I have come across at least two people who did not know this so I thought I would post here.
When you are hunting with a harvesting droid do not group with it. If you group with the droid the droid will most likely pull aggro when you send it in to harvest. Grouping is not required to give it commands (/tellpet) anyway and since it will not be attacked its HAM is not really something you need to watch. On a rare occasion your droid may pick up aggro still, but for the most part I do not have any problems and regularly send him into the midst of aggressive mobs for harvesting. Last night when hunting pickets and voritors I only had my droid run twice in 2.5 hours. I grouped with him once and he ran like a rabbit every time I sent him in.
Other tips I have,
Get an R3 droid, no combat modules just harvesting.
Send your droid in while you are fighting. A droid can harvest while you are in combat mode. This is really useful to avoid loosing corpses. It is also a big help if you are rifle since you can sit back and use conceal shot while your droid harvests.
Make sure you send the droid in when your target dies before you move to the next target. Since your target remains the corpse after the creature dies the best time to send the droid is while you still have it targeted. Make sure the droid moves (sometimes you might be at the edge of the droids 64m range, or it may not have heard your tellpet) then move on to the next target.
Use veghash, I use the non-BE kind. I have not found the extra cost of BE veghash (+32) to be worth the cost. I use regular +17. Duration is the same. Perhaps if you could get BE duration enhanced veghash.
When you are hunting with a harvesting droid do not group with it. If you group with the droid the droid will most likely pull aggro when you send it in to harvest. Grouping is not required to give it commands (/tellpet) anyway and since it will not be attacked its HAM is not really something you need to watch. On a rare occasion your droid may pick up aggro still, but for the most part I do not have any problems and regularly send him into the midst of aggressive mobs for harvesting. Last night when hunting pickets and voritors I only had my droid run twice in 2.5 hours. I grouped with him once and he ran like a rabbit every time I sent him in.
Other tips I have,
Get an R3 droid, no combat modules just harvesting.
Send your droid in while you are fighting. A droid can harvest while you are in combat mode. This is really useful to avoid loosing corpses. It is also a big help if you are rifle since you can sit back and use conceal shot while your droid harvests.
Make sure you send the droid in when your target dies before you move to the next target. Since your target remains the corpse after the creature dies the best time to send the droid is while you still have it targeted. Make sure the droid moves (sometimes you might be at the edge of the droids 64m range, or it may not have heard your tellpet) then move on to the next target.
Use veghash, I use the non-BE kind. I have not found the extra cost of BE veghash (+32) to be worth the cost. I use regular +17. Duration is the same. Perhaps if you could get BE duration enhanced veghash.
rj00789
Thu Jun 17, 2004 10:30 am
#2
The Other Option to this is to have ONE combat module installed in an advanced R3 and five Harvest modules,then the droid will not run and you can group with it! That way you get the group xp bonus and the benefit of the group info on your droid(location arrow and health status). A maxed out R3 with 6 harvest modules will give you about a 20% increase to overall yield, while a 5/1 unit will give you around 16% yield. I think the 4% is a decent trade off. Also I just noticed last night, if I was grouped only with my droid I got almost twice the yield,then if Im grouped with other players!!!!! I,m 0-0-0-0 scout was pullin 39 hides off gurks on LOK, grouped with a friend,....pulled out droid,went up to 50,.....by myself no group at all I pulled around 70 hides, and grouped only with my droid a whoppin 82 hides!!!!! If I were a master Ranger solo-grouped with my droid I can only imagine the take on that 
Peyote, Master DE/Master TK/Novice Pike-Medic-Scout-Brawler-Artisan
Flurry
Peyote, Master DE/Master TK/Novice Pike-Medic-Scout-Brawler-Artisan
Flurry
CommanderKendall
Thu Jun 17, 2004 7:14 pm
#4
Yes thanks for the tip, I'm still waiting for my harvesting droid but good to know!
Iseult
Thu Jun 17, 2004 9:36 pm
#5
one macro I use for my harvesting droid is this:
/tellpet fetch'em;
/pause 1;
/tellpet fetch'em;
This prevents you having to tell the droid to harvest twice. Fetch'em is, of course, my harvest command - replace it with your own harvest command. /tellpet doesn't seem to work with single letter commands.
Iseult
Master Ranger / Mediocre Rifleperson
Bloodfin
Master Ranger / Mediocre Rifleperson
Bloodfin
JBMat
Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:14 am
#6
Grouping a harvesting droid drags your missions levels into the toilet. So store that lil useless stack of crap before taking a mission.
Carry many droid repair kits. They can't fight, and if they get aggro'd, they die quickly. You are forced to keep healing the droid, at the expense of your mind. Best is when they run off, spend 5 minutes finding it and healing it.
Remember you have to change targets for the droids. Instead of using an easy harvesting macro, you keep having to tell the droid what to do. Also, if the creature is lootable, the droid will not get any loot, so you need to check anyhow.
Why not buy a combat droid, one that can fight and assist you. A two line macro /harvest(meat/hide/bone) /lootall takes care of the harvesting - as I am a pistoleer and not afraid to engage at closer ranges. I have not lost a harvest to fade out in months, what do you guys do? Sit around and swap war stories instead of harvesting. TIme is money, the less time I spend on a target, the more money I make. Get in, take it out, get out.
Harvesting droids, a waste of money, time and resources. If it can't fight, leave it at home.
JB
Sojourner
Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:19 pm
#7
Stand down Airborne, stand down!
JBMat wrote:
Grouping a harvesting droid drags your missions levels into the toilet. So store that lil useless stack of crap before taking a mission.
Carry many droid repair kits. They can't fight, and if they get aggro'd, they die quickly. You are forced to keep healing the droid, at the expense of your mind. Best is when they run off, spend 5 minutes finding it and healing it.
Remember you have to change targets for the droids. Instead of using an easy harvesting macro, you keep having to tell the droid what to do. Also, if the creature is lootable, the droid will not get any loot, so you need to check anyhow.
Why not buy a combat droid, one that can fight and assist you. A two line macro /harvest(meat/hide/bone) /lootall takes care of the harvesting - as I am a pistoleer and not afraid to engage at closer ranges. I have not lost a harvest to fade out in months, what do you guys do? Sit around and swap war stories instead of harvesting. TIme is money, the less time I spend on a target, the more money I make. Get in, take it out, get out.
Harvesting droids, a waste of money, time and resources. If it can't fight, leave it at home.
JB
ROBO1964
Fri Jun 18, 2004 11:32 pm
#8
I group with mine all the time and rarely does it get aggro. If it does it runs like a little **edit** and the mob gives up.Worst damage ever to it was 1500 damage and it has 4000 hams so that wasn't even close.
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