Scout Archive
Thread: Droid creature harvesting idea
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Bihlbo
Sun Mar 28, 2004 9:15 pm
#1
I just posted a new idea in the Droid Engineer forum. It's an idea on how to make creature harvesting work using droids. The main goal was to involve another profession and to make it costly to have a droid with you that harvests creature corpses. I didn't want it to be possible to just make the droid and always be able to harvest with it, costing no more than a battery.
Click here to read the idea.
The reason I'm posting this is because the idea would obviously have an impact on the Scout/Ranger population. If you don't mind, take a look and leave some feedback on whether you think it would work and remain balanced.
Bihlbo
Sun Mar 28, 2004 9:16 pm
#2
I just posted a new idea in the Droid Engineer forum. It's an idea on how to make creature harvesting work using droids. The main goal was to involve another profession and to make it costly to have a droid with you that harvests creature corpses. I didn't want it to be possible to just make the droid and always be able to harvest with it, costing no more than a battery.
Click here to read the idea.
The reason I'm posting this is because the idea would obviously have an impact on the Scout/Ranger population. If you don't mind, take a look and leave some feedback on whether you think it would work and remain balanced. (I posted this in the Scout forum too - sorry if you read both forums)
brandedglacier
Sun Mar 28, 2004 9:39 pm
#3
On one hand I like the idea of being able to increase the amounts I could harvest and I like the way it promotes cross-class dependency, but on the other hand with a droid having the ability to harvest just under master scout (which is also just under master ranger >_>
we'd lose yetanotherof what little skill we have. Mastering scout and ranger would only yield some 15% more than a person using a droid that doesn't have to waste any skill points on even scout. Bah, what do I know though, I just dont like droids... I had a probot once. The battery ran out, I destroyed the whole thing. =/
we'd lose yetanotherof what little skill we have. Mastering scout and ranger would only yield some 15% more than a person using a droid that doesn't have to waste any skill points on even scout. Bah, what do I know though, I just dont like droids... I had a probot once. The battery ran out, I destroyed the whole thing. =/
auscan
Mon Mar 29, 2004 12:34 am
#5
I like the idea, although I could see it as a Ranger only droid akin to the BH Droids. The ability to use it would start with Field Bioscience I and progress as per BH Droids. You could even give the droid the ability to track creatures, but that could be pushing it a little. THe only thing that didn't seem clear was the Creature Sample Collection, would the droid only be able to harvest the types of creatures sampled or would it just be providing a broad spectrum of what is available to be harvested? (This should probably addressed in the DE forum).
All in all I think this a great idea, hopefully the DEVs will take a look at this idea.
tehedin
Mon Mar 29, 2004 2:19 am
#6
I posted an idea similar to this in the DE forums with not a lot of success. Basically my idea was to allow the DE to make "disposable" droids to do a scan on a planet for resources. These droids could be useable by two other simi-useless professions, the ranger and merchant. The ranger could use them for organic and the merchant for inorganic. In case you were wondering why the inorganic wouldnt be tied into the artisan the answer is simple, merchant is more point-costly than artisan.
So for example a ranger or merchant would visit a planet and use a consumable droid to do a scan on the planet and it would make a report of all the organics or inorganics currently available as well as the stats for them. This information in turn could be sold to whoever was interested in it.
tehedin
Mon Mar 29, 2004 2:21 am
#7
Oh yeah I forgot a small detail. The ability to scan certain planets should advance much like the camo kits in the ranger wayfaring tree in that you start with the lowbie planets and work your way up.
-slut-
Mon Mar 29, 2004 9:25 am
#8
^ I like that idea too, that would save ME a lot of time, so I wouldn't have to scour each planet for the best types of resources.
GoldMemberBria
Mon Mar 29, 2004 9:42 am
#9
Well, I see this as yet another way to cheapen the ranger skill set. Look, about the only thing worth a darn about a ranger is the ability to harvest 30% more then a scout. We've already given scouts the ability to eat vegash and aquire that ranger benefit temporarily. Adding more ways to accomplish this just sucks for rangers. You cannot eat food or buy a droid that allows a ranger to craft a high quality set of armor. You cannot eat food or buy a droid that allows a ranger to wield a LLC or flamethrower. You cannot eat food or buy a droid that allows a ranger to buff or heal battle fatigue. So why would a ranger support things that give away our signature ability away to non-rangers? makes no sense to me, even if we could use it for our own benefit as well.
Rancorrider4
Mon Mar 29, 2004 10:40 am
#10
"Well, I see this as yet another way to cheapen the ranger skill set. Look, about the only thing worth a darn about a ranger is the ability to harvest 30% more then a scout. We've already given scouts the ability to eat vegash and aquire that ranger benefit temporarily. Adding more ways to accomplish this just sucks for rangers. You cannot eat food or buy a droid that allows a ranger to craft a high quality set of armor. You cannot eat food or buy a droid that allows a ranger to wield a LLC or flamethrower. You cannot eat food or buy a droid that allows a ranger to buff or heal battle fatigue. So why would a ranger support things that give away our signature ability away to non-rangers? makes no sense to me, even if we could use it for our own benefit as well."
Agree with Goldfinger. We have enough issues without giving our few abilities away.
Respectfully,
GTOfire
Mon Mar 29, 2004 2:02 pm
#11
We're working on upgrading a certain ability because we believe we should have more of it, especially compared to the lower skilled, and you come to our forums with the idea to hand this ability on a platter to even the non-skilled. I'm afraid I just don't like it.
Sorry to sound snappy (though if I was really remorsefull I would have backspaced it, wouldn't I), but it's an idea that will make Rangers less useful, when it's clear that we're not useful enough right now. And it will greatly upset the economy, introducing vast amounts of organics into the world (even if it only harvests 33%, an enraged rancor will still yield over 100 meat, and people who have pumped all their skills into combat will be racking up organics by the ton, having a hunting efficiency that exceeds us by more then a factor 3.
All in all, I don't think it'll catch on, and I don't believe it should.
AgonThalia
Tue Mar 30, 2004 6:04 am
#12
Personally,
although i think the idea is a new one, there is one major problem I see with the idea. The droid wouldnt eliminate the 40% drop in harvest while grouped, therefore, The harvesting mod on the droid would have to be absolutely amazing to even match the measly amounts we can harvest.
I am much more in favor of a creature database that is planet specific, but other than that, Im not really excited about the idea.
although i think the idea is a new one, there is one major problem I see with the idea. The droid wouldnt eliminate the 40% drop in harvest while grouped, therefore, The harvesting mod on the droid would have to be absolutely amazing to even match the measly amounts we can harvest.
I am much more in favor of a creature database that is planet specific, but other than that, Im not really excited about the idea.
Bihlbo
Tue Mar 30, 2004 3:10 pm
#13
Something I probably should have been more clear on from the beginning:
I don't think that adding this feature to the game now would be a good idea. Yes, the only good thing about the Ranger profession is the +30% harvesting. Personally, I'm counting on SOE fixing the profession so there's not only a point to playing it, but we have many other abilities beyond just a harvesting bonus. Being able to harvest does not justify a whole profession, and I don't want that to be the only reason people choose Ranger.
Ideally, being a Ranger would allow for more than just a harvesting bonus, and what little business is lost to other professions wouldn't be worth noticing. Likewise, the little bit of business lost to harvesting droids wouldn't be that big a deal either. I don't want to give away the only good thing Rangers got. But once Ranger are more than just glorified skinners I would love for creature harvesting to be less exclusive.
My main desire for this comes from field crafting. When doctors, for instance, want to make a lot of something they do factory runs with thousands of resources. If they want to make stuff in the field, rather than using crates, they would only need small amounts of resources. This would allow the doctor to get those resources without having to hunt down a seller.
Maybe a good solution would be to lower the cap on the amount of resources the droid can harvest. No matter what it's skill is, it would never harvest more than 20 resources at a time. Perhaps.
Keep in mind though, that Rangers would be able to use these droids too.
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