Droid building

[Darque]

Baby Vader did it

 

And so should we :D

 

How about instead of giving us a less than useful T3 unit that no one ever uses... Allow us to make our OWN droid companion!

 

You could even make it a quest, where we have to find the right parts :D

 

It could be based on Repair Skill, and depending on that, and what kind of parts/modules we use you could allow us to create one of several different kinds of droids. Tech droids, combat droids, etc.

 

This would allow a player to add that little "personal touch" to the game that most players love

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Thats not a bad idea. Although if its being based on a skill, then this suggests the higher the skill the better the chances of creating a better droid. This might lead to players keep on raising the skill to a point where they might effortlessly create an uber-droid, and worse, that by the time they make one, they won't need it.

 

Regardless, the concept might work, still. Assembling a droid would be interesting. Perhaps even decide what kind of behaviour modules to install on it, or even decide to switch certain parts of it to handle certain situations (like inserting regular arms to hold weapons for combat situations, or give it work droid parts to do menial tasks like carry heavy items, etc).

[Drakron]

Repair?

 

That stupid, Repair indicated the ability to repair something, not build something and SWKotOR was THE WORST example of how implement skills on a game.

 

To build something it sould require a "Craft" skill, even building lightsabers sould require "Craft:Lightsaber" skill.

[Gorth]

Sounds like a fun idea. Even if I didn't like most of the old mini-games (I'm a Pazaak addict), this could be a small game within the game. Offer interesting limbs or software upgrades as rewards for solving sidequests, not based on skills only. B)

 

There was a bit of it in Kotor, with the modules you could customise your droids with, but it has more potential to be interesting, if the stuff was harder to get by. The interview mentioned something about taking stuff apart and put together again. Like C-3PO... ?

 

Lets say, once you install the core software, you droid take on a certain role in your party, and you could look for spare parts and add-ons all over the galaxy for it.

 

Increases the posibility of adding party members to your team, that you like, for their personality and not for their usefulness, because you can tailor your droid as a second player character, compensating for skills your favorite company (and yourself) doesn't have. If you are a combat monster and your favourite companion is a tech/mechanic, make the droid specialise in protocol and diplomacy, if your are a the tech guy and your favourite companion the charismatic one, make the droid a mobile gun-turret etc.

[kumquatq3]

Repair?

 

That stupid, Repair indicated the ability to repair something, not build something and SWKotOR was THE WORST example of how implement skills on a game.

 

You arn't fabricating the metal for the thing, your putting parts together.

 

repair is just fine

 

Besides, you need to strengthen the repair skill, not make 2 weaker skills

[Drakron]

Unfortunalty the idea is destroyed with the fact we KNOW the "final boss" fight (likely against Revan) will be a one-on-one and the advanatges of a protocol droid are destroyed when convertation ends up being based on main character stats/skills (unless they program to take NPCs into acount but if they do it its simply best just making a droid NPC for that purpose).

 

The idea od making droids is not half bad, problem is to prevent it to be used as XP farm (like in SWKotOR) and naturaly of walking around with a personal army of battle droids.

 

Even if this are from the same people that made Fallout/Fallout 2 were end bosses could be taken out (or helped taken out) by non combat options the fact is Jedi=one-on-one dual with a Sith have not always been present with the movies but also with the games.

[Drakron]

You arn't fabricating the metal for the thing, your putting parts together.

 

repair is just fine

 

Besides, you need to strengthen the repair skill, not make 2 weaker skills

So what?

 

Building something is diferent that repairing something, even if the name is "craft" its simply indicates the skill on building something.

 

And it certainly does not make the Repair skill weaker, it simply makes having two skills that are used for diferent things as they sould instead of using the "powergaming" logic of lumping skills for the maxium result.

 

Correctly implemented I sould have been able to heal people and repair droids via dialogue in SWKotOR.

[Opus131]

Baby Vader did it

One more reason why Episode 1 was a disaster...

[Darque]

Role-Player

 

I don't think it would cause that kind of problem.

A protocal droid would probably be something you'd make with a lower skill, and a combat droid when you finally need it.. near the end.

 

Drakron

 

Not stupid in the least if you think about it and even less if you take it in context.

 

Gorth

 

Well, one way to keep it out of the player's skill set is to have an NPC droid crafter who could assemble it for you. And I guess this could also address the problem RP pointed out too.

 

There's always ways around problems :D

[Enoch]

A protocal droid would probably be something you'd make with a lower skill, and a combat droid when you finally need it.. near the end.

Isn't that progression a bit illogical?

 

Which seems easier to you:

 

1) Making a droid programmed with the knowledge and practice of the languages and customs of every signifcant cultural group in the galaxy, or

 

2) Making a droid that knows how hit things with a pointy stick.

[Drakron]

If you dont know already I disagreed with how SWKotOR implemented skills, it was done purely on a powergamer point of view.

 

Repair means you fix stuff and sould be fixing stuff, not build or assemble stuff even if its possible you could get some bonus from repair as you would get some bonus from craft when repairing something you could build.

 

If they dont want to implement the craft skills, fine since craft skills are rarely used (except if you playing a jedi since you need to craft your character lightsaber) but throwing it in a "catch all mechanic" Repair skill is stupid, at least rename the damn skill to mechanic instead of insulting logic.

 

Personaly I rather have more skills and correctly implemented skill points (that means more) instead of a hand full of "catch all" skills and skill point per level.

 

And on the subject, lets NOT nerf Int again ...

[kumquatq3]

Unfortunalty the idea is destroyed with the fact we KNOW the "final boss" fight (likely against Revan) will be a one-on-one

 

Arn't you the guy who said it likely wasn't KOTOR2, repeatedly? All because you said a X-box magazine started the rumor? Didn't I try to bet you it was?

 

Let's just say what you "know" ain't worth much

 

Anyways, if that IS the case, then all your NPC's are worthless against the last guy. They arn't going to let you bring an army in to battle, but not let you use your NPC's abilites for other solutions. They didn't in KOTOR. They made you go by yourself.

 

So whats your point there?

 

Even if this are from the same people that made Fallout/Fallout 2 were end bosses could be taken out (or helped taken out) by non combat options the fact is Jedi=one-on-one dual with a Sith have not always been present with the movies but also with the games.

 

 

What if its a darkside move? Malak "killed" Revan with a freaking laser canon! Then tried to kill you with a small army when you tried to get to him, and when you finally did get to him, he ran and you fought droids.

 

Not to mention (from a lightside view point) episode one had 2 vs. 1. Obiwan tried to do 2 vs. 1 again in episode 2.

 

I am sure I can think of more.

 

 

Building something is diferent than repairing something, even if the name is "craft" its simply indicates the skill on building something.

 

O, then we need a programming skill to right? Not to mention eletrical skills. After all, repair and build don't mean you know about current and binary. The guys who repair my roof, and build my deck don't do electrical wiring.

 

And it certainly does not make the Repair skill weaker, it simply makes having two skills that are used for diferent things as they sould instead of using the "powergaming" logic of lumping skills for the maxium result.

 

Your idea of power gaming is my idea of balancing skills, so some arn't worthless or very under powered, just for the sake of nitpicking logic.

 

Its a game, let these things go man. Fun over logic. After all, you are playing a game with laser swords and mind readers who use "the force". Lets just say logic isn't this games strong point.

 

If logic is what you need, you shouldn't be here looking for it.

 

Repair means you fix stuff and sould be fixing stuff, not build or assemble stuff even if its possible you could get some bonus from repair as you would get some bonus from craft when repairing something you could build.

 

So now repair and assemble are polar opposites or something? Come on.

 

Of course your logic would require us to have "repair droid", "Weapon assembly", "assemble armor", etc

 

Repair skill is stupid, at least rename the damn skill to mechanic instead of insulting logic.

 

But wait! A mechanic doesn't build stuff! He repairs! AH!

 

I am pretty sure a "mechanic" didn't assemble my Toyota or build my chair. And I would know, because I was a mechanic. Never did I put together a car using all new parts. I would have a decent shot, but never did I do it. I do know mechanics that could tho, but they don't (usually). Generally tho, Mechanic=Repair/assemble. Not build forn near scratch.

 

Which brings me to my point: If you know how to fix something, and therefor know how it works, you have a decent chance of building one from scratch. Have you seen "Monster Garage"?

 

Personaly I rather have more skills and correctly implemented skill points (that means more) instead of a hand full of "catch all" skills and skill point per level.

 

I rather have skills that make the game balanced and fun to play.

 

I don't want INT divided into book and street smarts, because it makes "logical" sense.

[Darque]

A protocal droid would probably be something you'd make with a lower skill, and a combat droid when you finally need it.. near the end.

Isn't that progression a bit illogical?

 

Which seems easier to you:

 

1) Making a droid programmed with the knowledge and practice of the languages and customs of every signifcant cultural group in the galaxy, or

 

2) Making a droid that knows how hit things with a pointy stick.

bolded the easier choice.

 

Knowledge is just data. And data is easy to transfer, and I doubt you'd have to code it from scratch each time. so it's just a matter of finding the right "OS" and "data" for the droid

 

Look at C3p0.. he's a shoddy creation (look how easy he falls apart) and his programming is just that, programming. You're telling me that's harder to put together than a battle droid made to both inflict and take damage?

[Karzak]

They should put one of them hemi engines in droids.

 

That way your jedi could have hemidroids!

[kefka]

A protocol droid would be nice, but then you'd need to have situations written specifically for you to use it, otherwise it's just a piece of junk. Maybe 'he' can provide additional information on the alien races you meet, not just translation, which then gives extra dialog in conversations... like "insight" in NWN.

[newc0253]

A protocol droid would be nice, but then you'd need to have situations written specifically for you to use it, otherwise it's just a piece of junk. Maybe 'he' can provide additional information on the alien races you meet, not just translation, which then gives extra dialog in conversations... like "insight" in NWN.

hmm. do all protocol droids have to be gay like threpio?

 

and when i crash my x-wing, can i fix my astromech droid to use his side rockets to get to dry land instead of falling in the bloody swamp and getting eaten?

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I don't think it would cause that kind of problem.

A protocal droid would probably be something you'd make with a lower skill, and a combat droid when you finally need it.. near the end.

 

I think this can go both ways. In the beginning you might need a droid which can help you familiarize with planetary regions, alien languages and diplomatic resources. But you also might need a combat droid. It depends on how diplomacy and combat are included in the game. If the earlier areas include enough situations of both diplomacy and combat then its just a matter of letting the player decide which to take.

 

However, if the game will include overal more combat situations (which i'm inclined to think), then you might need a combat droid early on, and not just towards the end.

 

Of course, what you could do is to give players more ways of droid customization, so that he the customization, plus its growth, can lead him into being a good backup in earlier battles, an adequate fighter at mid levels, and a walking behemoth of destruction towards the later stages (should you feel so inclined), without necessarily sacrificing the diplomatic aspects (supposing they'd be used, anyway).

 

Even taking into account player skill to determine the level of the droid's usefulness, why would a lower PC skill would allow me only to construct a standard protocol droid? A combat droid, or any kind of droid used for combat, in theory, should be easier to build than a protocol droid. A combat droid has to know how to operate a weapon, a protocol droid has to know how many languages? How many pieces of information regarding customs or geographical information?

 

Still, I'm supportive of the concept, though. I think giving players a droid which can be customized for different needs would make certain elements in the game more interesting and possibly replayable. A droid could help in many things, some of which already described above.

 

Also, to avoid getting a "be all, end all" droid, we could decide wheter to take a customizable protocol, or combat droid, instead of just taking one that could be all.

[Spook]

A protocol droid would be nice, but then you'd need to have situations written specifically for you to use it, otherwise it's just a piece of junk.  Maybe 'he' can provide additional information on the alien races you meet, not just translation, which then gives extra dialog in conversations... like "insight" in NWN.

hmm. do all protocol droids have to be gay like threpio?

 

and when i crash my x-wing, can i fix my astromech droid to use his side rockets to get to dry land instead of falling in the bloody swamp and getting eaten?

Well, first I think that you add a personality modul to give the personality of the droid. Guess you should be able to put a wardroid personality modul in a protocol droid, though it might not be very longlived when it insults and try to intimidate everybody it talks to (in a very ungay way).

 

Second, why shoot the astromech to land? Add a grappling hook on it and a very strong wire to it. Then you can start fishing. And one of those fishes will keep you feed for weeks.

[Darque]

A protocol droid would be nice, but then you'd need to have situations written specifically for you to use it, otherwise it's just a piece of junk. Maybe 'he' can provide additional information on the alien races you meet, not just translation, which then gives extra dialog in conversations... like "insight" in NWN.

That's an excellent idea

[Darque]

hmm. do all protocol droids have to be gay like threpio?

 

and when i crash my x-wing, can i fix my astromech droid to use his side rockets to get to dry land instead of falling in the bloody swamp and getting eaten?

HK-47 was a protocol droid

[Darque]

Role-Player

 

I'm thinking a combat droid would be harder based on the fact it's being built to take hits, C3-P0 looked like he was made of tissue paper. And as easy as it was to put him back together, he couldn't have been that hard to build

 

Also, to avoid getting a "be all, end all" droid, we could decide wheter to take a customizable protocol, or combat droid, instead of just taking one that could be all.

 

The player should be forced to make a choice, one type of droid and stick with it. A "Be all, end all" droid would be a very bad idea.