Allow non-combat Droids to be called with a pet

Grogar · Jun 2, 2022

Came up in discussion yesterday on Discord, but it would be really useful to be able to have "assistance" type droids (e.g. harvest) be callable whilst also having a pet out.

a3leggedpony · Jul 8, 2022

Agree 100%.

I fully understand the logic of not allowing a combat droid in addition to a CH pet. That could be pretty overpowered, but allowing a droid to harvest for us (that every other profession can make use of) will not harm the profession balance.

I would also offer a second solution. The addition of NPC trained "passive" abilities, limited to 1 per pet, where non-combat droid functions could be added to a pet.

This could require DE parts (so they are not slighted) in addition to a money sink for the game.

Chervil · Jul 8, 2022

I play BH/CH and have zero problem harvesting my own resources.

There are combat droids with harvest modules, so I would think if it is absolutely necessary then use one of those.
Part of the beauty of SWG is that while we can play "our" way, we often have to make decisions that affect our gameplay.
Want to use a creature? Then sacrifice the ability to have auto-harvest.
Want to use a droid for combat/auto-harvesting? Then sacrifice the speed and power of a combat pet.

I won't get into the afk farming debate, but I don't think this is a necessary addition.
However I am not downvoting just because I don't agree.

Grogar · Jul 15, 2022

Chervil said:
There are combat droids with harvest modules, so I would think if it is absolutely necessary then use one of those.
Part of the beauty of SWG is that while we can play "our" way, we often have to make decisions that affect our gameplay.
Want to use a creature? Then sacrifice the ability to have auto-harvest.
Want to use a droid for combat/auto-harvesting? Then sacrifice the speed and power of a combat pet.

As a response - why *shouldn't* a CH be able to have an auto-harvest droid? Droids are available to every single other profession but not to CH's due to a game mechanic limitation on the number of companions you can have called out at any one time.

Being able to auto-harvest is broadly a quality of life improvement and ensures that creatures get harvested before despawning in the same way that auto-loot works - would it be OK to prevent one profession from turning auto loot on?

a3leggedpony · Jul 16, 2022

Grogar said:
As a response - why *shouldn't* a CH be able to have an auto-harvest droid? Droids are available to every single other profession but not to CH's due to a game mechanic limitation on the number of companions you can have called out at any one time.

Being able to auto-harvest is broadly a quality of life improvement and ensures that creatures get harvested before despawning in the same way that auto-loot works - would it be OK to prevent one profession from turning auto loot on?

Yes, you wrote out what was on my mind better than I could have. Thank you.

PhilmorALF · Jul 16, 2022

Grogar said:
As a response - why *shouldn't* a CH be able to have an auto-harvest droid? Droids are available to every single other profession but not to CH's due to a game mechanic limitation on the number of companions you can have called out at any one time.

Being able to auto-harvest is broadly a quality of life improvement and ensures that creatures get harvested before despawning in the same way that auto-loot works - would it be OK to prevent one profession from turning auto loot on?

I think the issue is that there isn't just an 'auto-harvest' droid. There is a harvest droid that increases the amount of materials you harvest that also happens to have an auto harvest function.

To me - it's gives and takes. If you have a CH, you will kill things faster. Now you're asking to kill things faster AND use a droid to yield higher harvests. I just think there has to be a line drawn somewhere where you need to decide whether you want to kill faster or get more resources.

This is coming from a CH - and I just don't see how it is fair to a non-CH to allow it either.

Grogar · Jul 16, 2022

PhilmorALF said:
I think the issue is that there isn't just an 'auto-harvest' droid. There is a harvest droid that increases the amount of materials you harvest that also happens to have an auto harvest function.

To me - it's gives and takes. If you have a CH, you will kill things faster. Now you're asking to kill things faster AND use a droid to yield higher harvests. I just think there has to be a line drawn somewhere where you need to decide whether you want to kill faster or get more resources.

This is coming from a CH - and I just don't see how it is fair to a non-CH to allow it either.

I follow what you're saying. I would counter that using a droid requires zero skill point investment whereas a CH does.

In truth you're right in that the fairer solution is that droids don't auto harvest for anyone - but perhaps creature corpses don't despawn until you're out of combat and had a chance to harvest them

WuChi · Jul 16, 2022

Or make the doctor droid useable with my pet out as I can not buff my pet but can buff others with the droid out. The little flying over the shouoder model.

Chervil · Jul 17, 2022

Grogar said:
As a response - why *shouldn't* a CH be able to have an auto-harvest droid? Droids are available to every single other profession but not to CH's due to a game mechanic limitation on the number of companions you can have called out at any one time.

Being able to auto-harvest is broadly a quality of life improvement and ensures that creatures get harvested before despawning in the same way that auto-loot works - would it be OK to prevent one profession from turning auto loot on?

In response to that, though, combat pets are not available to everyone. Droids are.
There isn't even a prof that can call 2 droids at a time.
You don't have other professions that can have out a droid and a combat pet, leaving CHs out in the cold.

So it isn't apples/apples at all.

You are asking for an extra mechanic that really only benefits creature handlers.
Again, despawn timers aren't the issue, trying to harvest too many mobs at once is.

Grogar · Jul 18, 2022

Chervil said:
You are asking for an extra mechanic that really only benefits creature handlers.
Again, despawn timers aren't the issue, trying to harvest too many mobs at once is.

Not really, in previous iterations of live multiple pets were possible, so it's not a brand new mechanic.

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree here. I personally don't think it's unreasonable to expect to harvest mobs that I've killed without them despawning. That mechanism exists in the game via the harvesting droid, hence my PV. As pointed out it would also allow CH's to have a medical droid if they wish to go down that route.

Chervil · Jul 18, 2022

Grogar said:
Not really, in previous iterations of live multiple pets were possible, so it's not a brand new mechanic.

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree here. I personally don't think it's unreasonable to expect to harvest mobs that I've killed without them despawning. That mechanism exists in the game via the harvesting droid, hence my PV. As pointed out it would also allow CH's to have a medical droid if they wish to go down that route.

Yes but to my recollection having out multiple pets at once wasn't an option in the CU, which is what R3 is trying to emulate.

I agree that we won't agree on this, but there are no justifications for having a droid and a creature out at the same time that you can make that don't turn this into allowing afk farming.
Every player has to make sacrifices in gameplay, it just is what it is.

PhilmorALF · Jul 18, 2022

Grogar said:
Not really, in previous iterations of live multiple pets were possible, so it's not a brand new mechanic.

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree here. I personally don't think it's unreasonable to expect to harvest mobs that I've killed without them despawning. That mechanism exists in the game via the harvesting droid, hence my PV. As pointed out it would also allow CH's to have a medical droid if they wish to go down that route.

I think your argument should be that harvesting should be allowed during combat - as that is the real concern.

Draknowin · Jul 19, 2022

Chervil said:
Yes but to my recollection having out multiple pets at once wasn't an option in the CU, which is what R3 is trying to emulate.

I agree that we won't agree on this, but there are no justifications for having a droid and a creature out at the same time that you can make that don't turn this into allowing afk farming.
Every player has to make sacrifices in gameplay, it just is what it is.

Just my own 2 Credits here - if there's concern about AFK farming, why not have the Droid de-summoned after a variable amount of time without player activity? Variable, so there isn't a "Press a key every 30 minutes" situation.

Chervil · Jul 20, 2022

Draknowin said:
Just my own 2 Credits here - if there's concern about AFK farming, why not have the Droid de-summoned after a variable amount of time without player activity? Variable, so there isn't a "Press a key every 30 minutes" situation.

To me that's too much extra programming for a problem that literally doesn't exist for normal gameplay.

Vadarios · Jul 25, 2022

Why not let everyone have one combat and one non-combat "pet" at once...

Heck, why not just let everyone have two "pets" out. I'd love to be able to have a harvester droid out while I have my combat droid helping me polish these guys off...

Sidu3217 · Jul 25, 2022

Vadarios said:
Why not let everyone have one combat and one non-combat "pet" at once...

Heck, why not just let everyone have two "pets" out. I'd love to be able to have a harvester droid out while I have my combat droid helping me polish these guys off...

You can put harvesting modules in the non-combat slots on your combat droid. It is not necessary to have a separate droid to do this task.

PepiDeto · Jul 28, 2022

Sidu3217 said:
You can put harvesting modules in the non-combat slots on your combat droid. It is not necessary to have a separate droid to do this task.

But it is easier for recharging droids if you have a Gonk.

RogerDabbit · Aug 7, 2022

Grogar said:
I follow what you're saying. I would counter that using a droid requires zero skill point investment whereas a CH does.

In truth you're right in that the fairer solution is that droids don't auto harvest for anyone - but perhaps creature corpses don't despawn until you're out of combat and had a chance to harvest them

This definitely seems like the best approach to me. It doesn't have to be anything crazy, but the timer is pretty short currently. Afaik, it shouldn't be a hard change to implement, either.

Grognerd · Aug 14, 2022

Sidu3217 said:
You can put harvesting modules in the non-combat slots on your combat droid. It is not necessary to have a separate droid to do this task.

Because as OP stated CHs like to skin too.

Grognerd · Aug 14, 2022

PhilmorALF said:
I think your argument should be that harvesting should be allowed during combat - as that is the real concern.

I would accept a loot combat action. Just to be able to loot during combat ...