Reduce Oil Bath Time or Allow Multiple Stations for Droid Engineers

Reduce Oil Bath Time or Allow Multiple Stations for Droid Engineers
This idea/suggestion is Open. You can respond to ask questions or discuss the idea and either vote it up or down if you believe it should or should not be implemented, respectively. Popular suggestions and ideas will be considered by the development team to become reality in-game.

Draconious

Proposal
I propose updating the Droid Engineer Oil Bath system to make it more practical and service-friendly by doing one or both of the following:
  1. Reduce the Oil Bath duration based on the quality of the Oil Bath station and the lubricant used. High-end setups—crafted with server-best materials—should reduce the real-time wait to approximately 1 hour instead of the current fixed 6 hours.
  2. Allow multiple Oil Bath stations to be placed and operated concurrently by the same Droid Engineer. A reasonable cap (e.g., up to 5 stations) would maintain balance while allowing the profession to function at scale and serve multiple clients efficiently.
These changes would preserve the value of investing in high-quality components while removing current bottlenecks that limit the profession's ability to support the broader player community.
Justification
The current Oil Bath system creates a hard limit of three droids every six real-time hours, regardless of how much effort is put into crafting high-functioning stations or sourcing high-quality lubricant. This significantly reduces the ability of Droid Engineers to offer droid enhancement as a viable service and restricts access for players who rely on it.

The impact of this bottleneck includes:
  • Limited scalability: Engineers cannot efficiently serve multiple clients, making the service impractical to offer at scale.
  • Coordination barriers: Players must align their schedules around long, fixed timers, which is often not realistic due to real-life obligations.
  • Reduced community engagement: A system designed to encourage interaction instead becomes difficult to use collaboratively.

By reducing the timer or allowing concurrent stations, Droid Engineers would be empowered to support more players in a timely manner. This would:
  • Make droid performance upgrades more widely accessible
  • Create meaningful, profession-based player interactions
  • Encourage more Engineers to invest in the service side of the profession
The change ultimately benefits the entire playerbase by improving gameplay flow, reinforcing Restoration’s emphasis on player-driven professions, and making the experience more enjoyable and inclusive for all.
Motivation
The Oil Bath system, while a welcome addition to the Droid Engineer profession, currently suffers from a major usability issue: the process takes a fixed 6 hours of real-world time, even with the best available equipment and resources. This long duration limits how many droids can be serviced and creates major logistical challenges for both Droid Engineers and the players relying on them.

This is a problem now because:
  • Droid Engineers who want to provide this service cannot scale it effectively, even with optimal crafting and preparation.
  • Players in need of droid enhancements are forced to wait unreasonable lengths of time or coordinate in ways that don’t fit common play schedules.
  • The system’s current form discourages profession interaction and makes a feature meant to improve community support feel more like a chore.
As more players begin engaging with the droid tuning system, the demand for this service will grow—but the current setup isn't built to meet that demand in a flexible or player-friendly way.
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While all these changes seem good on paper all its going to achieve is for the market to be flooded by droids priced dirty cheap , which if that is the aim of the change then who am i to stop it
 
jcan0918 said:
While all these changes seem good on paper all its going to achieve is for the market to be flooded by droids priced dirty cheap , which if that is the aim of the change then who am i to stop it
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This has nothing to do with flooding the market for droids. It's the upkeep options that came out in expanding horizons. The Master DE can now diagnose and fix functionally issues for performance improvement as well as dip them in an oil bath to further add temporary boosts to stats.
 

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So that would be like 40 droids in 8 hours? I would wonder why they set it up the way it is now first. Then I would wonder what this might do. I mean if someone well established with lots of server best resources and credits could just undercut everyone and take most of the business or this could at the very least drive down the credits charged while also making harder for new DE's needing the server best to get not just good bath and droid results but now also good time results. Maybe change something for the repair piece only.
 
Tyr said:
So that would be like 40 droids in 8 hours? I would wonder why they set it up the way it is now first. Then I would wonder what this might do. I mean if someone well established with lots of server best resources and credits could just undercut everyone and take most of the business or this could at the very least drive down the credits charged while also making harder for new DE's needing the server best to get not just good bath and droid results but now also good time results. Maybe change something for the repair piece only.
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I think those are fair concerns and worth acknowledging. To clarify, the suggestion isn’t about droid production or market pricing—it’s specifically about post-crafting droid upkeep via the Functionality and Lubrication systems added in Expanding Horizons.

The Oil Bath system is not a crafting tool, but rather a maintenance service to temporarily enhance droid stats. It’s comparable to a buff that Engineers can provide to help players get more out of their existing droids.

The core issue is that even with best-in-slot resources, we’re locked to a flat 6-hour real-time process for just three droids, which makes it hard to offer this service to others. If you’re trying to help more than a few players, it becomes logistically difficult or outright impossible unless you dedicate your entire day to babysitting a timer. That’s not great gameplay for anyone.

The goal to make the upkeep mechanic accessible, scalable, and worth engaging with for both Engineers and the broader community. That includes small-scale DEs who might want to serve their guild, or casual players who can’t block out multi-hour windows just to get a buff applied.
 
Draconious said:
I think those are fair concerns and worth acknowledging. To clarify, the suggestion isn’t about droid production or market pricing—it’s specifically about post-crafting droid upkeep via the Functionality and Lubrication systems added in Expanding Horizons.

The Oil Bath system is not a crafting tool, but rather a maintenance service to temporarily enhance droid stats. It’s comparable to a buff that Engineers can provide to help players get more out of their existing droids.

The core issue is that even with best-in-slot resources, we’re locked to a flat 6-hour real-time process for just three droids, which makes it hard to offer this service to others. If you’re trying to help more than a few players, it becomes logistically difficult or outright impossible unless you dedicate your entire day to babysitting a timer. That’s not great gameplay for anyone.

The goal to make the upkeep mechanic accessible, scalable, and worth engaging with for both Engineers and the broader community. That includes small-scale DEs who might want to serve their guild, or casual players who can’t block out multi-hour windows just to get a buff applied.
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It is why I did not down vote and agree it is something to look at once we know the reasoning behind the setup and the possible unintended consequences.
 
On paper these changes seem pretty good and if I weren't currently a DE I'd say I'm all for it. However, with my experience in DE and interacting with customers about droid tuning I don't think these changes should be fully implemented as suggested.

As it stands, the buff is pretty strong, 50% Health, 30% Speed, 30% Armor, and 30% Damage, and lasts a considerable amount of time, ~one month of constant use. It would definitely be better on the customer having to wait the current ~6 hours but I find that happening at most once a month at most to not be a problem and neither has any of my customers. Just have to plan ahead and most do or don't mind the wait.

Maybe adding another oil station to be used would be good but I have never had someone request more than 3x droids being tuned as well as never had more than one person looking for a tune at once. So while they may be nice quality of life changes, I find they aren't necessary and the current way the system is implemented is wonderful imo.

Some changes I could see implemented if this were to go through: a decrease to how long the buff lasts or possibly slight increase in amount of oil needed. At the end of the day, I usually wait a few days for armor orders and sometimes weapon orders, 6hr wait time isn't that bad (shouldn't change) and possible a 2nd oil bath would be nice.
 
first of all... make the system accessable to all players....
We had GCW timeouts because of the lack of EU players, at the same time we implement a system where droids that are treated by DEs can only be traded from Datapad to Datapad. No chance to offer to vendor, no chance to drop into a house, ...
I, as a EU player, didn't even bother to start offering Droids because my overlap with the majority of the player base is non existent.
 
Nathas said:
first of all... make the system accessable to all players....
We had GCW timeouts because of the lack of EU players, at the same time we implement a system where droids that are treated by DEs can only be traded from Datapad to Datapad. No chance to offer to vendor, no chance to drop into a house, ...
I, as a EU player, didn't even bother to start offering Droids because my overlap with the majority of the player base is non existent.
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Noted. I can see the issue. I'll run with it.
 
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