Difference between revisions of "Using Seeker Droids (Game Mechanics)"

System Messages

• Seeker Droid Usage

Radial Menus

• Seeker Droid Controller

Game Mechanics

Seeker probe droids are used to update the initial waypoint coordinate for the bounty hunter player who is working on interplanetary bounty missions (Investigation I through master bounty hunter). Seeker probe droids may be used by a bounty hunter who has acquired the Droid Find ability (Investigation 1). With the droid find ability, players get a new option when examining seeker probe droid controllers in their inventory. Only one seeker probe droid can be active at any time.

Seeker probe droid controllers have two usable option: Find Bounty Target; Find and Track Target.

Find Bounty Target

To use a seeker droid controller to summon an seeker droid, the player must first acquire a biological signature from the appropriate spynet operative and then they may use the Probe Droid Command radial menu and choose the Find Bounty Target radial option or Find and Track Target if they have the investigation 3 ability (Tracking Droids) and if the target is currently on their planet. The player can only use the droid if the mark is on the same planet as the player. If the target is not on the current planet then they will need to use an arakyd probe droid to determine which planet it is on. Either choice will start the droid out in the same manner having it perform a taking off animation and then dissapearing to begin its search.

Following the droid taking off the player will receive a report and waypoint to the last known location of the mark or an update to an existing waypoint if the player has previously used an arakyd to determine the location. The time it takes before the droid sends the player this information is based on the player's Droid Speed modifiers. Droid speed modifiers are given out at each level of the investigation tree and at master bounty hunter. The times noted at each level of bounty hunter are as follows:

7:00 minutes at Investigation 1
4:00 minutes at Investigation 2
2:00 minutes at Investigation 3
1:30 at Master

Once the player receives the coordinate update, the probe droid will cease giving updates on the target's location unless the player has issued the Find and Track ability.

Find and Track Target

The Find and Track Target ability allows a player's droid to continuously provide coordinate updates. Using the Find and Track Target ability works the same as using Find Bounty Target. The difference is that a single seeker droid can now give multiple updates. The total updates given by a droid is determined by a player's Tracking Droids modifier. Each point in this modifier grants the player an additional waypoint update. Tracking updates occur at intervals based on the Tracking Droid Speed modifier. Tracking speed intervals:

Tracking Speed +80 - 22 second intervals
Tracking Speed +70 - 70 second intervals *
Tracking Speed +40 - 120 second intervals

As the droid tracking goes on, yet another element comes into play to affect the tracking process; Tracking Droid Effectiveness modifiers. Tracking droid effectiveness modifiers help determine the chance that each tracking attempt will result in a success or failure at the end of each interval. If a track attempt is successful then the waypoint coordinate is updated and the droid continues to update until the next attempt comes up. If the attempt roll fails then the droid ceases tracking and the player must use another droid to continue tracking. Presumably each point in a tracking droid modifier yields a 1% chance to succeed in the tracking attempt thus Players with +100 tracking effectiveness have presumably, a 100% success rate for each track attempt while using the Find and Track Target ability.

If a player enters within 500 meters of a marks coordinate during the update of the mark's coordinate while using the Find or Find and track ability, the mark's position ceases updating although any remaining tracking droids may continue to track until their limit is reached. Successive tracking attempts will only update to the mark's current coordinates.

Formulas

Tracking Success

chance of success = 100 x ( 1 - ( tracking droid effectiveness modifier / 100 )

Mark Spawn Diameter

No known formula exists for how to determine the diameter of mark spawn points but I propose the following:

Spawn diameter = 550 - ( 500 x ( tracking droid effectiveness modifier / 100 ) )

Every point of tracking droid effectiveness should lower the diameter of the mark spawn range around the waypoint. For example by default, a mark can spawn anywhere within 500 meters of the waypoint once the player has stopped the mark movement process. With a tracking droid effectiveness modifier of +50, the mark can only spawn within a diameter of 250 meters of the waypoint. At + 100 tracking effectiveness, the mark can only spawn within 50 meters of the waypoint.

Source References