Harvesting droids?

[TradeMaster]

So I put together my first real creature harvesting droid, Mining droid mk 3 total harvest bonus 113, took him out for a test render, and the little guy still harvests at 1/3 of the effectiveness of my combat toon. I thought they were supposed to be better harvesters than us mere humans if they're close to being capped ya?

I used 2 combat capable clusters filled with creature harvest units (rated 18s 3 in a cluster gave me a 56) paired up they rated a harvest bonus of 113. Did I miss something important in having my droid actually be worthwhile to harvest creature resources with?

[Zimoon]

Shouldn't be that way but have no answers. Was a while since I brought out little Harvie, also something around 115. But last time he serviced me just fine, I will give him a go this week to see.

Anyone else noticed anything?

/Z

[Jhaerel]

I was using a 112 rated combat droid the other day, killing level 89 & 90 creatures... With the harvest food I was getting about 1000 units off each creature. This was considerably more than I was getting without the harvest droid. Two of us were able to get about 70k units of hide on only four lairs.

You are actually letting the droid harvest, instead of using the radial and harvesting yourself right?

Another point we discovered, the 112 rated droid harvests the exact same amount as the 116 rated droid. Not sure if there's an increase at 120, don't have a droid to try it with.

Jh

[Zimoon]

...the 112 rated droid harvests the exact same amount as the 116 rated droid...

Where both of you guys at the same CL? Could that matter?

I mean, I know there is a diminishing bonus the higher the rating, but not that it was flat

On a side note: is it possible the original poster had a loot macro running and that way making the corpses vanish before the droid managed to get to them. A loot macro will loot the body and that makes it due for removal, so turn that off and see to it all hunting party members do to. I guess you can do without the butchers offal for once

Also, the droid sometimes miss corpses. It is good to have it listen to commands and if so, target the corpse and say the command. This depends on droid type as some have a hard time in rough terrain.

That is all I can come to think of at the moment.

/Z

[Jhaerel]

...the 112 rated droid harvests the exact same amount as the 116 rated droid...

Where both of you guys at the same CL? Could that matter?

I mean, I know there is a diminishing bonus the higher the rating, but not that it was flat

On a side note: is it possible the original poster had a loot macro running and that way making the corpses vanish before the droid managed to get to them. A loot macro will loot the body and that makes it due for removal, so turn that off and see to it all hunting party members do to. I guess you can do without the butchers offal for once

Also, the droid sometimes miss corpses. It is good to have it listen to commands and if so, target the corpse and say the command. This depends on droid type as some have a hard time in rough terrain.

That is all I can come to think of at the moment.

/Z

If we were different CL, it was only by 1 or 2, I was lower, yet harvesting the same amount as the higher level person.

Loot macros can definitely cause a problem, you need that droid to hit them before they disappear.

As far as terrain goes, we had no problem, even on some really rough stuff. The droid got them all!

Jh

[TradeMaster]

The main swg forums, are stating that harvesting amounts also scail with the level of the toon and, the level of the creature. And well I was using my level 27 smuggler (on BRIA! got one moved over "savinon") and was dinking around with the collection quests, killing rills and kreetles on tatt. so, even though I was able to pull upwards of 11 units o meat off of the creatures, my droid got at best 3. I'm going to be testing this information with my droid engineer once the mustafar extrusive disappears and can report back.

[gelgamesh]

Wait a second, How did you get into the main.....Trokk! it's you, isn't it!!! just kidding!
I remember reading a thread on harvesting droids also. but I can't find it anywhere now. must have been on the old site. It would be a shame to loose all that info. I suspect that the old site has been overloaded with "new members" or has turned into a pay site.
/assuming the worst.
If Trokk is no longer with us, I was wondering if there was a way to 'commandeer' the old site or purchase a back-up copy of it. I guess that would be a violation of intellectual property. Still, it would be a great topic for a new thread. oops, sorry!

[TradeMaster]

The one sponsored by Sony dude. I hesitate to post anything there usually due to the rampant yelling, screaming whining, crying and general flamage. (my asbestoses underwear is at the cleaners) but every now and agian if I'm really careful (or bored) I'll post something.

[Onyx]

Hmmm, that is odd on the return. I use mine on my combat characters all the time and they gather far more than I do.

I don't think the droid needs to be grouped with you but you might try that and see if it makes a difference. Also, I presume you did set the harvest interest and give it a harvest command. It should go to any corpse automatically and harvest while you are killing the next thing.

And yes, as someone else mentioned, veghash's harvest bonus also stacks with the droid so you'll want to pick some of that up if you can.

And yea, the game play discussion forum at the main site can be brutal. The engineering profession forum is far more gentle though

[TradeMaster]

As an fyi, the Sony site information appears to be correct. I ran out of little kreetles to mass exterminate and I'm stuck using missions to get my death kreetles and Overkreetles, and with those little buggers at my level, my drois is harvesting more than I could by myself. I'm gonna og over there and tell 'em now.

[Shadow5037]

Thanks for the info on the harvesting droids, everyone. I've been meaning to throw one together for myself to try out, but I had a friend that told me it wasn't worth the bother, he said something else was better, food or personal harvesting bonuses or something (it's been some months so I forget what he said exactly). My architect goes through extremely insane amounts of hide. *shudder* Although since I'm a 4+ year veteran pure crafter/entertainer, I tend to forget I can actually kill things now still lol.

[Zimoon]

Thanks for the info on the harvesting droids, everyone. I've been meaning to throw one together for myself to try out, but I had a friend that told me it wasn't worth the bother, he said something else was better, food or personal harvesting bonuses or something (it's been some months so I forget what he said exactly). My architect goes through extremely insane amounts of hide. *shudder* Although since I'm a 4+ year veteran pure crafter/entertainer, I tend to forget I can actually kill things now still lol.

As far as I know the droids work as expected.

Your friend is incorrect. Yes, Veghash boost your harvesting skills for about 15 minutes a bite. Plus being grouped adds a bonus. But the droids works too. I don't think the old Creature Harvesting skill SEA's do work.

The interesting thing is that the bonuses from Veghash, grouping, and the droid do stack!!! Yes, they stack!!! In that sense your friend is incorrect. It is possible to triple your yield over your plain, unboosted skills.

Cheers
/Z

[Onyx]

Yes, using a droid with should harvest far more than you can ever harvest alone.

All players have a base creature harvesting skill of +25.

Veghash can increase that by a value of up to +34 (so +59 total).

Grouping also provides a small bonus to the amount harvested.

As far as I am aware, the amount gathered is not determined by the level of the player, it is only determined by the level of what you kill. So, harvesting from a level 20 fambaa will yield far less resources than killing a level 66 fambaa.

So, here's the test I just ran.

Two characters, one level 16 the other level 90. They were killing a lair of level 21 fambaa.

Ungrouped, after each killing one, they each harvested 34 units of hide.

Grouped, after killing one, they each harvested 40 units of hide.

With a harvest droid out, they each harvested 53 units of hide.

With only veghash, and no harvest droid, they each harvested 76 units of hide.

With veghash and a harvest droid, they each harvested 88 units of hide.

That is until the fambaa stomped on the droid of the level 16 lol.

My harvest droids are probots and have a harvest rating of 92.

[Zimoon]

Resembles the numbers Red-Dwarf compiled half a year ago, as read in the Creature Resource Guide.

Happy hunting

/Z