Crypto Garn is an old engineer. He lives on an old asteroid complex deep in the Unknown Regions, a secluded place where he finds peace and solitude. Garn escaped the Republic when he realized that certain policies and experiments he intended to perform were going to be made public.

 

Garn is a droid aficionado. He fixes them, modifies them, even builds them. The asteroid complex is swarming with droids, all with different roles. Protocol droids, probe droids, engineering droids, astromechs. They work to keep the complex running and give Garn some company.

 

Garn, since his exile, has been working on a new kind of droid, something he called the Synthetic Sentience Analog or SSA. Exactly what makes these droids so special is unknown, but it appears to be the reason for his exile. You are activated at the beginning of the game and given the model designation of SSA-09, or just Zero-Nine for short.

 

From the get-go you are confused. You're not sure what's going on, and your thoughts are cloudy. Garn, excited, treats you kindly and almost like a child. You are given your own quarters and sent forth to interact with the other droids. This is where most of your quests for the first 5 or 6 levels would come from; helping other droids with a certain air of innocence with things around the complex. Some of them like you, some of them don't much care for you ("Oh, look, it's the Creator's favorite datapad."), some of them are more autonomous and have no opinion of you. And then some droids are actually not under Garn's control, and so you have to fight them as you would any other enemies for the other classes. There is also the threat of mynocks and other space-traveling denizens to contend with. Maybe one quest has you use magnetic feet to travel up the side and top of the outside of the complex to kill mynocks trying to eat through the hull. You also befriend your first companion, a probe droid healer.

 

All of this is compounded with a few choice conversations with Garn, who spends a lot of time proclaiming how RIGHT he was and that you, the droid, are SO beautiful simply because you EXIST.

 

Around lvl 5 or 6 you start finding some weird things. Notes left over in old data terminals, bits and pieces of the outside world; maybe you successfully turn on the Holonet one day. You find out that, recently, a small freighter housing a family of nomads/workers had gone missing in the Unknown Regions. Soon you find a room with a few dead bodies in it, one of which is a teenager with the tag "#09" on him/her.

 

Eventually you approach Garn and confront him, and the truth is made horrifyingly clear. The SSA Program was meant to remove the weaknesses of biological life by implanting the minds of people into droid bodies. Originally the idea was for people who were dieing or otherwise needed to continue to live, but Garn's superiors deemed it inhuman and tried to shut him down. He fled to continue his work, capturing the crew of any ship that happened to wander through the area to experiment on. You are the only success he had, the only time when the mind was successfully transferred without the person/droid going insane or losing its free will. He is clearly beginning to lose his faculties, and decides that you have to be destroyed for being so smart (after all, he knows the process works now that you exist; he doesn't need you anymore). He flees the room as you fight the other SSA droids he summoned.

 

After destroying them all you rush to reach Garn, who in his crazed state set a self-destruct sequence for the entire complex, figuring if nothing else he can destroy you along with himself. You now get a Light Side option and two Dark Side options.

 

Light Side: Grab Garn and drag him to an escape pod/emergency shuttle and escape the facility with him. (150 pts)

Dark Side: Flee the facility and allow Garn to die in the explosion (only 50 pts)

Dark Side: Kill Garn before fleeing the facility (150 pts)

 

You now have a choice; travel to Coruscant or Dromund Kas, which will decide whether you join the Empire or the Republic. If you choose the Republic you are treated with pity by most of the populace, and if you saved Garn he is arrested. If you choose the Empire you are seen as a monster by most, though you will have your uses, and if you saved Garn he is put to work in a lab by a Sith Lord.

 

From here you help to fight against the opposing faction, but all the while deal with knowing what you are. Perhaps you start getting intermittent flashes of your old life which, in turn, give you quest points (like "Omg, I just remembered that time we saw a bunch of Sith heading for (insert random planet here) with a giant doom weapon.")

 

hmm...something like that could work extremely well. on dromund kaas theres a quest where something similar happens to a squad of sith troopers, so its obviously plausible in the star wars universe. hell yeah i like this idea. it sounds better and more like my favorite story/class every second i think about it!

How about this? You have two Droid classes, but the Droid classes have different Droid "Races" in it. So, for an example, you have an HK race that you can modify, IG Droids, you know. Maybe 5 Droid races? The first droid class could wield Vibroswords and Vibroknives, and shield generators, with maybe a few long range attacks, and the second one can wield blaster pistols and rifles. The first one would be DPS/Tank, the second DPS/heal. I don't really know... What do you guys think? Sorry if this has been mentioned before, and I'm just repeating stuff.

Sounds good, though it'd be like the sorcerer pandemic all over again where everyone goes the same class :L

This topic's come back up so I'm supporting the original thread.

Adding my support to this old thread, and linking in a newer one I started where myself and a few other people posted about some of the possible solutions to problems that would affect a droid class.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=561462

Just adding some kindling to an old ember.

 

I'd love to see a class like this. I think the main problem people see is 'why would people take orders from a droid' and 'who would want to play a droid'?

 

To both of these, I'd like to point to what I thought of the Republic Trooper class. Why would you want to essentially play one of those dudes in the funny helmets with famously bad accuracy? Who would take a random grunt seriously? But then you actually get into the campaign and find out how awesome you are and how good it is to blow people up.

 

I see this as a parallel to a droid class. Yes people would see you with their own prejudices, but you can bet money you wouldn't be some factory battledroid. If this happened, you would be hardcore crazy balls to the wall secret prototype one of a kind battledroid.

 

Heck, the old republic has a long history of ancient tech... droid technology seems to be older than recorded history. They could even use this and make you a reactivated ancient droid. Sentient but with databanks wiped from millenia of data corruption. Making a deal with either side for their help in recovering your past and searching for your makers while utilizing cannons, rockets, and metal pincers to aid them in return.

 

See? Its not that hard to make a plot driven story surrounding a droid. Now romance options? Thats rather harder. But maybe you can look to F.I.S.T.O from New Vegas for inspiration. Please assume the position.

I think the main problem people see is 'why would people take orders from a droid'

 

Would you want to tell IG-88 "no"?

GATO from Kotor2 anyone? (I hope I spelled his name right.)

HEY, the droid class idea has come back around !! There have been dozens of these threads......

 

A while back I linked in my version of this thread. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=561462

 

Between all the threads about this, players have practically designed the class/race/ACs & written a plausible story.

 

Dear BW, how many players have to show interest in this idea bedfore the story writers start taking a look at some of the things players have suggested? It's expac material......for free........

Edited March 14, 2013 by Cleet_Xia

No

 

/10chars

Yes - would be much fun. AND there's even a droid(similair to R2D2) that somehow got the force(it's in an old Starwars magazine, a short story). Not saying droids should nor shouldn't have access to the force, just a urge to share that information. Edited March 14, 2013 by -DG-

Wow! I just stumbled across this thread and thought to myself....What an increadibly clever idea. It's so perfect as new class. I've wondered myself about how, or if they ever introduce a new class, what could it possibly be? In all honesty NOTHING would be more interesting in terms of story line, or just an oppurtunity for the developers to really try and craft something so unique in terms of game play. Like the sniper class, this would be an oppurtinity to bring something unique, new and fresh to mmo's given just the versatility of what you could imagine with a droid. Bravo to the OP and all the other posters who lended thoughts and Ideas to this post. I feel BW would be foolish not to mine this jewel handed to them by there fans. This is it's own GAME! I mean really you could do a whole series on this topic by itself. I'm really blown away at how creative and yet simple this idea is. It's so perfect.

If the droid was powered like the Trooper companion droid, by a rare and unique power source - or similiar to that of the HK-series and/or GATO droid...

 

the only 'large' concern, would be do they get a shared questline or a completely new one?

 

As for classes, or sub classes - one would be a support + tank and the other could be support + dps lines.