Redeeming the R5

[willg]

The R5 has the worst reputation among astromechs. Cheaply, shoddy construction, faulty motivators and disagreeable , flat personalities....

But theres those among us who love that flowerpot head...

If you ended up aquiring an R5 in your games, what would you do with it? To improve it I mean

Blaster practice aside...

[shootingwomprats]

Well you could upgrade the droid brain of the "software" personality package. These would be easy enough things to do:

Upgrade Droid Brain (Moderate 15, 30 minutes, 250 credits)
Upgrade Personality Matrix (Easy 10, 1 hour, 100 credits)

You could then perhaps tweak out the personality matrix with some custom lines of code using Droid Programming (Easy to Difficult). You could change the color or pinstriping on the outside. Maybe give it "curb feelers" or neon lighting under its body. Spinners on its wheels?
_________________
Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
http://d6holocron.com/shootingwomprats
@swd6podcast, Twitter

[Raven Redstar]

[shootingwomprats]

[DB 2.0]

The Jawa with no Name swaps out the head for one he salvaged of a dead R2, he replaces the bad motivators with (usually) equally bad but less worn aftermarket replacements.he then puts a software patch on the personality matrix that should hold till he's out of blaster range. He then sells it to some unsuspecting schmuck as a R2.

[Raven Redstar]

Too bad his target has "Value: Droids" and is able to quickly see the shoddy modifications and the attempted deception.
_________________
RR
________________________________________________________________

[DB 2.0]

not if you stick to a client base of hick moisture farmers and drunken offworld freighter crews.

[willg]

Which unwittingly brings up the point of Astromech hybridisation.

[DB 2.0]

hybridization? none of that going on hear, he's just slapping a some R2 body panels on a R5, jimmying up a fake User Interface on then changing the Badgeing and DIN.

[willg]

Im assuming a large part of astromech parts are compatible across the series, from R2 upwards.

Perhaps its more a question of just Hardware that makes an Astromech more advanced than its predecessor, its software improvments too.

[willg]

Heres another question.
IA male R2 Series astromechs, and it is the only vintage R series still in production. R3s were made for the Old Republic military.
The R5 series was a failure, so thats been discontinued.
Then theres R6s etc...

If you bought a first generation R2 from say, 50+ years ago, Pre Phantom menace era and you bought one just out the factory, are they going to be identical? I doubt it.
Same basic specs, perhaps, but little tweaks and improvments over the years.

Same as cars, theres different generations of the same model car, right?

Mind you, the older R2 has more experience. He could have software and hardware upgrades, if his owner was that way inclined.

What you guys think?

[DB 2.0]

don't think of Astromechs like consumer vechicles, think of them more like military or farm vesicles, the Jeep changed little once they where all produced by the same manufacturer in the late 40's till they where phased out by the HMMWV starting in the mid 80's (finaly exited from frountline service around 1990 and reserve services around Y2K) in US service and still used in many parts of the world today or the Land-rover popular for Rural, Resource Exploration users and British & Commonwealth Military forces the world over till the late 90's and still widely used today since the late 40's.

the R6 was meant to be the replacement for the R2, it made the most of Rebellion Era tech but had difficulties competing with the proven R2 who's costs had bean atonmisesd by IA and widely licensed to other compines throwout explored space. it took a number of years for the R6 to take off but the R2 remained more popular due to low cost, inexpensive repair parts and proven capabilities. the R2 would remain more profitable for IA for many years to come, making the R6 a Premium Astro Droid

the R7 was full of breakthrough Tech and over-optimized for use with the E-Wing and would not prove profitable especially when the E-Wing was abandoned by the New Republic.

the R8 was brought out in the 20's ABY to replace the R2, R6 & R7, at that time R2 production had all but stopped by IA and licensed copies of the R2 where nowhere as capable as the R8

the R9 was just coming out in the 30's ABY

[willg]

Licencsed copies? Did not know about them. When is an R2 not an R2?

A bit like the 3-Z light freighter Nova Drive is a licenced YT-1200, but with the design modified. My ship is a 3-Z

That also brings upvthe idea of aftermarket parts and compatability issues...lol.

[willg]

[DB 2.0]

Aha! Captain Len Temple's (a character I GM) Droid Sidekick R3-R5, the Impies don't bother to ask for a operators permit for a junker R5 like they do for a Military Grade R3, so old R3-R5 can hide in plane sight, even though Cpt. Len dose have a permit for his little buddy not all of his Aliases do.