Avian Gamers Network

Droid and Droid Engineer Guide by Yak the Avian
Ver 1.0 -- 1 August 2003 (updates can be found at: http://www.crossler.com/swg/ )

So you want to own a droid, huh? Me too. In fact, I want to make droids, but I spend more of my time online explaining how they're used then I do making them…. So I thought I'd put together this-here manual to explain ya a thing or three.

Droids are the coolest part of SWG for me, and with a little help from the developers, they could be the coolest part for everyone else, too. Currently, the Droid Engineer profession is not broken. It's only majorly sprained. But, the dev doctors have us in a bacta tank and are promising major improvements.

I've broken this guide up by the top seven questions I've been asked in game…

"Where's the best place to get droids?" - 1. Purchasing
"I bought my first droid, now what?" - 2. Naming
"What kind of droids do you sell?" - 3. Chassis types
"What options does this sucker have?" - 4. Functions of Modules
"How do I make it work?" - 5. Commands and programming
"How much to they cost?" - 6. Resources and costs
"Suggestions for new DEs? What are the best things to grind?" - 7. Notes and Hints
"My droid doesn't work! Is this a bug?" - 8. Current droid and Droid Engineer problems


Big Droid News
On July 31st, Q said that we'll be able to build many types of Episode I and Episode II combat droids and named 2 or 3 specific models. He mentioned that expanding our building abilities is their second priority after they fix all of the pending module and other issues. Listen tor recordings on www.unknownplayer.com


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"Where's the best place to get droids?"
1. Purchasing

First steps first. How to you buy a droid? There are a couple ways to do it. Before you do, make sure you have free inventory space, and always buy batteries. Also, untamed droids come in the form of "deeds", just like factories or houses. These deeds just mean the droids have never been used before -- they're untouched by human… er, wookie? hands. Deeds appear in inventory, droids (or more precisely, the droid control devices) appear in your datapad.

-Purchase from vendor: Using the vendors or bazaar should be pretty obvious by now (if it ever works, that is). You can usually find some pretty good deals here. Unfortunately, you can also find some really expensive lemons. After clicking "Bid on Item" make sure you look in the "Available Items" section, as your droid deed should be ready for pickup here. Sometimes, you've actually purchased from a vendor in someone's shop -- in this case, you'll receive a waypoint in your datapad. Run to the shop and pick up your new friend.

-Purchase from seller: Many people prefer this method because you get to look the seller in the (virtual) eye. You can also sometimes ask for deals, and almost always get a free battery or two. After agreeing to a price, make sure you double click on the person, and type in the number of credits you owe. Click OK, and the droid should pop into your inventory or datapad. Always also ask if you may later upgrade the droid for a cheaper model -- it's good to have a trusted supplier. If all your credits are in the bank and you don't have enough with you, you can always /tip yak 4000 bank. Go ahead and type that now to see if it works. Heh heh. Watch out, though -- there is a 5% surcharge.

-Transfer from someone: A friend or seller can transfer ownership of a trained droid to you. Trained droids (their control devices, actually) appear in your datapad, not your inventory. They need to call the droid out of their datapad, click on you, then say the "transfer" command. They won't get a popup confirmation, it'll just appear in your datapad, no questions asked.

You've just purchased your first metallic companion. It's hard, cold and has a stupid name. Let's fix that now.


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"I bought my first droid, now what?"
2. Naming

Once you have your droid, it'll either appear in your inventory as a droid deed or in your datapad. Once you tame the droid for the first time, it'll will no longer be a deed. Every time you store the droid (or wander away, or board a shuttle or get killed), it returns to your datapad.

If you have a droid deed, let's tame it. Go into your inventory, and click on the deed icon. Hold down the mouse button until a radial menu pops up and choose the "Tame" option. You can do this anyplace, you don't have to be in a safe zone. The droid will appear next to you.

If the droid is in your datapad you can only call it in a town, a camp or in a building that you have admin rights to.

Once your droid is next to you, let's name it. We name a droid by programming it with four different commands that each start with its name. Let's program our droid to Follow, Guard, Group, Pivot and Patrol.

1. Click on your droid. Hold down the left button and select the "Program" option.
2. Choose the "Follow Me" command from the submenu.
3. The droid will respond with a query to let you know it's ready to be programmed. If the droid has no personality chip it will say "?"
4. The next chat message you say will be the command memorized. Type "Sandra come". Watch out - commands and names are case sensitive.
5. Do steps 1-4 for Guard, Group, Pivot Point and Patrol.
"Sandra guard"
"Sandra group"
"Sandra point"
"Sandra patrol"
- Usually, after the fourth command, the name about your droids head will change to read "Sandra"
Note - Don't program transfer or release. These commands are dangerous.. read on to know why
Note - The same name filter as SWG uses is in effect -- you can't use numbers or spaces.
Note - You can only have one droid called out at one time, and only five in your datapad.

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"What kind of droids do you sell?"
3. Chassis types

There are currently thirteen main droid body types. For the most part, a basic body type can hold one module while an advanced body type can hold two general purpose and one defense module. There are no huge functional differences between the droid body-types. They primarily look cool. Some of the advanced modules are functional and pretty useful, though the modules covered in the next section give real meaning to the DE profession. Remember that you can only have one droid called out at a time, and five in your datapad.

R-series Astromechs currently allow you to put in a Personality chip, though the devs have said they're going to be removing these during the upcoming Big Patch. So, don't even stick one in, as your droid will still only say "?" and "!"

MSE Droid (Requires Novice Droid Engineer, 68 resources)
- Can be built with 1 General Use Module
MSE Droid, Advanced Model (Requires Blueprints 1, 111 resources)
- Can be built with 2 General Use Modules, 1 Armor Module and a Personality Chip

DZ70 Droid (Requires Blueprints 1, 193 resources)
- Can be built with 1 General Use Module
- Weakest Combat droid. Does approx. 20-30 damage/sec, has 45 health and action points
DZ70 Droid, Advanced Model (Requires Blueprints 2, 165 resources)
- Can be built with 2 General Use Modules, 1 Armor Module and a Personality Chip
- Weakest Combat droid. Does approx. 20-30 damage/sec, has 45 health and action pools, armor greatly improves effectiveness

R5 Droid (Requires Blueprints 1, 376 resources)
- Can be built with 1 General Use Module( and a Personality Chip which does nothing)
R5 Droid, Advanced Model (Requires Blueprints 2, 373 resources)
- Can be built with 2 General Use Modules, 1 Armor Module and a Personality Chip

WED Treadwell Droid (Requires Blueprints 1, 131 resources)
- Can be built with 1 General Use Module
WED Treadwell, Advanced Model (Requires Blueprints 2, 208 resources)
- Can be built with 2 General Use Modules, 1 Armor Module and a Personality Chip

Power Droid (Requires Blueprints 2, 2647 resources)
- Can be built with 1 General Use Module
- Requires a Power Core (built by an Architect with Buildings I)
- A Repair module on a power droid does NOT work
Power Droid, Advanced Model (Requires Blueprints 3, 2684 resources)
- Requires a Power Core (built by an Architect with Buildings I)
- A Repair module on a power droid does NOT work

R4 Droid (Requires Blueprints 2, 393 resources)
- Can be built with 1 General Use Module( and a Personality Chip which does nothing)
R4 Droid, Advanced Model (Requires Blueprints 3, 432 resources)
- Can be built with 3 General Use Modules, 1 Armor Module and a Personality Chip

LE Repair Droid (Requires Blueprints 3, 400 resources)
- Can not be built with any modules
- Automatically Function as though built with a Droid Repair Module
- To use, call the droid, click on a friend's damaged droid (that has Health or Action black-bar wounds) and hold down your mouse to click the "Repair" option
LE Repair Droid, Adv. Model (Requires Blueprints 4, unknown resources)
- Automatically Function as though built with a Droid Repair Module
- To use, call the droid, click on a friend's damaged droid (that has Health or Action black-bar wounds) and hold down your mouse to click the "Repair" option
- An additional repair module put on the droid causes it to not work

Surgical Droid (Requires Blueprints 3, 660 resources)
- Can be built with 1 General Use Module and a Personality Chip
- Automatically Functions as though built with a Level VI Medical Healing Module
- Surgical droids are supposed to slowly heal everyone close by after the next Big Patch
Surgical Droid, Adv Model (Requires Blueprints 4, unknown resources)
- Automatically Functions as though built with a Level VI Medical Healing Module
- Surgical droids are supposed to slowly heal everyone close by after the next Big Patch

R2 Droid (Requires Blueprints 3, 927 resources)
- Can be built with 1 General Use Module, 1 Armor Module( and a Personality Chip which does nothing)
R2 Droid, Advanced Model (Requires Blueprints 4, unknown resources)

Probot (Requires Blueprints 3, 450 resources)
- Can be built with 1 Armor Module (Armor currently does not work)
- Combat droid. Has 1.5 attack speed, at 50 - 55 damage. Has 810 HAM
- Some pre-nerf Probots exist from before 22 July - these have 3150 HAM pools but not working armor
Probot, Adv. Model (Requires Blueprints 4, 808 resources)
- Can be built with 2 General Use Modules, 2 Armor Module and a Personality Chip
- Combat droid. Has 1.5 attack speed, at 50 - 55 damage. Has 810 HAM

R3 Droid (Requires Blueprints 4, unknown resources)

Binary Load Lifter Droid (Requires Blueprints 4, unknown resources)

Protocol Droid (Requires Blueprints 4, unknown resources)
- Can only be built with a Personality Chip

Note: When building droids (or anything, for that matter), you can use different resources to drastically increase the quality of your products. If you open your datapad, and look at the schematic for what you want to make, it lists the subcomponents, and which attributes of resources it looks for. So, if a Droid Brain asks for 100% Resist Decay, then a chemical with a 999 Decay Resistance would be the very best thing you could put in that slot. So many people overlook this…


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"What options does this sucker have?"
4. Functions of Modules

Modules add functionality to droids. These pieces are the most important (and most commonly overlooked) parts a droid can have. Modules must be used when droids are created -- they can't be added later. You can't upgrade modules after a droid was built. Come buy a new one!

There are three categories of modules:
Armor (Droid Defensive) Modules:
These add protective armor plating onto droids. Some advanced droids (the Adv. Probot) can hold two separate armor modules. These make a huge difference in combat, and can really extend the life of your droid.
- Level I (Requires Droid Engineer Novice, 43 resources):
- Level II (Requires Droid Construction 1, 58 resources):
- Level III (Requires Droid Construction 2, 72 resources):
- Level IV (Requires Droid Construction 3, 92 resources):
- Level V (Requires Droid Construction 4, 100 resources): Requires 1 Composite Armor Segment from an Armorsmith with Personal Armor IV
- Level VI (Requires Master Droid Engineer, 125 resources): Requires 1 Composite Armor Segment from an Armorsmith with Personal Armor IV
Note: Currently, armor does not work on Probots, as the devs feel it makes them too powerful. They are working on the balance of this, so stay tuned. Advanced Probots can still take armor (2 sets of it, even!)

Personality Modules:
These allow speaking droids to respond to commands with comments. Sometimes, your droid will spout of interesting quips, especially in the middle of combat. Without a personality module, droids respond with the default "?" and "!" prompts. You can always look at your droids statistics in your datapad to see what personality module it has installed. You cannot upgrade personality modules (or any other modules). Because they require GP Electronics chips and Memory modules that can only be made by Master Artisans, they can be expensive.

- Stupid Base Droid Personality Module: (Requires Novice Droid Engineer, 43 resources)
- Sarcastic Base Droid Personality Module: (Requires Droid Production 1, 82 resources)
- Prissy Base Droid Personality Module: (Requires Droid Production 2, 65 resources)
- Worshipful Base Droid Personality Module: (Requires Droid Production 3, 91 resources)
- Slang Base Droid Personality Module: (Requires Droid Production 4, X resources)
- Geeky Base Droid Personality Module: (Requires Master Droid Engineer, X resources)

General Modules:
There are nine types of general modules. These can all fit in the Optional Droid Service Module Harness slots found on most droid chassis.

-Crafting Modules function just like a public crafting station found in a city -- they allow people to craft items of up to 25 complexity from any location. They also allow crafters to experiment on their items to improve their qualities.
-- Weapons/Droid/General Item Crafting Module: (Requires Droid Production 1, 100 resources)
-- Food/Medicine Crafting Module: (Requires Droid Construction 2, 100 resources)
-- Clothing/Armor Crafting Module: (Requires Droid Construction 3, 85 resources)
-- Structural Crafting Module: (Requires Droid Production 4, X resources)

-Assistance Modules allow three different types of special functionality. Each can be between Level I and Level VI, with higher levels improving quality of use:
-- Item Storage Modules: Holds additional items. Will return items to inventory when droid disappears, wanders away, or is stored. Open the inventory after you've made the droid. Next, you can only drag items onto the droid, then you must open the droid inventory to retrieve them. The next Big Patch should fix this problem, but also make it so that you can Level I storage modules only hold about 1 item.
-- Data Storage Modules: Holds additional waypoints or data items. Can no longer hold extra missions (that was nice while it lasted!)
-- Medical Modules: These do not heal! They allow medics to tend wounds and heal as though they were in a Medical center. It appears that the quality rating of the module is the % of what is achieved in a medical center. So, a Level III module (around quality 50%) will let medics tend wounds half the amounts as in a medical center.

-Miscellaneous modules:
-- General Droid Module Socket Cluster: (Requires Droid Production 3, 66 resources): This module allows you to place three modules into the slot normally taken by one. This way, droids that normally had two module slots can potentially have six.
-- Droid Repair Module: (Requires Droid Construction 2, 81 resources): This module allows your droid to repair Health and Action wounds in other droids. These wounds show up as black bars in the droids status area. Click on the damaged droid, hold down the mouse and select the "Repair" option. These repair modules have been verified to work on MSE and Advanced R3 droids. They do NOT work on Power Droids or LE Repair Droids. This command usually does not work the first time given…. But it usually kicks in the second or third time.


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"How do I make it work?"
5. Commands and programming

Beware of the Release and Transfer commands! These are dangerous, and have accidentally lost many droids!

To program a command into your droid, you need to select the Program option and choose each command and program it individually. To later give the command, just type it into the chat box. Your commands are not saved until the droid is stored into your datapad, so do that after you change every command.

1. Click on your droid. Hold down the left button and select the "Program" option.
2. Choose the "Follow Me" command from the submenu.
3. The droid will respond with a query to let you know it's ready to be programmed. If the droid has no personality chip it will say "?"
4. The next chat message you say will be the command memorized. Type "Sandra come". Watch out - commands and names are case sensitive.
5. Do steps 1-4 for Guard, Group, Get Patrol Point and Patrol.
"Sandra guard"
"Sandra group"
"Sandra point"
"Sandra patrol"
- Usually, after the fourth command, the name about your droids head will change to read "Sandra"

If your droid has a name that you don't like, just reprogram all the commands that it has stored with ones using the new name.

Command notes: Most of the commands are pretty obvious. These ones aren't:
- Release - This removes the droids restraining bolt and sets it free. It will wander off and soon disappear. You can attack droids after releasing them. There is no way to undo this command.
- Transfer - This transfers ownership of your droid to whomever you have targeted. As soon as you do this, the droid will appear in their datapad. There is no way to get this back. You can only have 5 droids in your datapad at once, so if their pad is full, they can't receive it.
- Guard - This command will tell the droid to guard the person it is currently following. If you just give the command, it will not guard you. You must give it the "follow me" command first.
- Get Patrol Point - This tells the droid to store a pivot point in it's memory -- it can hold up to 10 patrol points. When you give it the patrol command, it will continuously walk between all the of these points.
- Patrol - Repeatedly walk between the above points until you tell it to stop or you walk out of range.

-Notes on patrolling: After you set your droid to patrol, it will continuously walk between all of the patrol points even if you are not in the area. I've tried it up to 200m away and being in a different city, and the droid keeps on going… and going… If you set patrol points inside buildings, the droid will sometimes warp between the points if it can't find the route to go, so you can sometimes have droids appearing in your living room then upstairs bedroom. It can even go into buildings that you've been later banned from -- there is nothing the owner can do to make it leave until the server reboots. When placing patrol points, the queue will continually accept points until you make the droid move by following someone. Thus, if you tell it to follow you, then give it a point, then move 100m and give it a new point, it will only remember the last point. You can, however, give it new points once it's patrolling. You can give it points from up to 50 m away, so you can theoretically set your droid to patrol for 500m. This combined with a creative name can result in some great advertising.

-Shuttles: If you get on a shuttle with your droid out, the droid will stay behind, and sometimes turn red as though you had released him. Don't do this unless you want to buy a new droid.
- Naming: Four different commands with the droids name as the first word in the command will teach the droid its name. Immediately store and re-call your droid after it learns its name.
- Case sensitive: Names and commands are case sensitive. Names can be up to 25 characters long, and cannot contain numbers or special characters. "BuyAvianHighQualityWares" is valid, while "Buy_Avian-It's_the_best!" is not.


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"How much do they cost?"
6. Resources and costs

It's very difficult to set a pricing scheme, as economies differ greatly between servers. The rule of thumb is to charge whatever people will pay. I would recommend something like below. Whatever you charge, have a set amount and put it in your Character's bio. When people ask for droids, just tell them to examine your bio to see your prices. Put in a quick blurb about how to use them (or where to find this guide) and you'll save yourself hours of explaining.

I'd base a formula you use on something like this. Of course, find your own price and adjust to the market you're in:

ResourceBase on Chilastra seems to be about 4.
Price per piece = (#Resources * (ResourceBase + BP_lev_needed * 5)) +
(Const_or_Prod_lvl_needed * 1500)

You might add an additional (Your_Refinement_lvl * 1000) for each pieces, especially if you get some really high successes (even though experimenting is bugged and does nothing to help droids).

Remember that you really wont be making any good money until you hit Blue Prints 4, so you have to increases your prices to help pay for the hundreds of thousands of resources you will need.

Do not get sucked into the trap of selling too low just because you need cash!! Of course you want to make sure you have the deal, but most customers are willing to pay more for a droid than you think. If they don't have the money, ask them to pay half now and owe you half... or ask for resources as payment. If you sell too low, you are screwing every future sale you make and every other Droid Engineer on the market. Probots selling for 3k is just outrageous and completely unbalances the economy. We are one of the key professions needed to build quality goods. If you are only selling to defray the costs of grinding, you're making a big mistake. /endRant

For a two-page printable resource guide, I've put together a Microsoft Excel list at:
http://www.crossler.com/swg/droid_resources.xls

For screenshots for those who don't have MS Excel, they're at:
http://www.crossler.com/swg/droid_droids.gif
and http://www.crossler.com/swg/droid_components.gif
Make sure you print them in landscape mode


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"Suggestions for new DEs? What are the best things to grind?"
7. Notes and Hints

- This profession needs a TON of resources! You'll need about 610,000 resources to make Master Droid Engineer. Get at least two energy harvesters (start with wind and move to solar as soon as you can) and eight mineral harvesters (start with personal, and move up to mediums as you can afford it). Try to harvest steel if possible, but you can grind with almost any metal. Also find a good cache of fiberplast.

- If you choose to make Master Artisan, it will help in building the more advanced products. I chose to just buy crates of memory modules and GP modules from a MA friend. Always get resources in crates when possible -- your inventory will soon start swelling.

- Make 700 MSE droids, and always use the practice command. This is the profession of grinding. If you can knock out 100 a day, you'll level every few days. Remember that it's a slow climb! If you have the resources, move up to manipulator arms and Adv Droid frames.

- Read the www.swgcraft.com bulletin board on Droid Engineering. This seems to be the central place where intelligent crafters gather.

- Don't forget about modules!! They are what give droids functionality. Without them, your droids are just pretty.

- If you can't make the higher-level modules, find a Droid Engineer who can and buy them from her. You can use these to sell more droids to get some cash. You'll spend a LOT more time traveling and picking up pieces, but that's also good, as it will help you find new markets.


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"My droid doesn't work! Is this a bug?"
8. Current droid and Droid Engineer problems

Here are the current ones copied from the Official SWG Site's DE Correspondent's thread:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/boar ... ge.id=7560

- Droid Uniqueness and usefulness.
- Working modules and additional modules.
- UXP and a scrutinized look at XP in general.
- More viable combat droids at different levels.
- Repairing a droid is not possible (white bar).
- Expirimentation is broken.
- Droid decay and more reasons to have a customer return to us
- World persistence of droids instead of "pokemon" droids.
- More than one droid out at a time.
- Power level indicator on droids (Displayed on screen)
- Remove Bounty Hunter droids from vendors.
- Droid pathing and following. They stop sometimes for no reason.
- Droids only a DE can use
- Droid selling at the bazaar (increase limit and give us our own header)
- Redo the skill tree, adding new blueprints, modules.. etc.
- Droid user manual in the holycron so we can curb the questions.
- Languages so protocol droids will be more useful.
- Droid names use standard naming filter. We want numbers in the name.
- Information in datapad about droids displays wrong until you store droid.
- No graphics for Probot attacks.
- Item Storage module 2's come out as Data storage 2's when hopper finished.
- Storing the droid causes all loss of items on an Item storage droid.
- Droids dragged from the datapad to the secure trade window are invisible.
- Droid repair kits do not work properly.
- Multiple crafting stations in some droids breaks the modules.
- Droid does not travel with you when you take the shuttle. It stays behind and -sometimes goes red.
- Datapad and deed should show which modules and options are installed.
- Allow us to drop batteries into droid storage and have it recharge itself.


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OK, that's it for the Yak. If you're interested in buying a droid, Look up Avain Technology and Trade on the Chilastra server... we have over 50 shops in Avian City, located at 1000x1500 -- south of Keren on Naboo. Or, visit our website at http://www.swg-avian.net/ for updates to this guide and many other crafting tips and tricks.

I just have time to skim this and it looks fantastic so far. Very thorough. I'll comment once I get a chance to actually read it.

_________________
Romsuiag (Brad)
Former and Third President of Avian

Yak, I really love ALL your guides, pointers, and everything else you write for the benefit of the not so smart people like me. I got to the end of this one and was almost sad it wasn't finished. Only because I've always wanted to know all this stuff about the droids, but never tried or had a chance to find out. I, if no one else, would love to see this guide finished up. Keep the "Yak's SWG ____ for Dummies" guides coming.

Thanks Yak!

_________________
X'ero Ascaris
Swordsman/Weaponsmith
Section 4
Deputy Director

"Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth!" ~Olorin

Thanks, X'ero!

OK, look above for version two... almost finished. I haven't double checked all the info. Please enter any suggestions here before I start posting this everywhere.

Excellent stuff YAK! Now, if only you'd change your profession and become a Doctor and write up some good manuals I'm not a droid engineer, but, I really like reading what you write. Very interesting.

_________________
Nasiobo Aprillis
Star Wars: The Old Republic | Jedi Consular (Nasiobo)
Slicing, Scavenging and Cybertech

Great guide Yak !

I have a question though : is there a way to make droids regen faster ?

Not that I know of. That's one point we're asking for... ability to heal white bars.

Nice guide Yak! Helps us droid purchasers too.

Updated to add information about pathing and droid names under the "Commands" section.

You can have a droid patrol 500m. Once you set it on it's patrol, you can leave the area and it'll keep going until you've logged out.

Is there a way to "unprogram" a droid, or change the name once set?

It seems that the name I tried to give mine must have been too long, and now I can't get it to accept a name. It's still got the type of droid it is over it.

_________________
"Loose with Dignity"
Robert
Second President, Avian Gamers

DDO - Cannith - AlistairItor - Rogue/Ranger (5/3) - Main
DDO - Cannith - Guijanitor - Paladin/Rogue (4/1)
DDO - Cannith - RicochetItor - Rogue (5)

Like everybody else was saying nice guide yak it teaches a lot.

To "unprogram" a droid, just retrain it in all the commands it is currently trained in with a new name.

Yak, I just found your guide up at Allakhazam.

Great info, BTW!

Edward

Good stuff Yak! You mentioned 9 Types of General Modules. What are they and what do they do? Am I missing that section?

_________________
"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides." - Thomas Paine, Common Sense