Exploring the Galaxy With Droids

[MrNexx]

So, let's say I want to explore the Galaxy. Figure I'll make a mint selling information to the BoSS and various corporate interests. However, I am an avowed agoraphobic, and don't want to go into space myself. I also hate people, so I'm not going to HIRE someone to do it.

If I wanted to send out a ton of droids to map the galaxy, what would I use? Is there anything canon? Demi-canon? Reasonably inferable? Or should I just buy a bunch of old freighters, load them up with droids, and send them out?
_________________
"I've Seen Your Daily Routine. You Are Not Busy!"
“We're going to win this war, not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.”
http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/

[Zarn]

The movie canon way of doing this is obviously Arakyd Viper probe droids.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Viper_probe_droid

If you wanted something special that you built yourself, I'd go for a set of mobile droid production platforms that were armed (for protection), and that would set up an asteroid mining facility in ore-rich systems to produce new batches of droids.

Essentially a variation on von Neumann probes and replicating seeder ships, but you're making droids. Have a spiderweb design of routes where you're still doing a random walk, but where droids report back occasionally to a hub, and where the hub sends you data.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft

If you wanted to get naughty, you might suborn already existing droids to do your bidding. Obviously, this would be easier if there was extensive usage of slave circuits for ships or pilot droids in the sector where you started, but you might release a few hacker droids that reprogram droids they meet and send them off on random courses to collect data.

If you managed to get hold of some exotic technology, there might be a variety of artifact-level technology that could help you. For instance some sort of new drive system, using Infinity Gates, Gree Hypergates, or whatever.

[MrNexx]

The Viper isn't QUITE what I'm looking for... I want more of a hyperspace capable satellite, that can pop into a system, assess the various major bodies, do the astrogation work to find a new system, and jump to the next system.
_________________
"I've Seen Your Daily Routine. You Are Not Busy!"
“We're going to win this war, not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.”
http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/

[S-Foil]

A light freighter with a 1x hyperdrive decked out with the biggest sensor suite that will fit. Then load up a couple R-series droids as pilots/navigators and a few more plus some ASPs for maintenance. A 3PO brain as the commander. The 3PO fitted with a restraining circuit while the pilots and navigators have restraining circuits to follow the 3PO’s orders but they can get creative with the means.

You can even get an old Vulture droid brain to control the weapons. A Skipray could be used in place of a light freighter since it is armed and has military-spec hardware.

In the movies R2 offered to pilot for Luke on the way to Dagobah so we know droids can independently fly a ship. In most of the movies R2 also did repairs based on vague orders so we also see droids independently conducting repairs. The Separatists droid armies show that droids can be made to take orders from other droids.

Game wise you can load a droid character up with whatever skills you want so there's little restriction there.

[Saikoyu]

Well if you like the aesthetic of the Viper, why not use its big brother from Dark Empire Wiki link here

Size of a corvette and armed, just need to reprogram it for exploration and shove a hyper drive in there. It even has a hanger to dump probes on a planet with if the scans turn up something interesting.

[RedKnight]

does the Hyena bomber have a hyper drive ? if not could you fit it with one and enhanced sensors in the bomb pod ?

[MrNexx]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Sutehp]

I just looked at the Empire Strikes back novelization. As Wajeb said, there's no opening scene with a Star Destroyer deploying probes throughout the Hoth system; it opens instead with Luke on his tauntaun doing his patrol and watching the "meteor" impact just before he's attacked by the wampa. We have a couple of scenes from the probe droid's perspective: one where it disturbs the slumber of a different wampa sleeping in the snow then disintegrates it with its lasers, and another where it creates a force field to protect itself while it camps/stays stationary during the night, crating the only perfectly round dome of snow on all of Hoth.

The earliest hint of additional probe droids only comes when we get to the scene on the Executor with Vader, Ozzel and Piett noting the Hoth probe droid's transmission; it plays out almost exactly like the scene in the movie.
_________________
Sutehp's RPG Goodies
Only some of it is for D6 Star Wars.
Just repurchased the X-Wing and Tie Fighter flight sim games. I forgot how much I missed them.

[ForbinProject]

[Sutehp]

I remember the comic book adaptation of TESB that came out at the same time as the movie. It was a softcover comic book that was roughly the length and width of any of the modern-day Visual Guides we have today, but it really was a comic book. I don't think I could call it a graphic novel as I don't even remember anyone even using the term "graphic novel" back in 1980. But it was a faithful adaptation to the movie and it similarly lacked an opening scene with a Star Destroyer deploying probes. In fact, the very first panel was Luke watching the meteor/probe impacting Hoth, just as in the novelization (and likely the script as well,I assume).

One wonders whether the opening scene in TESB with the Star Destroyer launching its probes was something Lucas et al. tacked on in post-production, rather than something that was planned from the start (or even middle) since it wasn't in the original script. Not that I mind; seeing those probes being launched was pretty cool when I saw it the first time.
_________________
Sutehp's RPG Goodies
Only some of it is for D6 Star Wars.
Just repurchased the X-Wing and Tie Fighter flight sim games. I forgot how much I missed them.

[ForbinProject]

[Ray]

Hell, I can see some Moff somewhere bragging about how hunting down the Rebels is improving life in his system by bringing jobs to the masses producing those droids.

[Sutehp]

[Ray]