RodneyThompson
First Post
The droids had certain autonomous functions but no decision-making abilities, thus giving them partial sentience. They would therefore perform functions like firing and aiming weapons based on local intelligence, as well as certain interactions with the populace (such as the droid commander's conversation with Qui-Gon). However, they would periodically take orders from the control ship, and they would be designed to shut down in the absence of those orders. This model is somewhat difficult to rationalize, since it is difficult to imagine how one would produce an artificial intelligence that could mimic so many of the characteristics of sentient human beings without being able to make even the smallest decisions.
Bingo, this is the model I always go with. Battle Droids have small, semi-independent processors that control basic motor functions, low-level decision making (which target do I shoot first?) and include basic organic-interaction functions so that sentients can give battle droids orders without having to be at the control panel. However, the dominant set of instructions comes from the droid control computer, and without its instructions they are incapable of functioning independently. The fact that they have a sense of humor, talk to one another, and have rank is merely there as a convenience for sentients, and are simply emoted representations of internal computer functions. When a droid says "roger roger" he's really doing so for the benefit of observing sentients, and is in truth sending a return signal to the control computer saying "order acknowledged, proceeding." The officer battle droids might be equipped with more advanced analysis software, and thus act as the "field analysis" part of the army, sending assessments back to the control computer which then makes the command decision. What looks like an officer battle droid ordering a grunt battle droid is really a sequence of field analysis-> data sent to control computer -> control computer makes decision -> commands sent to battle droids. It just looks like the officer is giving the order, so that observing sentients can relate (and, thus, intervene in the process if needed).
I would not allow a battle droid in my game without compelling reason, because A) cultural bias would likely make all sentients dislike the droid, B) the battle droid armies are shut down at the end of RotS, and C) they're more flimsy than aluminum foil.