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Thread: Smugglers in SWG History as written by the Devs
Blair wrote:
Smuggler
We are going to look at and probably revise the Underworld skill set.
We'll fix bugs with slicing 4.
Spices will get experimentation values (for withdrawals, etc).
Feign death causing the player to take too much damage and to be unusable when moving will be fixed.
We'll add more stuff to the master box. (Probably additional slicing features)
The bug with not being able to eat spice will be fixed.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=417746&highlight=smuggler#M417746
9 September 2003 - Devs promise action aftera 1,010-post filibuster by Smugglers on the old SWG Discussion Forum
Holocron wrote:
On his way out the door, he tossed this over his shoulder:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=19942&highlight=smuggler#M19942
1. Underworld Branch
- I think we are going to try and replace most of these skill boxes with something more usable, since these just aren't very fun. The main issue is finding the time on the schedule to implement some new smuggler skills.
2. Slicing
- We'd like to add slicing code to more types of terminals.
- The problem with weapon slicing giving better results than advanced weapon slicing has been fixed. Slicing 2 had a bonus that Slicing 4 was supposed to have.
3. Dirty Fighting
- Some unarmed moves would be good to add and probably fairly easy. We will look into it.
- We will look into adding combat bonuses to this tree.
- We'll fix last ditch to be balanced with similar moves and we'll look into the other smuggler moves to improve their usability.
4. Spices
- Experimentation never had any impact on spices, so the UI stubs for these were removed. Adding experimentation systems to crafted items takes time, but we'd like to add one to spicing at some point.
- The effects of spices still need to be balanced to other buff consumables. Also, effects like burst run, etc, can be added, but require more development time.
5. Master
- 25% off faction perks is very very useful to any smuggler in PvP, but we will look into possibly adding nonPvP bonuses to this box.
Q-3PO wrote:
We're dedicating a designer (Green Marine) next week to looking into fixing some of the bigger issues of the smuggler. (Yes, we are also looking at issues with the other professions, the smuggler just seems to be the one needing the most love at this moment).
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=552985&highlight=smuggler#M552985
JustG wrote:
There is a lot on our plate, and we are regularly going to provide you with as much information as we can about what is going on. Our priorities and tasks feed in from a variety of sources, and there are very many items on the design priority list. We will not be able to get to all of them with the next few pushes, but we want to take on a number of things that will make the game better, immediately. These include:
- Professions Augmentations
Droid Engineer
Smuggler
Merchant
Chef
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/team_comments.jsp?id=59306&page=Team%20Comments[look for Gary Gattis's Letter to the Community" at the bottom of the list]
Thunderheart wrote:
Smugglers are getting some attention soon. Everything is getting more attention now that Player Cities, Mounts and Vehicles have been added.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Developers&message.id=15023&highlight=smuggler#M15023
Thunderheartwrote:
Both San and I agree that you guys need more of an answer and here it is. The smuggler isn't going to be just "fixed". Its in re-development. Smuggler is an important profession and needs more than a little attention.
Here is what I need from you folks. Since Smuggler is "In Development", I hope you folks can work together to put together some reasonable ideas togetherfor the types of directions you would like to see the Smuggler profession change/develop. . . .
. . .I will take that information to the producers so that your desires and ideas can be accounted for when the development process moves to the next stage.
The best recommendation I can make is to keep your ideas realistic. Come up with ideas using the system as you know it as opposed to inventing things from a "blue sky" approach.
I very much look forward to seeing your input.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=42882&highlight=smuggler#M42882
Thunderheartwrote:
The thing is that smugglers essentially are a "space based" profession (at least the way we think of it)and giventhe inherent client/server limitations, its atough proposition any way you look at. For instance, lets say Imperials do a search for contraband at starports. Can you imagine the lag if we even did an item check for everything inevery player's inventory as they entered and exited a starport? And then there are the guys that run back and forth across that threshold just to lag things out. This is one tiny piece of a larger puzzle. It has to be a cool game mechanic and work in the game system and in a big MMO environment.
The key here is that while I was in beta and I knew everyone (I actually have almost all of it saved on my hard drive, but doing a search on "smuggler" with 12 gig of materials would be insane). Further still, that was a while ago. I want to hear YOUR ideas and Ive worked with the devs and correspondents to focus communication so that correspondents can get me information and also in a way that I can both share it with the devs AND catalgoue it.
Its all a process and we're working on it and its going to take time. The devs want to make a good game, you and I want to play a fun game and as a community, I believe we can make this whole experience very cool.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=43562&highlight=smuggler#M43562
Thunderheart wrote:
"Smuggling" really is a spacey kind of profession and doing something on the ground really needs to be thought out.
With that being said, Im working on the Smuggler and Squad Leader profession revamp posts this week. Im just taking the time to put together some really nice posts so that the answers that players put forth can be easily handled and used by the dev team.
Currently, people don't say, "hey we're going out hunting, lets make sure we have a smuggler". That shortfall is something that needs to be included in the revamp thread.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dev_archive&message.id=19680&highlight=smuggler#M19680
Thunderheart wrote:
... I pushed very hard (I spent a couple of days pushing this issue) and the devs added bonuses to the Smugler Underworld Tree
A small victory, but you asked and its in. Here's how it works:
1. The system counts up your contraband and does the "scanning roll".
2. If the system "sees" the contraband (having made a successful scan roll), it checks to see if you are a smuggler. Depending on what level of Underworld a smuggler has, they get a progressive chance to "escape the scan". If the smuggler roll succeeds, then the player will get a message that reads, "You have successfully avoided the scan."
So if you want to get spice or sliced armor and weapons from one place to another and not get harassed by the Empire, then smuggle it
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=51541&highlight=smuggler#M51541
Thunderheart wrote:
Based on community input, we have made the following changes to the Imperial Crackdown penalty schema. Thanks go to San Tsu and the Smuggler community and Jester and the Galactic Civil War community.
[Thunderheart then proceeds to describe the system --hugely controversial and now known to Smugglers as "Imperial Immunity" --whereby anyone who invests some Imperial Faction points is able to bypass contraband scans better than a Master Smuggler. I would post it all, but Thunderheart used a strange script and it takes forever to clean it up for posting purposes.]
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dev_archive&message.id=801&highlight=smuggler#M801
Updated on 11 February 2004:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dev_archive&message.id=22484&highlight=smuggler#M22484
Thunderheart wrote:
One neat new addition to Publish 7 is with the Junk Dealers. Smugglers who have underworld can now take their Junk to the Jawa Traders camp and they can sell their junks to the Jawas up there.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=game_guides&message.id=137614&highlight=smuggler#M137614
Thunderheart wrote:
... the change to smuggler's [adding the Fred Sanford Trashman minigame] was a small one. Its just me working with the team to fit smuggler stuff in where we can until the revamp - - thats when the beefy changes will occur.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=game_guides&message.id=138096&highlight=smuggler#M138096
Thunderheart wrote:
You can expect pretty high visibility from the Smuggler thread. Ill do a takeaway and work with the correspondent and the community when we move to In development with it...
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dev_archive&message.id=30240&highlight=smuggler#M30240
Message Edited by electricnomad on 11-11-2004 03:46 AM
More of the same:
Thunderheart wrote:
With Publish 8, the shuttle times will be reduced to 5 minutes. For the Spaceport times, this will all change with the GCW revamp.The GCW revamp vision includes a great many dynamic world features.Basically, depending on who is “winning the conflict” in any given area will effect the travel times.
Additionally, plan on seeing Smuggler NPC’s that will take you from “anywhere to anywhere”. http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dev_archive&message.id=37856&highlight=smuggler#M37856
Thunderheart wrote:
TRDB wrote:
Do the DEVs ever intend for us to smuggle for the player base?
Do they intend it? Yeah. They are doing whats possible. Im hesitant to just ramble on because when I do things get taken out of context and blown out of proportion. I dont know whats possible yet, but its soemthing we would like to see in some incarnation.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=77208&highlight=smuggler#M77208
20 April 2004 - Devs say player-based smuggling wouldbe "not so fun"but advocate a minigame and promise several new Smuggler features for the Space Expansion
Thunderheart wrote:
The Smuggler revamp moved into its early discussion phases last week. Smuggler_Caylin, the dev working on the revamp and myself have all been in close contact. We've also been reading the In-Concept Smuggler thread and a lot of the big proposals. We're looking at a lot of enhancements to the existing tree to make spices more useful, to make slicing a bigger, more integrated challenging and making the smuggler combat skills more formidable. Its just a question of hoe much is technically possible. When a crafting profession is revamped, its a matter of making new craft items, maybe some new wearables and other things that are more localized.
Smugglers, on the other hand, have a different type of profession. The spice and the fighting are pretty easy to change, but the most anticipated items are difficult to address. Lets look at slicing for instance. Slicing gives bonuses which effect all related game objects inthe world. Thats more interface, more dynamics and a lot more low level coding. Its also very vulnerable to exploits and other tactics that make rapid development very difficult. What we want to do, is get a good system in place and grow it as the game continues to grow.
Another example is the act of "smuggling" itself. We would love to integrate smugglers into some sort of object delivery service to smuggler things, but its way open to grief and its also technically difficult. For instance, to have "smuggling", you need a choke point. At that check point is when some NPC would "scan" or investigate players. Any time you have a choke point, players gather in large groups and suffer wait and lag.Also at that choke point, you get some players who like to try and lag everyone out for some reason. So the obvious grief there is to find check points and lag out everyone in an area to try and beat the system some way, so instead of having something fun, it ends up being "not so fun".
We do want to add a kind of smuggling mini-game, but I dont have any details since its in progress. The developer, myself and Smuggler_Caylin are in close contact though. There will be many additional opportunities when SE comes, but I can't talk about any of that just yet.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dev_archive&message.id=38320&highlight=smuggler#M38320
Thunderheart wrote:
Smuggler
What willsmugglers gain in the upcoming revamp in regards to actually smuggling?" where you could go in detail about how you are making missions and such, giving an XP system it seems, or other things that will be good for them to know.
We are in the midst of putting together the design doc and looking at the alternatives now. The current plan to increase the fun-ability of the Smuggler Class is to enhance the existing skill onion. Since the communities focus is the desire to increase smuggling, the focus of the revamp will be on the underworld tree. We want to start with specialized delivery missions that provide both monetary and itemized rewards, but also special favors from the travel system NPCs. This would make smugglers an important hub in smuggling people from place to place by helping them get around the 10 minute Star Portwait, generate some cash flow and create a real value for Smugglers. The other edge of that sword is that tying into the travel system and creating new missions is a huge effort. Once that is accomplished, we will tweak the spices (and hopefully add a couple of new ones). After that the priority hits the Smuggler’s melee abilities. We want to increase the smuggler’s ability to use melee to move in and around superior forces and be able to work his or her way out of a tough spot. We can also further tweak the Smuggler’s combat role in the combat balance. That’s a pretty good overview of the current approach.
I’ll offer you some more details here, but ultimately, they will create more questions to which the answer is, “that work is in progress”. Some of the details for things we want to include are:
Slicing features that would be a kind of equipment buff programs Datadiscs to further adventure similar to treasure maps Ethical decisions that effect the smugglers reputation (basically, the new smuggler missions would be XP based and focused on…well…smuggling So the smuggler would have to “smuggle” phat loot from one NPC to another without getting caught and if the smuggler chose to deliver the item, the get the XP. If they didn’t, well, it would be an XP hit, but they would keep the item…) Adding new spices. Glitterstim: (Master Smuggler); Boost to Health, Strength, Action, Quickness, Mind, Force Power Max Force Power Regeneration Liik: (Spice III): Mind Poison Mitigation
Slicing: Adding a vehicle durability slice. / A smuggler mission loot item might be required.
This is a peek at what we are working very hard to get into the game….
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=dev_archive&message.id=42557&highlight=smuggler#M42557
Thunderheart wrote:
This morning, the team made a decision to delay the Smuggler profession revamp to Publish 11.
As it stands, we have a heavy amount of resources dedicated to the Combat Balance, the Jedi Revamp, Space, and new content. That leaves us thin on resources for something as massive and as important as the Smuggler Revamp. Because the core of smuggling is mission based, it really is a big project. In order to incorporateelements of smuggling for PvE and PvP elements, it and enhance slicing, large amounts of code have to be done to make this happen.
I know many of you are eagerly awaiting this revamp and I'm sorry it is going to be delayed, but looking at all the different aspects of this situation, this is simply the best choice. By doing this, we will be able to make the Smuggler's experience more of what it should it be and work with you to find out what your ideas are and how we might incorporate them.
Myself and the developers involved in this portion of SWG development will be reading this thread and we will be talking internally about different courses of action, so we are looking forward to hearing your feedback and in helping to organize the smuggler community ideas on what you think smuggling should entail.
Again, I know what this means to you and how important it is, but to do the Smuggler revamp the way it needs to be done, this schedule delay has to happen. http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=84573&highlight=smuggler#M84573
6May 2004 - Devs vow to decrease communication with Smugglers if they don't like the tone of players' posts
Thunderheart wrote:
Ekhben wrote: The community would love to give input, and we'd love to give feedback on your designs for Smugglers. Unfortunately, communication is a two way street, but the only traffic we're seeing coming down from your end of the street is a kid on a skateboard, chewing some gum. Let us know what you're thinking of doing, and we'll let you know if we think it's a bad idea. We might occasionally get a bit too enthusiastic about letting you know, but that's only because we care about the game too. Otherwise, it's just us talking into a black hole, and that's not communication
Guys, don't forget, discussing these things has been one of my favorite personal activites since April 2001. I am dying to kick these conceptsaround and champion your ideas, but I need your help. Mynumber oneconcern is that the tone of the boards stays somewhat reasonable. As long as the tone stays reasonable, we have much more latitude to discuss different kinds of ideas and really brainstorm. On the contrary, if the tone of the boards sink, I can't endorse negative behavior and what happens is that we read through threads looking for great ideas instead of interacting. Interacting is better, but when it turns into a flame fest when a red name shows up, we have to step back and remain observers. When that happens, I work with and through the correspondents.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=85135&highlight=smuggler#M85135
Thunderheart wrote:
We do want player smuggling and we do want all the cool things everyone wants, but there are technical and design issues that make it very tough. For instance, its a very big game world. If we make starports "pinchpoints" for smuggling inspections, it opens up the possibility of many types of grief and also technological concerns. Making people sit in starports while stormies scan their inventories is not something that is fun at all. It also causes lag, etc. Even still, this is one random example. What we really need to do is work together on a unified doc to present to the dev team. Something we can focus on.
Player smuggling missions, imperial scan points and even slicing are things that everyone wants to be cool and fun, but they are very tricky. Everyone involved would definately benefit from strong discussions, but they have to be reasonable. For instance, if I come back and say, "we cant have slicing on item X, because of Y", this isn't me deliberately trying to make things un-fun (that doesnt even make sense...), this is just me presenting you with the obstacles I have to overcome when I communicate things to the dev team.
I need your help and input to overcome these challenges, but we have to work together to come up with great solutions and when everyone gets in adversarial situations, we all lose...
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=85135&highlight=smuggler#M85135
4June 2004 - Devs acknowledge that the previous proposal for Smugglers was scrapped because "We did not want to rush out some crappy revamp for you"
JustG wrote:
I totally understand how angry you are right now. I can't tell you how difficult it is for us to have to move your revamp back... but I really do feel that it is the right thing to do for all parties concerned, and for the overall state of the game. The large systems we are revamping really need our full attention. We have been absolutely killing our designers, and they need to have a life. This means not crunching them 7 days a week for months at a time.
We did not want to rush out some crappy revamp for you in order to fulfil our commitment. We also strongly feel that some aspect of smuggling should be done in space, so it makes sense to do it after JTL. I am so sorry, but I think it is better to be straight up with you guys than to mislead you about what we can do, or put out something that we, and you, are not going to be proud of.
Again, my apologies, but we want to make your profession all it can be. We can't do that right now, but we will.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=92465&highlight=#M92465
JustG wrote:
... I've been keeping up with your boards. I know you guys are still plentyupset But I may have some good news for you.
While we were out here GreenMarine got to spend some serious time with alot of smugglers. He listened to alot of great ideas. He really really cares about your profession.
He is locked up on Space right now, but he wants to put together a proposal and start running it by you guys soon. The timing could be great. I am willing to try to find a way for him to be the one that revamps you as soon as Space goes out.I have to run this by Runesabre, but it seems to make very good sense to me.
He is an amazing developer that is truly passionate about Smugglers... you really could not ask for a better one to do your revamp.
Things are not going to happen as fast as you want them to... but they will happen. FF is over. I am getting ready to crash and then head back to Austin tomorrow. It is going to be pretty freakin' busy next week but I do want to spend some time with you. I am going to be pretty focussed on Publish 9 in the near-term, but I will keep an eye on things here. You will be hearing more from us soon.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=93213&highlight=smuggler#M93213
GreenMarine wrote:
Why should I, or anyone else in the Smuggler community, continue to pay for this game?
Because:
- At its core, SWG is still a fun game. The next few publishes are focused on fixing major elements of what makes the game frustrating. Eliminating hologrinding, improving the Jedi experience, balancing combat, and introducing new GCW features. All of this promises to improve the overall SWG experience.
- JTL is coming. Jump to Lightspeed is adding a completely new experience to the game. It's a lot of fun and its very different.
- Smugglers will get a revamp. I can't say when. If I did, and we missed it, you'd kill me. A revamp will happen.
- No more smuggler B.S. No more announcing a date and not delivering. We're going to put together a plan for smuggler and post it here so you guys can review it. We'll have a plan determined before we start writing the code so you know whats going to happen to your profession.
- Because we will do a lot of stuff you asked for. Better spices. Spice experimentation. No more pistol requirement. A lot more new stuff as well.
If they do answer, another question I would have would be... why should I, or any other member of the Smuggler community, believe you this time after so many broken promises?
- No more broken promises. I had some very frank discussions with several smugglers at Fan Fest. I KNOW you guys are frustrated. We aren't going to string you along. There will be a revamp. It might happen after JTL, but it will happen. There will be a public plan for the revamp ahead of time (possibly soon) that you guys can start tweaking for implementation.
- I take this profession very seriously. I know its flaws. I'm going to level up a new smuggler character, myself. It's very important to me that Smuggler is improved and turned into a fun, rewarding profession.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=93469&highlight=#M93469
GreenMarine wrote:
A smuggler revamp is still probably not going to happen until after space, but I will be able to start work on an official revamp design. I'm going to write something up and have it posted on this forum, so you guys can begin to discuss it.
I can't give you a timeframe for the revamp. In fact, you'd probably kill me if I did and we missed it. I can say that I will pour my soul into making the smuggler revamp kick ass. It's very important to me that smuggler, ranger, and squad leader are made to be top notch professions.
You would have been proud of Fishbrains and Veela. They both pulled me aside at different times and made it very clear they didn't want any b.s. They made strong arguments and very solid feature suggestions. I know a lot of you have been contributing to the new design proposals. It's good stuff. If you can hang in there a bit longer, we'll deliver.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=417746&highlight=smuggler#M417746
GreenMarine wrote:
The smuggler revamp is still scheduled for "post space." In the mean time, I've been working on a smuggler revamp design proposal. I wrote a similar document prior to the Chef revamp. The goal is to identify and define a series of key changes to the profession that will enhance the game's fun factor.When I have a draftthat I like, I spend time discussing the ideas with other designers and integrating the suggestions that I like. Once the final document is complete, I get approval to have it scheduled. I break down how long each section will take and create a personal schedule for implementation.
The documents tend to be somewhat more ambitious than the final implementation. There are a couple reasons for that. 1) I might find out that something was easier than expected and I have time to add something extra. 2) I might find out that something isn't technically workable and I need to replace it with something else.
I draw a lot of my design from player feedback. I've read the "Smugglers in SWG History" threads. I've read the "Smuggler Revamp Community Vision" document. I also read other misc threads on the profession (as well as PMs, external discussions of the profession, and so forth). Not all the ideas for the profession are inspired by the community, but community interaction is important.
So with that long introduction, it's time to start discussing some of the details of the revamp. Remember, I cannot give any dates on when the revamp will happen. We are going to be working out details well advance of the implementation date. We should avoid getting too detailed...talking about specific numbers, recipes, or system details isn't necessary at this point. We want to identify and categorize the goals for a revamp.
First, let's set overall goals for the profession revamp:
- The first goal of the revamp is make all of smuggler fun.
- The second goal of the revamp is to make smuggler more thematic.
These are very much the same goals the Chef revamp had. First, we want the profession to be more fun and offer smugglers lots of options and interactivity. Second, we want the profession to feel more like what a smuggler is all about.
The second step is to realize that we do not need a consensus to accept a feature for the revamp. Not all smugglers will agree to everything in the revamp document. Just saying you don't like something isn't sufficient grounds to kill an idea! Explain why you don't like it. Think about and describe how you think the game would change as a feature is implemented. The best thing you can do as a smuggler (or aspiring designer) is to be clear, concise, and creative.
I have several areas defined in my design document. They are:
- Contraband Rules
- Smuggling Missions
- Underworld Skills
- Spice Crafting
- Slicing
- Dirty Fighting
- Player Casinos
- Option: Sidekick
Over the next few weeks, we'll discuss each of these areas and try to work out a common plan for smuggler that addresses as many of these areas as possible. I'll create seperate threads for each section and introduce discussions over time. I have a lot of responsibilities in my day to day work, so if I post everything today, I'd be hard pressed to keep up with the discussion.
So keep your eyes open for "Revamp Discussion" posts.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=95411&page=1
GreenMarine wrote:
Why do they not? What is the reason to craft a better quality tool then, if it does not matter? Shouldn't you redesign the crafting a bit, huh?
They don't because I didn't have time to implement it back before SWG went live. We had so much stuff to do and so little time to do it! We'll definitely be improving slicing and the smuggler's control over slicing at some point in the future. A revamp discussion thread on slicing will show up at some point, but I think that we'll probably talk about some of the general issues first.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=95449&highlight=#M95449
GreenMarine wrote:
As for sidekick... are we talking an NPC or some kind of benefit we can bestow on a person? Maybe both?
Sidekick is probably the last thing I'll post about...many weeks from now. I still have lots of ideas to think about. I posted it on the list to get more conversation stirring. I have ideas for either an NPC style sidekick or a player style sidekick. The idea is that a smuggler is a lonely profession, you can't trust anyone. Through many years of smuggling, eventually the smuggler will meet someone they can trust. Someone who can watch their back. Han had Chewy. Lando had Lobot. This isn't to generalize that all smugglers have to have a sidekick, but its certainly a profession where an extra set of eyes pays off in the end.
Sidekick is an optional idea we can develop. Enhancing the core profession takes priority over implementing a sidekick system and so it might not be something we have time for. Doesn't hurt to brainstorm and see if we can design something that is doable, though.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=95462&highlight=#M95462
GreenMarine wrote:
The Master box improves slicing, but the tool quality and other things do not.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=95435&highlight=#M95435
GreenMarine wrote:
This is the second in a series of posts on a smuggler revamp. The goal of these posts is to discuss ideas that can be integrated into a final profession revamp proposal.
In this thread we're going to talk about the contraband system and the idea of smuggling missions. These two issues will be discussed together, because they affect each other.
I've thought about and written down my own conception of how a contraband system update and a new type of smuggling mission would work. These ideas aren't necessarily refined or complete. I want to create a debate through which we can work out a reasonable approach to improving the smuggler profession.
Everything here is debatable, so feel free to question, discuss, or add any ideas you have.
Contraband
Concept
The game’s contraband system will be changed to include a greater number of illegal items, a range of legality levels, and increased penalties for being found with illegal items.
Legal Ranges & Punishment
Items will now have a range of legality. The following legal ranges will be implemented.
Quasi-legal. A player caught with quasi-legal goods will be attacked. Banned. A player caught with banned goods will be attacked. The player’s visibility will increase slightly for each violation. Highly Illegal. A player caught with highly illegal goods will be attacked, the goods confiscated (if the attacked player is defeated), and the player’s visibility will increase. Highly illegal objects cannot be transported via the standard travel system by anyone other than a smuggler. The player must use the new smuggler travel system in order to move highly illegal goods. (This new system will be discussed later.)
Illegal objects will display their legality in the examine properties list.
A faction aligned player who is caught with contraband will lose a percentage of faction appropriate to the degree of the crime.
Imperial aligned players will now only be immune to scans regarding quasi-legal goods if they have the rank of corporal or better.
Old sliced weapons and armor will be converted to have the legality level of “banned.”
Scan Frequency
One of the Four Horsemen of the Smuggler Apocalypse! 
Geevo wrote:
Smuggler_Caylin wrote:
Stickied.
Don't get in trouble
Any negative responses from this are their own fault.
/emote washes his hands.
OMG.........................................
I can't decide if this is a ulogy or what...but dayum. I'm just...wow.
I DEMAND 1 ADDITIONAL THING TO OUR REVAMP: AN OFFICIAL APOLOGY FROM THE DEVELOPEMENT TEAM
Dev response to that = It is not technologically possible for that to be implemented in your revamp
Okay this is off the topic but if this revamp is what our corrospondent is saying it is...then....we shall revolt. I saw we all BAND TOGETHER and raise slicing prices. the one thing the devs care about is the economy. we need to throw it off. LONG LIVE THE SMUGGLERS!
*sobs*
You are probably right... I'm actually kinda dreading tomorrow and what it will bring. I'm anticipating some very... interesting... responses.
HanS010 wrote:
*whispers to other smugglers* i think he already is going to be in trouble after tonight. but he is making a point.....and he is trying to stop me from crying. *sobs* *sobs*