Armorsmith Archive
Thread: Where do we go from here?
That's fair. I mean, if we just say "It broken! You fix now!" they won't know where to begin. I've only experienced UXP once and I literally made the gun for the guy, gave it to him and said "Go kill that chuba." I don't remember how much XP I got, though. Anyway, maybe we should try to coordinate an experiment here or something. Get like five guys per server to run a few tests. Things that I think we should test for with UXP:
1.) Effect of weapon creator's proximity to weapon user. IfI'm standing next to the guy when he kills the thing it'll work. Do I have to be in the same city? On the same planet? What?
2.) Time frame after construction where UXP will work. If I make the gun and give it to the guy instantly, it'll work. But, what if I have the gun on me for an hour? How about a day? How long do you have to go before UXP stops working? This would be secondary to proximity (which I think is more what it's tied to).
3.) Effect of bazaar/vendor on UXP. If I sell the thing on the bazaar, will it still give me XP? Test against the other two criteria.
Anyone else got ideas about how to test thisstuff?
lol Katal 
Back to the discussion, I for one have given up hope until the space expansion. We've been utterly ignored, we've been lied to, ideas for smuggling get given to imperials instead of slmugglers (remember, we DID think of smuggle checkpoints before, and were answered "can't technically be done").
I've retired from smuggling, I'm now into politics and resource gathering, making me a war chest for building ships for the SE. If smugglers then are good, good. If not, I'm likely to quit altogether. I'm not interested in playing a bounty hunter or Jedi, thank you.
This is the main problem tha has been plaguing Bounty Hunters since release. I don't think it applies to just Bounty Hunters, or just Smugglers. There are a few professions that are not getting any responses to their requests for information (possibly even considered cries for help at this point), and yet things still continue to be "overlooked"
This is definitely an issue, but it is an issue among the community as a whole and not just a couple of professions (although it does seem to mostly happen to Bounty Hunters, Smugglers, and Pikemen from everything I remember).
I stand by everything I wrote during this discussion, and I'd write it all again.
Those of us that spoke up in the past week have been trying to help the game, plain and simple, and there's nothing inherently rude or offensive about dissent or criticism. Simply put, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, especially since it hasn't even been that hot here.
I believe that thisPublish isbad for Smugglers overalland I won't stop fighting if the Devs push it live.
I think there are a number of problems that face this profession:
In order to give to us, they have to "take away" from everyone else. Even if that means giving them atmosphere and content in a sense. They have to basically take away the freebies they've given. This has only recently been exacerbated with Publish 6 and the Imperials getting our skills (only better) with no investment of skill points. Thus, any requests we make will fall on deaf ears because the devs are unwilling to "nerf" any group of players for the benefit of another. Never mind that it wouldn't actually be a nerf or that some nerfs are GOOD nerfs. Don't believe me? Consider the following.
The Chef revamp does not take away from anyone (well, except maybe us). All they're doing is GIVING stuff to chef. It doesn't impact on anyone else. Chefs get more useful foods. No real downside. The DE revamp GIVES players more stuff. They can use combat droids (BAAAAAD IDEA but that's a side argument). Or they can use utility droids. Nothing's really taken away from PLAYERS. The devs worry about game balance and how to properly implement these changes, so as, for example, to maintain money and time sinks. But no one's going to say "NO!! Don't give players the ability to have a droid maintain their harvesters while they're logged off!!"
With us, it's different. They really don't have any idea how to make us smuggle. Oh, sure, they get the concept alright. that much is clear from Publish 6. But they can't figure out how to follow through WITHOUT pissing off large portions of the player base. Anything that they give to us requires the implementation of a contraband/tariff system. Thus, again, any complaints or requests for real smuggling content fall on deaf ears. As has been stated elsewhere, I expect our big revamp will be mission terminals. Maybe they'll come from NPCs, but the effect will be the same. Cookie cutter missions that really add nothing to the game. No real player interaction.
Fundamentally, we serve no real purpose in this game as a profession because the devs can't figure out a way to GIVE us purpose without irritating people.
Another problem is that we are not a popular profession. We may be a COOL profession, but as far as people really investing in smuggling, they're just not as likely to do it. This is as much due to profession design (and lack of content) as anything else. We're not great in combat. We're not good in crafting. People pick up smuggling for three general reasons, I think: (1) for the dirty fighting tree if they're combat characters, (2) for the slicing tree if they're crafting characters, or (3) because they're deluded suckers like me who keep hoping one day they'll actually be able to do something cool instead of being a slice/spice monkey. Because we're not popular, we have no popular voice. Ask the Libertarian party, the American Indian Movement, or the United Association of Goldfish Harvesters when the last time was they got any "Congressional lovin'"? If you aren't a large voice, you aren't ANY voice.
Ultimately, the reason why the devs say "You're a space expansion profession" is probably because that'll be the first time they'll be able to introduce a bunch of NEW content that can then be taxed or declared contraband. Anything that's in the game right now is basically off limits because the player base will cry if they make it illegal to own or if it costs money to move from place to place. Until they can introduce: new weapons, new resources, new schematics that NEED the new resources, etc., they can't actually make smuggling happen.
It'll take a major influx of content that is truly new to the playerbase for them to create any true contraband/tariff system. If it's new, the players can't really complain as much about it being controlled, because they haven't had time to get the sense of "entitlement" the way they have with harvesters, 1000 item schematics, death decay (or lack thereof), sliced weapons, spice, etc. Essentially the devs can say that anything pre-space expansion will remain as is because, well, players just got used to it. But the NEW stuff, that's all fair game for them to tax, control, etc.
On a level, it's really us against the game, the rest of the players, AND the devs all at once. There's just no way to win against those odds. That doesn't mean we shouldn't keep fighting, but it does mean that we should pretty much expect Dennis Kucinich-like results.
Nice post as usual, Solo.
I agree with you, Red--we can't be satisfied until we get even a modicum of acknowledgement from the developers. However, it's very frustrating to see the way other boards have screaming flame-fests and get attention while our discussions are civil and we get jack-squat.
I know that the developers have read at least some of the posts, I just don't know why they won't give even the most basic comment, especially when their boss Rich Vogel has. Maybe I'll try to find an email address for him...
When I think of Star Wars, 4 professions immediately come to mind: Pilot, BH, Smuggler, and Jedi. Everyone could shoot a pistol or rifle andmost had talents with droids/electronics. I think this is where the focus should be, but obviously I'm alone in that thought.
RougeSmuggler wrote:
Where do we go from here?
I know I won't be satisfied untill I see a Red name in here, addressing our concerns. We've been on this issue for over a week and we still havn't gotten any response.
Is it really that difficult?
"No, we disagree with you. Imperials are the law and should not be subject to contrabands"
"No, we disagree with you. We have major improvements to the Smuggling profession in the future, including a fleshed out Smuggling system. These changes will not effect what was already planned"
"We agree with you that it is unfair that Imperials recieve skills that should only be in the profession tree, we will change the system when the Smuggler revamp comes"
"We're here, We're reading your comments. And we're taking them into consideration"
Talk to us!
Just let us know you care.
Silence tells us you just don't care. You can't tell me it would take more then a few minutes to give us a headsup.
-red
Don't hold your breath. TH may come in and say "We're looking into it" but that'll be about as specific as they'll likely get. We've been talking, complaining, raging, begging, debating, etc. about any number of issues for a while. You can count on one hand (ok, MAYBE two) the number of times a red name has showed up in here. They just don't talk to us much, likely because they don't have much to say.