Bounty Hunter Archive

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Imperial Colonel Istovyr Ousstyl - Lone Survivor of Gothica City - Rori - Lowca
Still the best darn smuggler there is.

I've been thinking a while on an idea for changing slicing terminals to make it a little more anti-social, more befitting of smuggler. Instead of the slice improving rewards for the smuggler it will improve all players missions at that terminal for the next minute or two. How's this anti-social I hear you ask, simple, the system will keep a log of the missions that are taken during that 1-2 minute window and when they are completed a small percentage of the reward will be syphoned off into the smugglers bank - effectively stealing the rewards of other peoples hard work.

Plus points - the more people who take missions, the more creds the smuggler gets for doing sweet naff all.

Bad points (what you thought there wouldn't be bad points) - the smuggler could botch the slice, same penalty as now but with the added penalty of a fine, which on faction terminals could include a loss of fp.

the more people who take missions the more chance authorities are gonna notice the creds being diverted to your accounts, with a loss of all possible rewards and again a fine, and inline with future ideas an increase in the smugglers visibility on BH terminals

As the smuggler improves in slicing so does the ability to route/mask the transfers, reducing the chance of being detected. A novice wouldn't slice a terminal in a busy area as it will likely see too much activity whereas a Master Smuggler could take that risk.

Its a rough idea at the moment and probably needs some work on the pro's and con's

As an aside to this the terminals themselves should have difficulty levels, a terminal inTheed is probably maintained better than a terminal in some backwater town. These badly maintained terminals would be easier to slice but the rewards of doing so would be less than the harder terminals.

Alexander Dharke - Teras Kasi Master

j o i n e d u p w r i t i n g i s f o r a d u l t s o n l y

That's not a bad idea, but it does present another problem: do it this way, and you'll be absolutely stuck with finding/buying locked containers to get slicing 2.

If you're actually gonna LOSE cash for slicing a terminal, then why would you want to do it at the level where you first can? If you don't have enough skill, and you're gonna end up owing everyone money, or faction, then why would you ever use it until Slicing 4, or Master?

That being said, I get sick enough of having to do nothing but hunt for Locked Containers or being forced to buy them so that I can get decent exp until i get weapons. If they implemented your system, then the Devs would have to add more things for us to slice at early levels, prefferably ones that are easier to come by.

I would argue that in some respect we are stuck using locked containers now anyway. If you slice 2 locked containers you get 500 exp plus only use 2 clamps and four knives, where to get the same exp from terminals requires using 5 clamps and 10 knives add onto that the 2 minute between slicing of terminals and basically if you are in a friendly guild it's gonna be cheaper and quicker to grind smuggler using locked containers. I would agree that we need something other than just locked containers to be available for low level slicing.

Anyway back to the idea, as I said its only a rough idea and does need polishing. One thing I realised after posting is it might not be a good idea to improve the rewards for other players after all, as while it is a good incentive to get people to use the terminal - meaning more cash for the smuggler, it does leave a tell tale marker of the terminal being sliced. Now this leaves the non-smugglers two options

1, they leave the terminal well enough alone, as they don't want you dibbing your mits into their hard earned rewards

2, they get their mates to flood the terminal with requests for missions causing the smuggler to get caught and penalised (after all I said nothing about them and the improved mission reward being affected by the smugglers misfortune)

Also a log should perhaps be kept of how many slices the smuggler performs in a city/planet, again which will effect the likelihood of getting caught. Your more likely to get caught after all, if you spend all day slicing the same terminal in the same city on the same planet compared to someone who moves around a bit.

Alexander Dharke - Teras Kasi Master

j o i n e d u p w r i t i n g i s f o r a d u l t s o n l y

I think one thing throws a wrench into your current plan -- Molecular Clamps.

Any smuggler at any level can use them, and they guarantee a correct slice.

If clamps were moved up to a Slicing IV or Master Smuggler certification only, that would help the issue some.

I think a way to make it so all smugglers have some type of equal risk, just make slicing increase your visibility period, whether it's a terminal, a container, or an item. Then follow the same code already in the game for visibility with Jedi (which I believe doesn't exist now after Publish 9, right? SIlly devs....)

I do like the idea of slicing a terminal to syphon funds from every person doing a mission though. The case of visibility would prevent the smuggler from continually slicing and reslicing every terminal to get these rewards.

Evarn Terallis - Master Smuggler on Kettemoor

There are missions in which you "deliver an item while hostiles attack you" in every profession. I still don't consider [Smuggler's Alliance] pilots to be Smugglers, nor 'Smuggling' - at least not any more than Rebel Pilots or Imperial Pilots might sometimes "smuggle", with a lower-case s - JFreeman - 10/6/04

Yeah the Molecular Clamps are a bit of a problem. On the one hand there useful as they make the grind from Novice to Slicing I that bit more bearable (as long as you can afford/find some), but on the other once you are able to produce your own or have a regular supply from another Master, they pretty much remove all risk from slicing.

I would suggest however that there is already a plan to remove them or reduce there effectiveness, as if my (somewhat defective) memory serves me when smugglers visibilty on BH terminals was mentioned it was stated that we would be able to slice the terminal to view our own visibility, but run the risk of increasing it should we fail the slice. Failure only being an option if there are no more Molecular clamps, or if there effectiveness has been reduced to somewhere below the 100% mark.

I don't know if slicing just anything should increase visibility, after all if I'm sitting at my workbench in the privacy of my own home and slice off the lock of a container, I don't expect the authorities to know about it - unless thay have my house bugged, hmm maybe its time I moved house again.

Alexander Dharke - Teras Kasi Master

j o i n e d u p w r i t i n g i s f o r a d u l t s o n l y

Oh! I should have added this to my post.

There are already city boundaries in the game. The servers know when you're in or out of a city, because they tell you right on the screen.

So make it that you gain visibility when you slice anything within city limits.

How does this affect your idea? Mission terminals are only within city limits. This way, smugglers can slice weapons, armor, and containers outside of city limits will no visibility risk, but when they do terminals, it always increases the visibility.

Evarn Terallis - Master Smuggler on Kettemoor

There are missions in which you "deliver an item while hostiles attack you" in every profession. I still don't consider [Smuggler's Alliance] pilots to be Smugglers, nor 'Smuggling' - at least not any more than Rebel Pilots or Imperial Pilots might sometimes "smuggle", with a lower-case s - JFreeman - 10/6/04

I don't know if this would make my idea any more complicated, but I thought of a problem scenario. Lets say smuggler A slices the terminal and for the next X number of minutes any missions taken at the terminal will have a percentage of the reward passed onto the smuggler, upon completion. Now along comes smuggler B wanting to slice the terminal, would it be wiser to suggest that;

a, he can't slice it as there is already a slice active on the terminal

b, he can attempt to slice the terminal and steal away the rewards from smuggler A, however at an increased risk as your trying to slice an already sliced terminal. this could only happen during those X number of minutes and would not increase the timer i.e its not treated as a new slice merely a continuation of the previous slice, but with a different beneficiary

method a is the simplest as the rewards to the smuggler can be transferred as and when the other players complete the missions.

method b would require that creds be placed in a pot (so to speak) that would only be passed onto the smuggler as and when all the mission affected are completed/aborted, this would allow the transfer to be intercepted by another skilled smuggler.

Alexander Dharke - Teras Kasi Master

j o i n e d u p w r i t i n g i s f o r a d u l t s o n l y

How much do you propose gets skimmed? 1% 10% 25% ??? Does the money the Smuggler gets come out of the reward the player was supposed to get? Instead of the mission paying 18,321 the player would only get 12,780? If the payout to the Smuggler is significant AND the money comes OUT of the player payout, then I think that the player should get a notice that their payout was skimmed by an unknown system. This would alert the player base that Smugglers are skimming and that they should tell their BH friends to go check the BH terminals cuz theres a Smuggler on the loose.

Just another way to get people talking about us.

The reason why I mention that the player should get a notice saying that they got skimmed is because I grab 2 Janta missions for 31,??? piece. All I look for is that I get 31,??? as my reward. If 300 cr was skimmed off of every mission I took I'd never know unless it dropped me down to the next 1000. And even then I might not realize it because I got 99% of my money ... whatever ... I'm off to my next mission.

Either way, its a cool way to make some extra cash, get on the BH terms, and become a little ... "notorious".

I'd like to see a way to "add" you name to the terminal .... kind of like .... "Hattrix was here". A little brash and cocky was to say ... "Yea, I skimmed you. Yea, here I am. Come get me. HAHAHAHA ... the masked Smuggler strikes again!!!"

Derec

I was planning on the amount being low enough that the other players being 'stung' don't notice it, a bit like any good embezeler (pretty certain I didn't spell that right), so 25% is a bit steep but would certainly get you noticed.

The rewards to the smuggler come mainly when more people use the terminal and take missions with high level payouts. The risk being that the (notional) owners of the terminals are more likely to notice when larger amounts of money are rerouted to your accounts and not the intended player.

I think perhaps the smuggler might also have a little more active control over the risks involved. By this I mean the smuggler could cut off the slice early. So if as I have stated before when the terminal is sliced it will intercept all missions taken over the next 2 minutes say (maybe longer, maybe shorter). A minute in the smuggler may notice that he has intercepted 20 missions, and he might start sweating it as he knows the more missions he intercepts the more cash he will get but the more likely he (not being sexist I'm sure there are fine female smugglers)is to getcaught, and so he bottles it and terminatesit early. A more experienced smuggler who's a little sure of himself on the otherhand might push it a bit further.

I certainly like the idea of alerting the player base to being skimmed, but possible instead only on a failed attempt, as if we succeed we should be in and out clean, without a trace.

Alexander Dharke - Teras Kasi Master

j o i n e d u p w r i t i n g i s f o r a d u l t s o n l y

Just realised there is two possible ways of looking at the difficulty level of terminals when it comes to slicing.

the first being that your faction terminals are harder to slice than others, the highly militaristic Empire is going to be very security conscious as are the rebels who have a lot to hide

or

the standard mission terminals are harder to slice, as they are backed by the corporate sector and in some cases by the criminal underworld, and they have more cash to throw at the problem and in some cases are a little more ruthless in how that security is enforced. businessmen don't like there money being interferred with after all, especially if there name is Jabba.

Alexander Dharke - Teras Kasi Master

j o i n e d u p w r i t i n g i s f o r a d u l t s o n l y

I really like that idea. Instead of a set percentage each time, what if it was randomly generated, playing on the gambler personality of smugglers. Too high, you're caught, too low and it's not worth it.

Mathos Tekura- TKM
CH
Smuggler

Chilastra- home of the unbearable, inexorable macroists.

That would certainly make things a lot more interesting, and possibly would fit better with the nature of smugglers..

Alexander Dharke - Teras Kasi Master

j o i n e d u p w r i t i n g i s f o r a d u l t s o n l y