Development Cycle Archive
Thread: IT 6-6: Imperial Crackdown: Some changes made based on In-Test Feedback
My main question right now is:
What rank do you have to be to qualify for being a 'High Ranking Imperial'?
Imperial Crackdown = Forced PvP
The developers pushed this game as one in which you decide if you want to PvP, the reason for Overt and Covert status. Now they have taken that option and are forcing many players into certain death. Now crafters can not participate in faction without risk of certain death.
You are scanning players for sliced items but do not allow them to know if the items they have are sliced, nice feature. Yeah sure, Patch 7 this will be fixed. At the rate you guy's do patch's that will be 2-3 months from now.
This patch does more to hurt the smuggler profession than help it. Yeah the player that is a smuggler benefits but the rest of the player base is being punished for everything that a smuggler offers. Nice job guys.
Imperial Crackdown = Death to Smuggler profession as no one will want what a smuggler has to offer.
Composite Armor can not be worn without being sliced and now we are being punished for getting it sliced just so it can be worn. Do you people think before you impliment any of these changes?
This is a game, it should be fun. You are turningit into work which is not why players are here.
Jinxx0r wrote:
relax... there is a point where it's considered a new change and can't be added to the current code (without a regression test that requires them to delay the current patch longer). I wasn't a priority for 6, 5, 4, etc.... he said it will be in 7. We've lived without for 7 months, 2 more isn't going to hurt.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Crackdown penalty
schema. Thanks go to San Tsu and the Smuggler community and Jester and the Galactic Civil War
Thunderheart wrote:
Based on community input, we have made the following changes to the Imperial
community.
All of these changes aren’t on Test Center yet, but here is what you can expect.
Some basics on how the Crackdown works:
Random searches will be conducted as part of the Emperor’s Crackdown on rebel activity.
Contraband is: Rebel Faction Equipment, Spice, Sliced weapons and armor.
Player items are not confiscated.
“Crackdowns” occur in the wilderness, “Shakedowns” occur in Planetary Cantinas (not player
Cantinas)
If Imperial Search Parties find contraband on your character and you are...
Imperial, the penalty is:
Overt Imperial Officers: None. All junior officers will salute their superiors.
High Rank Covert: High Ranking officers will be acknowledged and saluted as directed by the
Emperor.
Low Rank: (Identified as having little or no Faction Points spent on Rank): Low Ranking officers
found in possession of contraband must pay tribute to the Emperor. Low ranking Imperial soldiers
will be given the choice of sacrificing Faction Points or paying a fine.
Rebels, the penalty is:
Overt: Imperial Search party will open fire as per orders of the Emperor.
Covert: Covert Rebels will be identified to all surrounding Imperials (Turned Overt)
Neutral, the penalty is:
Imperial Citizens will be warned and lose faction points or be fined.
Smugglers have additional bonuses to escape Imperial Scans:
Novice Smugglers with “underworld” abilities will have a 15% chance to evade contraband searches
plus an additional 15% for each skill box and Master Smugglers add another 20% for a total of 95%.
Players in both the wilderness and cantinas may avoid shakedown searches if grouped with smugglers
for the same bonuses.
Thanks for getting involved and offering positive, well thought out feedback. 
The developer offered me some additional detail:
And Neutral caught in the scans pay a fine and if they are unable to afford the fine lose imperial
faction.
Contraband scanning will also take place in the 3 imperial controlled cities (Mos Espa, Kor Vella,
and Kadaara).
In order to receive the smuggler bonus from being grouped with the player the smuggler must be
within range (35m)
Message Edited by Thunderheart on 02-03-2004 05:24 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
have you guys realized that this makes all overt imperials automatically Master Smugglers?
so nobody will have any incentive to be a Master Smuggle because the 100% overt imperial 'smuggler
ability' is greater than the 95% Master Smuggler ability
tarded
Geevo wrote:
OK, as a Rebel Colonel/Master Smuggler ... I like the changes.
Some points I would like to address:
1) "Made Overt"? (TEF?)
This is a big question here. We were told that it would be a TEF, and now we learn that Rebels are forced into Overt? The TEF is a much better idea--Overt status can't be changed for a whole hour (I haven't seen any word on a change to this).
The vast majority of the players saying they loooove this publish are Imperial. Of course they like it, they don't have much of a penalty anymore. I guess I can deal with getting a TEF, but getting pushed into Overt status and having to travel to a Rebel city to find a recruiter to go covert again...and having to wait an hour after that to actually go covert (unless I take the oh-so-despised suicide shuttle) is a bit much.
Let's not forget that while Rebels do outnumber Imperials, the number of overt Imperials exceeds the number of overt Rebels. The best PvPers are more often Imperial than Rebel, because people more often go Imperial because they want to kill other players. Not really anything wrong with that, but thathas been the pattern of player mindsets and behavior so far.
If being a "high-ranked" Imperial automatically grants you immunity from a scan penalty, why would any Imperial want to be a smuggler anymore? Maybe there weren't many Imp smugglers in SW lore...but the devs are saying things about wanting every profession to be fun and rewarding, so...how about giving Imperial smugglers a bone here?
Yes, this is SW. I know, I'm a die-hard SW fan and will continue to be. Yes, I know it's a war. But aside from that, SWG is an RPG. It's not supposed to be all about combat, it's not supposed to be dangerous everywhere, and it's not a pure PvP game like Ultima Online. Some people should be able to do their crafting, healing, or entertaining and still remain factioned. Being a neutral medic in a place like Bestine or Anchorhead means you can't heal anyone! Now, just abouteveryone who isn't Imperial is going to have to watch his/her back continually...since almost everyone carries a weapon of some sort and there's no way to tell if it is sliced unless you have a Smuggler handy (and there won't even be such a way in this publish). For a month or more, we're going to be more or lessiin the dark about what's actually legal and what isn't. I'm digressing a bit, so let me get back to my point: some people enjoy this game because of the interaction, and don't want to be factioned. Others just don't want to get into combat. And still others fit into both categories...yet all of them will now have to watch their backs now. Aren't their opinions important too? Didn't the server log say that over 70% of players were neutral?
In summary I wish that such huge changes weren't made when they cater exclusively to one side. And please, at least give caught Rebels a TEF, not overt status.
Imperials don't WANT smugglers, smuggling is ILLEGAL, smugglers are NOT welcome in the EMPIRE.
smugglers are encouraged NOT to support the Empire for just this reason.
You guys know what smuggling is right? It's transporting ILLEGAL goods as defined by the CURRENT GOVERNMENT, in this case, THE EMPIRE. So, in all reality, ALL smugglers are enemies of the Empire.
SMUGGLERS SHOULD NOT BE WORKING FOR THE EMPIRE IN THE FIRST PLACE!
JEST3R wrote:
/CLAP LOUDLY
/CHEER
Absolutely PERFECT TH and devs as far as penalties go! Thank you for supporting the desires of the community.
JEST3R
Geez dude, you are one of the people I respect most on these forums so no offense meant but...
...can't you see the number of people complaining? There has been thread after thread and post after post asking that Imperials not be given lax penalties and STILL this gets incorporated.
Seems like I will load all my sliced weapons onto my bud Zonk when we're out traveling between plantes and what not. He is Imp Colonel, I am "just" a poor master smuggler, go figure. They will just salute him, and me a warrent II officer,I will get busted 1 out of 20 times due to low ranking and "only" 95%.
If you wonder, I do not trade in FP, there of my low imp rank.
I'm one of the people who hates quoting real life situations or talking about continuity but, in the Expanded Universe, there have been quite a few instances where smugglers have worked with Imperials either for smuggling goods or other services such as getting information.
Rhelamos wrote:
what the hell is wrongwith you people???
Imperials don't WANT smugglers, smuggling is ILLEGAL, smugglers are NOT welcome in the EMPIRE.
smugglers are encouraged NOT to support the Empire for just this reason.
You guys know what smuggling is right? It's transporting ILLEGAL goods as defined by the CURRENT GOVERNMENT, in this case, THE EMPIRE. So, in all reality, ALL smugglers are enemies of the Empire.
SMUGGLERS SHOULD NOT BE WORKING FOR THE EMPIRE IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Smugglers are CRIMINALS.
WHY would the Empire have smugglers working for it in the first place? I'm sick of all this whining by smugglers about how "being imp is being a Master Smuggler bla bla bla"
So now being a smuggler is all about getting past the Imp crackdown?? Boy we must have become really sad really fast.
and for your information i AM a smuggler!!!