Development Cycle Archive

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DeQuosaek wrote:

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EpiFett wrote:

Hear that sound?

/FLUSH!!!!

It's the sound of this entire thread since basically TH posted it, then abandoned it.

They didnt want any "weekly" discussion, they wanted a single place they could ignore to take the place of the SWG forums closing down...

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*Looks at calendar*

Hey, guess what today is, genius?

That's right. The weekend.

How many people do you know that work 7 days a week without a break?

That's right. Not many.

Hear that sound?

Yeah, that's you. Quit bitching already. You can't just go off about them abandoning the thread when you haven't given them a chance to respond.

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Hey DeQuosaek if its not a place to gather info they dont want and then flush it, why not start the **edit** thing on MONDAY when the devs will be around to COMMUNICATE with us!!??

How effective is this thread gonna be come monday morning?? Do you think the Devs are really going to concider anything posted beyond page 5? 10? 15? F * ( K NO!!

They are in fact just blowing smoke up are arses, Come on Devs start this post on monday so you guys can be around to interact with us. We all know this post is getting flushed come monday!!

Just my $.02

VolatileMan

Hi,

I have 2 queries;

1) Why is there so much lag on the ahazi server? especially in dantooine, there must be a 4/5 second delay for anything to actually complete, forget crafting there, help............?

2) Why do we receive a tef for attacking a giant krayt dragon, surely this is not a tefable character.....?

Thanks

Jest - Ahazi

I am a walking vendor, backpack full of goodies!

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electricnomad wrote:

Here are some ideas myself and others had for the Smuggler overhaul:

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First, we have a word-association game we played. We were asked to write five words that we associated with a Smuggler. After getting maybetwo dozen responses, these were the most frequently repeated themes:

evasive / sneaky / sly / shadowy / shady / incognito / secretive - 13

resourceful / inventive / McGuyver / quick-thinking- 10

fast-talker / confident / negotiator / suave / silver-tongued / witty- 8

aware / sharp / smart / cunning / perceptive / shrewd- 6

dangerous- 5

pilot - 5

networker / contacts / connections / connected- 5

outlaw / criminal / thief / underworld- 5

tinkerer - 4

gambler - 4

independent / self-reliant - 4

cocky / brash / unafraid- 4

roguish / underhanded - 3

survivor / alive / durable - 3

versatile - 2

lucky - 2

stylish / pimp - 2

quick / agile - 2

risky / danger - 2

greedy / avaricious - 2

This is hardly scientific, but as a straw poll, I think it's useful to see how a roomful of us envision a Smuggler.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=45843&page=1

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Second, here are some compiled ideas for a Smuggler overhaul - nothing comprehensive, but just a few brainstorming ideas from the past few months:

Okay, I never made a "Yay for me, the new Master Smuggler" post, so I'm cashing in some ego points and making this.

Actually, I've been making this post since, oh, July or so, when I started posting ideas on how to improve the profession. Here are the ideas I like the best, color-coded a bit to divide the concepts:

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GIVE EXPERIENCED SMUGGLERS ACCESS TO MORE SMUGGLER CONTENT:

After seeing what the Devs did with Creature Handlers and "Creature Level," it occurred to me that the eventual "content" of Smuggler should be handled the same way.

In other words, use Underworld for something other than simply our "content" line. Turn it into defensive/combat modifiers, or unarmed specials, or state defenses, or something else (I'd like to see Brawler tied into it somehow and make us tougher to kill). The key is to do something with it now, not just leave it as a blank pointsink we need in order to become Master Smugglers.

When the Devs do introduce content in the future, handle it as the Devsare instituting"Creature Level" in CH - as you climb each tree, you get bonuses to your "Content Level." Let's call it "Smuggler Sense." Depending on your "Smuggler Sense," you would get better, more challenging (and higher-paying) missions, and would have access to higher-end content. Advancing in one branch of Smuggler would gain you better content, but unless you climbed several branches, you'd be far behind other Smugglers in terms of content.

Here's a sample tree, counting only the proposed "Smuggler Sense" modification:

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Master Smuggler = +15

+8 / +8 / +8 / +8

+6 / +6 / +6/ +6

+4 / +4 / +4 / +4

+2 / +2 / +2 / +2

Novice Smuggler = +5

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Based on that, a Master Smuggler would have a "Smuggler Sense" of +100, and get access to all Smuggler content in the game, including the best payouts. However, someone who went up, say, the Dirty Fighting line would have +25 "Smuggler Sense" - not much, but enough to do some basic smuggling work. Novices would have access to the lowest of the low in terms of content - but that's howit should be, really.

I think a system like this could solve two problems in one:

1) It would spread content over the entire tree rather than pack it all into a single branch, rewarding people who invest more skillpoints in Smuggler with better,more challengingcontent.

2) It would enable a faster solution to the black hole of the Underworld line - we could get some modifications there now, rather than wait (months? years?) until the Devs figure out how to implement Smuggler content, which would be tied to the entire skilltree rather than just one branch.

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TARIFFS AS A WAY TO ENCOURAGE EVERYDAY, NON-MISSION SMUGGLING:

This is a rough idea, but I'd like to see Galactic Import Tariffs and a customs evasionminigame for Smugglers.

Institute a tariff oncertain flaggedgoods thatenter Starports from another Starport (track it during the loading screen). Let's say each weapon costs 100 credits to import, each stack of 500 or more units of resources costs 1000 credits at the border, each droid costs 1000 credits to import, each vehicle costs 5000 credits, etc. All items get a tariff applied to them, kind of like insurance. You can pay in advance or try your hand at smuggling, and everyone in the game should have a small chance of smuggling a certain amount of goods - say a 10% chance for anyone to smuggle three or four items.

The only people who can dodge the tariff with great skillare Smugglers. Depending on their skill level, they have a better chance of going through customs undetected. Bypassing customs successfully would let the Smuggler warp out to the Starport like normal. Getting busted, however, would require any number of fixes - fast talking to dodge the guards even after a failure; bribes to pay off a detection and lose a cut of the profit, if not all of it; and all-out fighting off the guards, which should drop the secondary Faction of whatever type of customs officials you attacked (CorSec, RSF, etc). The customs minigame could play out in a side room at the Starport where detained players and Smugglers would warp into, rather than the usual landing pad.

Bonuses to help with the Customs minigame include disguise skills and factional disguises (see below).

In the event that someone did not have the cash to cover a fine or a bribe, the items would simply be confiscated. There would be a warning anytime you bought a ticket to somewhere and you had contraband on you, so people would have the option to either ditch the gear or find a Smuggler to handle it or even to take a chance on importing it themself.

To add some flavor to the game, I'd like to see certain items illegal on some planets but perfectly legal on others. Say, all vehicles are officially banned from Endor and Dathomir, and the only way to avoid outright confiscation is to smuggle them through.

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SMUGGLER CONTENT & GENERAL 'UNDERWORLD' SKILLS:

Smugglers don't do anything that justifies their title, namely smuggling. We have a few ideas for how to remedy this situation, and these fit squarely in the still-incomplete Underworld skill branch. These are major changes that require major space:

A) Smuggler Missions - sprinkle NPCs in various locations to act as mission terminals (it's more "smuggler-ish" to get a mission from an NPC rather than a computer terminal). Based on our "Smuggler Sense," give us missions that require us to pick up and deliver various illegal items (or perhaps make them and deliver them). These missions would have to be different than simple delivery missions; there would have to be danger involved. We have a few ideas on how to deal with that, too:

1. First, authorities in cities (CorSec, Stormtroopers, etc) would have a limited-range detection ability of illegal items. Smugglers would be able to counter this with a kind of a /maskscent abilityto cover up the illegal items, but it would never be close to 100% successful (maybe 80% - it has to be dangerous). Maybe just be direct and call the skill /smuggle.
   
2. Second, taking a Smuggler mission would alert Bounty Hunters somehow. Whether it would open a mission or whether all BHs would get a TEF against the Smuggler, we don't know. To counter this danger, Smugglers would get a new ability (also similar to /maskscent) called /disguise. The new /disguise command would obscure the Smuggler's TEF and make him appear as a blue dot on the radar. As above, even a Master Smuggler shouldn't be able to do this perfectly, and maybe a max 80% success rate would be fair.

In the event that Smugglers are detected by either Bounty Hunters or authorities (depending on which one you use, if not both), Smugglers would either have to run or fight if they wanted to complete their mission. A Smuggler's "Smuggler Sense" would affect how many Smuggler missions a person could accept at any time, and would affect the level of payouts. Perhaps advancement along the Underworld skill branch would make more NPC "sources" accessible to Smugglers as their network of underworld inflormants expands. In addition,separate general "Smuggler XP" would have to be earned by completing the new Smuggler missions, so Pistol XP would be stripped from this tree.

B) Interfactional Trading Permission - allow Smugglers to be intermediaries for Factions. As it stands, Faction members can't trade with each other. Make Smugglers the conduit for trade they're supposed to be. This should be a low-level skill in the revamped Underworld.

C) New Factions - Hutts, Valerians, Black Sun, etc. Give Smugglers a non-GCW-aligned group that offers Faction missions (see above for NPCs doling out Smuggler missions). Also give them Faction perks like special gear and NPC pets. Allow Smugglers to work for one of the GCW sides in addition to a criminal syndicate - they know how to play multiple sides, after all, and criminals are busy with their own 'wars.'

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Part Two coming right up . . .

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