Development Cycle Archive

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TonPhannan wrote:

1- If you are referring to the concept of Smuggling than you are correct, but only insofar as if the Imperials started to take these items and transport them... you see that is what the act of smuggling is all about.

2- The core value of the Smuggling profession? No, I think not. The core value of the Smuggling profession is the ability to Slice and to create Spice and to convert faction points and such. No one is getting these abilities, so your profession is largely in tact. As for the concept of Smuggling, all rebels who have these items will want to have a Smuggler grouped with them whenever they can... but lets look at this concept.

There are a lot of Smugglers who would give away all those skills if they could actually smuggle something. I personally see them as all interwoven, improving the way that you can move contraband and prepare for situations in which you fail to move undetected. Smugglers have a lot of tricks up their sleeves for when things go wrong, and I think that's fairly well represented in the skilltree.

But if you give ANYONE else the chance to bypass customs and be able to avoid contraband scans, then you can guarantee that those people will start smuggling and essentially steal the core of the profession - which should be centered around moving illegal items. If Imperials can move illegal items, they'll take over the role of Smugglers. In "real life", that would be mitigated by the fact that people would be busted if they dealt as full-time Smugglers. But in gameplay, there's no penalty for associating with the other side. Imperials will serve as conduits for not onlythemselves and fellow Imperials, but for Neutrals and Rebels. Once the door is open for Imperials to move contraband with impunity, the door is closed on giving Smugglers the role they should occupy in terms of the illegal contraband trade.

3- The 'Value' of the Smuggling profession, as you put it, in the terms of this circumstance is only in your ability to assist others avoiding scans while you are grouped with them. It makes you a more viable party member, that is all. Unless you are planning on selling your services to simply accompany people around in their group, this really doesn't do much forthe profession of Smuggling on the whole at all. What it does is help Smugglers who used to primarily use their other skills in a group, no be able to use their Smuggler professin to assist the group as well, instead of it being extraneous to the group experience. You now have something to offer the group as a Smuggler. But most Smugglers already have something to offer groups in their other skills. The only way this hurts smugglers is if they are Imperial smugglers that have trouble grouping with others.

If Imperials can hold contraband for people and transport it past Faction police, they will be Smugglers without having invested a single skillpoint in the profession. The ability to move contraband safely makes you a de facto Smuggler. Just because Smugglers have other talents doesn't mean that it's acceptable in any way to cut outthe actual smuggling part of the profession and give it to all Imperials. There are dozens of other ways to make Imperials strong and give them some advantages. Giving them free access to what is supposed to be a dark and dirty underworld is NOT the means by which Imperials should seek to empower themselves. Why not just give Imperials a 10% defense bonus inside all starting cities, or certain attack bonuses as they increase in rank? Those are much better, organicalternatives than making all Imperials de facto Smugglers. The underworld belongs to Smugglers, not to soldiers charged with upholding the law and enforcing the will of the Emperor.

The abilities of the Smuggling profession (which are moreso the Essence and intrinsic Value of the profession) are still completely intact. This does nothing to deter those abilities. This does not give anyone else the ability to slice, to create spice, or to convert faction to credits and vice versa, not to mention the Feign Death and Low Blow abilities.

Those are all extra abilities that point towards the central goal of a Smuggler - smuggling. The abilities you listed above are arms and legs of the profession, but the heart and body have always been actual smuggling, which has never existed in SWG. Until now. This is a shallower version of smuggling than what is eventually hoped for, but it's all cut from the same cloth - it all deals with moving items which have been declared illegal and then distributing them to other people.

I can guarantee that if the Devs cave into the Imperial whiners and power-grabbers and give Imperials a free pass to contraband checks, there will be a lot of outraged Smugglers. That's just about the most patient forum you can find in SWG, but if the Devs institute some actual smuggling in the game and then DON'T give Smugglers the unique role we've been waiting for since Beta, there will be more genuinely angry posts than the Devs want to see.

Please explain to me how it is that the Value of the Smuggling profession is lessened by this? What Value is it that you are referring to? Please place a name or a number to the concept of Value to which you are referring. What Value is it delineating? What is it you see Smugglers doing that this will allow Imps to do too?

See above.

If you want facts and figures, sorry, the Devs haven't given Smugglers ANY public info since launch. Nobody knows what affects slicing. Nobody knows why there's no experimentation for spice or tools.Nobody knew (untilour correspondent was told on the Correspondent Forum) that Masters got a 5% bonus to slicing, and if you read the Master box, you still don't know, because it's not written down, even though it exists. Nobody knows why you needPistol XP to get the Underworld line.

So basically, I can't answer any questions about facts and figures because the Devs have treated this info with more secrecy than even the Jedi profession. We don't even really know what the new crackdown means.But if a lot of posters in the GCW forum had their way, the new crackdown would mean that Imperials would have free access to illegal spice and weapons and thateverybody else would be penalized and killed for owning it. Well that sounds like a great feature if you only want to earn some short-term advantages in combat, but that's a terrible plan for the long-term development of contraband, theSmuggler profession, and PVP itself.

If the idea behind this greedy power grabis to make Imperials about 1/4 to 1/3 stronger than Rebels in terms of weapons and armor, and to give them unique buffs, why not ask fornew ways to get those advantages? Why plunder what's supposed to be the province of underworld Smugglers?

Basically, my fellow Smugglers, we need to draw a line in the sand. NOBODY but Smugglers should be able to avoid contraband scans, and no one should be able to avoid a substantial penalty. If the penalties are no more than a slap on the wrist, or if anyone other than Smugglers are allowed to carry contraband with a large chance of avoiding detection, then we willnever be thereal Smugglers of SWG.

We need to make our opinions and arguments known in the GCW forum. I'm willing to bet that many people have not considered the consequences of giving Imperials free passes at contraband consequences. This is time to educate the public.

Please help get the word out and keep the pressure on the Devs to leave contraband evasion to Smugglers and keep serious penalties in place for those who break the law. If we don't make sure that Smugglers occupy a unique role in this patch, it will be nearly impossible to ever control the contraband markets and define ourselves as contraband specialists. If I'm making this sound very serious, it's because it is. We are about to be givena chance to smuggle, and the Devs are hinting at making changes that would marginalize us before it even happens.

Please spread the word. Send PMs to Thunderheart and the Devs. Chime in on Focus Threads and Roundtable discussions like this. We need to make it clear to everyone how important this is for us.

Thanks in advance for helping keep smuggling for Smugglers only. Good luck!