Development Cycle Archive

Too many people are looking at this as if everyone in the game is entitled to operate in the underworld like a Smuggler.

Point blank:

Imperials should receive no bonuses unless they spend skillpoints and invest in the criminal underworld. Our invested skillpoints are our de facto Criminal Faction.

Ever since I heard about the Imperial Crackdown, I've started thinking of spicing and slicing as a special type of personal buff that can be traded on a limited basis. It's like this:

Smugglers get to buff their own offensive and defensive power (weapons, armor, stats).Something unique to Smugglers is that the special buffs expose you to potential penalties, including FP loss, fines, or TEFs. In addition, these buffs, moderately dangerous when used personally, can be transferred to others - though non-Smugglers assume a higher risk than Smugglers.

But that's the interesting part - users need to consider risk versus reward, especially people with no way to shield the illegal buffs from being detected. Is it worth it? Hey, that's up to the customer.

But here's the problem:

The community got addicted to the riskless buffs of slicing and spice.

Now that the Devs have ended the amnesty on contraband, non-Smugglers want to continue using the buffs they've become accustomed to enjoying, and they see anything less than the status quo as a nerf.

And that is absolutely absurd. Do non-Doctors seriously complain that they can't buff themselves? Do Carabineers lament their lack of a PowerBoost skill? Do non-Artisans demand the ability to craft 33% damage powerups?

No they don't. Because it's not considered grief, it's considered in terms of "they invested skillpoints in a profession, andthey get that as an ability."

And soI have come to think ofspice and slicing. These are special Smuggler abilities, useful as personal buffs for shady folks like us. The complicated and interestingpart isthat theycan be transferred tonon-Smugglers on a limited basis- the catch being that they are MUCH more dangerous for non-Smugglers to use.

Now, would people rather have a risky option to increase their power, or no option at all to access that power? I'm inclined to believe that they'd rather have a choice.

The problem for much of the community is that seven months of universal, risk-freeuse by everyone has made people feel entitled to these special powers rather thanprivileged to have access to them.

And so we have many people in the community clamoring that stripping them of "their" buffs is now GRIEF - when in fact they were using Smuggler-specific skills on borrowed time, and with no consequences, until now. Now that reality has finally sunk in and these items are finally turning into the contraband they were always supposed to be, people are crying foul. They've gotten used to them and don't want to lose them. They feel like it's a subtraction from their game when it was really an unfair and unbalancedaddition. And regardless, they still have the choice to use the buffs - but with strings attached this time.

Outlawing spice and slices on a universal basis is the furthest thing from grief. This patch should have been a rebalance that solidified the unique role of the Smuggler, and should have added some excitement and unpredictability both to Smugglers and to everyone else who chose to live an outlaw life.

Well now there's absolutely no unpredicability. Imperials avoid with 100% certainty the dangers associated with what should be universally risky buffs, and the unique flavor of the Smuggler profession has been stolen to give Imperials something to play with.

There is no justification for giving Imperials the core value of a Smuggler.