Smuggler Archive

Here's a rather long concept for smuggling that won't be implemented or even looked at by the Empire (SOE) but I had to get it out of my head to make more room for beer and pie.

1st, the nerfs...

Only POB ships and the JSF will have the ability to install long range hyperdrives. All the single seaters are just too small they will only be able to hyperspace to the 2 nearest hyperspace points along the lined map. The JSF will have to have the hyperspace ring to hyperspace.

Carrier's will be installed to shuttle single person fighters from location to location.

Shuttle ports, Starports and Carriers will become factional and will follow the faction of the city or region of space they're in. They will only shuttle to like factioned locations and will refuse service to players with negative faction (neutrals and newbs should have no problem with this).

The "Travel" button will be completely removed.

A couple of bonuses...

Player Ships will be able to dock with POB ships. While docked, the player will be able to exit their own ship and enter the POB ship. POB ships will be able to dock with each other and players will be able to travel from ship to ship (we're talking big beer and pie parties!).

Now we're finally to the smuggler stuff...

None of these missions can be performed using public transportation. Trying to catch a public transport will mean instant incapacitation and confiscation of smuggled materials. During any mission, if you're incapacitated by the opposing faction, they will confiscate the materials you're smuggling (referred to as being caught in the following descriptions).

Novice smuggler: plain ol' delivery missions to gain xp for next tier. After all, you haven't garnered a reputation for reliability yet.

1st Tier: Missions available from most factions to deliver information to that same faction or an allied faction (ie hut to hut) on the same planet. Materials to be delivered will be sensitive information that would be valuable to an opposing faction. There will be a possibility of getting jumped by an opposing faction while travelling to delivery location. No further missions will be available until that faction has been paid back for confiscated items should you get caught.

2nd Tier: Missions available from many factions to deliver contraban or information vital to opposing factions. Extreme likelyhood of getting intercepted by opposing force. No further missions will be available until that faction has been paid back for confiscated items should you get caught.

3rd Tier: Missions available from major underworld factions to deliver information to that same faction of different worlds. Strong likelyhood of getting intercepted by opposing force either on land or in space. No further missions will be available and a bounty will be placed on your head until that faction has been paid back for confiscated items should you get caught.

4th Tier: Missions available from major underworld factions to deliver contraban or information vital to opposing factions. Extreme likelyhood of getting intercepted by opposing force on land, in space, or both. No further missions will be available and a bounty will be placed on your head until that faction has been paid back for confiscated items should you get caught.

Master Smuggler: Missions are only available in a centrally located cantina that can only be entered by masters of elite professions. The bartender will have the jobs as they come available, and will eject you from the premesis should you pester him too frequently. There will be very few jobs (1 to 4 per day). Each mission will involve transporting a person, droid, or creature (or combination thereof). The bartender will tell you where to meet your passenger. Picking up the passenger may require repair if a droid, or even taming if a creature. If it does, the aid of a MDE or MCH will be needed. The passenger may be factional or neutral. If factional, they will refuse to ride with a member whose faction points have dropped below a threshold (-2000?). Deliver the passengers for the reward. Should your passenger be killed, no further missions will be available and a bounty will be placed on your head until that faction has been paid back. The passenger will join your group on gaining the mission and follow you in vehicles and on ships.

Master Smuggler part 2: While ferrying a passenger, all members of the group will be pvp. The transportation will be required to go through deep space. During transport on ground or in space, other smugglers may wish to try to steal your passenger. If they disable the pob ship and dock with it, they can forcibly enter with an assault team. Should your group become incapacitated, they will be able to steal your passenger and gain the reward of delivering them.

You can enlist people to help you with your mission and pay them a percentage of the reward. The rewards should be high enough to make it a worthwhile split for a group and a half.

This should not only make smuggler interesting, but all the different classes they will have to hire along the way. The BH will enjoy having an additional source of targets, the Jedi will even get something... fewer BH's chasing them.

Oh, and if the smuggler doesn't have JTL, they will just have to sit in limbo until the POB lands at the destination starport.

Optimally, the centrally located cantina will be on Centerpoint Station, but I'm trying to be realistic (I know, why bother being realistic when I'm just wishing anyway).

... huh? What? Was I dreaming again? Oh, crap! I'm not a ranger am I? Whew...

Message Edited by Noffo on 07-12-2005 09:12 PM

Uh, yeah...

First off, you completly destroyed cannon. Revoking hyperdrives on ships that have them (all ships have then, even some mod'd TIE fighters), so there goes most of the saga.

As for hiring out: I just can't see Han Solo hiring out to regular people to help him. Sure, he kinda hired out in the Han Solo Trilogies (last book, Rebel Dawn), but that was a rareish thing, not common place. Also, just taking 1-4 missions per day from only one place sure makes it seem like everyone is in a city, not a galaxy.

You also mentioned the smugs w/o JTL, but what if they take the missions? If they require space, what then? They use someone elses ship and just sit out the entire mission? Don't really seem fair to me to sit out your own mission.

My 2 creds anyway.

As for the hyperdrives, they're not supposed to be long range. Maybe that can be handled differently then, but they shouldn't be jumping from one end of the galaxy to another.

Han didn't "hire out" but he didn't need to either. If you can outrun every ship in deepspace (fastest ship in the galaxy) you won't need to have help. If you're trying to hide from the empire, you might try to get help without paying for it (maybe visit an old friend and hide out while having him help you with your hyperdrive). Maybe if he'd hired some help he wouldn't have gotten his @$$ frozen. He also had the help of a force sensitive jedi padiwan (Luke), an experienced jedi, another smuggler/rifleman (Chewy) and a novice pistoleer (Leia).

The smugs w/o JTL would have the ground experience, but once the team enters space, he'll have to wait on the ground 'till the ship arrives at the far end. There will still be plenty of ground time since you'll need to avoid public transportation. Getting left out is part of the SOE experience. There's plenty of things you lose out on if you haven't sprung for every upgrade. That's been true as long as SOE's been selling mmorpg games. I would think that they would especially like a way to leave people out that don't buy in. It gives my idea a little more likelihood to be implemented (like a .000000000000001% chance ).

As for everybody being in one place, that's what the smuggler's rest is all about. The other Master Elites won't have quite as much reason to hang out though. BH's will have access, so if you have a price on your head you may not want to be that obvious. There's plenty of reasons not to wait around. Then there's the idea that suddenly there's a job come available. The first guy to notice will make some excuse about needing to go pick up his new pistol that his weaponsmith just crafted for him as he sidles to the door. Someone else's suspicion gets aroused and he offers to go with him to cover his back. Suddenly it's a mad rush for the space terminal as everyone rushes to see who's ship is the fastest as they race to pick up the passenger.

Message Edited by Noffo on 07-12-2005 09:19 PM

Oh, I know what I forgot that will make this everyone's favorite...

For the Novice Smuggler quests, your missions will be to smuggle pie!

You are still wrong on your cannon. Hyperdrives ARE made to spend long ammounts of time in use (hours, days, even weeks). This also includes starfighters, the EU contains many examples of X-Wings spending days in hyperspace.

As for the last part, I dont wanna play "The Amazing Race: Smuggler Edition"

The tricky part would be delivering the pie and not eating it.

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Noffo wrote:
The tricky part would be delivering the pie and not eating it.

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That's how you'd get on the BH terminals.... man, I really am a farking genius.

My dream involves a really nice tropical island full of hot nakey 18 yearold girls and plenty of beer. Mmmmm I like my dreams!

Episode IV reference

I don't know what you're referencing but from Episode IV, the bible episode in my not-so-humble opinion since I waited in line for days and watched it more times than I can count when it was in theaters, Ben clearly referenced the subjective range limits of the various ships.

LUKE: It followed us!
BEN: No. It's a short range fighter.
HAN: There aren't any bases around here. Where did it come from?
LUKE: It sure is leaving in a big hurry. If they identify us, we're in big trouble.
HAN: Not if I can help it. Chewie...jam it's transmissions.
BEN: It'd be as well to let it go. It's too far out of range.
HAN: Not for long...
BEN: A fighter that size couldn't get this deep into space on its own.
LUKE: It must have gotten lost, been part of a convoy or something.
HAN: Well, he ain't going to be around long enough to tell anyone about us.

Note that he was refering to a TIE/ln figher, one that has no hyperdrive. So yes, in the case of TIEs, your argument of no hyperdrives holds. On most other fighters, it doesn't because they have hyperdrives and would not be in the same class as the ships Ben is talking about.

Well, it carries that if some ships have limited range, and capital ships have docking bays, it stands to reason that the capital ships have better range and speed than fighters.

From the game mechanics standpoint, it was dumb to just give everyone the ability to travel anywhere in the galaxy on a whim. Interstellar travel would not be, and should not be, that easy. If it was, smugglers wouldn't (as they're not now) be needed at all since there would be so many ships there would be no possible way to keep track of them all.