Smuggler Archive

Figured I'd resurect my old idea here instead of necroing it.

Originally appeared in THIS THREAD.

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KaiRanwrote:

Brainstorm hit me here at work while reviewing Veela's suggestion for improving the Jawa Mountian camp with slicing parts:

Goals:

1) Add actual *Smuggling* content to SWG. In this particular instasnce, I suspect this would fall into the low to mid-level content range

2) Increase the demand for low- to mid-level craftables. While weapons are used in the example below, the actual item can be as varied as Novice to mid-level crafted medical supplies to crafted (?) spices.

3) Offer an oppertunity to "barter", rather than simply obtain credits.


Base needs:

1) Add smuggling mission givers to various locations across the galaxy. These particular missions would range from mission givers in little-used static city hotels, to the entrance of Jabba's, or even just outside the rebelion or imperial themeparks. (As higher-level mission-givers are added, their locations would be placed in harder to reach areas, including deep within these themeparks, etc.) Other possibilities include Space stations.

2) Add smuggling mission recipiants in gradient locales, as per above.

3) add an element of "danger" to the missions. While carying this mission, perhaps the smuggler is "flagged" as carying contraban?


Mission structure:

1) Speak with the appropriate mission giver. Perhaps a shady supply officer, or a Jabba thug. they instruct you that money can be made moving a number of a particular product to some remote location. A WP is given, as well as an inventory of what needs to be delivered. In this example, lets say a shady Imperial supply officer has caught wind of a group of mercinaries on Lok that need 50 CDEF Rifles, no questions asked. alternately, this could be a mayor of a city in desperate need of someone to move medical supplies past a blockade, say.

2) Locate a low-level player crafter and strike a deal on the required item. Haggle over a price. Buy the guns, and off you go. This offers a usefullness to low-end crafters.

3) Near the destination, avoid/fight off brigands/creatures/patrols that are either directly trying to stop you (remember the possible flag I mentioned above?) or are the indirect reason the recipiant cant go p/u the supplies themselves (The mercinaries would love to go get their own CDEFs, if not for the nasty creatures that have them stuck in their camp.)

4) Arrive at the recipiant, unscathed do to your slick Smuggler moves, and open a conversation/barter window. At this point, a two-sided window opens (stolen from Fallout 2) showing your inventory, what you offer, what they offer, and what they have to offer is generated. In the "what they have to offer" quarter, an appropriate amount and level of loot is generated, including weapons (junk and not-junk), slice components, locked containers, loot-kit parts, etc, as well as an amount of credits. Drag the needed 50 CDEF rifles to the "offer" part, and drag any interesting items from their inventory quarter into the "what you want" quarter. You may also offer or demand credits here, but not neccissary.

5) Barter! Click on a button after arranging the offer/demand items to your liking. The recipiant then counter offers, including adding money to your offer side, or theirs (telling you what theyd do/need to make the deal). Haggle like this until you are finished. As you haggle, the recipiant's mood alters based on: 1) your current FP standing with their faction, 2) how demanding you are being 3) how good a fast talker you are (Underworld usefullness!). The more outrageous your demands, the more likely they will have a worse reaction to you. Push them too far, and they will end the deal completely, lowering your FP standing with them (if possible). Cut a generous deal, and gain FP. Tick them off often enough, and they stop talking to you entirely till the next server up. In the end, it should be possible to get them to agree to a hard bargan, but even if they agree to it, you would loose their particular FP. NOTE: even with -5k FP, you ahould be able to talk to them. this would be agreat way to gain back FP w/o loosing from another faction. Everyone loves a clever smuggler.

6) Examine the profits!

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Nezodon wrote:

I just thought it would be interesting to do a nice polite questionaire and get some views which hopefully the devs would take on board when it comes to smuggling missions:

• Why do we need smuggling missions? - to fullfill the prohpecy of our title. We're Smugglers; Bounty Hunters can hunt bounties, Scouts can scout, Brawlers can brawl, Fencers can fence, Jedi can Jedi, why can't Smugglers smuggle?


• What should they involve? - smuggling goods from point A to point B without interference from the Man (the Empire), failure to deliver results in NPC or player bounty hunter missions, negative underworld/Hutt faction


• What would it add to the SWG universe? - It would add legitimacy to the Devs stated claims that they care about what non-Jedi say (which is only a knock if they take it that way). It would also broaden the server economies and allow for more rich content. And it would make a lot of longtime Smugglers (if they haven't quit) extremely happy.


• Why did you become a smuggler? - for the chicks. Seriously though , I have played Ranger characters in all the other RPGs I've ever tried, and while I still like them, I still identify with the Smuggler more. Maybe that's because in my job I'm constantly overlooked and my ideas are ignored, but I'm always hoping...


• What does the lack of smuggling content do to the smuggling profession? - It relegates us to slicers, faction sellers and those that feign death. It makes our title a misnomer. I can claim to be a doctor all I want, but if I can't do doctor type stuff, it's just a sleazy way to pick up babes. Exact same thing with Smugglers. I can't smuggle, but the ladies do love the bad boy...

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JFreeman wrote:

In the past, our approach to this has been to design with an eye toward content-driven delivery mechanisms. Now I think we've come to the realization that creating hand-crafted content requires more resources than we can devote to a single profession. So we need a plan-B.

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Very curious statement.

If I recall correctly (someone please tell me if I'm wrong) a certain profession was given a complete and total Revamp, divided into TWO ENTIRE PUBLISHES.

Hmm...now Smugglers, which are iconic as hell on SW universe, can't have their Revamp?

Interesting...