Smuggler Archive

Concussion shot only needs one change - move the "basic" version up the tree, instead of at Novice.
This way, people can still obtain a useful skill by "dabbling" in Smuggler, but they are definitely going to have to sacrifice something else from one of the other professions if they're set on having Concussion Shot.

Remember - Concussion Shot is not really a "damage" shot. You don't use it over and over on the same target to kill it. You're really looking to have some OTHER skills to do your damage for you. Whether that's other Smuggler skills or things like Headshot for Rifleman is up to you.

If the shot absolutely must have an effectiveness decrease, I'd suggest that it mostly be to the "standard" shot. Have the non-improved one break on damage, last significantly less time, have a longer cooldown, or even all of the above!
But if someone wants to spend all 121 points to get the Improved version, then it should be good! Like all the Master level box skills should be good.

The smugglers who aren't dedicated to the skills won't continue to "flood" the market with cheap slicing/spicing and faction pointing for a very long period of time. Most will tire of it and either move on (particularly once they make Jedi) or just quit offering to do it for people.

Remember - you don't LOSE any money by not performing a slice for someone who wants it too cheap. You're the one providing the service, so you set the price. Eventually the other smugglers will be doing the same, because there's no great motivation to perform massive numbers of slices for no profit. With the respec, most people are either Master Smuggler or have dabbled enough to get whatever they wanted from the tree. They don't need XP, except to turn into Force Sensitive XP. And Slicings not a particularly fast way to do that I don't believe?

Thats true Mythor, but my worry is that in the meantime the market will be smashed.

See I've gone through this with DE and Smuggler in the past. I've had both my favourite profressions financialy ruined from hologrinders. Hologrinding completly killed DE for me but factionpoint sale seemed to save smuggler. Now its facing the same fate again. If people get used to low prices it eventualy becomes difficult for anyone to raise the price and if you require your smuggling business to keep you financialy secure this is effectively a game killer for you.

And for whoever said they consider smuggler a combat profession? Well then in my opinion you've chosen the wrong profression. The way I see smuggler, it doesn't fit into the healer/crafter/combat/pet categories that every other profression falls into. Instead its like a bridge between crafter and combatant with its own special "slicing" (and hopefuly soon smuggling and gambling) side to it. It shouldn't be a crowed favourite for anything EXCEPT the smuggler/gambler roles. Thats how I see it anyway

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Vampiric_Hoshi wrote:

Ok two points here to defend myself:

1) I'm not calling for a nerf on concussion or any other smuggler special. One "idea" was to swap concussion with pistoleer stopping shot but that is only one solution. I love concussion shot ... it's saved me more times than I can count and I would say it is FAR more important to a smuggler right now than last ditch. - or we can just leave it be, why is this even an issue?

2) Established customers are barely 50% of a good businessman's clientel. You can only sell FP/Spice/Slice to one person so many times before they don't need one for a while. I find that atleast 50% of any money to be made in smugglers tends to be from people that are on at certain times and desperately need their new gun sliced before they have to go to work or whatever <--- those are now the sales we are losing out on. - have you read the smuggler slicing Doc's? Once slicing is revamped we will have a ton of business. Remeber slicing is a mess atm. At first we wasnt but as the respeced smugglers continue to play and continue to get requests for these things more and more are taking business away from the REAL smugglers and smashing any existing price plans we had already set. - everyone in this game has a right to respec to what ever he or she wants, its a game no one is a "real" smuggler. Some of us have just been around for a long time and are passionate about the profession but we have no right to put down anyone who respec's or uses the Smuggler skill set unless it is abused so bad that we run the risk of losing it and that is not the case here.

Like I point too before, how many of you were smuggling before the days of the holo grind? - Me How many had set slicing prices and made the majority of their income from it? - Me I had. - whats your point, remember your talking to a tight community and alotof us have been smugglers maybe even longer then you. There was a pricing guide here during that time on all the prices people suggest where good and a big majority of us went by that. Then suddenly the hologrind started and the Slicing Wars began. Holo grinders would stand outside starports spamming "2k a slice" completly ruining the slicing market to such a point where players stopped seaking out actual smugglers to slice their weapons and instead just flew around starports to find a nice cheap grinder. - your wrongI was here for that as well and it never really hurt my business cause people wanted master slices,what ruined our slicing market was AS picking up slicing and flooding the market to the point where you can find a sliced weapon on a vendor as easy as a non-sliced weapon. Even existing customers who were happy to pay 20, 15, 10 whatever the price found it financialy easier to just go to a grinder. - holo's have been dead for a long time and we had a better market for slicing weapons then then we do now.

Then we learnt the art of faction point selling and that became our real money maker and around the same time holo grinding ended so suddenly we were alone in the universe and had ourselves a viable market back.

How long do you think you are going to be able to sell faction points for anything over 101 credits per faction point? - given the fact that jedi are hurting the GSW over all I have seen a marked slide in faction points but they are at a set rate for us so they will still be at a set rate for a client, its that simple.

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Message Edited by yimaz on 05-20-2005 10:40 AM

And on a sidenote ... my business is based on a fixed set of customers. You are right that I cannot sell them 10k Faction Points every day but never underestimate propaganda!

Whenever their friends need a smuggler they send them to me. Because they know they get the best service and a fair treatment for a fair price.

Personally I think it's fhuct up and I'm literally offended that after two years of waiting (and counting) those of us who are truly Smugglers, that love the profession and stuck by it through think and thin, are being infiltrated by respec pretender wannabe template builders. I'm ashamed and embarassed for them and most of all, for SOE (for allowing this to happen to the one profession they've hated, neglected and gimped since day one). It seems even when they finally try to make things mildly better for us they still end up crapping where they bake their bread.

"I still have the same group of customers I have been serving for the entire 1.5 years I have been Mater Smuggler.

"Sure, it'll be a mess for a while, but it'll sort itself out like it always does"

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Vampiric_Hoshi wrote:
"Sure, it'll be a mess for a while, but it'll sort itself out like it always does"

Slicing has NOT recovered from the hologrind and its nearly been a year (if not already a year) since hologrinding ended. - I say again holo's did not ruin our market (hurt it....maybe) is was AS bulk sliced vendor items that hurt us the most. I was here and a master long before even the holo crazy I know what Im talking about. The smuggler revamp may give us the oppatunity to correct this but not if it continues that praticaly everyone ingame is a smuggler. - thats not going to happen it is an extreme view point to think everyone is going to be a smuggler.

Just ask yourself, how can you sell a product to someone that can just go make it himself for free. - and why not become an AS or WS and make all your weapons or armor for free, maybe a Tailor, or shipwright or....etc.

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lol, everyone will not be a smuggler (come on do you really think that?)or a Bounty Hunter or what ever other profession someone belongs to and see's other players respecing to.Many professionare freaking out about this but it's justpeopletryingtofinding there way in a new gamethat is all that is going on now.Remember respec will be over in like 5 days and then changes to our profession will be made, mean people will have to grind if they want what we have in the future. Will we have more smugglers..sure but many other professions will also have new people, it is what it is lets not make ourselves crazy over it.

Message Edited by yimaz on 05-20-2005 11:19 AM

"lol, everyone will not be a smuggler "

Take a good look around your server. Everyone and their dog already ARE smugglers. If they dont have the master smuggler (or other smuggler) tag above their name they have a "mastered smuggler" badge. I sat in mos eisley last night just to test this and the only people that came into that cantina the entire night that didnt have a smuggler badge or tag were the dancers. When its got to that point I say something isn't right

"After the Revamp slicing won't even be permenant. If it goes as the Docs describe your weapon will drift out of tune and need to be sliced again. So there will be enough for EVERYONE"

Thats a possible fix to slicing but with two issues:

• Will it create an even larger influx of people to the smuggler profression? If that happens it really will be a matter of people only getting to slice their own stuff


• Will it be an effective enough slice that people actually want it done?