Smuggler Archive

It is hard to compare a buff and a slice. While a buff is temporary, it is more effective.

Say, for example, you slice armor... and you get 40% resist improvement on every peice. The player can last about 40% longer in a battle.

Now, say you get buffed for 2400 per stat. First off, you have at least tripled your stats, likely quadrupled. So, you can stay in a fight between 200% and 300% longer. And that's not even counting the incredible reduction that special moves now take on your pools, as well as the increase in recovery time (which all smugglers appreciate if they tend to get in over their heads, drop a lot of DOT and feign).

That being said, the buff is going to last you one good evening of hunting. It might get you through a theme park. A decent slice on a fair peice of equipment will likely last you through every single theme park if you can keep from dying too often. So, when it comes to price, you are comparing a 5k slice with as much as a dozen 12k buffs (144k, for those who are math challenged).

As for cost of goods sold, a doctor has a pretty good chance of making his own kit. A smuggler is probably going to be dependant upon weaponsmiths and armorsmiths for the UKs. The doctor has harvesters to run, as does the smuggler. Both might need surveyors. The doctor needs to buy his meats and such unless he's got a combat skill tossed in. And a doctor isn't likely to be able to run 14k missions out on Lok.

In other words, they are both in most regards incomparable to each other. With only one exception:

supply and demand.

Smugglers are in fair supply and limited demand. Doctors are in fair supply and immense demand. Less people need less slices less often. More people need more buffs more often. So buffs end up being more expensive. The following things might change that:
less smugglers
more doctors
less need for buffs
more need for docs to give buffs (Aurelia grinders... coming soon to a starport near you)
more need for slices
some bizarre economic event I've not yet thought of....

These factors effect the two professions when you are comparing them to each other in such a way as to establish pricing. And here is a quick suggestion for smugglers who are really unhappy that their slicing isn't fetching the money they could make doing buffs: Take up Doctor. If it is all about the money, take up a profession that pays better. Or, take on some aspect of your profession that pays better. Try to remember that while we have to sink 58 skill points into our pre-requisites, doctors have to sink 77 into theirs. And we come out handy with a pistol and not terribly incompetent in unarmed combat. Doctors come out with no combat skills at all. So while it is easy for us to augment ourselves with an extra skill like medic or scout, it is hard for a doc to take up a combat skill to make money. The use of terminals for cash is very limited for a doctor. It is not so limited for a smuggler. In a pinch, a Master smuggler with a blaster and no other skills at all can make money without anyone's help. A Master Doctor with no other skills is pretty much screwed for cash until they find another player to heal/buff. It is a nice balance of choices, rewards, and consequences. Choose wisely.

Dorsai...

If you want to insist on comparing the two.. I have both, a Master doc on Wanderhome.. and a Master Smuggler on Bloodfin. My smuggler has never seen a million credits. My Doc can pull it down in a single long day. As a doc I can define for my clients what they will get in advance for what I will charge. As a smuggler, my clients are letting me roll their dice in a game of craps. I've never been able to sit in Coronet and spam 'slicing for X credits' and have anything like a consistant line of customers. Even during slow times on the server, I've watched docs abandon a line of customers because they were out of buff packs.
If a doctor doesn't have the business sense to craft his own packs, his returns will be less. If I bought all my molecular clamps I'd probably not make much on each slice I do. And slicing work has always been very smuggleresque in the sense that some person catches on that I am a smuggler and tracks me down. I've never actually been able to set up a little 'slicing' stand at the starport and serve every vagabond wandering in from the edges of the galaxy needing that quick slice before they go adventuring out into the wilderness. Instead, you get the occaisional individual who bought an unsliced weapon or peice of armor off of a vendor because that vendor didn't happen to slice everything before putting it up for sale.

Docs have some disadvantages, but they also have a real market for their goods that smugglers do not.

You are assuming that those crates are being sold to people slicing ad-hoc and not for vendors. A smuggler that gets in with a vendor can make a fair profit from time to time as the vendor requires a restock. I sell crates of mol clamps for about 4k a pop on the bazaar and on a vendor. I tend to see one or two people buying a chunk at a time, then never again. My guess is that they are working their way up the branch. You might be seeing the same thing, someone working their way up the branch or a smuggler equiping for a major job for a vendor. If you really want to get a feel for the market, stand next to a doctor at the starport in coronet and spam that you are slicing. At the end of the day, count up the number of visitors and credits you each brought in.

Message Edited by dorsai78664 on 09-21-2004 05:23 PM

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GrimRebuke wrote:
It's all my fault...

I am a Master Smuggler on Bloodfin and I generally just slice for the Love and positivity... so I take tips (and those that don't tip or tip less than 3k end up on my "don't ever slice for or save this wingnuts life again" list). Most people tip around 5k, some tip 3k.. others less. Once in a while someone will toss me 10k for a really good slice. Some people I just don't charge because they are OK in my book. I've accidentally charged guild members because I often forget what guild I'm in (or just forget that I'm in a guild altogether). I've not charged other people just because they were in the same faction.
In short, I really don't care that much. Slicing was never what I saw as the smuggler's income potential. And I'm not giving in to the idea that we're now just misnamed hackers. I want to smuggle. It isn't that we charge too little for slicing, it is that there is not a sufficient penalty for getting caught with contraband that is really ruining slicing... well, that and jacki like myself who just accept tips....

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It's all my fault...

I am a Master Smuggler on Bloodfin and I generally just slice for the Love and positivity... so I take tips (and those that don't tip or tip less than 3k end up on my "don't ever slice for or save this wingnuts life again" list). Most people tip around 5k, some tip 3k.. others less. Once in a while someone will toss me 10k for a really good slice. Some people I just don't charge because they are OK in my book. I've accidentally charged guild members because I often forget what guild I'm in (or just forget that I'm in a guild altogether). I've not charged other people just because they were in the same faction.
In short, I really don't care that much. Slicing was never what I saw as the smuggler's income potential. And I'm not giving in to the idea that we're now just misnamed hackers. I want to smuggle. It isn't that we charge too little for slicing, it is that there is not a sufficient penalty for getting caught with contraband that is really ruining slicing... well, that and jacki like myself who just accept tips....

Message Edited by dorsai78664 on 09-21-2004 02:34 PM

I think slicing is a fine way to make a living, if you're not obsessed with having billions. I don't generally spam for slicing, i just take the jobs as they come to me. If you really want money, grind out armorsmith, pay some poor smuggler to slice your armor for you, and sell sliced composite for 600k. My casual slicing ensures that I always have enough money for whatever I feel like doing, and I get to meet new people, learn who I can and cannot trust on the server, and generally have an enjoyable conversation while I'm at it.

lol, til they get an Image Designer Droid, letting them do their job by sitting next to the docs outside cnet sp.