Smuggler Archive
Thread: On the Creation of a Fuller Star Wars Underworld Especially for the Smuggler
Ternque01 wrote:
I'll break this up real simple.
I. Create criminal theme parks for various criminal organizations. Hutt, Valarian, Black Sun, etc.
1. Make player choose which organization they want to join and have them complete the theme park before allowing them to gain Novice Smuggler.
This will allow a player to get a feel of the criminal organization they join and that organization's methods and stomping grounds. This is also pretty immersive.
Existing smugglers could choose to simply pick their organization or choose to complete a theme park at their discretion.
II. Create various criminal mini-games just like in Grand Theft Auto
1. Create shifting waypoints in various cities where a number of tasks can be completed for your organization.
- Chase and Kill/Assassination mission - chase and kill or assassinate rival criminals/smugglers/politicians
- Grant smugglers the ability to steal NPC vehicles staged at these spawn points. These could be vehicle modelsthat can be obtained exclusively through smugglermissions. Stolen NPC vehicles can be returned to your crime boss or keptand sold at the risk of increased visibility.
- Kill random enemy gang spawns for clout in your organization
- Intercept shipments of spice or weapon/ship components
- Slice important computer system or just slice to break into a facility to bypass the security system.
These extras sound like good fun and very fitting to the whole 'GTA' style you've mentioned, but other than the slicing part, these don't really seem all that Smuggler orientated. Infact, these would seem more at home in something like Caylin's Crime Lord proposal. That's not to say they're not without merit. For example, being able to steal an NPC vehicle would be a great get away tactical option should a Smuggler be found out and persude by the authorities or rival organisation members.
2. Encourage criminal territories.
- Spawn mid-level thugs and gangs of certain organizations in different cities. This would make a smuggler think a little more before just walking into any old town.
- Allow player cities to declare an affiliation with a criminal organization. Such cities would enjoy spawns of criminals of that faction for "protection".
- Allow smugglers of different criminal factions to war each other with a fully functional overt/covert/tef system. This alone would create criminal faction guilds and encourage territorialism amongst players for different areas of a planet. Also allow cooperative aggrements between player factions that wish to work together.
Again, some of this really falls under the Crime Lord idea, as Smugglers aren't all around cut throat bad guys, they Smuggle items, information and sometimes people. However, again, the ideas are good. For example, if cities were to have faction alignment to various criminal organisations, you could find in some places getting your package through is extremely easy, because the faction in control are your friends and they've got the local authorities in their pocket. Conversely, in cities where rivalorganisations are in controlyou could find getting through far harder because both the local authorities and the local scum are gunning for you. This is where the spawns you mentionedcould come into play and affect Smuggling missions, perhaps even encourage the use of partners in crime (people playing the role of decoy, or just saftey in numbers). Anyway, just food for thought
On the whole, we are talking a buttload of content here. Buttload by definition is more than a truckload and an assload combined. At heart, this idea brings life into criminality by tapping interest in the best of what being a criminal entails: proud territorialism, breaking and entering, murder, reputation, tricked out rides, and bling bling.
Again, sounds cool, but isn'ta Smuggler thing. I'm really wanting this Crime Lord profession now though
Furthermore, if mission waypoints and other features can be placed to give the "open ended" feel that Grand Theft Auto captures then being a smuggler will be one helluva lot of fun.
I think the feeling that things are open ended and somehow different each time are essential to a successful Smuggling mechanic. While you're not going to get a unique experience every time, having something become mundane because you've done it too many times is something to be avoided if possible.
You could go to a rival city, kill some gang members, steal their ride, and sell it for some mad cash. You could also hack (er.. slice) into say one of Lady Valarian's bank accounts and steal all the cash, watch out though because missions of this difficulty end you up on the wrong side of abounty hunter'sblaster. You could go from city to city robbing banks until a player BH finally catches up to you and you smoke his ass.
In closing, I feel there is much that SWG could learn from a game like Grand Theft Auto. An open-ended ticket to being a dirty criminal in this land of crafters and uptight military personel could hold alot of possibilities.
Message Edited by Ternque01 on 10-30-2004 02:02 PM
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WesBelden wrote:
However, as you say, some of the missions and aspects of others could be adapted towards actual Smuggling, be it events that take during the missions, or methods of successfully carrying them out. My point was that we should be concentrating on tailoring those ideas to fit with the Smuggler profession and smuggling itself, rather than focusing on bringing in features that move away from that.
I would love smuggling though, where some items or resources could be illegal on some planets, so to construct a huge gun you'd need to smuggle in parts from other planets. This would hurt the WS's though, so that's out. A big thing I'd like to see is enhanced slicing. For one, stealing is part of a smuggler's tree of skills. You should be able to scam the banks into thinking you had more money than you do, so you can buy something to sell for much more than it's worth. This would hurt other players if their credits dissappeared, so they should keep it and you have to payback the bank, 10% of all you're income if you get caught would go to the banks untill you paid it off. (BH boards! finally!) Well, my 2 creds, i wanna be the scum whose pulling desperate schemes to get by, not the millionaire I am now.
Ifisa wrote:
Good idea, but like people said, some of these ideas sound more like thugs than smugglers. I also wouldn't like to be forced to declare a faction, I smuggle for whoever pays the best, no loyalty for me, except to the Emperor
What I am propossing is using the template of gameplay that GTA has. The open-endedness is fantastic and implementing smuggler activities with such a framework would more than rock. If some of those ideas sound more thugish than you care for, just create more smugglerish missions. I really love the way you take on activities in GTA. Oddly enough driving to Jabba's or cruising Mos Eisley streets for smuggling opportunities is much more immersive than going to a mission terminal to get them.
I think SWG's game mechanisms are way mature enough to support a system like this. I don't see any art assets that particularly need to be created to implement such a system.
Simply place NPC's at random or rundown sections of cities and introduce dialogue to set a smuggler down a particular mission point. The nice thing about taking missions in different parts of town is that NPC's in different areas might need certain types of smuggling jobs done. Have NPC's roleplay what their particular needs might be.
The only aspect missing from a proper smuggler revamp is a variety of mission types. Who here really wants our only missions to be deliver package A to point B? The whole essence of Star Wars is getting involved in unexpected adventures. Having only one type of mission would kinda contradict that huh?
I don't care how a variety of mission types has to be tailored to fit into what you guys feel is smugglerish, but it has to be done. The opportunity to introduce these mission types into a rich tapestry of smuggling experiences must be taken.
Have your "employer" treat you certain ways and give you particular shades of missions based on your reputation with that organization. Hell, set up a system where you can work for whatever crime boss you feel, but have the activities they give you be of a certain variety based on the clout you maintain with them.
If you botch too many delivery missions, perhaps they tell you to do missions designed to prove your usefullness to them or your dependablitiy. Maybe they make you go kill some enemies to show what you are made of. Maybe your stealth needs work. They give you missions that make you use your head to develope these skills. Whatever.
The main point is that we maintain a variety of missions within a storytelling/roleplaying context that is open ended. I'm sorry to point out, but taking missions from a terminal isn't it. There isn't a much of a story to be told for a smuggler who does the same thing over and over again. The template used by GTA can easily to be adapted in a smuggler context to deliver this open endedness. This isn't even "thugish". It is about feeling like you have a choice on how to shape your smuggling career, both in the jobs that you take and in the community that you create.