Smuggler Archive
Thread: Revamp Discussion: Contraband & Smuggling Missions
Thunderheart wrote:
DrevenStrobe wrote:
Hey TH...if you're still around...
Just to momentarily hijack this thread...
Did you happen to catch my question about the possibility of a Slicing "Friday Feature" in the Weekly Roundtable thread?
If so, any word on that?
I did see that, but it doesnt have enough meat fora friday feature, though it will certainly be part of a Friday Feature that would showcase the smuggler revamp, but thats a ways off. It seems like it might be a good foundation for a 19 questions smuggler question though...
mrwillie wrote:
I'm getting excited.
I find this funny for some reason...
GreenMarine wrote:I have to go work on other things now, but I'll continue to monitor the discussion.
Communication is a wonderful thing.
I've said it in the past, you seem to be the exception to the rule at SOE. Had we had more interaction like this (and some of your past work), the game would be much better off than it is today. Too bad you are working on JTL, but it sounds like it will be good with your efforts invested in it.
).).Limit the number of times you can check your visibilty within a specified time period (ie. once per 24hrs). Same for all other players. I partly agree with us not being able to reduce a players visibilty though, unless you give us a 50/50 chance to accidently increase it as well.
Smuggler_Caylin wrote:
Smugglers may attempt to find out or reduce the visibility of any player by slicing a bounty hunter terminal. Failure to successfully slice the terminal will result in the smuggler being immediately added to the terminal. Clamps cannot be used in this form of slicing. (This will be a new type of slicing, not wire cutting.) More information on this is available in the slicing section.
This I honestly don't care for. The mental imagery of bounty hunters hiring smugglers to get themselves on terminals for easy investigation xp is not something I care to see. It's bad enough with Jedi farming themselves out I don't want to see smugglers going down the same road. This is why I've always supported the Counterfeit ID idea, as it does not rely on the smuggler, but the usage of the item by the jedi in order to gradually decrease their visibility while raising the risk of the smuggler who made it.
GreenMarine wrote:
This is the second in a series of posts on a smuggler revamp. The goal of these posts is to discuss ideas that can be integrated into a final profession revamp proposal.
In this thread we're going to talk about the contraband system and the idea of smuggling missions. These two issues will be discussed together, because they affect each other.
I've thought about and written down my own conception of how a contraband system update and a new type of smuggling mission would work. These ideas aren't necessarily refined or complete. I want to create a debate through which we can work out a reasonable approach to improving the smuggler profession.
Everything here is debatable, so feel free to question, discuss, or add any ideas you have.
Contraband
Concept
The game’s contraband system will be changed to include a greater number of illegal items, a range of legality levels, and increased penalties for being found with illegal items.
Legal Ranges & Punishment
Items will now have a range of legality. The following legal ranges will be implemented.
- (This new system will be discussed later.)
Illegal objects will display their legality in the examine properties list.
A faction aligned player who is caught with contraband will lose a percentage of faction appropriate to the degree of the crime.
Imperial aligned players will now only be immune to scans regarding quasi-legal goods if they have the rank of corporal or better.
Will Rank have a range as well? Corporal and above immune to Quasi-legal scans, WO II and above immune to Banned scans, Major and above immune to Highly Illegal scans? Also will there still be modifiers that give the possibility that the scans will turn up negitive?
Old sliced weapons and armor will be converted to have the legality level of “banned.” Hmmmm, perhaps there is a way to work smuggler into this as well. Maybe the higher level Smuggler that slices the weapon has a chance to make sliced weapons Quasi-legal. Just a thought.
Scan Frequency
Contraband scan frequency will be somewhat increased. Scan bottlenecks will be introduced at various locations in major cities, such as starport entries and medical centers.
Good, but I would suggest making it a real crackdown. Put the Nova Troopers back in the cities. Make even the elite PvPers think twice about refusing them. As the troopers are now they are like Durni or Chubas to most Elite Combat Classes. Storm Troopers should be more of a threat.
Contraband Visibility
The game's "visibility" system will be expanded. Any player can now accumulate small amounts of visibility for a contraband infraction. The amount of visibility will be dependent on the severity of the infraction.
Awesome. I hope this will include all players, not just Smugglers. Then we will finally have the beginings of the Player Bounty System most of us want. It would also be nice to expand the visability to include Rebels so Bounties are issued for them as well. But we can save that discussion for the GCW Revamp Thread (I am hoping we will have soon)
Smugglers may attempt to find out or reduce the visibility of any player by slicing a bounty hunter terminal. Failure to successfully slice the terminal will result in the smuggler being immediately added to the terminal. Clamps cannot be used in this form of slicing. (This will be a new type of slicing, not wire cutting.) More information on this is available in the slicing section.
Once again, Awesome.
Smuggling Missions
Concept
Various criminal organizations throughout the galaxy have found financial success in moving illegal substances and goods from one place to another. The vehicles of these transfers are the smugglers, men and women who store their morality along side coffers full of questionable goods. The smugglers are brave and often brash individuals who risk their lives for monetary gain on a daily basis.
The smuggler revamp will introduce new missions to simulate the smuggling underworld.
Basic System
Smuggling Missions are received from various underworld bosses, called ‘suppliers’. Jabba, Lady Valarian, and other key criminal characters, as well as new characters, will offer smuggling missions. Smuggling missions are only offered to smuggler characters. The difficulty of the mission will scale to the average tier level of the smuggler’s skills.
At its core, a smuggling mission is similar to a delivery mission. The player is given a crate of illegal goods to move to another contact. The player must then return the payment for the goods to the source of the mission.
Ex: Jabba gives the player a crate of 50 to deliver to a cantina in Mos Eisley. After the player delivers the narcostims, she receives a payment of 12,000 credits. The player then returns to Jabba and delivers 8,000 credits, pocketing 4,000 as payment for the job.
There are no skill boxes specific to smuggling missions, but the smuggler’s skills in scan avoidance and slicing will come into play.
Very nice. I really hope there is some intelligence and knowledge needed to complete these missions. Not just deliver package from point A to Point B and let the ingame randomness do all the work. They need to be interactive missions with choices to make that will either make them easier or harder to complete along the way.
Cargo Legality
Smuggling mission cargo is highly illegal. Any non-smuggler caught carrying a crate of any item to be delivered from a smuggling mission will be attacked and have the cargo confiscated.
Due to the illegality of the cargo, the authorities may occasionally hear about a particular supplier’s intent to move goods. Smugglers on a smuggler mission may encounter attacks from planetary or Imperial authorities, depending on the difficulty of the mission. Killing these enemies is not necessary to complete the mission.
The target for a smuggling mission will only wait so long to receive the delivery. If the player does not deliver the goods within a reasonable amount of time (dependent on mission difficulty), the mission will be lost and the player will receive some visibility.
Random attacks would be cool. Time table for delivery sounds good too.
Withholding Cargo
The player may choose to withhold part of the delivery. In the above example, the player may choose to only deliver 30 of the narcostims to the contact in Mos Eisley. If the player chooses to withhold cargo, s/he will only be paid a portion of the actual delivery fee. The amount of the payment will be directly proportional to the amount delivered.
In order to split a container of mission supplies, the smuggler must successfully slice the container’s locking mechanism.
The player may also choose to withhold part of the money to be paid to the supplier. For example, the player might deliver all 50 narcostims, but only pay Jabba 6,000 credits.
Withholding cargo or pay will result in the smuggler earning a small bit of visibility. Thus, a smuggler who chooses to defy the crime lords who supply her with jobs faces the possibility of execution at the hands of a hired Bounty Hunter.
The more difficult the smuggling mission, the greater the visibility gained for cheating.
This sounds pretty good too. Smugglers will have to do these Smuggling missions to get some of the resources needed to make the better spices and skim off the top. I like it.
Cargo Contents
Smuggling mission cargo often contains items that are components for smuggler crafting. Narcostims, for example, might be a component used in the creation of the spice, Glitterstim. Thus, a smuggler will need to occasionally withhold some of the cargo from a mission if they wish to enter the spice business.
In the interests of the player economy and current game balance, spices will remain craftable. Now, however, smugglers will "assemble" various components into spice packages, instead of chemically brewing them. Experimentation will be added...more details later in the spices discussion.
Smuggling cargo may also include crates of low or mid level spices. The player may choose to withhold these spices and resell them to other players if they wish.
Space Integration
There will be elements of smuggler missions involving space zones & space gameplay, but I can't discuss many space details. The player may have to pick up or deliver goods in space. Players without JTL will not be required to go to space. This is an "after space ships" feature.
Looks pretty good so far.
Contraband should be a big part of the GCW and the Imperial Crackdown. Imperial Crackdown Troopers need to be more effective though. Bring Back the Nova Troopers in the Cities.
Visability and Bounty Missions for Smugglers(who mess up) and other players (who get caught with Cantraband) is great too. I think this is the best way to get Player Bounties into the game with out having to worry about Player griefing.
Like I said I hope the missions are more than take Package from pointA to point B. Please make it an interactive adventure with choices to make that will either help you complete it sucessfully or hinder your ability to complete it.I do not have anything specific in mind right now, but I'm sure someone will come up with some awesome ideas for them.
I look forward to reading more about this and the actual revamp itself. Looks great so far.
Curious, are you part of the GCW Revamp too? If not can you talk to the person doing that and ask them to come and discuss it with us (the community) like you are doing here now. The GCW Revamp is another one I am waiting for with great anticipation. .
doh Thanks alot GreenMarine for making me have to go to Savon's now.
Wow! this all looks simply fabulous, and i hope it turns out as good as it sounds. I feel very fortunate to be a smuggler, this level of discussion and openness is something that no other profession has seen. Now I'm going to have to look hard for something to complain about or give feedback on, because I'm not sure there's much i have the slightest objection to...
GreenMarine wrote:
Imperial aligned players will now only be immune to scans regarding quasi-legal goods if they have the rank of corporal or better.
In other words, Imperials will still be scanned for Banned or Highly Illegal goods? (basically, anything worthwhile). Sounds good.
Smugglers may attempt to find out or reduce the visibility of any player by slicing a bounty hunter terminal. Failure to successfully slice the terminal will result in the smuggler being immediately added to the terminal. Clamps cannot be used in this form of slicing. (This will be a new type of slicing, not wire cutting.) More information on this is available in the slicing section.
Will "finding out" and "reducing" be seperate actions, or will they both be accomplished with the same slice? I'd think that they could be seperate, with reducing much harder to perform. Maybe you would first have to succeed once to find out, then succeed a second time to reduce? This would work if the success chance wasn't 100%, which it sounds like it won't be.
At its core, a smuggling mission is similar to a delivery mission. The player is given a crate of illegal goods to move to another contact. The player must then return the payment for the goods to the source of the mission.
[...]
I just hope you go far enough to make it more than a delivery mission. There should always be some sort of entanglement or potential entanglement that I'm clever enough to avoid. Don't go easy on the risk, make it interesting.
Due to the illegality of the cargo, the authorities may occasionally hear about a particular supplier’s intent to move goods. Smugglers on a smuggler mission may encounter attacks from planetary or Imperial authorities, depending on the difficulty of the mission. Killing these enemies is not necessary to complete the mission.
What happens if you're an imperial and the imperial authorities find you? I'd assume you'd still be attacked, fined, and whatnot, but i suppose there could be technical problems doing that if you're both marked as the same faction.
The target for a smuggling mission will only wait so long to receive the delivery. If the player does not deliver the goods within a reasonable amount of time (dependent on mission difficulty), the mission will be lost and the player will receive some visibility.
I assume hitting "abort" on the mission would be the same as failing to complete it in time?
Withholding cargo or pay will result in the smuggler earning a small bit of visibility. Thus, a smuggler who chooses to defy the crime lords who supply her with jobs faces the possibility of execution at the hands of a hired Bounty Hunter.
I'd hope you'd also lose faction points of your supplier (Jabba, valarian, Borvo, maybe new faction for different suppliers?). If i fail Jabba's deliveries one two many times, he shouldn't trust me any more and I'd have to go switch sides to work for valarian. Untill she got mad...
Finally, what about player-created smuggling missions? Has the dev team put any thought into how that might work?
You are giving a benifit for imperial smugglers and not to rebel smugglers.
Why not let rebel smugglers pick up rebel smuggleing mission (not spices and such but maybe top secret plans for the rebal alliance) with some sort of increase payment or factional reward to give some benifit to the rebels.
It also make sence that the rebels would have a great need to smuggle stuff.