Smuggler Archive
Thread: Kav's Smuggler Vision 2.5
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MujtahiD
Mon Sep 06, 2004 1:56 am
#27
Well-written. I agree with most of the threadstarter's ideas save perhaps one. I'll outline my vision for the smuggler succinctly.
Slicing: I feel that the smuggler ought to have the ability to pick his own slice, yet the outcome in terms of percentages should be random so as to determine a good slice. Most professions are able to choose the outcome whilst using their skills depending on the quality of the tools and resources they utilise. Furthermore, the min range of slicing should be increased with Master Smuggler (i.e. augment the 15% slices we're capable of getting to between 20 and 25. I'd be fine with 20).
I do not believe the quality of the smuggler's tools should have an impact on what he crafts or slices for the simple reason that the profession isnt that of a pure crafter nor a pure combatant. Since it is a JoaT-like profession, experimentation would only further complicate thesmuggler which is already dependant on other professions for some of its resources.
Spices: There is quite a bit that can be done to 'spice' up this tree. As is self-evident, chef foods and doctor/entertainer buffs have all but destroyed the spice market. Ideas have been floating around that either the downer should be decreased via experimentation, or the stats on the spices themselves should be boosted and smuggled, not crafted. I believe that spices should be far more powerful than chef foods but much less convenient to smuggle for the smuggler,as well asbe carried by the customer. Perhaps making spices affect skill mods of various professions rather than HAM bars would add diversity to the products themselves. Additionally, i am also of the opinion that smugglers should acquire all kinds of spices in bulk from risky missions, and then proceed to sell them to the public. This would solve the problem for those who want more of a risk-vs-reward scenario, as well as for those who dont wish to have to harvest/purchase the best resources and then sit and experiment on their spices.Iwas against this idea initiallyfor the mere fact that just because a person is a smuggler doesnt mean he doesnt grow/create his own contraband...But since its a good workaround for experimentation and adds considerable risk to as well as the ability to actually smuggle, i think its a suitable option.
Dirty Fighting: My vision of the smuggler is that of a fleet-footed, gun-slinging wiseguy. In raw damage output, the strongest MBH should always overpower the strongest Smuggler hands-down. However, to prevent every encounter witha BH with a bounty on your head resulting in a trip to the cloning facility, this tree should reflect more on evasive tactics.
As of now, some of our specials have been made redundant via patches. The basic idea of the specials themselves are not too shabby. The problem surfaces in the effectiveness we can utilise these specials at. Any smuggler who wishes to fight dirty had better ensure hes a master pistoleer as well. Now, in all fairness, this is perfectly understandable. But what i cannot comprehend is how the smuggler generally cannot even cap the speed on his own weapons despite being a master in not one, but two gunslinging professions. Thus, i'd have to agree with the other half of the smugglers here on the addition of adding some kind of pistol mods to the DF boxes. However, this is if and only if the devs refrain from augmenting the speed for master pistoleers themselves. It makes little sense to me that an MBH has a faster RoF with pistols than a master pistoleer whos supposed to be the specialist. If they balance issues considerably and allow master pistoleers to fire nearly twice as fast as master riflemen, the above point i made is nullified.
Naturally, they still need to do something to warrant the unarmed 1 - 4 in our profession to bring about synergy.
Underworld: Add the ability to have connections with certain npcs which render benefits to smuggling contraband. Make languages a skill which can be taught only by smugglers (fallacies with this idea, though), and add npcs which speak languages only a smuggler can understand. Also, give smugglers a language of their own which cannot be taught and can only be understood by fellow smugglers (not very useful, so it'd be great if someone could expand on this idea). Add the ability to hire a sidekick to one of the underworld boxes, and make that sidekick useful in rendering aid with smuggling (perhaps as a decoy to take the heat from BHs and npcs out to get you while you're smuggling). Give us the ability to outfit the npcs with 2 or 3 select items (for example, a pistol and chestplate) to augment it's efficiency. Increase the amount of FP we can buy and hold.
Many of these ideas are rehashed versions of those provided by our correspondent as well as the community, and to make it shorter, ive left out obvious problems such as being griefed while feigning death, having to close the colour palette menu while slicing comp armour and so on.
It is my wish to see this profession as one of the shadiest and most risky out there. The smuggler should be the one to get folks carrying contraband through choke points at select startports via teaming. He should have equal alacrity in unarmed and pistol skills, thus making him a good streetfighter as well as a gunslinger. The DF boxes should reflect this not with the addition of TK specials to the tree, but with street boxing specials. A smuggler-only certificate to a melee type-weapon (at the risk of sounding corny, perhaps unarmed moves with chains those gangsters use in the movies) would be a welcome addition. We should be actively working to procure spices and sell them to our customers, not shove the materials in an oversized oven-of-a-factory and wait for the goods to bake. Our very reason for having a DF tree should be to aid us if we're caught out or hunted down while smuggling, yet currently, both the slices and spices trees dont require you to make use of the DF tree at all. The only time the DF tree will come in handy (in accordance with smuggling, not with lvling off mobs) is with the purchase of FP since it requires you to go overt.
More ideas as and when im able to goof off at work further.
MujtahiD
Tue Sep 07, 2004 12:49 pm
#28
Since pistoleers might be getting dual-wield (and hopefully holsters, though nothing is confirmed) in the future, perhaps an idea for the new smuggler pistol (if they ever decide to give us one) would be to make it a sidearm strapped to the leg, hidden underneath the cuff off the pants.
Everytime you equip your pistol, your toon bends and reaches for the side of his leg and draws.
MujtahiD
Thu Sep 09, 2004 9:27 am
#31
Nicolas_Frost wrote:
Nah, too time consuming.
Man with a gun hangin' from his hip vs. man with a gun under the cuff of his pants leg means one living man with a drawn gun and one dead man who's bent over looking for his gun. Han Solo knew this.
I am willing to allow hold out blasters. Limited use pistols that are hidden(up a shirtsleeve orin a jacket/vest).
Hehe...Well, ill have to admit, i dont know much about Han Solo or the star wars theme, since ive never watched any of the movies.
But i do think that the smuggler bending over and firing the first shot from a crouched position can be coded with the same speed it takes a pistoleer to make for his piece. We cant really incorporate realism in terms of probabilistic factors in this game, or you're going to have to explain how a guy with a rocket launcher isnt denting some nut closing the distance armed with a VK. 
Nevertheless, even if it was plausible that it would take longer to draw from the cuff of your pants (in this game, atleast), we could have the smuggler reach for his smuggler-certified pistol everytime he 'equips' it, and re-holster it every time he switches to another gun. I think dual-wield pistols should be a set of twinpistols which fire at a faster rate and do one type of damage, rather than allowing the player to pick a DE-10 and geo which could possibly unbalance the scheme of things.
Either way, my suggestion for the smuggler is merely cosmetic, and should have nothing to do with firing speed or increased damage.
Kav
Tue Oct 26, 2004 4:45 pm
#32
JWing wrote:
DrevenStrobe wrote:
I miss Kav...
yea me too....
/sniff I'm veklempt....talk amongst yourselfs...
nice to be missed, sad to know the post is still timely 
Ragnaat
Sun Apr 17, 2005 4:37 pm
#34
JWing wrote:
DrevenStrobe wrote:I miss Kav...
yea me too....
Me too
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