Smuggler Archive

• Normal Mission: You lose NPC faction with that supplier. You lose a small amount of GCW faction if the supplier belongs toa faction. You could possibly be ambushed by thugs from that supplier.
  
• CriticalMission: Harsher versions of the above + you gain visibility.

Sounds great, but I don't believe if you want to avoid PvP you should be paid any less. I'm not alone in wanting to avoid PvP unless I chose to be involved in it. Sorry, but most interactions w/ other players are not as interesting or fun as with the NPC's / game itself. I can not see why the dev's can't design NPC BH's that are lethal in their own way ( ever been to the Death Watch bunker? ), and will still persue the smuggler until dead or the bounty is paid. Bribing the Bh was mentioned, definitely sounds good, but should be a random amount for NPC's to keep some tension up. If the bribe fails, the smuggler is left is only a few meters away from the business end of the BH's weapons

However, ALL players need to start facing persecution for military grade or illegal weapons/armor, and of course other illicit goods. No law enforcement agent would ever allow anyone to openly walk down the streets carrying a flame thrower in full view and in a full suit body armor. These are area effect weapons ( in theory ) and should be considered a threat to everyone in the immediate vincinity. I'm not saying take them away, but if smugglershave to lay low for transporting them, then those whoopenly carry these weapons should face the same penalties.Then again,stiffer peanlties for their usage in view of law enforcement agents, regardless of GCW faction alignment would be nice. I sincerly believe this is not asking much of all players. If you disagree, try carrying a LEGAL gun openly down the streets of your home town and see how often you are "detained for questioning".

Summary 2: The second major issue revolved around the punishments for being caught with contraband:

One possibility might be to make it so that the scanning NPC isn't the NPC that attacks. Instead he "calls for backup" and the backup is relative to the player's level. This brings up the possibility of a group of players using a low level smuggler to spawn lower level faction targets. Thesolution to stopping faction farming of scan spawned NPCs is to prevent them from giving GCW faction. There are many other legitimate ways to gain faction. Even if it seems inconsistant, it does make somesense that the Rebels aren't necessarily going to reward a player for killing troopers just doing their job.

This also means that high level smugglers would be dealing with security forces tougher than your average Stormtrooper.

Two concerns here. First, you shouldn't have to face the elite police units everytime you fail a scan. This should be as random as slicing, to reflect the needs of the community in which the police units are stationed. Smugglers are only one threat to civil / moral authority. Sometimes the best police are helping to solve a domestic disturbance, it's just depends who responds to the dispatcher first. And sometimes, you get the meanest cop on the force handing you a ticket for spitting on the sidewalk. I should not be facing Dark Troopers everytime I fail a scan. Sometimes the auxillary units ( i.e. civil patrols) are pressed in to service, while the Stormtroopers are out crushing Rebels and vice versa.Make it random, make the back up be a surprise. It helps keep smugglers on their toes. This would also provide a solution to faction farming.

Secondly, Imperial / Rebelaligned players need to suffer the consequences also, reagrdless if it's their faction doing the scanning or not. If there is one thing upsets officers is the crap roles down hill theory. Example: a corporal gets busted for bad beahvior and possesion of an illegal, controlled substances. His/her platoon leader gets screamed at by theplatoon NCO, the Lt gets chewed out by the Captain, and so on. So by the time the offending soldier recieves his punishment, the whole chain of command for the unit have had their day ruined by the offending soldier. Since GCW is not designed to accomendate cleaning latrines, a hit to the bank account is in order. Also, this is one of those times that a player should have the option of firing on NPC scanners of the same faction. Money makes people do crazy things, there's no question about that, and the punishment should be a loss of rank / forced resignment and monetary fines. Especially if the scanning unit/NPC is killed.

Summary 3: The third major issue was that smugglers are worried that increased punishments for using illegal items, like spices and sliced gear, will cause a depression in their markets.

This is black market economics 101 here. If there is a product or service people really want, and the government criminalize's it, prices go through the roof. No fear of market depression here, I promise. You will have customers lining up for you to get the products they want so that the customer can avoid " any Imperial entanglements ".

Varriv Rore

Master

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BoozTezi wrote:

Maybe I am missing something but it seems the vast majority of the post here assume the BH taking the mission will be a master and we will be a very high payout (something like 50k or so). Jedi knight command extremely high price because they are in fact difficult. Most smugglers wont be difficult and I dont think the payout is gonna be based on other templates the potential target has. It will be based, supposedly, on the reason he became visable in the first place. As I said before. If the BH is not master or at least close to it, some of them will have a rude awakening when they attempt to take down their mark. As a TKM, I walk around with a pistol. I dont like to wear the VK's because I dont want anyone to know what my capabilities are. The danger should be on the BH, not the target as in RL. The BH will only know he has a mission but won't know for sure what he is getting into as it should be. I propose that if the BH is db'd by the smuggler then a very high price needs to be paid. Maybe loss of xp or a box on the skill tree or it could be that the person that placed the smuggler on the terms will be upset and put the BH himself on the terms.

I would also like for the master smuggler to be able to slice the BH terms with the purpose of either removing themselves or lowering the payout on himself. If he lowers the payout then quite possibly a lower skilled BH will be the one picking up the mark.

Just a thought or two

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• Normal Mission: You lose NPC faction with that supplier. You lose a small amount of GCW faction if the supplier belongs toa faction. You could possibly be ambushed by thugs from that supplier.
  
• CriticalMission: Harsher versions of the above + you gain visibility.

heres a thought....

what if... when you decide to accept a Critical Mission you automatically gain an extremlly high visability untilyour mission is finished.... so during your mission if a bounty hunterchooses too, they could grab your name off the terms and try and hunt you down before you have a chance to finish your mission....if you fail or cheat in said mission youkeep all or some of the visibility given....

...applying this to the space expansion would be really exciting too, and would give a good purpose and value for the BH and Smuggler professionin JTLS.

• Something that would make a player TRULY challenged, would be to "get in, and get out" without the use of "buffs". I honestly have NO idea what's in store for the combat revamp, but to actually challenge a smuggler-character's SKILLS would be reward in itself... Of course because a Pistoleer would have superior offense + defense - and a TKA/Pistol/Smuggler is even more-so - it might not be possible to include any form of the old "AD&D Single-character module"....


• Something additionally interesting is if all those "empty" buildings of all cities (the dummy buildings to add effect) - could actually be entered... either sliced for entrance, ect.ie, an instanced / "private" dungeon for lack of a better term / description. Enter the building - dispatch security forces or no security forcesifentranced at night or when thebusinessis "closed".. Upload or download, the smuggler , ect ect.. the smuggler must slice a computer terminal to retrieve data...


• NPC missions "timed" upon initating (ie, gaining entrance to a structure)Although I have yet to play around much with the Death-Watch Bunker, I've seen bits about it "locking" people out if they don't do something within a given time-frame.Include a 2-minute time-frame of having to slice the front-door, get in, sliceN number of containers inside and retrieve the item NPC had asked for ... if the smuggler doesn't get out within the 2-minute time-frame, an Electro-Magnetic-Pulse shortsout any "looted" item.


• Missions thatgives the smuggler slicing expwith each step going through the mission itself rather than a reward in the end. This would allow someone to gain exp even if they don't complete the mission successfully.

I really have too much more to think about, but I'm on a limited amount of time at the moment. If I get positive feed-back from these ideas I'll write more.

Thanks!

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GreenMarine wrote:

See this link for part 1:

Summary 2: The second major issue revolved around the punishments for being caught with contraband:

1. Some players feel that dying isn't enough of a punishment.


2. Some players recommended a faction hit.


3. Some players feel that storm troopers are too weak.


4. Players don't like that only storm troopers scan.

Solution: The solution obviously has several parts. We need to discuss more what the punishments should be. There are a few types of punishment that we can draw from:

• Loss of GCW faction.


• Loss of NPC faction.


• Combat & risk of death.


• Confiscation of the illegal goods.

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Probly saying something said before but from a non smuggler this is what I would like to see in this area:

Low level contraband: Option to turn over item(s) or pay a credit fine, you know the old 20 credit bill cliped to your id or fight. If you fight, loss of faction and afight to Incap. If incaped loss of item and pay alarger fine.

Mid level: Hand over yes/no. Agree, much larger fine and a small loss of faction. Don't and you lose more faction fight to incap or death depending on faction standing. Lose and pay a large fine as well.

High level: Placed under arrest with an option to fight. If you go quietly, large fine 60 second timer untill you can move loss of item and faction. If not loss of more faction and a fight to incap/death depending on faction standing. Lose and pay a hefty fine. If incaped 120 second timer after incap recovery.

I know some real rough Idea's but you get the Idea...