Smuggler Archive
Thread: Revamp Discussion: Contraband/Missions PART 2 (Solutions)
I read about people saying they don't want to be forced into pvp. An idea to stop that would be something that the npc says to you while scanning. If they find something illegal on you for the first time, they'll fine you and verbally say something like "Stop this and don't do it again." Kind of like a slap on the hand.
Now if you're getting caught time after time after time, there should be something the npc says that states "Next time you do this, you're being put on the BH terms." Obviously they wont say that exactly, but something very similar so the player understands that they're in deep poodoo.
You also have to think about how often scans even work. I've been scanned 5-6 times now and fled from another 2-3 before they could scan me. That's a total of around 7-9 scans since the crackdown was put in. Each and every time, I had a fully sliced set of armor and 2-5 sliced weapons on me. I was never found with illegal goods. Perhaps I'm lucky, perhaps the scan rolls are messed up, or perhaps it's just not that hard to get caught. It's not like you will be caught each and every time and put on the boards immediately.
Again, player bounties due to visibility would be great for immersion and add that "danger around every corner" feel that is true to Star Wars. I personally think it would be fun to have to watch my back all the time, but there needs to be warning messages for those who don't want to be forced into pvp. Perhaps let players pay fines to whatever authority to lower visibility or just let it decay over time.
You need high rewards for non-pvp players as well, by limiting high end rewards (items) to one type of player you tie down the economy in those items. How about failing a critical mission for non-pvps gives a temporary skill loss, as well as faction penalties etc ? Perhaps a 1 hour loss of feign death and last ditch or perhaps the loss of high end slicing, failing the mission means you are below smuggler standards and this is a 1hr 'retraining' scheme (for the continuity guys).
Summary 1: The key argument was over the impact of "visibility" punishments for ripping off suppliers or failing smuggling missions. There is a portion of the player base that desires PvP and a portion that does not. The main issue is the possibility of "involuntary PvP" or a player gaining a bounty who wants to be a smuggler but not participate in PvP.
Solution: The solution I like most is to have the mission suppliers offer two types of mission for each skill level. The punishments for failing or cheating a mission then become:
- 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.
The rewards for critical missions would be somewhat higher than normal missions. Also, some types of illegal cargo would only be available via critical missions. The RISK is possible PvP as well as other penalties. The REWARD is rare components (if you cheat the supplier) or better cash.
sce33 wrote:
Summary 2:
Just a thought on the penality and reward system. First off i think that while st's should be and are doing random serches, i think probots should be doing the majority of the work. I think they should be a very active unattackable part of the game. Not uncommon to see 15-20 floating around large commercial areas and through out the planet. I think in my time on adventure planet i have ran into a probot once.
As for your benifit reward system i suggest a real "under world" when players can earn names for them selfs by suscessful missions, or counter BH attacks and become real world famous smugglers. Similar to a ladder system on D2 where the most sucessful smuggler can demand higher prices and negioate further based soley onhis/her rep. Smuggler could compete for player or npc contracts and death by either npc or Bh woul greatly effect this ladder system. And you could even add bonus tothe higest lvls of players on the ladder system. ie... greater suscess when expermenting on spices, higher or better avrage quality slices. ect...
This would create a real under world feel, players would seek out the most experincedsmugglers to do there dirty work and would create great competintionin the smuggler community. cause lets face it, if your not smuggling it, someone else will. I doubt solo was friends with any of his rivials.
Message Edited by sce33 on 06-22-2004 12:05 AM
- 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.
- Some players feel that dying isn't enough of a punishment.
- Some players recommended a faction hit.
- Some players feel that storm troopers are too weak.
- 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.
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.
It seems that we should make more factions other than Imperial scan. Why can't the Rebels scan in a Rebel controlled territory? They aren't going to like spice abuse much either. Rebel commanders could then have some immunity from scans in their home regions. Naboo's Royal Security Force (a neutral faction) might also scan and have their own forces to deal with violators.
As a whole this is already pretty well detailed. Yes, Imperial forces should be doing scans but along with all other factions. This inculsing Rebellion, all planetary security forces, and evenif your in a heavy criminal/thug faction controled area their groups checking you out also.
Personally I do not think any of these forces should give any type of factional reward that can be used to buy other things (such as it is now Imperial and Rebel forces throughout the static points from cities to bases are simply farmed). If this format was removed from the game then there would be no point in farming and would void doing it for any other reason simply to do it.
The loss of Illegal goods if you are killed from PVP or NPC should be in place. That as just stated includes contraband items you have stolen, hence why a BH was sent out foryour hide. Though on a side note, BH's shouldNOT be able to retrieve these items to sell they should simply bedestroyed unless bounties could then be places on BH's.
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.
Solution: Actually, I disagree with this premise. I don't think there will be a market depression. On the contrary, if I do my job right, there will be a market increase. If spices become reasonably competitive with chef food, or complement chef food in some way, more players will buy them. Similarly, we should be able to modify slicing but also retain its value.
This is an issue I need to think about more before I develop a complete opinion
Their should be punishments for illegal goods, why have them "illegal" if not??? This is like giving the kid acookiee jar then tellingthe child you can only have one! This will in part make players choose how they act in the galaxy and the GCW at large. If it's more dangerous for such items then they will have to face the question, should I to make myself better or shouldn't I? This will in a small way make combat in all formats more dynamic due to the players havingto actually make a choice. To be better at PVE or PVP or to not have such items illegally modified to improve themselves. This is definately going to be a heated debat with Slicing comes around to be discussed but this also has importance to this line of questioning. To help avoid players having illegal items that they do not care for as much, these items need to be sliced to the customers request (ex: spd, dmg, enc, eff, and whatever else we get to slice) Would you run around taking chances with an item(s) that you didn't care to have in the first place? To avoid going into this debate to much, give us this ability.
In my opinion, your summaries and solutions are right on track.
1) Unable to find - this option being slightly different than cancelling a mission. If the BH accepts a bribethat he never saw him this would make droids unable to track the player for 24hrs on that planet. If the smuggler jumps planets or the 24hr timer runs out he can then be tracked on that planet again. To ensure that the BH actually presses the right button perhaps instead incorporate the secure trade window so that if the mission is in the trade window pre-set to 'unable to find',and both parties accept the trade, the BH loses the mission, gains his credits, and the smuggler then gets a 24hr hideout on said planet.
2) I killed the mark - This option is much more risky to the BH. Again this should somehow incorporate the trade window as in #1. However, for the following 48hours, any BH that 'recognises' the smuggler will result in raising the original BH's visibility meter significantly so that he also runs the risk of finding himself on the terminals. Afterall, lying about taking down a mark and then being caught would peeve Jabba off just as much as any other means of ripping him off.The best part is we dont have to re-discuss the PVE vs PVP for the BH being the mark since the mere act of taking a PC bounty is volunteering to PVP andimmune to arguements of forced pvp.