Smuggler Archive
Thread: Community Vision Attempt (Caylin)
another thing that is undoable at the moment, according to devs, is making vehicle's speed faster than that of Swoop Bikes - it's as fast as vehciles will go at the moment
Other than that I love this document - everything we ever wanted or brought up is there. Good Job Caylin, and all who helped/contributed at some point in time.
JediKozel wrote:
I am not talking about PvP TEF - that indeed would be problematic. I'm talking about more of a NPC TEF, something similar to what makes Valarian thugs and Desert Demons unhappy every time I walk past them - a some sort of a flag that my character gets with negative faction points. (may be TEF is a wrong word to describe it. oh, well)Walking around with illegalt items should be like walking on Lok in pre- Vehicle Publish days -- it should seem like every law enforcement NPC is out to get ya. And since there is no scanning invovled, this would be happening a lot more often. This might be that something that we need. Something that would force regular players to seek for somebody who can "mask" their illegal items - smugglers.
That, of course, brings up another issue -- what is an illegal item? is slices and spices enough? shouldn't there be outlawed weapons, armor, power sources, minerals, craft, droids, etc.?
I like the idea of this,but let's see what it would require.
Some sort of flag, that while up, signifies you are doing something illegal and the police come over to beat you into the ground. It sounds nice but what are some of the issues here.
Lets say we get a trade window, that lets us slice... we start doing that, but then law enforcement notices. The consequences of closing the window, running around trying to survive and otherwise fighting them off could be a problem.
A flag would have to go up whenever it was done, or, there would have to be a server check every time an illegal item was used to see if law enforcement was around in order to run that protocol. It would also have to happen every time we traded an item 'Is this spice? are they pushing drugs? Are there any law enforcement around?' and that adds to the amount of resources the server has to deal with as well.
If the flag were akin to a TEF, I would find it absurd that I would have to wait 5-10 minutes for it to go away, when I did the slice in my house 500m away from town, and no law enforcement were present. What are they, psychic?
Illegal armor would not be noticed unless they were scanned, nor weapons unless they were fired... and you can hardly tell if a weapon has been illegally modified when all you can see is a blaster fight.
Also, unless the player was in a confined area, it's waaay too easy to escape from NPC's so players wouldn't exactly be scared of it, just hop on their swoops and go.
One of the Four Horsemen of the Smuggler Apocalypse! 
If there is an "illegal" TEF ... it needs to be only during the illegal act. I get caught while actually slicing by a specified NPC (Corsec) or a RANDOM (low random number) wandering NPC that happens to narc you out to the cops
Smuggler_Caylin wrote:
I like the idea of this,but let's see what it would require.
Some sort of flag, that while up, signifies you are doing something illegal and the police come over to beat you into the ground. It sounds nice but what are some of the issues here.
Lets say we get a trade window, that lets us slice... we start doing that, but then law enforcement notices. The consequences of closing the window, running around trying to survive and otherwise fighting them off could be a problem.
A flag would have to go up whenever it was done, or, there would have to be a server check every time an illegal item was used to see if law enforcement was around in order to run that protocol. It would also have to happen every time we traded an item 'Is this spice? are they pushing drugs? Are there any law enforcement around?' and that adds to the amount of resources the server has to deal with as well.
If the flag were akin to a TEF, I would find it absurd that I would have to wait 5-10 minutes for it to go away, when I did the slice in my house 500m away from town, and no law enforcement were present. What are they, psychic?
Illegal armor would not be noticed unless they were scanned, nor weapons unless they were fired... and you can hardly tell if a weapon has been illegally modified when all you can see is a blaster fight.
Also, unless the player was in a confined area, it's waaay too easy to escape from NPC's so players wouldn't exactly be scared of it, just hop on their swoops and go.
Geevo wrote:
If there is an "illegal" TEF ... it needs to be only during the illegal act. I get caught while actually slicing by a specified NPC (Corsec) or a RANDOM (low random number) wandering NPC that happens to narc you out to the cops
So we would then have to define what constitutes an 'illegal act'
- Slicing an Item
- Using Spice
- Trading Spice/Illegal Guns/etc.
Those are a few I'm aware of.
Slicing an item makes sense, and I despise it when slicers areshouting in starports. The flag would have to be activated after the slice job is complete, or else you run into a bunch of other issues. There would still have to be a server 'shout' out to all law enforcement NPC's, I don't know how much of a server load this would cause.
Using Spice. Same as slicing, good and all, but I wonder as to the server activity required to get the NPC's involved.
Trading items... It would have to check after every trade whether the item was illegal. I think almost all inventory and trades are handled server side, adding more checks and balances is not going to go over well most likely. It would have to check if it was illegal, and if it was, 'shout out' what you were doing to any nearby NPC's.
So every time a user equipped or used an item it would have to have a server check whether the item was illegal or not. That isn't going to work.
It would have to be a flag, not a faction adjustment. Just as what happens with stormtroopers.
There would also be all those 'shouts' to the server saying an illegal action was taking place. I mean, how many law enforcement people would we have to have to properly enforce it. In short, this method takes a ton of server resources and its over the entire server, not just located at the starports. The load would be massive.
If my grinding of +5k corsec faction waschanged to -5kin about 2 seconds, and I'd have to grind it over again,I'd be hellishly ticked.
Smuggler_Caylin wrote:So every time a user equipped or used an item it would have to have a server check whether the item was illegal or not. That isn't going to work.
It would have to be a flag, not a faction adjustment. Just as what happens with stormtroopers.
There would also be all those 'shouts' to the server saying an illegal action was taking place. I mean, how many law enforcement people would we have to have to properly enforce it. In short, this method takes a ton of server resources and its over the entire server, not just located at the starports. The load would be massive.
If my grinding of +5k corsec faction was changed to -5k in about 2 seconds, and I'd have to grind it over again, I'd be hellishly ticked.
Hmm, this should be as natural as a palyer who walks through Lok being attacked by animals and NPC he encounters. He's only punishment - walking in proximity of the lair/spawn spot.
Similar should be with illegal items - by this points I dunno what I should call this, but illegal items and activithy should create some sort of TEF, visibilty, aggro, con red, whatever that would cause all law enforcement NPCs to treat the player as an enemy.
When I walk up to a group of Valarian thugs, I don't need to do anything special to get attacked - they know I'm bad news. When I run into a bunch of Lok corsairs, my character doesn't 'shout' to the system anything - it get's pounded. Smuggling should be set up as well. May be there should be some sort of smuggling factions set up -- people with illegal items or performing illegal activity should get negative standing, with all others being positive.
of course, this system will work only if there will be illegal items other than spices and slices ...
JediKozel wrote:
I still think that all players that use sliced items and are under influence of spice should get some type of TEF, that would make them attackable by NPC security forces and NPC stormtroopers. Or something like that. And give smugglers some type of smuggler mask scent type of skill. It might be esier than scanning everybody, which we know is pretty much impossible.
The TEF thing wont happen I'm pretty sure, too many of the ideas working with that specialise in unconsensual PVP, which is not allowed. The mask scent thing could be part of stealth, or they could alter the contraband evasion skill to that, they are more than able to change it to that given the outline hereI think...I could be mistaken.
another thing that is undoable at the moment, according to devs, is making vehicle's speed faster than that of Swoop Bikes - it's as fast as vehciles will go at the moment
This is true, but they never said anything about Starships. *cough*
Also, as far as what I have in here, Acceleration/Deceleration is not exactly speed, but the time it takes for us to get to the maximum speed or stop on a dime. 0-60 in 5 seconds turned to 1 second and vice versa.
Other than that I love this document - everything we ever wanted or brought up is there. Good Job Caylin, and all who helped/contributed at some point in time.
Smuggler_Caylin wrote:
JediKozel wrote:
I still think that all players that use sliced items and are under influence of spice should get some type of TEF, that would make them attackable by NPC security forces and NPC stormtroopers. Or something like that. And give smugglers some type of smuggler mask scent type of skill. It might be esier than scanning everybody, which we know is pretty much impossible.
The TEF thing wont happen I'm pretty sure, too many of the ideas working with that specialise in unconsensual PVP, which is not allowed. The mask scent thing could be part of stealth, or they could alter the contraband evasion skill to that, they are more than able to change it to that given the outline hereI think...I could be mistaken.
I am not talking about PvP TEF - that indeed would be problematic. I'm talking about more of a NPC TEF, something similar to what makes Valarian thugs and Desert Demons unhappy every time I walk past them - a some sort of a flag that my character gets with negative faction points. (may be TEF is a wrong word to describe it. oh, well)Walking around with illegalt items should be like walking on Lok in pre- Vehicle Publish days -- it should seem like every law enforcement NPC is out to get ya. And since there is no scanning invovled, this would be happening a lot more often. This might be that something that we need. Something that would force regular players to seek for somebody who can "mask" their illegal items - smugglers.
That, of course, brings up another issue -- what is an illegal item? is slices and spices enough? shouldn't there be outlawed weapons, armor, power sources, minerals, craft, droids, etc.?
another thing that is undoable at the moment, according to devs, is making vehicle's speed faster than that of Swoop Bikes - it's as fast as vehciles will go at the moment
This is true, but they never said anything about Starships. *cough*
Also, as far as what I have in here, Acceleration/Deceleration is not exactly speed, but the time it takes for us to get to the maximum speed or stop on a dime. 0-60 in 5 seconds turned to 1 second and vice versa.
yeah, I noticed that. just thought I bring it up, just in case
Other than that I love this document - everything we ever wanted or brought up is there. Good Job Caylin, and all who helped/contributed at some point in time.
Smuggler_Caylin wrote:
Geevo wrote:
If there is an "illegal" TEF ... it needs to be only during the illegal act. I get caught while actually slicing by a specified NPC (Corsec) or a RANDOM (low random number) wandering NPC that happens to narc you out to the cops
So we would then have to define what constitutes an 'illegal act'
- Slicing an Item
- Using Spice
- Trading Spice/Illegal Guns/etc.
Those are a few I'm aware of.
Slicing an item makes sense, and I despise it when slicers areshouting in starports. The flag would have to be activated after the slice job is complete, or else you run into a bunch of other issues. There would still have to be a server 'shout' out to all law enforcement NPC's, I don't know how much of a server load this would cause.
Using Spice. Same as slicing, good and all, but I wonder as to the server activity required to get the NPC's involved.
Trading items... It would have to check after every trade whether the item was illegal. I think almost all inventory and trades are handled server side, adding more checks and balances is not going to go over well most likely. It would have to check if it was illegal, and if it was, 'shout out' what you were doing to any nearby NPC's.
How about the TEF is activated with the use of a Precision Laser Knife ... but nobody takes any action against the Smuggler until the slice window is closed.
I was focusing more on Slicing as an 'illegal' act because ... well, I didn't think about the others ... but it is also the easiest to control.
If the Smuggler is killed before giving the item back to the player, then they would have to trade after the clone ... and if there is decay, too bad so sad...part of the risk. I just think the law enforcement should act if they are close (eg. 20m) ... if they are close enough that they would have seen you fiddling with the weapon (Or armor)... then they will end up attacking.
What ever happened with the workbench idear?
I think we should be able to make a workbench that provides multiple bonusses, better slices, less detection, faster slicein, etc.
At Novice smuggler you should get the schematic for a workbench, all components will be loot from (NPC?)smuggler missions, list of components:
Basics:
- The Bench (provides extra slice points 0%-2%)
- Toolstation (Provides room for tools, only one per kind and to a max of 5)
- Silencer (Gives extra bonusses to the avoidsensor detection skill)
Optional tools:
- Special molecular/FAN unit (The same function as a FAN or clamp, only usable by smuggler with the certs for FAN/Clamps, these are unlimited)
- Special laser unit (smae as above, only for laser knives)
- Massslicer (gives the abilty to slice a factory crate of slicable items as they were one, they all get sliced)
- Welder (gives an extra slice point)
- Drill (same as welder)
- Laser (same as welder)
There are 6 possible tools (maybe more if you want) and you can only choose 5 at max, although that should be rare. So then slicers would specialise...
) that I hoped someone could toss me some feed back on, see if it was actually viable. Basically it takes into account several of the ideas you've put forward already Caylin, primarily a PC smuggling idea, removal of illegal items from vendors, and the need for a chokepoint. I'm sure similar ideas have been proposed, so if i'm redundant to other threads I apologize.The basic idea is developing a 'hidden' Black Market within the current bazaar system. Only smugglers would have access to this by slicing a bazaar terminal. Obviously for this idea to work, it would be imperitive that illegal items (sliced items, spices, 'others') be removed from all vendors and the smuggler black market be the only location they could be bought and sold. This has the advantages of actually causing smugglers to be that "gatekeeper of the illegal and illicit" we've been searching for. Granted it wouldn't be as exciting as actually transporting cargo and goods for people, but would turn us into the middlemen for the aquisition of such items.
Now then, suppliers of illegal items would need a smuggler to 'list' these goods on the black market. Suppliers obviously being AS and WS who deal in sliced goods. If we were to include all major loot items onto the vendor-ban (crystals, holos, kryat pearls, etc) then many people would need a smuggler to 'fence' their items for them.
That's half the story. The other half would involve the buyer contracting another smuggler to find particular items for them. Both ends of the supply chain are covered by smugglers.
Now then, the likely scenario i see would be something like a WS selling bulk weapons to a smuggler for him to slice and list on the black market. The smuggler is then taking a risk that he will make a profit instead of taking a loss. Another, being contracted by a purchasing client, would set a price for his transaction. Too high a price, the buyer goes somewhere else, too low and the smuggler has to pay the balance of the listed item or attempt to renegotiate.
I see a system like this being more a better-than-nothing version of PC smuggling if the devs decide that choke points are impossible or too undesirable to impliment. It could also be used in conjunction with a choke point smuggling scheme, but is mostly viable in its absense. The major problem, of course, is that only smugglers would be allowed access to this system, making it impossible for non-smugglers to browse the wares and insure they are getting what they want. Also, 1-to-1 trading might become more common as a way to avoid contracting a smuggler.
To me though, this reminds me of the X-Wing novels. There's one scene in particular where Mirax is going over figures for different comodities, gambling whether she can buy it in one sector and make a profit in another. So in many ways, it would be required for us to be up on current commodity prices, but then again that IS a smuggler's business.
Let me know what ya'll think, if it has merit or is a waste of space. Like i said, mostly an alternative to choke point implimentation, but still would be interested in elaborating on this if possible. Thanks