Smuggler Archive
Thread: Depending On Smugglers
Well if we want to be completely realistic, space travel should take days, your character should require 3 square meals a day, should sleep during the night, should have to stop mid-hunt to find a porta-potty, etc.
I don't care what the story is, the game has to be, first and foremost, fun.
StGabe.
StGabriel wrote:
No, a weaponsmith CRAFTS a sword.
Syntax doesn't change the semantics. You want to argue that I have to depend on a smuggler at a level greater than I depend on weaponsmiths when weaponsmiths are a pure crafting profession and smugglers are a hybrid. I'm showing you the high level of dependency you are asking for.
The difference between a medic and a smuggler is that I can save up my wounds and contact a medic at my leisure. Once I do so healing my wounds is a relatively short affair. The time I take to provide this opportunity to the medic is minimal and is my choice.
StGabe.
I don't believe that the distinction is purely syntactic -- as you said yourself, there is a difference between a pure crafting profession and a hybrid profession. I don't think that anyone will argue with the idea that Weapons are MUCH more valuable than Spices and Slicing (the Smuggler craftables) -- hence, the dedication of an entire tree to the crafting of weapons. And Weaponsmiths have functionality beyond that, in the form of weapons maintenance -- the ability to care for weapons at a minmized risk of mangling or destroying them. Add to that the game content of searching for the best resources, and experimenting to discover the best result, and then the ability to generate schematics and run factories, and you're looking at a fairly full game experience.
The smuggler, as a hybrid profession, has less valuable craftables -- Spices, and the ability to slice -- but earns additional value in its usefulness in the field, in the form of container slicing and smuggling contraband. The term "dependence" is a loaded term, as you don't actually "depend" on the Smuggler for the day-to-day workings of your character, but rather choose to use the Smugglers services in return for ease of transport, and improved functionality of weapons.
And the distinction with Medic only holds so much water. If you are grouped with a medic, you can handle much tougher challenges than if you were soloing with no medic skills. So from a certain point of view, a player that is not grouped with a medic is utterly crippled -- pit the two groups against one another, and the medic-less group is going to get pasted. And that, to me, is a tremendous hassle.
"That's not a hassle! That's a challenge!" the masses cry. Well, that's all a matter of distinction -- I personally find scans exciting, because it's one of the few chances for a Covert to really feel like a Rebel. But I enjoy talking to people while waiting for the shuttle, so I'm apparently a bit skewed in the head anyway.
Shrendyc wrote:
Since you claim to know how we're fighting for our identity in the game, where the hell were you when they gimped Feign Death? Where were you when they disemboweled spices? What about our brief battle about Panic shot? Are you going to bat for us on the new spices bug?
Before you say that we need to focus on not limiting your damn fun, maybe you should help us get some fun out of our profession. Or can't you be bothered with that as it will cut into your play time?
StGabriel during the Panic Shot debacle:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=63903&page=1
He was apparently the correspondent who pushed to get special attention thrown on Panic Shot when Warcry was getting changed. StGabriel can deny it all he wants, but Lodek has told the Revamp Team repeatedly and in no uncertain terms that it went down that way, and I have no reason to doubt Lodek for one second.
ClearNinja2000 wrote:
I don't believe that the distinction is purely syntactic
StGabriel wrote:
Where do I get scanned?
I get scanned all the time on Dantooine and Yavin. I can't remember how many times I've been scanned on the way to the Geo caves and the last night I played (I have been out of town for a week and a half now, no SWG) I got scanned 3 times in as many hours while doing missions on Dantooine.
Look at it this way, ether . . .
. . . scans are infrequent and thus not a hassle. But then they are too rare for them to be really be a perk for smugglers.
OR
. . . scans are very common and thus a big hassle.
StGabe.
But this is nothing that Smugglers have or will have an impact on in my eyes.
I was going to write up a new proposal and tack it onto this thread but its already getting out of hand and will certainley get lost.
But let me just say here, that if the devs find the need to "increase" the crackdown and as a result you're getting scanned 2 or 3 times an hour the problem isn't getting cought or not - its that you are having to start and stop the process 2 or 3 times interrupting your gameplay. Its the same problem as runnning to the shuttle only to have it singe your eyebrows as it takes off without you. Smuggler skills do not now allow us to bypass getting PICKED for a scan and thus smuggler skills or not, smuggler in your group or not - you're gameplay is still going to be interrupted.
I'm just glad St. Gabe isn't an SOE Developer.
*Smug-Druggler engages the Escape Pod andabandons this thread.*
This is false (I did not push for anything like this).
And there is nothing positive about bringing this into the discussion. It's just a personal attack, pure and simple.
If you don't like the ideas presented here please address them.
StGabe.
I love how you responded to my first line only, gaby baby. I think I remember you, you trolled here once before and got the forum all worked up.
Gentlemen, I think we are best to let this matter drop and ignore him. He's refreshing this page and revelling in the rise he's getting out of all of us. THere will be no reasoning with him - I believe this to be his lunchtime entertainment.
I'm sorry Ternque. I disagree with your idea. However, I disagree becuase these items are illegal and should only be carried by those willing to suffer the penalties if caught. End of story in my opinion, but I guess we'll just have to disagree here.
/endquote
That's cool. There are penalties for those carrying sliced goods. Random scans.
If we could deactivate peoples slices automatically when we leave a group, then there
is quite a far less chance of them being caught with it isn't there? Only the
scrutinity of a professional scanning team would be able to tell, and we know how
frequent those already are.
In short, slices ARE still illegal as you say. You ARE penalized when caught, but
because of this, the only time you run with your weapon "hotrodded" is when there
is someone to sweet-talk your way out of trouble... (i.e. the smuggler)
Disagree if you must, that is healthy. What i'm saying is that it doesn't make sliced
weapons/armor legal... it just hides it's legality by deactivation of the slice.
All in all, grouped like this, you are truly smuggling (albeit in a somewhat crude way
)
All I'm doing is presenting you guys with a non-smuggler viewpoint, to do what you wish with it. If you don't think that players are going to dislike content that makes them lose a lot of time giving Smugglers a reason to smuggle then I think you should step back a bit and look at the bigger picture.
I don't pretend that I can speak for all non-smugglers but I do think that I can speak for many. More hassles and dependencies that require a big time sink are not going to sell well and are going to make Smugglers more enemies than friends.
StGabe.
StGabriel wrote:
Telling me that I can "choose" to use a non-optimal gun in order to ignore a boring and un-"fun" hassle is just trying to recast the argument into another direction that I don't think is very helpful.