Smuggler Archive

I was basically being deliberately vague, because I know that's a point of contention. My personal feeling is that whether we get Spice (for instance) from an NPC or craft it ourselves, either way we are the gatekeepers, introducing it into the game world. You can't get it from anybody but a Smuggler.

Actual Smuggling is a tough issue because of what we've been told about the programming difficulties involved in scanning players. There are some ideas floating around about that, and some of them might work, but we need more info about what is really possible. So for now I thought "acquire" was a nice term. In the end, what's really important to me is that other players look for a Smuggler when they want those illegal items/services.

I'm going to chime in on the Dirty Fighting / Melee attacks. All the suggestions we've been offering are... lacking. Another knockdown? State changes? Might as well just pick up TK if you haven't already.

The focus of the tree seems to be moves that can get us out of tough spots. So, for our melee attack might I suggest... Hostage Taking. The smuggler in question grabs the arm of his / her humanoid opponent and twists it behind them (or wraps an arm around their neck). The smuggler is still targetable, however they now have a humanoid shield and any attacks directed at the smuggler are absorbed by the hostage.

Move rate of the smuggler is dropped to walk speed, and wherever they move the gripped opponent goes as well. The duration of the hold depends on the smuggler's skill (a la Feign Death, we're better at it higher up the tree).

Imagine for a moment that stormies still raided cantinas. You're unbuffed, unarmored, and you've just been snagged with a crate of spice. You've got time enough to make one move, and it better be one that gets you out alive. So, you grab the closest stormie, put your pistol to his head and slowly back up towards the cantina door. His buddies dare not fire for fear of hitting your hostage... you hearthe dooropen, give the poor trooper a shove and burst run to freedom.

Granted, it would probably be difficult to implement since it's a big departure from anything in-game now, but with all that extra time the devs have given themselves...

Hostage taking isn't a bad idea, but may i suggest this one i heard somewhere?

An unarmed move where you immobilize them for 10 seconds pending no further damage to them. This is what we need. Something to buy us time while we burst run away.

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Vampirerobot wrote:

I was basically being deliberately vague, because I know that's a point of contention. My personal feeling is that whether we get Spice (for instance) from an NPC or craft it ourselves, either way we are the gatekeepers, introducing it into the game world. You can't get it from anybody but a Smuggler.

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Ternque01 wrote:

An unarmed move where you immobilize them for 10 seconds pending no further damage to them. This is what we need. Something to buy us time while we burst run away.

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Here is my ideas:

Spices Line: The problem is many smugglers feel they should not craft spice but instead "smuggle" it

Using technology currently in the game, I think the spice line should be similar to the bounty hunter Investigation line

My proposal: The spice line revolves around a series of quests. Person A has you track down and speak with person b and so on. At some point you reach your mark. This mark is your connection to the underworld. He is the one who provides you with your spices.

Now mechanically what happens is, your contact is just coded as a harvester, and spices are coded as a resource.

This contact needs maintanence fees just like a normal harvester, as you need to continue to "grease his palm" or he will quit working for you.

As you move up the spice tree, you have better informants available to you (more spices) and more informants available. These informants will be located all over the galaxy (not placable by the smuggler) and will require a lot of travel, helping the idea of smugglers traveling from any point to any point.

Where is the smuggling?

Now you gain xp from the spice line whenever you meet with your contact, and he hands over his haul to you. Every time this happens, there is a percentage chance that you caught during the exchange. Smuggling modifiers form another line (underworld perhaps) give you a chance to pass this check. If you are caught you lose all spice from the transaction, an amount of credits proportional to the spice changing hands, and you also lose the contact.

This would alow us to have a smuggling system that would not include "bottlenecks" and would not directly effect other classes, accept their availability to our product.

Of course this would go hand in hand with a pice upgrade, as no one wants to smuggle worthless items. But again, spices can be coded like resources, with the appropriate shifts and what not.

There are a lot of other possibilities with a system like this, and I have just touched on them here, only to see if my fellow smugglers are at all interested in this idea.

Aiden Morgan

Rookie smuggler

Starsider

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/lick TH

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eewww....

/snicker

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Gillgalid wrote:

This is exactly the method of interaction that we've needed with every profession since the beginning. I can totallysee TH sitting down ata meeting with 34 design documents andcommunicating exactly what the community is after in a clear and consise method.I can't wait to see this folded overinto every other profession in the game.

Bravo guys you have a winner on your hands!

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well, one document actually. One that is very cool and represents the community's main thrust. The meeting with 34+ documents is the one happening on the boards now. We have to distill, edit down and find the essence.

Okay here's a salient detail I am particularly interested in:

Salient Detail: Smuggler Missions, Smuggler Infamy/Bounties

The first major challenge presented in the Overview is actually in the second part: Creating drawbacks to Smuggler acquisition of goods and services. We can easily think of desirable Smuggler items and services, but what are the challenges Smugglers are presented with in their acquisition? Essentially, what form does the Content take?

So here we present two ways of delivering that content, whichcould be implemented in tandem, and the ups and downs of each. Smuggler Infamy (the PvP method) and Smuggler Missions (the PvE method).

Smuggler Infamy

• A system whereby Smuggler activities (Slicing, trading spice, purchasing or selling Faction) generate a sort of visibility or Infamy rating.


• Upon reaching some threshold of Infamy, Smugglers have bounties placed on them and their names appear on the BH terminals, essentially expending that Infamy and turning it into a Bounty.


• To avoid being hunted and killed by a Bounty Hunter, Smugglers can either limit their Smugger activities (in frequency, quality and volume) to keep their Infamy level low, or accept the risk and use their Smuggler abilities to evade or defeatany Bounty Hunters chasing them.


• Bountied Smugglers would have a way of getting the bounty removed, essentially making the Bounty Hunt into a race. Bounty Hunters trying to catch up with and kill the Smuggler before the Smuggler figured out how to get the Bounty removed.This system would be modeled after Han Solo's exploits in the films, when Jabba had placed a bounty on him, and he was trying to "get Jabba his money" before some Bounty Hunter collected.


• Essentially Infamy would be part of the "cost" of the illegal goods and services Smugglers are able to acquire. Infamy translates into bounties, and bounties into time energy and risk on the part of the Smuggler.

Smuggler Missions

• A PvE system whereby Smugglers must complete terminal-style missions to gain access to the illegal goods and services.


• The "cost" of theillegal goods and servicesis essentially paid in advance, by the time energy and risk of completing the PvE missions.


• These missions can basically be Complex Delivery missions, with opportunities for ethical decisions and unique rewards and obstacles.


• This would of course be content heavy, since it's PvE.

A Big Note:

The real idea here is that, for instance, Smugglers could get an additional 5% slicing bonus by either accepting an Infamy increase or by running a special Smuggler mission to get a one-use Smuggler tool as the reward that would offer the bonus. So there is a PvP and a PvE path to the same end result. The PvP path is quicker and easier but more risky, and the PvE path is more time consuming but more predictable.

Okay I know that's way specific, sort of. So I'm sure it's a lot harder to swallow than a vague overview. But I feel like we could do something with this.

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Thunderheart wrote:

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/lick TH

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eewww....

/snicker

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Gillgalid wrote:

This is exactly the method of interaction that we've needed with every profession since the beginning. I can totallysee TH sitting down ata meeting with 34 design documents andcommunicating exactly what the community is after in a clear and consise method.I can't wait to see this folded overinto every other profession in the game.

Bravo guys you have a winner on your hands!

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well, one document actually. One that is very cool and represents the community's main thrust. The meeting with 34+ documents is the one happening on the boards now. We have to distill, edit down and find the essence.

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The Infamous Caylin Borealis - First Master Smuggler on Bria
One of the Four Horsemen of the Smuggler Apocalypse!
:The Ghost with the Most:

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Thunderheart wrote:

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/lick TH

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eewww....

/snicker

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Gillgalid wrote:

This is exactly the method of interaction that we've needed with every profession since the beginning. I can totallysee TH sitting down ata meeting with 34 design documents andcommunicating exactly what the community is after in a clear and consise method.I can't wait to see this folded overinto every other profession in the game.

Bravo guys you have a winner on your hands!

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well, one document actually. One that is very cool and represents the community's main thrust. The meeting with 34+ documents is the one happening on the boards now. We have to distill, edit down and find the essence.

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Thunderheart wrote:

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Gillgalid wrote:

This is exactly the method of interaction that we've needed with every profession since the beginning. I can totallysee TH sitting down ata meeting with 34 design documents andcommunicating exactly what the community is after in a clear and consise method.I can't wait to see this folded overinto every other profession in the game.

Bravo guys you have a winner on your hands!

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well, one document actually. One that is very cool and represents the community's main thrust. The meeting with 34+ documents is the one happening on the boards now. We have to distill, edit down and find the essence.

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I think he meant 34, one for each profession not 34 different smuggler documents.

"well, one document actually. One that is very cool and represents the community's main thrust. The meeting with 34+ documents is the one happening on the boards now. We have to distill, edit down and find the essence."

I suggest you start with Aristotle's Metaphysics