Smuggler Archive

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Emperador wrote:

so i have been reading this thread for a while now and thought i would add my 2mill credits..... simply put people that dont like to craft need to get past it and realize selling spice and slicing are not going anywhere. infact they should be expanded in a BIG way. it would be nice to run smuggler missions but those missions should be outside of my bussiness of making credits. smuggler is a hybrid profession and as such should have both combat and crafting professions, so spice must be and I hope will be a huge part of the smuggler redo.

i think those ideas of running missions/smuggler with regards to spice are cool. why limit it to spice. i am lost as to why everyone thinks smugglers only smuggle spice. there will always be special information, weapons, spice, fugitives, even dare i say rebel scum.

The premise of this thread is that Smuggling will be implemented for many other items that are treated by the game as illegal contraband; The question is, how would spice fit into such a system? Many have expressed a desire for it to be Smuggled into the game, as spice is seen to be mined in the SW universe, not brewed up in a lab. Conversely many would rather have spices crafted and then be Smuggled.

Ideally I'd like ideas for each system, so, for example the idea that spices would shift and change like resources isa great idea for'just Smuggling'. There are other great ideas in this thread, the more the merrier and I'll be presenting them all when I get the opportunity to.

what they really need to do is give spice the love it needs much like chef received for their revamp.......

Buffs, foods and spices are being balanced in the CU, so this hopefully won't be an issue come our revamp. I and the Smuggler team will be keeping a close eye on this during testing, of that you can be sure .

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HOTDOG wrote:

Wes,

Now your question is Craft or Smuggle.

I say, BOTH.

Then you ask-

Which one should be of greater value? And the answer to that of course is crafted spice as crafted items are better than looted ones.

But that means smuggled spice will be worthless- and will people even want it or find it worthwhile to smuggle.

I think the answer might be to have the spice refined.

You have to smuggle the spice to get it and you can sell it in that form but then you have the option of refining it and making it better. Perhaps the materials you need to refine spice are not so easy to obtain as has been suggested. This way refined spice is special.

Anything along these lines is cool by me. I would choke everytime I saw a doc/medic/artisan selling some spice they crafted if we gave the ability up to them.

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Message Edited by Cloudchasing on 01-25-2005 07:38 AM

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WesBelden wrote:

For me, my ideal view of Smuggling spice for players would see the player themselves aproach an NPC and order the spice through them. This would then put a up a Spice Smuggling mission on the mission terminals (or wherever we get our missions from); The level of spice that was ordered and your standing with the faction the player went to for it would determin the required skill level and faction standing for the Smuggler to see and take the mission. This is however, my view.

What do you think? if you were to choose either, would you keep crafting in the loop? would you prefer just Smuggling? and why?

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I know this is a late jumping on this post for me, but implement something like this and I will change my template today.

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Cloudchasing wrote:

LOL, I comletely forgot to mention downers.

Yeah, the downers would be in proportion to the qualty too.

Of course, I still think spices should be stackable, with increased downer penalty, PLUS a chance of OD

Also, I would like to see needing more and more spice for the same effect if you use it a lot, but implementing this would probably be a nightmare to code

hmm, unless it was linked to BF in someway

Message Edited by Cloudchasing on 01-25-2005 07:38 AM

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Nice work Cloud!
That fits in nicely with my 7 STEPS TO A ROBUST SPICE LINE.

You have spices that are smuggled which would max out at +500 with a downer of 1 minute.

crafted spices which would max out at +1000 with a downer of 2 minutes.

and then you could refine either of them for (up to) an extra +500 to the stat and - 1 minute to the downer.

Or something like that- I mean obviously the numbers have to be crunched...

Spending far too much time in the economics forum has lead me to a few hypotheses about changing the spice system:

1) if all spice is smuggled, and it's all the same quality, prices will be low, propped up only by the time it takes to smuggle it in (see: architects, ship chassis)

2) if all spice is smuggled, and unlimited or large quantities can be enhanced through some process, prices will remain low as supply of best stuff is readily available, blocking casual smugglers from market participation

3) if all spice is smuggled, but it's only feasible to enhance a small portion of it, that portion will sell extremely well while the rest does okay

4) if all spice is crafted, and it's all the same quality, prices will be even lower than hypothesis #1, as it won't even take playing time to produce (see: current spice market)

5) if all spice is crafted, but it's only feasible to enhance a small portion of it, see #3

6) if all spice is crafted, and it can be experimented, see #2

7) if some spice is smuggled, and some spice is crafted, whichever is better (doubtlessly the crafted) will sell well while the other just takes up space (see: #2)

8) if all spice is smuggled, but is available in spawns of varying quality and limited quantity (akin to resources), the best stuff will have an absurd market, the good stuff will have a good market, the okay stuff will have a slow market, and the poor stuff won't sell


Out of these, #3, 5, and 8 seem to be best for the smuggler community: each one will create multiple markets, allowing power smugglers to create a serious business out of spice dealing, while not locking the more casual smugglers out of competing in their own markets. The thing each of these options has in common is a spectrum of quality, which will drive up the prices of the high-end stuff, but a limit to the quantity of that good spice in such a way that many players will still need to purchase mid-grade spice despite the extreme reluctance of most people to buy anything that isn't "the best." This is tricky but should be doable.

From here, option #5 should probably be eliminated because, judging from the replies here, most of us would rather smuggle than craft.

Option #3 is a good one because it will have a healthy market, depend on smuggling, but allow those who like crafting to add that to the process as well. The specifics of spice enhancers, where they come from and how they're kept rare, is the key to this plan.

Option #8 is good because, in my opinion, the spice market will be best here, with the most options in terms of markets and selling strategies. It won't involve crafting, which is a negative to some, but the concept is similar to the resource system, which is after all the biggest part of quality craftsmanship. It's also my favorite because the underlying theory already exists and has been proven to work pretty well, whereas the necessities of #3 would be much harder to figure out. (Enhancers as a random drop, like krayt tissue? Repeatable quest items? Upper-tier smuggling missions? Drawbacks and complexities to each.)

Anyway, it's quite possible I've overlooked an option for spices, or have a skewed view on some of the ones I've laid out here, but I hope this breakdown is useful in helping us think about which direction we want to take ourselves.

Message Edited by TomoRainer on 02-05-2005 03:56 PM