Smuggler Archive
Thread: Revamp Discussion: Contraband & Smuggling Missions
Smuggler_Caylin wrote:
Contraband
Concept
The game’s contraband system will be changed to include a greater number of illegal items, a range of legality levels, and increased penalties for being found with illegal items.
Legal Ranges & Punishment
Items will now have a range of legality. The following legal ranges will be implemented.
Quasi-legal. A player caught with quasi-legal goods will be attacked.
Banned. A player caught with banned goods will be attacked. The player’s visibility will increase slightly for each violation.
Highly Illegal. A player caught with highly illegal goods will be attacked, the goods confiscated (if the attacked player is defeated), and the player’s visibility will increase. Highly illegal objects cannot be transported via the standard travel system by anyone other than a smuggler. The player must use the new smuggler travel system in order to move highly illegal goods. (This new system will be discussed later.)
This highly Illegal part sounds *awesome* Now, what happens when an item is confiscated? Is there a chance to get it back? Is feign death going to have an effect on whether or not they take the item? I'm excited about this.
Illegal objects will display their legality in the examine properties list.
Great
A faction aligned player who is caught with contraband will lose a percentage of faction appropriate to the degree of the crime.
Sounds Great.
Imperial aligned players will now only be immune to scans regarding quasi-legal goods if they have the rank of corporal or better.
Imperial immunity to scans is a big sore-spot. I don't know if I care for them to be immune even here as that still insures 100% success without picking up smuggler. A high chance at success I don't mind on just quasi-legal items, but I do not believe there should be immunity in any way, for any player. Hopefully droid storage immunity will also be addressed?
I Think that immuinty for both Quasi-legal and Banned should be immune, ONLY if the player is overt. In addition, you would need a hioher to be immune from scans. On the other hand, if covert there should be a % based on being scaned starting at 0% up to 40%. Stacking with Master Smuggler of 50%, would mean that 1 out of 10 times you COULD be scaned
Aggree that being scaned could force you overt.
Old sliced weapons and armor will be converted to have the legality level of "banned."
Cool
Only if players are given a chance to have the slice removed. Players should NOT be punished for things that happened before the revamp.
Scan Frequency
Contraband scan frequency will be somewhat increased. Scan bottlenecks will be introduced at various locations in major cities, such as starport entries and medical centers.
Great! Though I will continue to dream of being hauled in for an 'extensive search' when I board a shuttle.
Random times and locationsbased on player density. This will force players to travel to player cities and different planets, instead of being all in Coronet or Theed. Will also help entertainers spread out.
Contraband Visibility
The game's "visibility" system will be expanded. Any player can now accumulate small amounts of visibility for a contraband infraction. The amount of visibility will be dependent on the severity of the infraction.
Isn't this too close to pvp without consent? Carrying an illegal item and being punished by an NPC is one thing, getting hunted down by a bounty hunter in a PVP situation is another.
Players using contraband after the revamp will know that they could wind up being hunted, avoiding illegal items to avoid being hunted then.
Smugglers may attempt to find out or reduce the visibility of any player by slicing a bounty hunter terminal. Failure to successfully slice the terminal will result in the smuggler being immediately added to the terminal. Clamps cannot be used in this form of slicing. (This will be a new type of slicing, not wire cutting.) More information on this is available in the slicing section.
This I honestly don't care for. The mental imagery of bounty hunters hiring smugglers to get themselves on terminals for easy investigation xp is not something I care to see. It's bad enough with Jedi farming themselves out I don't want to see smugglers going down the same road. This is why I've always supported the Counterfeit ID idea, as it does not rely on the smuggler, but the usage of the item by the jedi in order to gradually decrease their visibility while raising the risk of the smuggler who made it.
Two ways to handle this, First a Bounty Hunter can only kill his mark once per server reset. Taking the mission again will give no payout and will REDUCE the XP gained, same if mission failed; Bounty Hunter DBed or Mission aborted (NOTE: This is only for retaking the mission). Second, the smuggler will lose lose the ability to even try to slice into Bounty Hunter Terms. Smuggler Visabilty should be reduced if DBed and if the Smuggler kills the Bounty Hunter. The amount of visabilty is reduced by twice the amount.
Smuggling Missions
Concept
Various criminal organizations throughout the galaxy have found financial success in moving illegal substances and goods from one place to another. The vehicles of these transfers are the smugglers, men and women who store their morality along side coffers full of questionable goods. The smugglers are brave and often brash individuals who risk their lives for monetary gain on a daily basis.
The smuggler revamp will introduce new missions to simulate the smuggling underworld.
Are we going to make all smugglers strictly criminals? Or are we going to allow them to have a 'cause'? For example, I smuggle materials for the Alliance as I believe in their cause. I never lay aside my morality in an RP sense. The idea of having to surrender my GCW faction to actually become a real smuggler is not an appealing thought.
Smuggler by there very nature are circumventing the LAW of the Land, that makes them criminals. Just because you have ideals doesn't place you above the LAW
Basic System
Smuggling Missions are received from various underworld bosses, called ‘suppliers’. Jabba, Lady Valarian, and other key criminal characters, as well as new characters, will offer smuggling missions. Smuggling missions are only offered to smuggler characters. The difficulty of the mission will scale to the average tier level of the smuggler’s skills.
At its core, a smuggling mission is similar to a delivery mission. The player is given a crate of illegal goods to move to another contact. The player must then return the payment for the goods to the source of the mission.
Ex: Jabba gives the player a crate of 50 narcostims to deliver to a cantina in Mos Eisley. After the player delivers the narcostims, she receives a payment of 12,000 credits. The player then returns to Jabba and delivers 8,000 credits, pocketing 4,000 as payment for the job.
There are no skill boxes specific to smuggling missions, but the smuggler’s skills in scan avoidance and slicing will come into play.
So how does a smuggler figure out how difficult these missions will be? Will a novice smuggler be able to take the same missions as a Master? I'm not quite comfortable with that.
Skillset similliar to BH investigation line and should be just as hard, this would be OUR Underworld line.
Cargo Legality
Smuggling mission cargo is highly illegal. Any non-smuggler caught carrying a crate of any item to be delivered from a smuggling mission will be attacked and have the cargo confiscated.
Due to the illegality of the cargo, the authorities may occasionally hear about a particular supplier’s intent to move goods. Smugglers on a smuggler mission may encounter attacks from planetary or Imperial authorities, depending on the difficulty of the mission. Killing these enemies is not necessary to complete the mission.
Sweet!
The target for a smuggling mission will only wait so long to receive the delivery. If the player does not deliver the goods within a reasonable amount of time (dependent on mission difficulty), the mission will be lost and the player will receive some visibility.
This makes me wonder about the possibility of making our missions give out an XP type required for progression. If that happens, you are again having PVP without direct consent by the player, in order to progress up the skill tree. Interlocking XP progression with PvP is not a great idea for those smugglers who chose neutral for a reason.
Again I can see this being similliar to Bounty Hunter, however the downside would be deliveries to NPCs that are Underground or in Walls like some MARKS are. This would give us Visability through no fault of our own.
Withholding Cargo
The player may choose to withhold part of the delivery. In the above example, the player may choose to only deliver 30 of the narcostims to the contact in Mos Eisley. If the player chooses to withhold cargo, s/he will only be paid a portion of the actual delivery fee. The amount of the payment will be directly proportional to the amount delivered.
In order to split a container of mission supplies, the smuggler must successfully slice the container’s locking mechanism.
Great to hear about this, I've been pointing to this for a long time, in order to increase the novice container availability. Thank you for listening!
The player may also choose to withhold part of the money to be paid to the supplier. For example, the player might deliver all 50 narcostims, but only pay Jabba 6,000 credits.
Withholding cargo or pay will result in the smuggler earning a small bit of visibility. Thus, a smuggler who chooses to defy the crime lords who supply her with jobs faces the possibility of execution at the hands of a hired Bounty Hunter.
The more difficult the smuggling mission, the greater the visibility gained for cheating.
Sounds great.
How about delivery of these items to opposing faction member as well, Valerian goods to Jabaa for example? Perhaps you might make money double-crossing a crime lord
. On the other hand perhaps we won't get paid enough as well ( in your example, we get 15000 credits for the delivery or or maybe 7500 credits) persuasion should help here.
Cargo Contents
Smuggling mission cargo often contains items that are components for smuggler crafting. Narcostims, for example, might be a component used in the creation of the spice, Glitterstim. Thus, a smuggler will need to occasionally withhold some of the cargo from a mission if they wish to enter the spice business.
In the interests of the player economy and current game balance, spices will remain craftable. Now, however, smugglers will "assemble" various components into spice packages, instead of chemically brewing them. Experimentation will be added...more details later in the spices discussion.
I'm very interested in this.
Optionable components should also be added to increase dependence on other crafting professions. and vice-a-versa too. Narcostims with Stim-Es to make Damge stims to heal mind or Narcostimms with wound packs to make BF spice. Chef foods and BE componets could be added to with various effects( reduced downtime, longer durations, or stronger effects)
Smuggling cargo may also include crates of low or mid level spices. The player may choose to withhold these spices and resell them to other players if they wish.
Alrighty.
Space Integration
There will be elements of smuggler missions involving space zones & space gameplay, but I can't discuss many space details. The player may have to pick up or deliver goods in space. Players without JTL will not be required to go to space. This is an "after space ships" feature.
Okey-dokey
JTGAlpha wrote:
Wow. I mean...WOW. Holy Shnikes! This is like...EVERY idea we ever submitted. Awesome! Go Greenmarine, and GO SMUGGLERS! Everyone gets applause!
Now, before I go wrecking this, I wanna say, GreenMarine that I would take this entire system RIGHT NOW, it's that good. But there's always room for improvement.
I LOVE the idea of us getting people off of the Bounty Hunting terminals. But I agree with Caylin. It just has to be done in such a way that we aren't leveling bounty hunters with it and vice versa. Other than that, I LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT.
Contraband...thank you JEEBUS! Finally. Sorry, Caylin, I can live with Corporals and up getting a buy on quasi-legal items. But, perhaps we'd ALL be more comfortable with this once we have a better idea of what exactly is on what list. GM, is the "contraband" list going to be expanded beyond slices and spices, and, roughly, what other sorts of things are going to be on which list? Or is that part of the debate?
As for the non-consensual PvP....I agree with Ryutek. If you don't want the cops to throw the cuffs on you after slamming you on the concrete, don't carry a bag of coke and an illegal firearm. The community may hem and haw over this, but I think this is a GREAT change thematically for the game in general. PLEASE stick to your guns about this, PLEASE!
Wow, I'm so giddy about this I can hardly complain! This is the coolest post EVER.
Wow it's friggen cool
mjPboy wrote:
after this marked difference between teh promised jedi revamp and the product, expect 50% of this to be in and 10% to be implemented up to your expectations
oh and you have to buy JTL...gimme a break SOE.
This game wasnt released ready..all these revamps should have been part of the game already.
Sorry but GREEN MARINE is NOT working the JEDI REVAMP, which should have been put on hold anyway. He HAS worked player cities and vehicles and is working JTL and the SMUGGLER REVAMP.
Now you know why the JEDI REVAMP is NOT as good as it could have been.
GreenMarine wrote:
I have to go work on other things now, but I'll continue to monitor the discussion.
Thank you ... this post means as much to me as the others.
Geevo wrote:
The idea of 'all old sliced items becoming contraband' ...
If it is possible, I think that a player that logs in after revamp (first log) should get the opportunity to 'revert' their weapon (or armor)back to pre-slice conditions ... with the condition that those items are not able to be sliced again.
If they choose to revert (one chance only) ... then it is not contraband, and no longer has the increased stats from the slice.
BUT NOT ABLE TO BE SLICED AGAIN ... EVER!!
Really good idea. I think that would take the issue of "Forced PvP" out altogether...
Then, for new players, have something that shows up when they go through the new player tutorial. This may not cover everyone, but it makes it known...
One of the Four Horsemen of the Smuggler Apocalypse! 
My concern..being an Imperial smuggler is that with these changes I will soon by -5K Imperial and -5K Rebel faction after the STs are all scanning me and attacking. I know that there has to be some risk in being a smuggler, but it gets kind of out of balance when all our factions are -5K and every RSF, Mauler, Imperial, Rebel, Meatlump, townsperson aggros us. Seems that the smuggler line should have some way to activley "buy" faction that is lost maybe. I hope some thought is put into make this great profession a balanced one for both sides of the GCW. I would hate to see it get revamped and then only usable by nuetral and Rebel players.