Smuggler Archive

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Smuggler_Caylin wrote:
I pointed it out first, now BACK OFF!

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Message Edited by HimFan on 05-06-2004 11:08 PM

Yeh, Pistoleers have been after this for a while, but the fact that their profession is broken kinda got in the way, forcing them to prioritise . I'd love to see people running around with holstered pistols and carbines and rifles slung over their shoulder. It'd make a nice thing for pistol users, having them access their guns easier and faster and perhaps add something to the GCW, having anyone that's not an overt ranked Imperial running around cities toating guns (ie not holstered/shouldered) get stopped and/or attacked by patroling Imp NPCs/ CorSecs etc. (heck, even add a 10 second delay for getting your gun out of your inventory if it's not already holstered or in your hands).

But I digress; I encourage you all to get this thread back on topic and come up with some sterling ideas!

Here's one I found earlier: Have all scanning take place when people are leaving the adventure planets, as these are not the hotspots and it is from these planets that the majority of contraband should be coming from anyway. One poster likened it to the border post near his home between the US and Canada. The Canadians don't check for stuff because there's very little to smuggle out of the US into Canada, but the US customs officers are very tight as there's plenty that can come back the other way (or so this poster claimed )

Now, as it's 4:30am here, I think I'll go pass out.

Idea 1: Swap skill benefits of Novice/Slice 1 ...

Terminals @ Novice Smuggler able to be sliced once every FIFTEEN minutes

Locked Containers@ Slice 1

(So people can't hold containers hostage anymore)

Idea 2: Change Dirty Fighting XP to Combat XP (So people can use either Unarmed or Pistol to go up)

Idea 3: Player Smuggling ... TH brought up some concerns (to avoid exploits)

a) Low level (needing XP) goes to NPCs for missions ... the missions can either be PC Generated (people going to NPC to give missions to a "Smuggler Coordinater" or if there are no PC missions, then it generates an NPC mission. At UW4/Master Smuggler, then you can do Player-Based Smuggling.

b) All player-based (and NPC) Smuggling is a locked container ... and Master Artisans would be able to craft the containers. Good Smugglers deliver ... Bad Smugglers can still slice these containers ... if delivery is not made, then the Player can choose to place a bounty on the Smuggler ... and the Smuggler (if high enough skill in slicing) can Slice their name (or another persons name) off of the BH Terminal.

VampireRobot...

My idea is with spices and how to make them a little more useful on top of hopefully having their effects tweaked a bit.

1.) The downside of using spices should be changed from a downer to an addiction. Instead of having a downer, a spice user might eventually get withdrawal pangs, which would vary in strength depending on the spice. After suffering from the withdrawal, a user could then be over the spice addiction. To avoid withdrawal, you just keep taking spice at regular intervals (not constantly, but regularly, like maybe once an hour or something.)

2.) Along with addiction, if there still has to be a downer associated, it should be reduced to about 10% of what it is now. The downer effect right now basically incapacitates the user when it comes to the higher end spices.

3.) To make spices more effective - there are several spices that somewhat enhance some abilities only to greatly reduce others. Consequently, these spices are never used. The spice effects have to be rewritten so they all have a use, especially considering that Muon Gold and Neutron Pixie are the only 2 spices ever made and used. Except maybe yarrok until the smuggler can make Muon...

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PlayeroftheDay wrote:

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SWG-Runesabre wrote:

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Thunderheart wrote:

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Vampirerobot wrote:

So is this thread for suggestions for the Community Vision? If so, I'll contribute a suggestion for the Overview, as I'd like to see it:

Overview

The goal of the Smuggler Revamp is to bring Smugglers in the game in line with the iconic conception of Smugglers in the Star Wars Universe. Our mission is to create a profession that has both utility to other players (Interactivity) and fun and challenge for the Smugglers themselves (Content). In addition we want Smugglers to fill a unique role in the game because of their iconic nature: That of gatekeeper to the illicit and illegal.

Thus the final Smuggler "vision" isa profession which has two components: First, the ability to acquire highly desirable but illegal goods and services for other players. Second, drawbacks to the acquisition of those goods and services (representing their illegal nature) andabilities to help overcomeand survive those drawbacks. Smuggler Interactivity is in their utility to other players via the first part, and SmugglerContent is in the challenges presented by the second part. What will make Smugglers useful is the first part. What will make them unique and fun is the second part.

How does that strike you?

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I think this is excellent.

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I'll share with you a funny moment I just had while reading through this thread. When I first read this particular post quoted above, I thought Thunderheart had taken our internal design documents for the Smuggler and crafted a very excellent summary of what my overall design goal is for the Smuggler Revamp. As I was about to email Thunderheart and congratulate him on what a great job he did distilling all of the design details into such a concise summary, I realized this wasn't written by Thunderheart, but, merely commented on by Thunderheart and in fact this summary was written by a player from the Smuggler Community.

So in short, this little summary that was written by Kelsin Redgravevery closely coincides with what my design vision and goal for the Smuggler Revamp is. Very nicely written and I'm glad to know that at least our design goal closely lines up with player expectations.

Message Edited by SWG-Runesabre on 05-06-2004 12:06 PM

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/Jaded mode on

"Uh-huh"

/Jaded mode off

I hope this happens.

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Please ignore this poster, he represents no one but himself. Everyone else in and out of the smuggler profession is thrilled about this. Thank you for taking your time to post on these forums. Hopefully This Doc can take off, and be the "beachhead" for all further profession revamps.

Smuggler_Caylin wrote:

Smuggler Revamp Community Vision Doc

Overview

Smugglers are the crooks of SWG, they hack security systems, make illegal modifications to weapons, make and sell spice, buy privileges with faction commanders, are under-handed in a fight and move contraband around the galaxy for profit.

Salient Details

Make smugglers smuggle, both PVE to gain experience and the skills to smuggle better, and PVP for money and role-play.

• If smugglers get caught smuggling they get on the BH terminals


• PVP missions don't generate XP and the rewards come from the customer
  Modify the current skill trees to enhance the overall experience of being a smuggler
  

The Good and the Bad

• Underworld - most of the skills are beneficial for some, but they are just not enough for a whole skill tree...


• Slicing - The ability to modify weapons and armour is good, but more control is needed and more depth, the new abilities in dungeons like the geo cave and the Corvette are good, more like this for other terminals


• Dirty Fighting - Feign death is good in PVE, could be better... Low blow is good. Add more varied moves


• Spices - Good concept, needs to be more variety in the effects of the spices, and experimentation / resources needs to be something or there is no way to be the best spice maker.
  

Skill Tree Changes

Here is a list of the skill trees. We should make a list of bullet points of changes and/or activities for each tree. Don't focus on the numbers; focus on the quintessential statement of the change.

Underworld:

This skill tree gives the abilities to smuggle contraband

• PVE - Specialized Delivery missions that provide PvE encounters during the travel portion. These encounters can come in the form of direct combat, threatened combat in exchange for the smuggled item, or non-combat encounters seeking to bribe or convince the PC to give up the item.


• Rewards:




• XP and Credits


• Ethical decisions that effect the smugglers reputation.


• City and travel combat.

This is how a smuggler will gain smuggling XP

• PvP smuggling whereby a player can contract another player to take a shipment from point a to point b.

(Just as an example, this is a great statement of a single sentence that probably amounts to months of work by multiple teams. Some challenges are, "where do they take it from and to? How is it registered? How is it discovered? How do you prevent it from being exploited by a player with two accounts?" etc...)

Here is my suggestion for how this can be done, and it includes and it answers all of TH's problems

Currently there are certain things that are "illegal" sliced weapons and spices, now lets assume owning these items is only a minor crime and the punishments from the crackdown are enough to deal with this, i suggest this because there are too many players out there who carry a number of sliced weapons and spices on a daily basis, they are not considered very illegal and making them so will cause problems. They are items used every day, do we really want to become delivery boys (and girls) for every fighter who wants to travel between planets?

We need a new contraband, now people have suggested that we make certain rare resources illegal, but this causes similar problems to above, and as an example, it is well known that buff packs use lokian wheat, if lokian wheat is illegal then by default buff packs must also be illegal.

I suggest we have something completly new as contraband, maybe a new resource type or 3, these can be used in the place of existing resources under certain circumstances and are better than the standard, also possibly give some of the crafting professions the ability to make "modified" versions of certain components that are illegal.

We can then move these illegal goods from place to place... players will want them, so there will be a demand for our services and nothing that is already in game gets broken.

To remove the need for contraband scans in all 'ports tag these items with a special tag that means if anyone who doesn't have smuggling skills tries to move them through the transport system the item is simply removed from their inventory (anything to declare?) and they are punished (maybe the instanced starports idea with instanced customs rooms, where you can either fight your way out or pay the fine)

If a smuggler fails their checks (better chance of success at higher levels, lower chance the more stuff being smuggled) they also get transported to a nastier customs room and we can either use our skills (bribe?) or fight our way out or pay a larger fine, if we don't pay the fine we end up on the BH terminals.

Some ideas for new contraband:

• GM (Genetically Modified) Lokian Wheat - Always significantly better than the regular current spawn, but spawns less often and for shorter periods (and GM other organics)


• High Octane Class 4 LPF - Only spawns on Dathomir, and is rarer than normal stuff


• Weapons Grade Radioactive - Again higher spec, rarer, only on certain "adventure" planets


• Luxury Woolen Hides - As above


• Plumbum (sp) Iron / copper alloy - can be used in place of plumbum (sp) iron, but has a higher conductivity. again rare and on adventure planets only...

I am sure the crafters who use these resources would love to get hold of the upgraded versions, and we smugglers could move them around for them and the resource suppliers, I'd also make them untradable on the bazaar and only saleable on vendors under the protection of a smuggler (Another skill?) if at all.

Spices:

Make spices into something many players want to buy, and make it possible to be the best at spices.

• New effects for the spices so that they have a range of effects and make a viable alternative to chef foods under the right circumstances (for emergencies, not regular use)


• Give us 3 way experimentation, effect, duration and downer duration (or maybe combine duration and downer time) so that those smuggler who want to be the best spice makers can put in the extra effort and manufacture a better product.
  

Slicing:

Make slicing more interesting and controlled

• Use the experimentation system suggested many times else-where


• Add the ability to slice more terminal types to gain benefits (including BH terminals to remove our name from the terminal)
  

Dirty Fighting:

Give smugglers a range of moves that makes their fighting style unique and when necessary helps them escape their foes to complete their smuggling mission

• Fix Feign Death so it is good in PVP


• Make it so some skills can be used unarmed or with a pistol e.g.




• low blow is either a kneecapping shot or a kick to the knee


• Dirt kick - blind opponents


• Broken nose - dizzy's opponent
  

Pool of Wishlist Items:

This whole post is my wishlist, but my biggest wishs are:

• Don't make the rest of the player base hate us by making items considered commonplace suddenly very illegal


• Don't make slices and spices highly illegal as it removes our market, who will buy stuff that will be conviscated as soon as they travel?


• Make it possible to make spices and slice without getting on the BH terminals if they are careful.

Notes:

Try to keep in mind how things work in the SWG environment. The farther away we get from what is existing, the more raw code there is. The more we use what is existing in new exciting ways, the more we can get into the revamp. - Done This
Be forewarned, we need to minimize new art assets so what we do ask for should be vital. - None Needed
Please, no UI requests. That team is pretty much booked through space. Thunderheart is looking into any possibility of the ID window being re-used to some extent, but my guess is that slim left town. - Use only existing interfaces

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Smuggler_Caylin wrote:
I pointed it out first, now BACK OFF!

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JTGAlpha wrote:

By the way I wanna give AudioOrgana and LeBob a quick shout out and thank you for coming down here and voicing your support. I may not always agree with either of you (in fact I'm fairly sure AudioOrgana and I got into it on more than one occasion LOOOOOONG ago), but I respect your commitment to the game and your efforts to help shape it.

Thanks for voicing your support guys!

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smugglers can be pirates thiefs spys entrpenures, they can be "good" or "bad" depending on their morals and code.

the bigest thing about smugglers is the smuggling (the aquiring and moving of items unavailable to the general public)

slicing is also a perview of smugglers but this should be expanded to better hacking or "rigging" of terminals this can be a positive hack, like alowing a person to buy a travel ticket when normally not allowed to or getting a ticket cheaper than normal this can also be a negative effect making an enemy terminal inactive or give errors or anomolies like reducing the credit value to their missions

this would also include souping up equipment for improved proformance or reduced cost

dirty fighting should exploit both the unarmed and the pistol subclasses

I would like to see other brawler branches also certify for smuggler like sword and pistol which is clasic pirate

as far as spice thats a tough one at least added doses should delay the barfing while reducing duration and effect

simply put doctor buffs, food buffs, and spice all do the same thing except spice makes you barf, which would you pick

id say you could wipe this branch out and put a new branch in its place if you keep spice you need to make it far more apealing marked buff proformance possibly adding in a side effect percentage (that can be lowered by experamenting) with some side effects that are not moot outside of combat like a poison or wounds or even a partial loss of exp,another side effect is an unexpected onset of barfing, or the effects being an illusion this would mean people would be after "high quality" product and low spices could be perfected lower than high difficulty spices giving them a 1% chance of side effects instead of 12%

Thank you for the comments bagnpo3, I was curious if anyone else thinks this is good, bad, or ugly? Seems really easy to code in, and could add a lot of fun to the profession in my opinion.

Aiden Morgan

Rookie Smuggler

Starsider