Smuggler Archive
Thread: Smuggler Revamp Community Vision Doc
The troopers need to have more HAM and be harder to defeat.
They need to be more successful in their scans with harsher penalties (like they fine you for slapping them)
They need to scan those talking about slicing/spices in the spacial-
They need to be in place at major Starports like Coronet and Theed.
Here, we are changing very little with the way scans are done now just INCREASING it.
The player base WILL feel it but it won't be so bad that it prevents game play-
If we had the confiscation system in (even a brief one) with this idea, then I could see where someone might hire you to smuggle their cherished weapon into the starport area and out to their destination spot.
HOTDOG wrote:
We should focus on the crackdown troops OUTSIDE of the starport. There should be Squads walking all around the starport area making the same scan checks that they do now BUT:
I personally want troopers pulled out to an extent, and have the local law enforcement step up to handle all the contraband issues. Getting rid of that pesky imperial immunity or even grounds for it to exist.
The troopers need to have more HAM and be harder to defeat.
Agreed, they shouldn't be push overs.
They need to be more successful in their scans with harsher penalties (like they fine you for slapping them)
Didn't they do something like this recently? Where using emotes on them gave you a penalty? What do you mean by successful though?
If you mean they should be more often, we run into server limitations.
I wont argue about harsher penalties.
They need to scan those talking about slicing/spices in the spacial-
I feel this is probably way too much to ask for, as neat as it is. The system would have to monitor your conversations for those words and make NPC's react to it. It's a bit more complicated than a language filter I think.
They need to be in place at major Starports like Coronet and Theed.
Agreed.
Here, we are changing very little with the way scans are done now just INCREASING it.
The player base WILL feel it but it won't be so bad that it prevents game play-
Again we start working with server constraints when increasing scans. Have to be careful there, even additional troops have server resources allocated to them.
If we had the confiscation system in (even a brief one) with this idea, then I could see where someone might hire you to smuggle their cherished weapon into the starport area and out to their destination spot.
I fear it would still be too infrequent stillto be terribly effective, it would require a great deal of server resources apparently to increase the rates of scans in any way. According to a developer I was talking to, and was one of the main reasons why they haven't increased scan rates as much as we would have liked.
One of the Four Horsemen of the Smuggler Apocalypse! 
Smuggler_Caylin wrote:
Again, every time any item was used, it would have to check whether or not the item was illegal...any item...on any person...anywhere.
Not necessarily. I think the way it works is the object is coded to cause a TEF when activated, rather than the whole system waiting for a trigger and always keeping an eye out for the use of illegal items. Kind of like when you shoot a GCW enemy or heal an Overt it causes a TEF, but it isn't checking every shot or heal to see if it was applied to the proper target.
Smuggler_Caylin wrote:
HOTDOG wrote:
We should focus on the crackdown troops OUTSIDE of the starport. There should be Squads walking all around the starport area making the same scan checks that they do now BUT:
I personally want troopers pulled out to an extent, and have the local law enforcement step up to handle all the contraband issues. Getting rid of that pesky imperial immunity or even grounds for it to exist.
The troopers need to have more HAM and be harder to defeat.
Agreed, they shouldn't be push overs.
They need to be more successful in their scans with harsher penalties (like they fine you for slapping them)
Didn't they do something like this recently? Where using emotes on them gave you a penalty? What do you mean by successful though?
If you mean they should be more often, we run into server limitations.
I wont argue about harsher penalties.
They need to scan those talking about slicing/spices in the spacial-
I feel this is probably way too much to ask for, as neat as it is. The system would have to monitor your conversations for those words and make NPC's react to it. It's a bit more complicated than a language filter I think.
Ah, but Caylin, the devs already put this system into place. Have you tried shouting, "long live the rebellion" or things like that around imperial npc's? You get the same effect as if you use an emote such as /slap or /spit on them. If they can codespatial scans for that then why can't they scan for slice/spice related spacials?
They need to be in place at major Starports like Coronet and Theed.
Agreed.
Here, we are changing very little with the way scans are done now just INCREASING it.
The player base WILL feel it but it won't be so bad that it prevents game play-
Again we start working with server constraints when increasing scans. Have to be careful there, even additional troops have server resources allocated to them.
I think what he meant here is with our current plan little is changed with how scans are done it just increases the amount. Then again, there's the idea for instanced scan zones. Hmm... maybe I'm misunderstanding... o.0 ???
If we had the confiscation system in (even a brief one) with this idea, then I could see where someone might hire you to smuggle their cherished weapon into the starport area and out to their destination spot.
I fear it would still be too infrequent stillto be terribly effective, it would require a great deal of server resources apparently to increase the rates of scans in any way. According to a developer I was talking to, and was one of the main reasons why they haven't increased scan rates as much as we would have liked.
It's reasons like this which make me very quizzical as to how the server architecture is set up. Why the blazes do they have so many problems with players seperated between, what is it now? 15 servers? I just can't help thinking they have things set up like half life servers on steam where each galaxy is it's own seperate setup with some communication with the general servers. My god... if that were the case... I'ld have to **edit** slap some people. While I'm on server architecture, I've never understood why they've made most everything client side. Sure, I know the stated reason is to prevent hacking but if you have the login server require the client to be the client build specified while disallowing connection for those with altered files, you accomplish the same thing and lessen load on the game servers. Then again... I know the stories from launch with people unable to log in. God, their server architecture intrigues me! Why the bloody hell can't the servers handle things that are so bloody simple? I want to KKNNNNOOOOOWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!
Geevo wrote:
Contraband:
- Harsher penalties are needed when contraband is discovered on a player; death is not much of a penalty.
- Impound lot – Where items can be taken to, stored and returned if the player makes the trip and pays the cost. A limited form of confiscation.
- A suitable large time-sink when caught, for what are a few hundred credits and a bit of faction loss compared to an hour of the players time.
Good work on the document, there is just a couple of things in it that I'd like to comment upon.
One: I am still vehmently opposed to the idea of sliced items / spices being so drastically illegal that players can't go from world to world without the risk of getting caught on a regular basis. It would destroy our market for these products if they became more hassle than the benefit they gave.
We need something new and very desirable as contraband, but which once smuggled is crafted into an item that is not illegal, but is much better than its counterpart using legal components / resources
Two: Dirty Fighting rather than adding in moves specific to unarmed make all the skills in the tree work for both unarmed and pistols, that way you get to use all your skills no matter which route you choose to take as your fighting style.
Other than those points Great Job and a good vision
Back in the day- as I was slapping creatures around to get UA 4 so's I could become the smuggler I am today- I went through Kor Vella and got stopped. Now, I had a nicely sliced set of Vibro Knuckles IN MY HAND and the trooper found nothing.
This happened to me at the Imp Outpost TWICE afterwards and I wasn't even a smuggler then (although I must admit that I got scanned and fined 3 days ago- musta been all those molecular clamps).
Anyway-
I agree that it would be nice to have some Fed Dub/Cor Sec- etc. types scanning also.
AND gaining a temporary tef for using a precision knife is awesome too. Maybe for 10 seconds- and stackable- so if you slice up someone's comp you would have a Tef for 90 seconds. That wouldn't be too bad.
lisasdarren wrote:
I am still vehmently opposed to the idea of sliced items / spices being so drastically illegal that players can't go from world to world without the risk of getting caught on a regular basis. It would destroy our market for these products if they became more hassle than the benefit they gave.We need something new and very desirable as contraband, but which once smuggled is crafted into an item that is not illegal, but is much better than its counterpart using legal components / resources
Lisa, you might not know it but you are talking about my idea for PERSONALIZATION DISKS-
A DE crafts them-
A customer buys them but must have them activated (sliced) to use them.
Once a smuggler activates (slices) them they become untradeable until they are decoded-
The codes are on different planets (as revealed by the slice) so the smuggler must go to each one to "crack" the disk.
Starport Scans are extremely harsh for those holding an activated disk (we can be as rough as we like with this because it only effects smugglers as they are the only ones who can activate a disk)
Once the disk is decoded it can then be sliced into Armor/ Weapons/ Droids- etc. to create a PERSONAL item that cannot be traded.
With this slice you can change damage type (except sabres of course), speed, effectiveness, encumberance, Damage- much like the "experiment slice" mentioned in the document.
The average player can only have 1 personal item in their inventory. A smuggler may have 2. A Master Smuggler may have 3.
THIS way you can have SMUGGLING- PICK A SLICE- HEAVIER SCANS- and still only affect the player base a very little.
I just had to repeat this here for those who didn't know
Instead of trying to look at the same idea in two places, I have an idea on the TEF issue for using illegal goods, check this link (into Caylin's Doc)
This is the greatest and best idea, and way to deal with a smuggler revamp EVER.
/clap
That's true. If it were an effect of using the item itself, it would work better. I was thinking in a different way altogether.
Yet then we turn into the timed TEF thing where I have to sit outside town and wait for it to wear off before walking in. That's pretty tedious and one of the things I really hate about the Jedi TEF systemas well.
How the hell does someone know you are using spice/slicing or have a lightsabre... if you have never done that in public or near any prying eyes... yet walk into the city and every law enforcement guy knows what you have been up to... I'd hate to see our smuggling descend into that personally.
You should be facing consequences at the moment of the indiscretion, not 5 minutes after it happened... when you were in a sealed room... with no one near you...
'Woops, can't go into town, I have my Criminal TEF up...' - Pfffff to that. I've had enough of that with Jedi.
So with that in mind, we could have a trigger after a slice is completed and a spice is used. Those are active triggers that we can make use of. However I can't find a way to get it to work for weapons and armor at this time without having it check the server every time you equip the fricking stuff.