Smuggler Archive

At glance.

The Faction loss issue : will Rebels lose Rebel faction if they are found having contraband/etc when they are scanned by Stormtroopers? Or Planetary Police [CorSec?]? Or simply "Rebel Security?".

If you only lose faction when scanned by your faction [or even just your faction + planetary security], it reads alot like an excessive amount of penalty for being Imperial. Not necessarily a bad thing to discourage Imps from doing illegal things, but then they would some other appropiate mechanical benefit to compensate [balance ya know].

What 'sort of things' would be included in quasi-legal?

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GreenMarine wrote:

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Dusk wrote:
GreenMarine: It's not mentioned in this post (that I saw ... I was exciting while reading, so forgive me if I missed it), but will the visibility that is accumulated result in the person being on the BH terminals when the visibility reaches a certain point?

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Yes, that's the implication. The tough part will be balancing it so that every player who wants to use a spice isn't always at risk. High end spices will be more illegal than lower end ones. High end sliced items will be more illegal than lower end ones (we'll talk about slicing in detail later).

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Message Edited by Morwen on 06-16-2004 07:11 PM

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Smuggler_Caylin wrote:

Ternque,

You know I want hard law as much as the next smuggler, but the REST of the player base may not be as willing.

What we have is a retroactive change that alters all contraband and how it acts in the world. That is great.

This is so much of a fundamental change though that it essentially creates a whole new feel to the game where criminal activities and illegal items are not permitted.

The playerbaseMUSTknow without a doubt that carrying illegal items results in a PvP consequence. If that is not accomplished, I will continue to consider it PvP without consent.

Don't worry here. I think you are overreacting. Did you even see the messages they sent on the loading screens for the Crackdown? It was strongly advertised that spices/slices were highly illegal. I can see them making a new loading screen with a bounty hunter on it with his gun leveled at you. They will take care of this.

This also applies to how we progress up the smuggler skill tree. I'm not against hard law, I'm pointing out potential problems with things as they currently are, in order to implement it.

I will never wholly agree with a GCW factionreceiving our class defining skill as a faction perk to a larger degree than even a novice smuggler. You are colonels at best right now, and the MP example fits the empire like a glove. You are not Vader or a Grand Moff.

Caylin, it makes little sense to keep a high ranking military officer under tight grips. Even in our real life high ranking military officials are prestiged. Generals, etc are given their own quarters and space even in combat situations. These are not searched, and it would be all to easy for an officer to "hide" a few illegal treats there. Not giving them a wave-off for low-level illegal goods doesn't make any sense Caylin. In war time, how much weed was allowed to be smoked in Vietnam? Marijuanna is a low-level substance. It was used by the US's military. I'm not exactly how sure using alcohol on the field is, but i'm damned sure that no one gives a flip if a general takes a sip or two.

Besides, the quasi-illegal goods are clearly low level spices man.. you know this. It's just throwing the Imperials a little bone that really doesn't do anything but make them feel better, and that's how it should be.

NO ONE should be immune at any point. There should always be a risk involved. You can't say you want hard law on one side of an issue, then give away the ability to avoid those scans in a couple breaths.

Relax. What GreenMarine has done is introduce and awesome system with many "levels" to it I am absolutely free to say that NO ONE should be above the law for banned or highly-illegal goods. For low level illegal goods Caylin, not giving the people who are supposed to be in power some free play is rediculous.

I will also call attention to his remark that all 'old' contraband weapons will be put at a certain level of consequence. This immediatly implies that other, more recently sliced weapons, will NOT be at that level.

Don't worry. I read that as all sliced weaponry will be made banned, and to further make the system whole even the old ones take this status. I don't know exactly how you read it in that particular way. Relllaaaxxx

So how far areyou willingto let the imperial faction take away thatprofession defining ability?

I don't get paid to smuggle low level illegal goods. Just think of this as ideas that make sense. It makes sense that alot of people carry around low-level illegal items (marijuana, cable-TV-hacking-boxes, radar detectors, etc). I would only consider it taking my profession's skills if they got off scott free with a cargo of the stuff. For the most part quasi-illegal objects are moved by the general public. If the only people in the game who get a break on this, it should be the people in power.

I will continue to argue the point about moral smugglers in a role playing game. With the addition of a third faction, that is criminally oriented, it appears that if I want to take advantage of that I will most likely have to surrender my current faction affiliation.

You are worrying. This is where the idea that expecting the worst in every situation will get you into trouble. I read nowhere that this would negatively affect any factional affiliation. It was thematic that both the Empire (Black Sun) and Rebellion (Han Solo and others) used smugglers to accomplish their goals. Saying that they will destroy factional usefulness for smugglers is downright needless worry.

That, in a word, sucks.

I don't see anything here that would allay that fear at this time.

Do I want to see smugglers help jedi? of course! Look at my post history, but I must admit I am concerned that we interact with a bounty hunter terminal to do this. It just doesn't... for the lack of a better word... jive with me.

Well it makes sense to me. Bounty hunters get their job information from their computer terminals. We smugglers have the ability to hack computers. The next logical thought would be that we hack their computer terminals to make a profit off it somehow.

It appears we will have a dozen ways to get ourselves on the terminals, but I have yet to see mention of an ability to get us the hell off them.

Good point in that it appears that way. I suggest a slow decay in a players visibiliy. If a smuggler get to close to the danger zone, they should do what makes sense and lay low until the whole event passes. It is a natural and sensible idea. Part of slowly building up visibily naturally implies a simple mechanice to dissapate it. Relax.

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Smuggler_Caylin wrote:

Ternque,

You know I want hard law as much as the next smuggler, but the REST of the player base may not be as willing.

What we have is a retroactive change that alters all contraband and how it acts in the world. That is great.

This is so much of a fundamental change though that it essentially creates a whole new feel to the game where criminal activities and illegal items are not permitted.

The playerbaseMUSTknow without a doubt that carrying illegal items results in a PvP consequence. If that is not accomplished, I will continue to consider it PvP without consent.

This also applies to how we progress up the smuggler skill tree. I'm not against hard law, I'm pointing out potential problems with things as they currently are, in order to implement it.

I will never wholly agree with a GCW factionreceiving our class defining skill as a faction perk to a larger degree than even a novice smuggler. You are colonels at best right now, and the MP example fits the empire like a glove. You are not Vader or a Grand Moff.

NO ONE should be immune at any point. There should always be a risk involved. You can't say you want hard law on one side of an issue, then give away the ability to avoid those scans in a couple breaths.

I will also call attention to his remark that all 'old' contraband weapons will be put at a certain level of consequence. This immediatly implies that other, more recently sliced weapons, will NOT be at that level.

So how far areyou willingto let the imperial faction take away thatprofession defining ability?

I will continue to argue the point about moral smugglers in a role playing game. With the addition of a third faction, that is criminally oriented, it appears that if I want to take advantage of that I will most likely have to surrender my current faction affiliation.

That, in a word, sucks.

I don't see anything here that would allay that fear at this time.

Do I want to see smugglers help jedi? of course! Look at my post history, but I must admit I am concerned that we interact with a bounty hunter terminal to do this. It just doesn't... for the lack of a better word... jive with me.

It appears we will have a dozen ways to get ourselves on the terminals, but I have yet to see mention of an ability to get us the hell off them.

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HalasterTheBlack wrote:

Is nobody here concerned that we're talking about severely hindering most players' ability to travel in order to give ourselves a raison d'etre?

What are folks going to do when they can't go to a different planet with a sliced weapon or sliced armor? How many advendurers do you know that do NOT have sliced weapons and armor?

I'm all for giving us Smugglers something far more interesting to do, but not at the expense of everyone else in the game...

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ruehs wrote:

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HalasterTheBlack wrote:

Is nobody here concerned that we're talking about severely hindering most players' ability to travel in order to give ourselves a raison d'etre?

What are folks going to do when they can't go to a different planet with a sliced weapon or sliced armor? How many advendurers do you know that do NOT have sliced weapons and armor?

I'm all for giving us Smugglers something far more interesting to do, but not at the expense of everyone else in the game...

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If it wasn't for smugglers they wouldn't have sliced weapons and sliced armor. They will know understand that slicing is against the law. The rest of the players are too comfortable with their sliced weapons and armor, they should not. Players will find a way around not traveling through the main starports to get to the planets they want to get to. If they want their sliced weapons and armor they will have to.

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Um... tell me, how do I get from Theed to Coronet if not through the starports?

Message Edited by WesBelden on 06-16-2004 04:55 PM

Must say I love this idea. The idea with smuggler spices being craftable is still a good idea. Maybe the highly illegal components can be used as an "optional component" simular to chefs requireing BE enhanced components. This could give an enhancement to the spice that normal spices do not have.