Smuggler Archive
Thread: Revamp Discussion: Contraband & Smuggling Missions
DigiDante wrote:
Why is this post still being bumped?
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=98219
The thread has moved to that post.
GreenMarine wrote:
Imperial aligned players will now only be immune to scans regarding quasi-legal goods if they have the rank of corporal or better.
Old sliced weapons and armor will be converted to have the legality level of “banned.”
Okay, I have read the new smuggler thoughts/concepts and for one am quite excited to see some of the options that could come to fruition for we smugglers. Now everyone is gripping and b***hing about how this is going to affect them and their sliced equipment and I can see their point (especially the encumbrance issue with armour), but if its that much of an issue to you as a player, get your stats adjusted so you can wear it (logical – yes??). I’m not here to debate that issue (as so many of you have and with merit), merely make a “suggestion”/”wish” of how Slicing could be changed/re-vamped.
This is merely my thoughts, nothing more. Many of you will happily pick holes in it; do so to your hearts content. If the Dev’s think it’s an idea they can integrate – fantastic, if not – ah well, maybe next time ;-)
Slicing
The basic premise is set it up slicing in the same context as crafting experimentation.
Heres my breakdown/insanity/cunning idea
Security – stage one of the process. The success here determines the max number of points that can be allocated to the final slicing. Thoughts on this one is that the slicer is given a number of choices based on their current slicing level
Novice smuggler 2
Slicing 1 2
Slicing 2 3
Slicing 3 4
Slicing 4 5
Master Smuggler 6
So if a Master was able to successfully slice every option they would end up with +120, equating to 12 points to invest in the result.
Such choices as – cut wire X, jumper terminal Y, short circuit Z, whatever, each success adds +20 to the total slicing points. Random chance each time, but using a molecular clamp tells you which one cut next.
(NB at master level, create a doodad that shows the order for the entire slice – an “uber-molecular clamp”)
Now the biggest thing kind of sucked at the very beginning of SWG for smugglers and still holds true today, is the requirement of a drop to progress to out first level – the infamous LOCKED CONTAINERS. This is the ONLY profession that requires this (so far) and it is rather annoying (IMHO) but this format would allow even the lowliest novice to slice a weapon – just not very well
Once you crack the security, on to the important stuff
Weapon:
Damage – additional damage based success
Speed – reduction in speed to a minimum of 1 based on success
Efficiency – reduction of HAM costs
Range – increase in ability to hit at the various range bands
Armour:
Effectiveness – obvious, increase the armours ability to resist damage
Encumbrance – able to affect individual Health, Action, or Mind penalties
Containers
Hmmm no thoughts here
Terminals
Payout – each success gives a % increase on the final payout of the job
Difficulty - each success gives a % increase of the difficulty allowing for tougher opponents
Distance – reduction in distance to the minimum allowed
Visibility – each terminal slice increases the visibility of the subject, this slice reduces the users visibility. Effective on either the current slice or a BH terminal slice to reduce the subject’s visibility
Well after all this positive stuff, how about the negative. Here’s my twist on it, weapons and armour are nice and easy, each slice, no matter who does it, the slice reduces the condition of the item.
Thought of this as a sliding scale penalty based on the level of the slicer, but even with my basic knowledge in coding stuff this would be nightmare-ish
Now I had thoughts on what to do here in regard to penalties, and wavered between the ridiculous and the sublime. So my final thought was a slice by a master (+120) would reduce the condition of the item by 40%, basically an increase in ability at the cost of its operational life span.
Now with items required for slicing, it would be my recommendation to allow molecular clamps to be available at level 2 rather than level 4, and create the uber-molecular clamp for Master. At this moment there is no slicing bonus for Masters so this would give someone a definite bonus and incentive to reach it.
Well there you have it, my humble opinion on what slicing could become, it’s merely my thoughts on what could be….. enjoy, ridicule, revamp to your hearts content
Hasco Rygar
Two pieces of input:
1) I'm very fond of the fine/fasttalk/fight options for run-ins with authorities while you're toting contraband. Of course some contraband/mission objectives may be *so* illegal, that it reduces or removes entirely the possibility of fasttalking or bribing your way out, but I'd like to see your chances of doing this based on skill level. A real smooth-talker might be able to bribe his way out of stormtrooper harassment easier than a rookie smuggler for the same level of infraction, or some such.
2) I'd like to see smuggler combat revamped enough so that a smuggler doesn't have to also be a pistoleer to be effective against the kinds of authorities he may be running into. Maybe make pistoleer and smuggler pistol slightly redundant, instead of stacking skills and abilites. Then let the smuggler make up for the difference a bit with melee. However, we don't wish to downplay the pure combat effectiveness of an elite combat profession. So in the end, a master pistoleer should still be superior to a master smuggler, at least in some moderate amount, in combat effectiveness.
Posit: I think it is agreed that we would like smugglers to have at least a fighting chance against the bounty hunters that would come after them.
Posit: We would like bounty hunters to have a fighting chance against Jedi
Posit: Jedi should be far more powerful in combat than smugglers
Given the positions above, I would recommend that:
1) Bounty pay on smugglers be far less than that on Jedi
2) Determine a rough "balance point" between smuggler combat effectiveness and the level at which a bounty hunter can persue him. (Master BH's coming after novice smugglers isn't PvP, it's griefing. ;-) ) We should do this a) without making smugglers overly combat effective (i.e. jedis), and b) without making bounty hunters less effective. Instead, we should strive for a way for lower tier bounty hunters to go after smugglers. They can graduate to hunting jedi when they hit master.