Smuggler Archive
Thread: A Rogue's Reflection (Smuggler Ideas)
Page 1 of 2
1FORCE1
Thu Dec 23, 2004 12:35 pm
#2
Well I apologize in advance for the long post and yet another smuggler re-vamp wish list. However, I have been away from SWG for almost a year. In that time nothing has changed for smuggler. Despite the fact that we have been promised several times absolutely nothing has ever been changed or fixed. So since there is nothing new with smuggler I thought I would take a little time to outline my views of smuggler. This is basically a first and rough draft in which I am just throwing ideas together. Since nothing I have in here would ever actually hit the servers, it is more of just an exercise for fun and a good discussion with my fellow smugglers. Anyhow, I do not mind constructive criticism so lay it on me, but no flames please.
Novice Smuggler: Descriptions of the novice skills are explained in detail below.
Persuasion +5
Connections +10
Slicing Containers
Concealment +10
Transport +10
Elicit Goods Lvl 1
Master Smuggler: Descriptions of the master skills are explained in detail below.
Persuasion +10
Connections +10
Concealment +10
Transport +10
Elicit Goods lvl 9 & 10
Slicing: Armor Advanced
Slicing: Ship Components Advanced
Underworld Branch:
Level 1: Persuasion +10 / Connections +10 / Language Comprehension +100
Level 2: Persuasion +10 / Connections +10 / Loss of faction points in PvP ½
Level 3: Persuasion +10 / Connections +10 / Sell Out
Level 4: Persuasion +10 / Connections +10 / Buy Faction Points
Persuasion: With each tier of Underworld acquired, a smuggler gets better at communicating with the unsavory folks of the galaxy. As they increase in this skill the smuggler becomes better at negotiating their reward for a mission, and better at convincing a contact to use you as his smuggler. The smuggler will have the ability to try and persuade any NPC they talk to, except for pre-scripted quest npcs.
Each point of persuasion equates to a percentage point so if you have novice smuggler you get a 5% chance of persuading your contact, and at master you have a 65% chance. The persuasion of a contact can only be tried once per mission (or once every 5 minutes). So if you fail the persuasion check, you will not be able to try it again until you run his mission or wait 5 minutes. This is similar to the concept of slicing terminals for added payouts, but would also have additional uses. One additional use would be if you fail a mission, you will need to return to your contact and try to convince him that it was not your fault. More on Persuasion to be mention below as it relates to other smuggler skills.
Connections: With each tier of connections you can talk to and take missions from higher level criminals. In essence as you get better known in the underworld more people want you to work for them. You figure Jabba would not talk to some novice smuggler if he had a critical mission. He is going to call on someone with a good reputation, which has been around for a while.
(Contacts) As a smuggler you first need to build a name and gather contacts. These contacts are going to be your life blood, in other words you can’t smuggle goods if you don’t know where or how to get them. So first and foremost you have to make some contacts. You would need to travel to an NPC city and start asking around. Check the back alleys, back rooms, etc until you find a smuggler contact. Contacts will be of the following levels and are a direct reflection of your underworld level from novice to master smuggler. Hoodlum (Novice), Brigand (UW1), Marauder (UW2), Outlaw (UW3), Racketeer (UW4), and Crime Lord (MS). The titles need work but are good enough for the example. A master can take missions from any level contact but a novice would only be able to take missions from the hoodlums.
There are also two different types of contacts. There are clients and there are suppliers. The clients have missions for you and in essence are there to help you find various suppliers. The client will generally give you a mission to go get x units of elicit item y from a certain supplier.
Now once you locate a supplier you will also have to do a set of missions for him before he will accept you as one of his smugglers. In essence there would be 20-30 suppliers scattered on the various planets and even a couple at some of the space stations. Each supplier carries a different set of elicit goods. Some of the higher level suppliers would be located in more dangerous locations. As you unlock additional suppliers by doing their set of quests, you will have access to additional goods. Suppliers would be much more difficult to identify because they would look like any other NPC and have no title over their heads. Thus the only real way to find a supplier is to do several client missions. Finally several clients will have the same supplier so not every client mission is going to lead you to a new supplier.
Faction mods: I am not going to comment on any changes for the currently available faction mods because I do not use them and thus I will leave that up to those that use them all the time. o in theory part of the fun is doing the missions, and part of it is unlocking new suppliers. Then when it’s all said and done, instead of crafting spices etc, you would purchase them from a supplier.
Smuggling Branch (formerly spice branch):
Level 1: Concealment +10 / Transport +10 / Elicit Goods Lvl 3 & 2
Level 2: Concealment +10 / Transport +10 / Elicit Goods Lvl 5 & 4
Level 3: Concealment +10 / Transport +10 / Elicit Goods Lvl 7 & 6
Level 4: Concealment +10 / Transport +10 / Elicit Goods Lvl 8
Transport: A smuggler will be allowed to purchase x number of elicit goods from a contact within a 5 minute time span As your skill increases in transport, a smuggler has the ability to purchase more elicit goods within a set time frame. The way it would work is a multi step process and is explained below.
Elicit Goods: these goods would have levels very much like ship components have levels. The higher the level the better the goods tend to be. Higher level goods are also more difficult to conceal and require higher level contacts to locate.
(Spices) As most smugglers I feel that spices should be smuggled rather than crafted, thus it would be put on the elicit goods list. Now there are two directions that spices could go. First option would be that they could be used by chefs as an add-on item in their creations to make more powerful foods. Obviously any food crafted with spices would still be ill-legal. The second option is that they work as stand alone buff items (as they are now) however, they would be revamped to be more useful. There would also need to be a few more spices added to provide a bit of a variety.
(Slicing Tools) The majority of these goods would actually be used to enhance slicing. One tool would be used if you wanted to do a power slice on a weapon, the next would be used to increase speed, another which aids in slices for accuracy, etc. Each tool would have a single use much like clamps and wuks. There would also be a full set of tools that allow you to pick the stats to slice for armor as well. Finally a set of tools that can be used to slice crafted and looted ship components but not RE ones. It is also important to note that these tools do not replace the need for existing tools. They would just be a way for use to choose the slice.
(Hidden Compartments) In addition there would be a new ship component only available to smugglers. The new component would be hidden compartments. The higher the level of the compartment the greater the mass, capacity, and perhaps some rare compartments could provide concealment bonuses when you’re in a ship equipped with that compartment.
Concealment: As your skill grows in concealment it increases your ability to avoid detection. All elicit goods would have a level of detection, this detection level would increase by the more of that type of good you are carrying. So let’s say you are transporting spices, the particular spice you are carrying gives off an odor that may be detected by sensors, or simply by a ST that is within close proximity, if you are carrying 10 units of this spice, the odor is much more pungent than 1 unit, making it easier to detect. Thus in turn the higher you’re level of concealment the more you can carry without getting caught.
Relationship between concealment and persuasion:
Now if you fail the concealment check, you still have a chance to get out of trouble by using your persuasion skill. A dialog would open between you and the ST, at which point you could select an option to persuade. Depending on if you get a successful roll and your level of Persuasion, will determine your punishment. A flat out failure will result in loss of the goods, and either a large fine or a TEF. If you barely persuade, perhaps they only take the goods but give no fine. If you succeed to persuade then perhaps you pay a small bribe and carry on.
Slicing:
Slicing 1 Terminals
Slicing 2 Weapons Basic
Slicing 3 Armor Basic
Slicing 4 Weapons Advanced / Ship Components Basic
Terminals: The current terminals will still be the same but there would be an addition of some other terminals that would enhance this experience and make it so more advanced smugglers still find a reason to stop and slice a terminal.
(Slot Machines, Roulette Tables) Smugglers would be able to go to the hotels and slice the gaming machines for a slightly increased payout. However when playing a sliced machine you could get attacked by the hotel security if they discover what you did.
(Bazaar Terminals) The only fair option here would be that you can slice the access fee for sales but could not slice purchase prices. This would prove to be a minor addition considering that the sale fees are only 100-200 credits. But for sake of discussion let’s say a successful slice reduces the fee by 50%
(Travel Terminals) Same as bazaar ticket prices are already pretty low but just to add more variety lets say you could slice 25% off a ticket price.
Weapons: Slicing weapons would work just as it does now, however with the addition of the elicit goods; you would now have tools to choose the stat you want to slice. You would also have addition options rather than just damage and speed. You may also be able to slice accuracy, armor piercing, or energy type
Armor: My thought with armor was for it to mirror the progression that weapons take. So at level three you would get the basic ability to slice armor, and at master you would get the added percentages to your slices. In addition there would be elicit goods that would help with armor slices, to choose encumbrance, resistances, etc.
Ship Components: At level 4 slicing you would have the basic ability to slice ship components. A smuggler can slice Crafted and Looted components but not RE components. To slice ship components to their highest level you would need to be a Master Smuggler. Once again there would be elicit goods that would let you slice for specific results.
Dirty Fighting:
I realize that dirty fighting needs work and unarmed skills added but I do not do any unarmed so once again I’ll leave the ideas for dirty fighting to the rest of you.
Misc. Concepts and Ideas:
Factions: I feel several new factions should be added as well, a few obvious choices could be Jabba, Nym, Black Sun, and/or Valerian. This would give Smugglers and Bounty Hunters options that are much more fitting to the concept of these professions. The game already lets you accrue faction points for them so it would not be difficult to implement additional factions. Take the template for faction rewards from Imp and Reb and modify them a bit to fit with the concepts of the various factions.
Smuggling in Space: Well this is when it was all supposed to come together, well that’s we were told atleast. However, so far there is no feel of smuggling in space. Sure the first couple of Smuggler Alliance missions are fun but after a few missions you realize that they are all the same and that once again you are not smuggling. I think the first problem is that there needs to be more integration between land and space. So here are a few of my random thoughts.
We need to be able to actually dock to stations, and enter them. Space stations do not need to be huge, just big enough to add a real space feel. Give some of them a small cantina, and perhaps a med center. It would provide additional locations for smugglers to find contacts and pickup missions. They proved that this is possible in theory by the corvette mission.
Blockades: There needs to be more of a presence near the planetary space stations. I am talking about blockades, imperial inspections, an occasional star destroyer that patrols somewhere other than deep space. There need to be more large capital ships in space. When you fly through a blockade your ship is hailed and asked to be stopped for inspection. You have two choices, stop and be inspected or run. If you try to run all the ships in the blockade will agro on you and you will need to either try to escape or take them on, but anything short of an army. Now depending on your level of concealment and the quality of your hidden compartments, and if the elicit goods are stored in that compartment will determine if the inspection detects any elicit goods. If you are caught then we go back to the concealment/persuasion example from above.
Novice Smuggler: Descriptions of the novice skills are explained in detail below.
Persuasion +5
Connections +10
Slicing Containers
Concealment +10
Transport +10
Elicit Goods Lvl 1
Master Smuggler: Descriptions of the master skills are explained in detail below.
Persuasion +10
Connections +10
Concealment +10
Transport +10
Elicit Goods lvl 9 & 10
Slicing: Armor Advanced
Slicing: Ship Components Advanced
Underworld Branch:
Level 1: Persuasion +10 / Connections +10 / Language Comprehension +100
Level 2: Persuasion +10 / Connections +10 / Loss of faction points in PvP ½
Level 3: Persuasion +10 / Connections +10 / Sell Out
Level 4: Persuasion +10 / Connections +10 / Buy Faction Points
Persuasion: With each tier of Underworld acquired, a smuggler gets better at communicating with the unsavory folks of the galaxy. As they increase in this skill the smuggler becomes better at negotiating their reward for a mission, and better at convincing a contact to use you as his smuggler. The smuggler will have the ability to try and persuade any NPC they talk to, except for pre-scripted quest npcs.
Each point of persuasion equates to a percentage point so if you have novice smuggler you get a 5% chance of persuading your contact, and at master you have a 65% chance. The persuasion of a contact can only be tried once per mission (or once every 5 minutes). So if you fail the persuasion check, you will not be able to try it again until you run his mission or wait 5 minutes. This is similar to the concept of slicing terminals for added payouts, but would also have additional uses. One additional use would be if you fail a mission, you will need to return to your contact and try to convince him that it was not your fault. More on Persuasion to be mention below as it relates to other smuggler skills.
Connections: With each tier of connections you can talk to and take missions from higher level criminals. In essence as you get better known in the underworld more people want you to work for them. You figure Jabba would not talk to some novice smuggler if he had a critical mission. He is going to call on someone with a good reputation, which has been around for a while.
(Contacts) As a smuggler you first need to build a name and gather contacts. These contacts are going to be your life blood, in other words you can’t smuggle goods if you don’t know where or how to get them. So first and foremost you have to make some contacts. You would need to travel to an NPC city and start asking around. Check the back alleys, back rooms, etc until you find a smuggler contact. Contacts will be of the following levels and are a direct reflection of your underworld level from novice to master smuggler. Hoodlum (Novice), Brigand (UW1), Marauder (UW2), Outlaw (UW3), Racketeer (UW4), and Crime Lord (MS). The titles need work but are good enough for the example. A master can take missions from any level contact but a novice would only be able to take missions from the hoodlums.
There are also two different types of contacts. There are clients and there are suppliers. The clients have missions for you and in essence are there to help you find various suppliers. The client will generally give you a mission to go get x units of elicit item y from a certain supplier.
Now once you locate a supplier you will also have to do a set of missions for him before he will accept you as one of his smugglers. In essence there would be 20-30 suppliers scattered on the various planets and even a couple at some of the space stations. Each supplier carries a different set of elicit goods. Some of the higher level suppliers would be located in more dangerous locations. As you unlock additional suppliers by doing their set of quests, you will have access to additional goods. Suppliers would be much more difficult to identify because they would look like any other NPC and have no title over their heads. Thus the only real way to find a supplier is to do several client missions. Finally several clients will have the same supplier so not every client mission is going to lead you to a new supplier.
Faction mods: I am not going to comment on any changes for the currently available faction mods because I do not use them and thus I will leave that up to those that use them all the time. o in theory part of the fun is doing the missions, and part of it is unlocking new suppliers. Then when it’s all said and done, instead of crafting spices etc, you would purchase them from a supplier.
Smuggling Branch (formerly spice branch):
Level 1: Concealment +10 / Transport +10 / Elicit Goods Lvl 3 & 2
Level 2: Concealment +10 / Transport +10 / Elicit Goods Lvl 5 & 4
Level 3: Concealment +10 / Transport +10 / Elicit Goods Lvl 7 & 6
Level 4: Concealment +10 / Transport +10 / Elicit Goods Lvl 8
Transport: A smuggler will be allowed to purchase x number of elicit goods from a contact within a 5 minute time span As your skill increases in transport, a smuggler has the ability to purchase more elicit goods within a set time frame. The way it would work is a multi step process and is explained below.
Elicit Goods: these goods would have levels very much like ship components have levels. The higher the level the better the goods tend to be. Higher level goods are also more difficult to conceal and require higher level contacts to locate.
(Spices) As most smugglers I feel that spices should be smuggled rather than crafted, thus it would be put on the elicit goods list. Now there are two directions that spices could go. First option would be that they could be used by chefs as an add-on item in their creations to make more powerful foods. Obviously any food crafted with spices would still be ill-legal. The second option is that they work as stand alone buff items (as they are now) however, they would be revamped to be more useful. There would also need to be a few more spices added to provide a bit of a variety.
(Slicing Tools) The majority of these goods would actually be used to enhance slicing. One tool would be used if you wanted to do a power slice on a weapon, the next would be used to increase speed, another which aids in slices for accuracy, etc. Each tool would have a single use much like clamps and wuks. There would also be a full set of tools that allow you to pick the stats to slice for armor as well. Finally a set of tools that can be used to slice crafted and looted ship components but not RE ones. It is also important to note that these tools do not replace the need for existing tools. They would just be a way for use to choose the slice.
(Hidden Compartments) In addition there would be a new ship component only available to smugglers. The new component would be hidden compartments. The higher the level of the compartment the greater the mass, capacity, and perhaps some rare compartments could provide concealment bonuses when you’re in a ship equipped with that compartment.
Concealment: As your skill grows in concealment it increases your ability to avoid detection. All elicit goods would have a level of detection, this detection level would increase by the more of that type of good you are carrying. So let’s say you are transporting spices, the particular spice you are carrying gives off an odor that may be detected by sensors, or simply by a ST that is within close proximity, if you are carrying 10 units of this spice, the odor is much more pungent than 1 unit, making it easier to detect. Thus in turn the higher you’re level of concealment the more you can carry without getting caught.
Relationship between concealment and persuasion:
Now if you fail the concealment check, you still have a chance to get out of trouble by using your persuasion skill. A dialog would open between you and the ST, at which point you could select an option to persuade. Depending on if you get a successful roll and your level of Persuasion, will determine your punishment. A flat out failure will result in loss of the goods, and either a large fine or a TEF. If you barely persuade, perhaps they only take the goods but give no fine. If you succeed to persuade then perhaps you pay a small bribe and carry on.
Slicing:
Slicing 1 Terminals
Slicing 2 Weapons Basic
Slicing 3 Armor Basic
Slicing 4 Weapons Advanced / Ship Components Basic
Terminals: The current terminals will still be the same but there would be an addition of some other terminals that would enhance this experience and make it so more advanced smugglers still find a reason to stop and slice a terminal.
(Slot Machines, Roulette Tables) Smugglers would be able to go to the hotels and slice the gaming machines for a slightly increased payout. However when playing a sliced machine you could get attacked by the hotel security if they discover what you did.
(Bazaar Terminals) The only fair option here would be that you can slice the access fee for sales but could not slice purchase prices. This would prove to be a minor addition considering that the sale fees are only 100-200 credits. But for sake of discussion let’s say a successful slice reduces the fee by 50%
(Travel Terminals) Same as bazaar ticket prices are already pretty low but just to add more variety lets say you could slice 25% off a ticket price.
Weapons: Slicing weapons would work just as it does now, however with the addition of the elicit goods; you would now have tools to choose the stat you want to slice. You would also have addition options rather than just damage and speed. You may also be able to slice accuracy, armor piercing, or energy type
Armor: My thought with armor was for it to mirror the progression that weapons take. So at level three you would get the basic ability to slice armor, and at master you would get the added percentages to your slices. In addition there would be elicit goods that would help with armor slices, to choose encumbrance, resistances, etc.
Ship Components: At level 4 slicing you would have the basic ability to slice ship components. A smuggler can slice Crafted and Looted components but not RE components. To slice ship components to their highest level you would need to be a Master Smuggler. Once again there would be elicit goods that would let you slice for specific results.
Dirty Fighting:
I realize that dirty fighting needs work and unarmed skills added but I do not do any unarmed so once again I’ll leave the ideas for dirty fighting to the rest of you.
Misc. Concepts and Ideas:
Factions: I feel several new factions should be added as well, a few obvious choices could be Jabba, Nym, Black Sun, and/or Valerian. This would give Smugglers and Bounty Hunters options that are much more fitting to the concept of these professions. The game already lets you accrue faction points for them so it would not be difficult to implement additional factions. Take the template for faction rewards from Imp and Reb and modify them a bit to fit with the concepts of the various factions.
Smuggling in Space: Well this is when it was all supposed to come together, well that’s we were told atleast. However, so far there is no feel of smuggling in space. Sure the first couple of Smuggler Alliance missions are fun but after a few missions you realize that they are all the same and that once again you are not smuggling. I think the first problem is that there needs to be more integration between land and space. So here are a few of my random thoughts.
We need to be able to actually dock to stations, and enter them. Space stations do not need to be huge, just big enough to add a real space feel. Give some of them a small cantina, and perhaps a med center. It would provide additional locations for smugglers to find contacts and pickup missions. They proved that this is possible in theory by the corvette mission.
Blockades: There needs to be more of a presence near the planetary space stations. I am talking about blockades, imperial inspections, an occasional star destroyer that patrols somewhere other than deep space. There need to be more large capital ships in space. When you fly through a blockade your ship is hailed and asked to be stopped for inspection. You have two choices, stop and be inspected or run. If you try to run all the ships in the blockade will agro on you and you will need to either try to escape or take them on, but anything short of an army. Now depending on your level of concealment and the quality of your hidden compartments, and if the elicit goods are stored in that compartment will determine if the inspection detects any elicit goods. If you are caught then we go back to the concealment/persuasion example from above.
Message Edited by 1FORCE1 on 12-23-2004 02:38 PM
Message Edited by 1FORCE1 on 01-04-2005 01:39 PM
maxtheusher
Thu Dec 23, 2004 12:42 pm
#3
Well aside from the fact that we will NEVER be able to slice ship components, Bang up job. 
Smuggler_Caylin
Thu Dec 23, 2004 7:29 pm
#5
Some very good ideas here and some interesting spins on some that we have had circulating here for a while.
Great job
Great job
One of the Four Horsemen of the Smuggler Apocalypse!
Datink_Nieleft
Fri Dec 24, 2004 1:23 am
#6
If we slice ship componets, then we are now competing with Shipwrights who RE. Remember Spices and Chef food,..not something I'd want to go back to.
I LOVE your slicing tools idea, as well as the spice idea. Here we also open the possibility of bounties on our heads for swiping vs. delivering the goods we are supposed to be Smuggling.
Your blockade idea is also nice. We would need a option to dump the cargo out of the airlock,...ala Han Solo.
I would also like to be recognized as a crime lord in the higher levels, maybe even get some NPC thugs I could purchase much like Rebel or Imperial troops (granted that those have to be improved as well, ...I wouldn't feel very Crime-Lord-like with a gang of meatlumps).
All in all another great set of ideas. Now if we could just get them implemented
Hueghhh
Sat Dec 25, 2004 11:32 am
#8
I really like these ideas. It is just another of the many examples of the smuggler community proving to the devs that there are things that can be done to fix our profession, if they would just take the time to actually give us a serious look.
WildKarrd
Sat Dec 25, 2004 12:34 pm
#9
not bad but would like a Big change but good makeup of what is current
1FORCE1
Wed Dec 29, 2004 1:24 am
#10
Thanks for all the responses guys. I just find it frustrating that nothing significant has been done with smuggler despite thge endless promises etc. I just don't know what else we can do to be heard. Our forum is one of the top5 profession forums. Only Jedi, BH, and CH forums have more posts than us, so there is obviously a huge portion of the overall community interested in the progress of the smuggler profession, but unfortunately this does not translate into developer attention. Sorry for the rant, the empty promises jsut got to me for a second.
Mater_Gunfighter
Wed Dec 29, 2004 10:15 pm
#11
Exellent post, A+
But will anything like this happen in my SWG life time?
I doubt it.
Seanboy
Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:34 am
#12
great post
Is it just me - or are we only ones who really really offer up suggestions of how we think that our profession could be improved, instead of just whining about how broken we are.
Note to all whiners s t f u
1FORCE1
Tue Jan 04, 2005 11:53 am
#13
This is just a shameless bump. I realize that the devs endlessly talk about our revamp and never do anything. However, just incase they may actually take us serious this time I thought I would bring this back up.
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