Smuggler Archive

• Firstly the 2nd tier of BH to come after you should be quite strong.


• There could also be a timer on the missions (only one mission per Xmin - where Xmin is the estimated average time to complete a smuggler mission)


• Or it could even be a more creative solution for example, although the mission giver is the one giving you the goods - they could be ina locked container which only gets openend by the delivery npc. The containers could even have some sort of timed booby-trapped-lock, so that you can slice it and try to recover some spice before the trap destroies it all ... but you'd only ever get x% of the origional amount. (That sort of event based slicing would actually play well into the new design of slicing)

Basically, we need spiced to be nice enough to warrant the inevitable higher prices, we need to encourage some sort of anti-farming solution in the revamp (which will keep the prices up ), and we need the DEVs to revamp smugglers right after CU (otherwise a balanced/craftable spice will be horded and destroy the market before our revamp)

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Tiggs wrote:

Successful completion of a contract is worth credits, but also a portion of the goods delivered. This system will replace the current method of crafting spices. In the new system, the smuggler will pick up a load of spice and deliver it, receiving a crate of spice and a few credits as payment.

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Post-sologroup nerfs put the high end hourly income of a grinder at or near the 250k mark (down from 400k max). Some of us can do much better, but that seems to be the best "high-end" income for the majority.

Current BH missions, whose complications and design will likely share this proposed Smuggling mission system in philosophy, take 30 min to an hour maximum. Now, I certainly hope these missions don’t take as long, but looking at some of the upper tier pilot missions doesn’t instill much hope for 15 min smuggling runs. Let’s assume for the sake of optimism that the Master Smuggler missions take 30 min to run.

As a mid to high level grinder, I would need to see a net profit of 125k+ (really 250k for myself, but... ) to make my effort vs. reward worthwhile. In the above description, Tiggs mentions that the reward would be a single crate and some credits for a perfectly completed mission. Assuming BH-style pay for effort ratios, I would expect to see a 30 min mission make me 50k cr plus my cut of 1 crate.

This would mean that, for a mid- to high- level player, I would need to sell that single crate at 75k cr to make the same as other tasks.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the mere act of actually smuggling actually offsets the reward quite a bit! It is far less fun to mindlessly grind for hours on end. So, in the interest of fun, let’s reduce that need to 35k or so, roughly half.

1) What would the consumer in the current market actually pay for a single crate of spice (assuming CU brings spice into balance)?

2) How many crates would we want to keep, knowing the risk is higher because of increased chances of being "Hunted", to make the same reward for effort as we are used to?

3) How great a risk are we really in at 250k/hr grind sessions?

My personal answers are 8-10k, 13, and medium-high... you might not see the same kind of action as I do when focusing efforts on high-pay days, maybe some of you don’t do anything more than RP, I don’t know. I really am focused on the endgame aspects of this proposal here, I suppose. What will make this worthwhile (aside from the pure joy of actually smuggling) to the 0SP remaining players.

The zinger comes when I think about how easy it may be to fend off the NPC BH... if its something soloable when buffed, and the mission giver is the one who doles out the contraband to be shipped, I imagine many of my credit-minded brethren will be accepting/aborting for 3 hrs at a time standing right at the mission NPC, occasionally pausing to kill off another NPC BH. Eisley Cantina will be quite annoying to non-Smuggs should this be the case...

My last bit of commentary on this whole proposal is that of "payoffs". Han Solo, in the original script for ANH, and in ANH Special Ed., is approached by a "concerned" Jabba the Hutt, accompanied by his favorite BH, Boba. Jabba's side of the conversation basically runs "Han, you're my fav, this isn’t like you, pay me back and we wont have any issues" This is admittedly after Han has been informed about the bounty on his head by the now dead Greedo. Would an option to "payback" for the "lost" goods be a reasonable means of providing smugglers with enough spice to keep their business rolling, as well as set a precedent for the sale price of spice, in much the same way FP has maintained its current price as a result of the fixed cost when bribing? The thinking would be, fail mission, get bounty on head, run to mission giver, pay them off, bounty removed. Lather, rinse, repeat. Thought it might be fun, seeing as the option was available for Han, and was infact the *entire* reason for him being involved in the story arc at all!

(Oh, and sry for the 'Fools' thing earlier. I'm calmer now... )