Smuggler Archive
Thread: HOTDOG takes a squinty-eyed look at the In Concept...Uh, VERBAGE.
VegitoX wrote:
I would be more inclined to be happy about these changes had I not read about the changes that the Rangers are supposed to get.Im sorry, maybe im bitter or jealous...but Urban stealth = Ranger ?They might be able to steal our cargo in the future. We might have player bounties implemented. It just seems to me that since we will face either death,loss of cargo, maybe both, that we might want to have some means of evasion in way of Urban Stealth.
I think the issue many of us are having is the paradigm shift of what it's going to mean to be a ranger. Currently ranger is a glorified animal bucher, however with the proposed changes they are going to have more of the army ranger type skills and I think it's perfectly appropriate.
fishbrains wrote:
VegitoX wrote:
I would be more inclined to be happy about these changes had I not read about the changes that the Rangers are supposed to get.
Im sorry, maybe im bitter or jealous...but Urban stealth = Ranger ?
They might be able to steal our cargo in the future. We might have player bounties implemented. It just seems to me that since we will face either death,loss of cargo, maybe both, that we might want to have some means of evasion in way of Urban Stealth.
I think the issue many of us are having is the paradigm shift of what it's going to mean to be a ranger. Currently ranger is a glorified animal bucher, however with the proposed changes they are going to have more of the army ranger type skills and I think it's perfectly appropriate.
I guess I still perceive the Rangers as being an Hunter type class rather then what the Devs new vision of it is..ie, what you said. I'm still not convinced however that that particular skill is not better suited for a Smuggler's skill set.
HOTDOG,
I agree with the majority of what you said except for one thing ....spices. I think the spices need a serious relook if they intend to make it loot-only. It will be nice to have folks seek us out for this, but no one will if spice is the way it is now. Most folks will turn to the crates upon crates of food that will now be on the vendors. If, however, they make the spice stronger and/or with different benifits thatspices alone can only bring, then we will see the folks eagerly seeking us out. Otherwise it will be no more useful than a cdef weapon looted in my inventory.
I can see it now:
Smugg: /shout "Selling Spice and sliced weapons"
SYSTEM MESSAGE: For your attempt at Illegal activities, you are being sought after by local authorities.
Suddenly, a agro mob spawns.
Local Police: Hey you, Stop or you will be shot!
Smug: Ut'oh!!
/burstrun
Local Police: I said STOP!!!!
SYSTEM MESSAGE: For your failure to comply with local authorities, your name has been turned over to the Bounty Hunter Guild for proper handling of this situation.
and so on....
What ya think?
Message Edited by HOTDOG on 09-18-2005 03:39 PM
welcome back HOTDOG, what a time to come back to eh ?
I so hope that when this hits live, it hits as was described in these incon docs. I think that on the smuggler/ ranger/ bh front there should be npc's that the smuggler can bribe that maybe messes up the waypoint for the BH and or ranger. After looking at it more carefuly this relationship brings many things to light.
As a Smuggler if we get cargo stolen by a Ranger we fail the mission thus being placed on the BH terms and thus getting a BH after us. The said BH turns up we fight and he takes us out. This sounds awesome but i feel that Rangers should carry some sort of penalty for failing there missions. As it stands if the succeed they put us Smugglers in a world of trouble (and boy i cant wait to face it ) but if they fail they get what, a slap on the wrist ? Same goes for BH's. Perhaps what we are seeing here is the start of an entire underworld revamp that will allow proffesisons involved to take different types of underworld missions absed on there proffs. failure would plave them on the BH terms.
I know it sounds like whining but really its looking at this realisticly. What will happen to a Ranger should they fail there theft mission (i know its not been announced just hinted at). Something needs to be in place i feel.
As far as rewards go we should totaly get sweet Smuggler only items. Wearables such as holsters, capes, cloaks lol and other clothing with perhaps bonus's to smuggler skills whil on mission. Smuggler only weaponry and armour (perhaps include armoured clothing) Ship parts especialy for smugglers and tools for ships that allow us to outfit our ships with all sorst of illiegal goodys that make our smuggling more fun.
Persoanly they need to add the black sun head (Xizor at this time ?) and have a 3 way conflict between Jabba, Valarian and Xizor with PvP and combatant options for players of said factions. Id would much rather be a member of Jabba or black sun than a rebel lol.
Also something i feel i must put in caps as its something i have wanted for ages now.
ALLOW US TO TAKE SMUGGLING MISSIONS IN A GROUP
before everyone calls for the flame squad or starts throwing abuse think of it. How poor is it gonna be doing these missions without your Smuggler buddy or your first mate ? its gonna suck and your gonna be lonley. How much more fun is it gonna be with a couple of your buddys with you on the mission, being able to attack any npc's rangers or BH's that attack you but not being able to talk with the npc's in the mission. Grouping (if only 2 or 3 in size) is something i feel is greatly needed for smuggling missions to be worth while doing. Han was flying solo (sorry for pun) and niether should we.
HOTDOG wrote:
Being one of the core professions in the Star Wars fantasy, we must augment the profession in SWG to allow Smugglers to actually partake in the Star Wars Underworld. To this end, we are implementing a new set of re-playable smuggling missions that can be completed for Underworld themed rewards.
This says to me that we will go to Joe NPC (hopefully, someone like Jabba) and they will always give us the same mission/choice of missions. Much in the same way you get missions from terminals- it's always the same- go kill the MOB and the Lair and collect your reward. No different than BH missions, allways the same, (launch droid, track target, kill target.) i could live with that.
The difference being the outcome that leads to BH missions and of course the Ranger* snafu ingrained in the system. Ive read the proposed ranger changes, what is thisSNAFU you speak of?
Nothing spectacular so far- unless the rewards are truly cool. They don't have to be uber just cool things that a smuggler would want- (A holster would be cool and how about slicing components while we are at it?). Yeah, being able to get our our tools would be nice.
Three types of missions are proposed. Delivery missions, slicing/hacking missions and extortion missions. Each mission type will have one or more possible conflict events during the course of the mission. Failure will be easier or harder depending on the level of the mission so as to present the player with an appropriate amount of risk vs. the reward given at the end of the mission.
This sounds good but it's not new. You take a mission and along the way some trouble spawns. I've never understood why they didn't at least do this much a looooooong time ago. Hopefully the Slicing and Extortion missions will go further than they do in the Jabba Theme Park- by having you actually haggle with an NPC instead of always using "aggresive negotiations". lets not hold our breath.
The difficulty of mission that can be taken will depend on the level of Underworld standing that the player has achieved through completing successful missions. Higher Underworld standing will grant access to higher level missions. Higher level missions have more difficult encounters and more constraints (timers, inability to use public transportation, possibility of ending up on player bounty boards, etc).
NOW we are talkin'!
This means that some missions will force you to Launch into space (space smuggling, people!) and BOUNTIES. Now combine this with the *Ranger's new found ability to secure items from the smuggler and we have the beginnings of a pretty hot system.
You can:
- Smuggle in space (if the inability to use public transportation also means not being able to use the travel button on your ship)
- Smuggle against the clock
- *Have active Rangers CHASING you to steal your cargo and cause you to fail your mission (and remember, the Ranger can only take your stuff if they are attackable by you- so you CAN stop them)
- Have BHs on your tail for failing a mission.
Nowhere in this NEW concept post do they mention PVE-PVP missions i belive the difficulty they refer to is the smugglers standing in the underworld branch of the smuggler skill tree like the BH as he moves up investigation he gets harder missions, as most of us know the BH does NOT get to choose a lower difficulty mission the game just spits out a mission or list of missions appropriate to the player's level.
All of this would add up to an AWESOME smuggling system if only you couldn't buy contraband on vendors. No contraband on PUBLIC vendors or theBAZZAR I understand, but why not on private vendors? have the system turn off vendor search opption and planetary add campaign for any vendor containing contraband, it would be like the back room at the head shop(thats bong store for those who dont allready know) a cover buisness, sell swoops in the same tent as spice people come for the cars and stay for the spice so to speak.
In addition to mission changes, some system updates are proposed to increase the ambient feeling of Smugglers and the goods they produce:
Spice crafting will be removed from the smuggling skill tree. Smugglers were revamped to be a complete combat profession during CU, which means removing the spice crafting doesn't invalidate any of their skill lines. Spice crafting XP was also removed with CU. Spices will now be granted as rewards during smuggling missions.
Spices & Sliced Weapons will no longer be tradable on the bazaar or vendors. Players must seek out smuggler characters if they wish to obtain contraband items.
HOLY CONTRABAND, BATMAN! Are they REALLY gonna make it so that you actually have to seek a smuggler to buy illegal items!?...like we arent busy enough allready, if we cant put sliced goods on a vendor this means we not only have to do it on a case by case basis we cant even drop a sliced gun off for a friend to pick up later. Just when are we suposed to find the time to ever Complete a smuggler mission?
Yeah,...I'll believe it when I see it, too.
This says to me that we will go to Joe NPC (hopefully, someone like Jabba) and they will always give us the same mission/choice of missions. Much in the same way you get missions from terminals- it's always the same- go kill the MOB and the Lair and collect your reward.
The difference being the outcome that leads to BH missions and of course the Ranger* snafu ingrained in the system.
Nothing spectacular so far- unless the rewards are truly cool. They don't have to be uber just cool things that a smuggler would want- (A holster would be cool and how about slicing components while we are at it?).
Three types of missions are proposed. Delivery missions, slicing/hacking missions and extortion missions. Each mission type will have one or more possible conflict events during the course of the mission. Failure will be easier or harder depending on the level of the mission so as to present the player with an appropriate amount of risk vs. the reward given at the end of the mission.
This sounds good but it's not new. You take a mission and along the way some trouble spawns. I've never understood why they didn't at least do this much a looooooong time ago. Hopefully the Slicing and Extortion missions will go further than they do in the Jabba Theme Park- by having you actually haggle with an NPC instead of always using "aggresive negotiations".
The difficulty of mission that can be taken will depend on the level of Underworld standing that the player has achieved through completing successful missions. Higher Underworld standing will grant access to higher level missions. Higher level missions have more difficult encounters and more constraints (timers, inability to use public transportation, possibility of ending up on player bounty boards, etc).
NOW we are talkin'!
This means that some missions will force you to Launch into space (space smuggling, people!) and BOUNTIES. Now combine this with the *Ranger's new found ability to secure items from the smuggler and we have the beginnings of a pretty hot system.
You can:
- Smuggle in space (if the inability to use public transportation also means not being able to use the travel button on your ship)
- Smuggle against the clock
- *Have active Rangers CHASING you to steal your cargo and cause you to fail your mission (and remember, the Ranger can only take your stuff if they are attackable by you- so you CAN stop them)
- Have BHs on your tail for failing a mission.
All of this would add up to an AWESOME smuggling system if only you couldn't buy contraband on vendors.
In addition to mission changes, some system updates are proposed to increase the ambient feeling of Smugglers and the goods they produce:
HOLY CONTRABAND, BATMAN! Are they REALLY gonna make it so that you actually have to seek a smuggler to buy illegal items!?...
Yeah,...I'll believe it when I see it, too.
As for the major concerns that are brought up over and over and over again:
Um, Not being able to buy contraband on a vendor is totally going to ruin the economy and be a major inconvenience to the player base and to me as a Smuggler. I don't intend to stand in the starport selling spice all day.
Then DON'T. I seriously doubt that you will have to. Yes. There will be Smugglers who will stand and spam- but they gotta go out and smuggle to get the stuff at some point. Look at the positive side of this thing- Spice is going to be worth a whole lotta moola now, chief. If you don't wanna make the duckets don't complain about those who do.
And as far as it ruinning the economy- get in line behind those who thought the Galaxy Bazaar would ruin the economy- I have people asking me to slice everytime I log in. When they need me, they find me. It will be the same with spice. The only difference will be that I won't lie to them and tell them I don't have the tools on me.
Another option selling spice by bulk on the Galaxy Trade Forums.
HEY! They better not FORCE me into doing these PvP missions in order to get the same goods as everyone else!
I'm sure there will be an option to do the missions as everything else in SWG has PvP as a pure option. As far as the goods go- You shouldn't be able to get the same stuff as someone who puts themselves at higher risk to obtain. And before you say it- the PvP missions will be greater risk as the verbage states- PvP will be the consequence of more difficult missions.
That said. Feel free to buy these items on the Galaxy Trade Forums.
Dude. BOUNTIES? There is no way a Smuggler is equipped to handle a BH that not only is designed to handle a Jedi but also gets the first shot on you. I say we need innate armor/evasive skills/anti probedroid abilities.
Lighten up Francis. Smugglers ain't just a lay down and die profession. We DO have some pretty boss evasive skills. I think Conc Shot is going to cause a lot of trouble in the near future and cause a lot of nerf calling. As well as Feign Death (hey, maybe we are a lay down and die profession).
In the end, I don't think we need to have any additional skills added to our repetoire- although I DEFENITELY would not turn them down.
As a MS/MBH I have lost PLENTY of PvP battles but almost everyone of them was because I didn't try to run when I should have. Keep that as your motto and there isn't really much a Ranger or a BH can do to you.
Sooooooo. IF this in concept becomes anything more than just verbage then I think we are in for one HELL of a profession.
Message Edited by HOTDOG on 09-18-2005 12:20 PM