Firstly, pie and beer to anyone who takes the time to read all this. I've compiled this based on my own ideas and from (unwitting) contributions from others. If you contributed (whether you intended to or not), hats off to you.
The Problem
Smuggling is non-existant and with the proposed changes on Test Center, it unfairly places a burden on smugglers to either become loot bots or depend on other people to do it for them. What effectively happens is that the mega guilds that can manage to do the DWB and Avatar reap all the benefits, while the lone wolf smuggler or someone with a smaller, less active guild is shut out of a large part of their chosen profession and their ability to make money. Additionally, this iscounter to the Devs' stated goal of slicing having a risk involved, in that it places all the risk on the smuggler and very little, if any,on the customer. Finally, with as bad as the economy is in-game now, why make it worse by making good slices rare to the point of costing millions of credits?
The Goal
Our fabled revamp, of course. This comprehensive plan will introduce new content for smugglers, involving actual smuggling, provide an alternative to the loot based slicing system, increase smuggler dependancy on other players to acheive certain goals, increase the amount of PvP action in space, create a use for POB ships, allow smugglers through their own actionsto be hunted by bounty hunters, createmore contentand need for image designers,and create a risk-based system for slicing customers.
Smuggling: The Story Begins
There are 4 major factions involved in the smuggling business: the Hutts, Nym, Imperials, and Rebels. Nym andthe Hutts are atwar and obviously the Rebels andImperials don't get along. The factionally aligned smuggler has the opportunity either by NPC or special smuggler mission terminal to pick up a smuggling contract from any one of the 3, at the risk of losing favor with another faction. With the exception of a GCW type smuggling contract, you won't want to lose too much favor with any one faction, since some of the cargo may benefit you later on.
So our smuggler decides to take a contract with the Hutts. He has a few options to choose from, since he is a master smuggler but that wasn't always the case. When he first started out, he was limited to spice runs until he proved his skill (read, lower level smuggler), which helped his business, since he can't craft spice. What? No spice crafting? Yeah, that's what I said. Let's face it, there are only 2 or 3 commonly used spices so why bother trying to create a crafting system? Instead, either through successful completion of a spice smuggling contract or by stealing the cargo, the smuggler is able to provide spice to the player-base. If the smuggler steals the cargo, they may end up with more spice on their hands, but the downside is the Hutts aren't going to be very happy with him. Successful completion results in mission payout and a bonus of some spice but it's not nearly as much as if he had stolen the cargo outright.
But our smuggler isn't interested in spice right now, he's after parts his lucrative slicing business. He sees several contracts, the higher payout onesrequiring him to fly a full crewed vessel to make the delivery. These missions have a smuggler payout of money plus the parts he needs for his slicing business (scaled based on level), plus, in the case of high end smuggling contracts for high end slicing parts,an additional payout to each crewmember he has in his group. How can you require a group? Well, ultimately I guess you can't force someone to group but you could make it so the cargo will only fit in a POB sized cargo hold. Smuggling requires you to load your cargo into your ship's cargo hold and unfortunately, not all cargoes will fit in starfighter size holds, thus, requiring a POB ship to complete the contract. POB ships will obviously have to be beefed up for this to work.
Well, our smuggler decides to pick a mission which will give him the parts he needs for high-end slices, gathers his crew and sets out in his ship. He sees that he needs to head to Deep Space to meet up with his contact for this one, putting him at risk of running into Nym pirates (mission specific spawns), Rebel NPCs and Rebel players. He's worried but he's got a good crew so he should be alright. The ship arrives and the smuggler receives his contact's waypoint and heads out. Partway there though he encounters some Nym pirates who intend to make life difficult for him and his crew. At this point he has 4 options:
- He can try to outrun them but this is better attempted by a lighter, more nimble ship. Besides, this time his enemies came prepared for that and brought a ship with a gravity well projector (think Interdictor cruiser style) to prevent him from making the jump to hyperspace. Hecouldtry totake out the Interdictor and then jump but given the odds, it may not work. Even if he could outrun them, he wouldn't meet the strict time deadline his contact requires and would risk a lower payout, possibly not even getting the parts he needs.
- He can stand and fight. Not a bad option, as long as his crew's prepared for a tough fight and the Nym pirates don't call in reinforcements.
- He can /ejectcargo. The pirates will most likely leave him alone if he does that but of course, all his hard work will be wasted and the Hutts aren't going to be very happy with him.
- He can surrender and wait to be boarded. He's not real happy about having that scum aboard his ship but at least if that happens, he and his crew have a chance of thinning the pirates numbers by killing the boarding party. Yep, our smuggler and his crewhave the option of doing some "ground" combat with the NPCs that spawn aboard his ship.
Unfortunately, the pirates didn't bring enough people to this fight and the smuggler's crew is able to cut through them, albeit with some difficulty. He continues on to his contact, avoiding enemy players along the way, and successfully delivers his cargo. He then quickly jumps out so he can receive his payment. All in all, a job well done.
Hell Hath No Fury Like a Hutt Scorned
But what if he wasn't able to complete the mission. What if he tried to fight it out and got himself and his crew a one-way trip to the cloner. Well, Jabba's not a bad Hutt, so he'll give the smuggler a second chance to make good on the contract. But if he screws up this time, he's going to send his best bounty hunters after him. This is where player bounties are introduced. A bad smuggler isn't worth much alive, so after 2 unsuccessful high-end missions, he's going to have every chump with a blaster looking for him. His bounty is removed whenever he loses a fight with a bounty hunter, wins a fight with a bounty hunter, sufficient time has passed, or he finds an image designer who's willing to change his appearance, in effect, faking his own death so his former boss stops looking for him.
I swear, I was just holding it for a friend!
Once our fictional smuggler has the parts he needs from his successful smuggling contract, he's ready to makesome easycredits by using the parts to slice weapons and armor. Easy money for him but what about the customer? They're now carrying around an illegally modified weapon. If he were ever caught...oh crap, it's The Law. Unfortunately, Rebel and Imperial contraband scans have been on the rise lately and the tools they use to determine if something is illegal are even better. Now the likelihood of getting caught red-handed is even greater and so are the punishments. Each slicing tier causes a certain amount of visibilty on the weapon, higher tier ones making it more noticeable that the weapon has been tampered with. If you're discovered and it's by your own faction, prepare to suffer stiff penalties. The more sliced equipment you have, the greater the penalty, up to and including losing a good deal of faction, or in extreme cases, getting demoted in faction rank. Should you be discovered by the opposing faction while you're on leave, you'll immediately be put into combat by being attacked by NPCs that actually stand a chance of winning. Next time, think twice about brandishing that sliced pistol in public.
Well folks, that's all I have so far. Did you actually make it this far? If so, more beer and pie for you. Please feel free to comment, ask questions, tell me I'm a moron, or accuse me of stealing your idea.