Smuggler Archive

For months (and months, and months) we've read very in-depth and intricate posts on various systems for implementing smuggling. Some involve restricting certain features of the game to force players to hire smugglers to move certain items. Some involve revamping Spices to involve smuggling instead of crafting.

This is sort of tangent to those lines of discussion. Related, but not the same.

I had an interesting thought; why not go for a few baby-steps in the right direction, without rocking the boat too much for the other (nonsmuggler) players or requiring massive systems overhauls?

The idea: implement a handful of "highly illegal" limited-use Schematics for use by other (nonsmuggler) professions. I'll elaborate in several sections.


Part A: Schematics

1) The schematics will be for the various crafting professions, all require a Master in that profession, and every crafting profession should get a little love.

Examples: weapon powerups that give high damage multipliers or change a weapon's damage type, deflector shields that make you virtually invulnerable or reflect a portion of damage back at an attacker, resource harvesters that harvest at dramatically increased rates, etc

2) All schematics are limited-use -- only a certain number of items can be produced from each schematic.

3) All items created will eventually decay from use, even structures.

4) The schematics are Draft Schematics, and only exist in the Datapad.

5) The schematics use generic mundane resources, also rare-drop resources, and there is no experimentation.

6) The schematics can only be transferred directly from player to player -- they may not be placed on vendors or auctioned on the bazaar.

7) The schematics are only available as Smuggler mission/quest items on non-player-structure planets (to prevent people from avoiding starports). A simple system would involve placing a few 'Smuggler Contact' NPCs in Cantinas that will send a Smuggler to a random planet to meet an NPC and buy the desired schematic for cash. The missions themselves should be easy to accomplish. The element of danger comes not from the mission, but rather from the act of carrying the schematics through populated areas.

Part B: Illegality

1) Possession of a schematic (or an item made from such a schematic) draws automatic attention if scanned by Crackdown troopers unless possessed by a Smuggler, who gets a chance of evasion based on his skill level. The Crackdown troopers automatically attack, and if the owner of the schematic receives a deathblow from Crackdown troopers, they lose the schematic.

2) The act of traveling from starport to starport (the act of loading in a starport) causes an automatic contraband scan (again, with the normal chance of evasion for Smugglers). This works like a normal Crackdown scan, and will spawn in some hostile Crackdown troopers.

Part C: Why

This would conceivably add alot of content for all Master Crafters and Smugglers with the addition of some basic quests and a few items. These items would then spill over into the general population of players who would hopefully get into a cycle of purchasing and expending these items regularly. The fact that this would -require- Smugglers to get the schematics and then -require- Master Crafters to obtain them from the Smugglers to create the items would add more player interaction between three different groups of players: Smugglers would have to interact with Crafters who would in turn have to maintain their business relationships with their customer base -- the general player population. Making everything about these items highly illegal would make them only desirable (in general) by the "high-level" player population, and making the items both expendable and "better than good" would start some credits moving through the system, which makes everyone happy. Since there is content for Smugglers, Crafters, and Combatants, that pretty much takes care of everyone in the game but the Entertainers -- haha, and perhaps there could be some sort of illicit entertainer droid modules that enhance mind buffs while containing anti-Empire symbols and propaganda.

Part D: Long-term Effects

Since the high degree of illegality would attract more Crackdown troopers to heavily populated areas, the presence of the Empire would be felt more strongly. Since the items would be abnormally good, players would be able to measure the risk-versus-reward for using them. No one would -have- to use them -- the high associated risk would make them something other than "the new slice" that everyone runs around carrying all the time. Using them in public areas, like NPC cities, would be like turning on a giant "come shoot me, Stormtroopers" neon sign, setting off lots of opportunities for the Imperials and Rebels to clash. Even carrying them in public areas could start very small, very quick wars. This adds general fun and content.

You would probably also see the illegal transactions for these schematics moving into less-traveled areas in major population centers (you can't stand around shouting "selling X" in the Starport if you're being scanned every few minutes.. eventually they'll catch you). The logical places would be the Cantinas, the only other places that large groups of people congregate. Then those random Crackdown cantina scans would get more tense. Trading would probably take place in back rooms, out of the direct line of sight of those random scans. This adds immersion and theme.

Furthermore: another money sink! Smugglers would have to pay out some amount of cash to an NPC to receive the schematics, with no associated increase in cash flow to the system. It might be a small effect, but since the items would all be expendable, it would be a relatively consistent outflow. This adds to economic stability.

Please post comments.

--Epicedion

Message Edited by Epicedion on 01-30-2005 12:33 AM

I honestly cant read it, its screwing my mind, could you maybe edit and throw a few strokes of ENTER in?

Edit: fixed it -- for some reason it ignored all my line breaks when I submitted it the first time. all I had to do was hit 'edit' and hit 'submit' without changing anything. weird. when did they add message editing for the common poster?

Message Edited by Epicedion on 01-30-2005 12:35 AM