Smuggler Archive
Thread: What the smuggler revamp really needed gambling and card games
Smugglers would gain the ability to craft "base decks" for the card games (i.e. sabacc and/or pazaak). Owning a base deck would allow a player to engage anyone else (including special NPCs)in a game of that type. A base deck would only contain the basic "default" cards but, like the loot tools used to make rugs, would allow for special loot to be stored into it to modify the deck. For instance, a Pazaak base deck would contain 2 +1, +2, +3, +4 and +5 cards.
Through random drops, NPC card games or other froms of loot drops, special "elite" cards could be looted. Once dropped into a deck a player could use the special cards during a game with other players or NPCs. For instance a special Pazaak card would be a "-6" card.
While any player that owned a base deck could engage any other player with a base deck, the game would default to "fun" mode and wont allow players to plages bets or add to a pot since this form of gambling is illegal by Imperial law. However, having a smuggler joined to the game would allow it to run in "gambling"mode.
The addition of the card games effectively adds atleast one mini game into SWG that is required to keep the game alive. It gives people something to do when they are bored and gives a new dimension to "group play" in SWG that the developers seem so concerned about while at the same time adding a huge underworld "star warsy" feature.
Message Edited by Vampiric_Hoshi on 05-14-2005 05:43 PM
Pazaak is 'extinct' as a game by the time of EP4. You're thinking from KOTOR.
Sabacc is the game you want. That's the Star Wars cardgame that Han Solo beat Lando with to win the Falcon. With a winning hand called an Idiot's Array. I love Sabacc, and play my dork friends over the internet all the time.
If you would like to learn about Sabacc, check this out:
http://www.mavrinac.com/projects/sabacc/ <-- Casino Sabacc (free download)
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/4928/sabacc.htm <---Rules of Sabacc
AARRRGGHHHHH
It would NOT be "wonderful".
I want to be a SMUGGLER. I've been waiting for TWO FREAKING YEARS to actually smuggle.
A smuggler is NOT a gambler, anymore than anyone else.
A smuggler is NOT a drug manufacturer.
A smuggler is NOT a crafter of gaming tables, froggie bowls, card decks, sex toys or any other freaking things along those lines.
A smuggler isNOT an architect of casinos or bordellos, nor a speeder-bike theif, nor an after-market weapons engineer.
The freaking devs have been adding stupid-ass crafting items like that for the past year and NONE of them are appreciated be me at least. Why would ANYONE want to stand around crafting non-functional gaming tables or decks of cards? If I wanted to play cards on-line I'd join an on-line poker game and play for some real cash. JFC, come on people. A smuggler SMUGGLES?
Sorry if this seems a bit harsh but I've sat through the past two years being a Master Smuggler that can't smuggle being thrown idiotic 'bones' like this and people STILL ask for more of the same irrelivant nonsense.
i feel ya spinning cloud.
we need to Smuggle first.
but it would be cool for them to add more gambling to the game in general. but that doesn't mean we have anything special to do with it. Artisans can make Sabacc decks for all i care. i just want to be able to play it in game, as my character is a bigtime gambler...
bigtime to the point that i've developed several of my own games, and run a casino at my Roleplaying event every monday night.
Yeah.. this would be one of the top of my list of things to add to the game.. maybe not as part of the smuggler revamp ((just to keep spinning cloud happy) but just in general. It would add a lot to roleplay in the game, and a whole new life to places like the lucky despot in mos eisly.
SpinningCloud if you read the first couple lines of my post I quite clearly said that the "smuggle" part of "smuggler" is the most important thing but we KNOW thats getting added.
If you have read any of the EU books and paid attention to Lando and Han you would realise that card games and gambling are BIG part of the smuggler scene. Smugglers arnt just people that shift stuff from a to b.. they are the "life" of the Star Wars "underworld" and while I agree with you that smugglers have nothing to do with pushing/making drugs they have EVERYTHING to do with gambling and most importantly card games.
Yes, Pazaak is from KOTOR however there is nothing at all that suggests its "dead". Many games in the "real world" have existed for 1000's of years and I have no doubt our card games like poker will exist for 1000's of years... so there's no reason to think that Pazaak won't exist either. But if you read what I said I was suggesting both games get added.
However, Pazaak is the easiest to add for the following reasons:
- It was invented for KOTOR and therefore SWG had a full run on its rules. Sabacc, on the other hand, has no "official" rules. There are a good 10 to 20 different versions of Sabacc that have popped up as fans try to figure out what the game is actualy about based on a handful of snid-bits the EU have hinted at over the years ... this makes adding it to a game difficult (and is actuallt the reason KOTOR made up Pazaak instead of adding Sabacc).
- From a coding stand-point, Pazaak is "easier". Its just about who gets the closest to 20.
- Pazaak requires less "art" than Sabacc
But don't get me wrong I'd love to be playing Sabacc ... I just think its more likely that they'd be willing to add Pazaak
I don't care that they add card games to the game IN GENERAL.
But your thread subject says; "What the smuggler revamp REALLY needed..." (I added the emphasis on "really" to make my point.)
But please show me ONE place in all of SW canon where a smuggler CRAFTED decks of cards? Or gaming tables?
Gambling is JUST a smuggler thing? That is absurd. That the well known smugglers in SW gamble doesn'tNOT logicallyimply AT ALL that all smugglers gamble or that gambling is a 'smuggler thing'. It should be pretty obvious that SW canon is a cross-sectional portrayalof the SW universe. People somehow think that if it isn't portrayed in SW canon then it couldn't possibly exist in a SW universe. Or that if the only major smugglers in SWs stories gambled then gambling MUST be a smuggler 'thing'. That logic simply doesn't work.
Anyway, I completely disagree that what we "really needed" was craftable card decks...at least not craftable by Smugglers. Smugglers are notprinters of card decks. Smugglers are not carpenters of gaming tables. We aren't glass-blowers of frog bowls. And I'dguess the number of gamblers amoung us isn't all that large either.
Actually the EU suggests that the majority of gambling is done by smugglers simply because the vast majority of the "underworld" of Star Wars is made up of smugglers. Smugglers arnt just people like Han that "smuggle" ... its a term given to people that break a whole series of Imperial law, two of which include transporting spices and conducting in illegal gambling. Nearly every smuggler ever brought into Star Wars either through the books, games or the movies has some kind of connection with gambling and most specificaly, Sabacc.
Lando lost the Falcon in a game of Sabacc (and later purchases his own casino), Han won the Falcon playing Sabacc and in the EU is renowned as an exceptionaly good Sabacc player. Talon Karde, the biggest of the smugglers, is said to be the galaxy's best sabacc player. Coran Horn's step-father (cant think of his name) owns an ISD that has been converted into an illegal casino that boasts the best Sabacc tables in the galaxy. The list goes on.
Needless to say, Sabacc is as big a part of "smuggler" as "smuggling"
While I agree that smugglers wouldnt normaly "make" sabacc decks, someone in SWG has to make them and it only makes sense that its smugglers due to their connection. This isn't to say that Smugglers are the only people that can make card games, it has no RP relevance at all infact. It just makes the card game more relevant to a smuggler to an average joe. But ofcourse, you wouldnt have to be a smuggler to play it.
I ignore the fact that we NEED smuggling in the smuggler revamp because thats an obvious given and we know its already being added. But quite frankly Sabacc is WAY more smuggler-ish that slicing weapons
I know that when you place a holo-chess table, it has a radial option to "use", but I've never actually tried to play with anyone. Being able to gamble on Sabaac or such would deffinitely be cooler. I also seem to recall seeing a slot machine somewhere, and letting msmuggler place an item like this would be nice too.
Take a look at the movies, books, etc, and you'll see how much gambling there is in there. Han even "wins" a whole planet in a game in one of the books. How many times does he yell at people "never tell me the odds!", in typical gambler fashion.
As far as whoever asked for an example of someone crafting cards, we never see someone making cards, but we do know that they would be slicable. Each card is like a little palm-pilot with a digital image. Sometimes, your cards shift to a new image in the middle of a hand. There IS a very specific example of someone having a card altered to shift on prompt to a selected image. I'd say thats a slice action, hands down.
Hot-wiring would be fun too. There aren't currently too many lockable doors in the environment, and i think everyone would cry if we could steal their bikes, but stuff along those lines would be fun and smuggler-ish too.
As nice as smuggling missions sound, i don't think i like the idea of winding up on the BH terminals. Hang out with some jedi trying to grind for the night and you'll see how disruptive BH can be.In that light, I don'tknow if adding smuggling missions is even worth it, unless they realy go all-outon it. Loot, getting boarded in space, etc.
Jedi get all sorts of advantages in trade for the hassle of BHs. I'll never quit smuggler, but all the same, I want the same kind of incentives they get for putting up with constant disruption. Cards, gambling, and other mini-games and "rogue" type items and such sounds like a nice step in that direction.