Smuggler Archive
Thread: Smuggling How It Should Be Done But Never Will Be!
Just to let you know there is a smuggling mission in game atm. It starts at the talus station. Ask the station for something special to do and he will give you a smuggling mission to do some delivery mission in the system and between systems.
As for proper smuggling mission here is my take.
General Mission Specs
Security officers are any faction guard weather Imp rebel or neutral on any planet in the galaxy.
They need to start on the ground from NPC.
They need to be spit two different types. Ground based, ground and space based.
Each type of missions should be split into different lvls the higher the mission the further you have to travel and the more opposition you will face and the greater restriction on how you can complete it.
The mobs that spawn should be directly linked to you combat lvl on the ground and your pilot lvl in space.
Factions And Smuggling
Weather you are an Imp Reb or Neutral will not matter to the security forces weather they are imp Reb or neutral. If you are found in possession of illegal cargo you are in trouble. The empire doesn't like its officers breaking the law and neither does the rebellion.
Security Patrols
All Imperial Rebel and Neutral Security forces will scan for smuggler with smuggler missions. Because of the nature of the contraband cargo you are carrying the likelihood of these scans is directly related to the lvl of the mission you are taking. I.e. on a low lvl mission you may be scanned only a couple of times during your mission on the highest lvl all security forces that you come within 10m of will scan you.
All Space security patrols will also scan you as well. I.e. the guards around space stations and the roaming patrols of Imps Rebs and Neutrals will scan you in space.
Pirates
Space pirates not of the faction who gave you the smuggling mission will also scan your ship if they find your cargo they will attack you and try to space you and claim you cargo.
Backup
When you are detected on a ground or space based mission the security forces or pirates will call for backup. The number that spawns would be related to your mission lvl and their combat lvl would be related to yours if you are on the ground or your pilot lvl in space. They will attack you and follow you for the duration of your mission and if you stay in one place to long they will spawn and attack you. Also if you are seen by either a security officer on the ground or security patrol or pirates in space they will spawn immediately. Fight them or run its your choice. But on the ground they will use special like con shot and panic shot and in space they may have an interdictor vessel with them to stop you jumping.
Fast Talking.
A new skill. In any encounter weather on the ground or in the air if you get caught you have other options than a stand up drag out fight. You can attempt to talk your way out of the situation. If you are caught you have 10 seconds to talk to the NPC. You then have a dialogue choice. You could try a bribe to the security officer or you can try to appeal to their patriotism if you are the same faction as them, lie to them and say you are delivering this cargo for your faction or if all else fails you could try to threaten them.
Weather either or any of these approaches works would be linked to your skill at fast talking which would replace the delinquency line in the smuggler skill tree. Your fast talking skill gets higher the higher you go up the tree and you will have a better chance of persuading the security officer or pirates to let you go. However the skill would be capped at 60% chance.
The Cargo
The cargo is an inventory item. I cannot be traded or sold on the bazaar of vendors and it cannot be dropped. It can however be stolen by rangers if its a ranger mission. See the section on Rangers for more details.
Underworld Contacts.
Each planet should have a number of underworld contact based in cantinas or at locations like Jabba’s or Nymms. They are NPC but after you talk to them the give you a mission screen similar to a mission terminal. You can then choose the type and lvl of mission that you wish.
As I said you have two types of missions to choose from Ground or ground and space. Ground and space mission will only be available to people with JTL. And none of the missions will be based on Kashyyyk.
There are 5 lvl of missions each lvl being accessed by going up the underworld connections line in smuggler. lvl 1 gives simple ground and space based missions on a single planet or in a single space sector. Lvl 2 is based on 2 planets and so on up to Master Smuggler, which are the most complicated jobs. When transporting Cargo you will be give the Name and WP of your contact and told to go there. on a lvl 1 mission you will simply go to the contact and pick up the cargo and then deliver it to another contact. On lvl two you will have to travel to an other planet. on lvl 3 the same but you will not be able to use shuttles on lvl 4 it will be the same but you will face a higher chance of being detected and the number of NPC in the backup called will be greater (See Backup for details) At master the chance of detection is the highest and the number of NPC is greater again.
Failing a master lvl mission will also give you deadbeat points and if you acumulate to many you may get a deathmark
Smuggler Reputation And Death Marks
Death Marksare not an easy thing to live with and only the bravest smugglers will chose to undertake missions that could lead to those as a consequence.
Master lvl smugglers can choose to take the most difficult of smuggling missions from the crime lords themselves. Either from Nymm Jabba or Lady Valerian.
These missions are like the lvl 1 to 4 missions but have a few differences. Rangers can now steal your cargo, (see Ranger Missions) The lvl and frequesncey of security scans is higher, the number of backup that can be called by security forces, space security patrols and pirates is higher and if you fail them it will damage your smuggler reputation.
You start with a neural reputaion, each master lvl mission you complete will add to it and each you fail will decrease it. What are the benefits and rewards of the system?
The better you get the better payout you will get from master missions, but the harder the missions will become, also Jabba Nymm and Lady Valerain have a recode keeper who will if asked show the top 50 smugglers in any galaxy.
The downside is if you fail to many missions your boss may put a death mark on you. You will appear on the Bounty hunter terminals and you will stay on there until you either pay offthe bountyor get back in his good books by completing missions to increase your reputation.
Ground Based Missions
When taking a ground mission it should start on the ground say from Jaba’s. It should spawn an NPC somewhere on the planet and give you a WP to him. You go there and pick up you cargo then have to deliver the cargo to an NPC in another city. I would suggest spawning the NPC in cantinas to make it a little more interesting. On lower lvls you would have to only travel on the same planet. Higher lvls mean you would have to travel to multiple planets and make multiple deliveries.
Now the fun part. All planetary security forces would scan you, just like the supposed imperial clamp down. However the chances of being scanned if you are on a smuggling mission are much, much higher due to the nature of the contraband you are carrying. The chance of being detected are also much higher and is linked to the lvl of mission you are taking. This would need to be balanced in play testing. Also during each mission You would be guaranteed to be detected at least once. Randomly during your journey just to make it fun.
NPC now have speeder suppression fields. If you are scanned your speeder is temporarily disabled for the duration of the scan. If you fail the scan the NPC will start to call for back up. You can root him and run, your speeder is still disabled at this time, but now every member of the security forces will be alerted to your presence and if you are spotted they will call for back up too. All security NPC of the same faction are now Overt to you and you are overt to them. See the Backup section for more details. Again this will need to be balanced in testing.
When you arrive at your destination having evaded the security forces you drop off your cargo and complete you mission. Then you can choose either to be paid in money or if you have the Fast Talking you can skim some of the cargo off the top in which case you get a random smuggler tool loot item. What and how much you get is also related to your lvl of skill in the Fast Talking line.
Space Based Missions
Space missions should work exactly the same as ground missions until you need to travel. Because of the sensitivity of the cargo you are transporting you may not use public intergalactic shuttles while you are carrying the cargo. The Shuttle Terminals are disabled to you and the travel button on the star ship panel will not function. You must launch your ship.
Planetary Blockades
When you launch into space you have a % chance that your ship will be scanned on take off and a security blockade will be waiting in orbit for you. Again the chance of this happening is linked to the lvl of mission you take. If you are blockaded, ships directly related to your pilot lvl spawn. You will be scanned by the blockade ships and the chance of your cargo being found is the same as that of the ground scans. I.e. related to your smuggling skill but much higher than the normal contraband scans. You can use your Fast Talking Skill to try to get out of trouble or you attempt to hyper out. Then all security craft are alerted to your presence across the galaxy and back up will be despatch to hunt you down.
Interdictors
Once you jump there is also a chance that you can get pulled out of hyper space by an imperial interdictor craft. like an ISD but with less weapons this would be an instanced space encounter with just your ship and the Interdictor craft and its escorts. You must disable the interdictors generator before you can hyper out of the instance and continue your mission. The lvl of the craft and its escorts would be related to your pilot lvl.
These instances can also be used for overt rebels and imperial to add to there game experience as well.
On arrival at your destination on a space mission you may either have to dock with a ship to deliver your cargo or you may find that you must deliver your cargo personally on the planet in question. This will depend on the lvl of the mission you have taken. If you have a mission to deliver a cargo to a ship you must avoid any security patrol ships and locate you contact and make the delivery. Also any backup that has been called may find you even if you avoid the security patrols. Once you make your delivery you may have another to make depending on the lvl of the mission or that may be the mission end.
If you have to deliver your cargo to the planet surface you must land and make your way to your contact avoiding any security patrols and obeying any travel restriction that the mission has.
Master Lvl Smuggler Missions (Ranger Missions)
The hardest missions you can take either ground or space based are theMast Smugglermissions. If you take on of these missions all your mission details will appear on the ranger mission terminals for as long as your mission is active. Once the mission is taken by a ranger it will disappear from the terminals and will not be replace even if a ranger fails the mission. The name of a smuggler will not appear on the terminals and the wp for the drops will not appear in the rangers datapad until he reaches the planet that the smuggler is on in order to stop people taking missions with their friends and splitting the money. Also failing these missions will give the smuggler dead beat point and contribute to him being put on the Bounty Hunter terminals, which is another disincentive to failing them on purpose and splitting the cash with a ranger.
Master lvl missions will always finish with a delivery location on the ground and not in space so the ranger has a chance of setaling the cargo.
The ranger has access to all your collection points and delivery location. He can see the lvl of the mission and at what point you are i.e. weather you have picked up the cargo yet or delivered it to one of the drops. He can also see the monetary value of your cargo. If he manages to steal it he can sell it at one of the local fences. If he drops the mission it will appear back on the ranger terminal.
The range does not have any travel restrictions placed on him and is free to make his way to any of your WP’s and attempt to steal your cargo. He can use any of his skills to accomplish this. For this to be fair smugglers will need a new skill in their skill trees.
Observation. This skill works as a counter to the Ranger stealth ability giving the smuggler a chance to detect the Ranger This skill would accompany the fast talking line in the skill tree and give a higher % of breaking the Rangers stealth skill the higher you went up the line. It would be capped at a 50% chance at master. This would be a passive skill that works every 30 seconds.
If a Ranger attempts to steals your cargo he has a chance of being discovered. If he is he fails the stealing attempt and immediately becomes overt to you and may be attacked. You can either fight him and kill him or run. If you fight and he kills you he will automatically receive your cargo. If he is not detected and steals your cargo the smuggler also has a new skill in his underworld line called Search. Much like the droid tracking used by BH it will allow the smuggler to track the Ranger. NPC’s will shout out to the smuggler which way he went and the ranger will appear on the radar and the overhead map. And he also appears as a WP every time the smuggler uses the search skill. The WP is named after the Ranger so the smuggler will know who he is looking for. The search skill uses mind and has a cool down timer of 5 seconds.
The Ranger must now get the cargo to a fence NPC and sell it. The ranger is now Overt to the smuggler and the smuggler must use the search skill to track him down before he can reach the fence and sell the cargo. Each planet will have a limited number of fences. If a smuggler is smart he will get to know where the rangers fences are. The ranger will be given a WP to the fence he must use. It will change with each mission but the smuggler will not know which fence the ranger is heading too.
If the smuggler catches up with the ranger he must kill him to recover his cargo and complete his mission. The cargo is immediately placed in the smuggler inventory upon the death of the Ranger. The Ranger will fail his mission and the Smuggler will be able to complete his mission unopposed.
If the ranger gets away with the cargo he can go to the fence and sell the cargo for the same amount that the smuggler would have got from his mission. He will then not be overt to the smuggler and the smuggler will have failed the mission
Mission Failure
You will fail the mission if you die. If your ship is destroyed or if your cargo is stolen by a Ranger and sold to a fence before you can retrieve it.
That’s how I would do it. It’s never gona happen but that’s how it should be done.
Message Edited by Mystique2000uk on 09-27-2005 04:21 AM
Just added it.
Mystique2000uk wrote:Fast Talking.
....
I like the ideas behind this, but for me, Fast Talking needs to be something more involving and indeed require some sort of sacrafice from the player, rather than just being a random get out of jail free card for the mission. While thinking along these lines, I wrote the following:
There are two stages of being inspected and having your illegal cargo found and identified (these can take the form of a scan team, or from one of the generated encounters from the Smuggling mission system):
- The first stage is the discussion stage, where the cargo is identified and the NPC officer as a result enters into a conversation dialogue with the player. A player's fast talk ability alters both the likely hood of your successfully using your silver tongue to get out of the situation without being routed and the amount it will cost you to do so.
The dialogue options include:- Using patriotism of the officer to convince them to let you go on with your 'mission' and to make no note of the encounter;
- Offering to bribe the officer so that they look the other way;
- Saying something Marty McFly esq. and getting the first shot in.
The rank you are at in the faction (if any), coupled with the amount of FP you have in that faction (so you can still sweet talk say a CorSec officer) is the determining factor of how likely it is they will accept your story, with the highest taking precedent rather than the two stacking (ie, if you're Colonel, that outweighs having 5000 fp). If successful, you will be deducted an amount of FP and allowed to go on your way.
The amount you offer as a bribe is directly proportional to how likely it is the NPC will take it, with slight bonuses the higher you are up the Delinquency tree.
All amounts (size of the bribe, number of FP needed/deducted) are relative to the difficulty of the mission. - The second stage, should things not go the player's way during the conversation, or they simply chose combat outright is the routing stage, whereby the player has to get the heck out of dodge with their cargo, or be killed and have lost the mission. Higher difficulty missions with specific requirements will mean that reaching this stage causes a mission failure, the player's employer not wanting any entanglements with the law.
The player may choose to drop their cargo (causing a mission failure), causing their pursuers to be rooted for 30 seconds/drop to 0 throttle for 30 seconds.
Reinforcements will continue to come until they reach the point where the player will be overwhelmed (meaning if the player wants to complete their mission and/or save their skin, they need to get away).
Mystique2000uk wrote:The Cargo
....
Yep, sounds good, but for space missions I really think the more difficult ones require the use of a POB ship (how else are you going to be able to cart all that spice through space, right?
), possibley with the requirement of cargo modules.
Mystique2000uk wrote:
Planetary Blockades
....
I like this idea
. Ideally there would be a static spawn planetary blockade with at least a Star Destroyer in every Imperial held system, but assuming that either won't happen for a while or simply won't happen, this is a nice stop gap.
Mystique2000uk wrote:
Interdictors
....
Again, I like this idea.. but I doubt we'll see anything of its sort until an expansion or GCW revamp that sees Capital class ships more widely used. It would be awesome though
.
Mystique2000uk wrote:
Master Lvl Smuggler Missions (Ranger Missions)
I do wonder as to whether this can be kept balanced and fun for all those involved, but what you laid out here seems logical enough.. whether it'll be fun is another thing entirely
.
Yeah thats what I was aiming for weather its by % chance of failing the scan or more people scanning you doesn't realy matter, I was just aiming for a higher chance of getting caught.
Egowyn wrote:
Security Patrols
I.e. on a low lvl mission you may be scanned only a couple of times during your mission on the highest lvl all security forces that you come within 10m of will scan you.
wouldnt it make more sence if you had a higher chance of being caught for higher level missions rather than being scaned more often? the higher level mission you are on, the more Illegal the goods are, low level mision = transporting 50 cases of tupperware that hasent had its taxes paid. a high level mission= shipment of restricted blasters, the guy with guns inst gona be scaned more offten but hes defintly gona have a harder time evading a scan.
Just to let you know there is a smuggling mission in game atm. It starts at the talus station. Ask the station for something special to do and he will give you a smuggling mission to do some delivery mission in the system and between systems.
As for proper smuggling mission here is my take.
Yes that was added along with JTL BUT you have to be a smugglers aliance pilot as well as a smuggler with your "ground skills"
Factions And Smuggling
Weather you are an Imp Reb or Neutral will not matter to the security forces weather they are imp Reb or neutral. If you are found in possession of illegal cargo you are in trouble. The empire doesn't like its officers breaking the law and neither does the rebellion.
Im not to sure aboput this one the empire is corupt and the ease that high ranking imp smugglers have in getting away with it represents that coruption
Security Patrols
I.e. on a low lvl mission you may be scanned only a couple of times during your mission on the highest lvl all security forces that you come within 10m of will scan you.
wouldnt it make more sence if you had a higher chance of being caught for higher level missions rather than being scaned more often? the higher level mission you are on, the more Illegal the goods are, low level mision = transporting 50 cases of tupperware that hasent had its taxes paid. a high level mission= shipment of restricted blasters, the guy with guns inst gona be scaned more offten but hes defintly gona have a harder time evading a scan.