Smuggler Archive

To give a smuggler the tools he needs to do what he is named for, a proper underworld must exist for this to occur. In reading a number of posts on this subject, I have had a few ideas running around in my head for a while, and I finally decided to write them down and see what the community thinks. I must preface this by saying that this is a hybrid of a lot of people’s thoughts over time, so I am in no way claiming this for my own. If you see something in there that you posted months ago, chances are I read that post and liked it, so I included the idea(s) here. Special acknowledgement must go to DrWolfe, Solo4114, Wes and Caylin for items of theirs I know I have included.

This proposal will touch on a little of everything, and while all the details are not all worked out, this is about as far as I think I can take it without knowing what is possible by a programming/game platform standpoint. It is my hope that the current correspondent can float this in front of people who will read it and perhaps spark an idea or two which would result in a better smuggling profession for us all.

NPC's

First, there will be some added NPC’s to the game world, specifically Dealers and Contacts. Dealers and Contacts would be tied to the various crime factions found within the game.

Dealers are the NPC’s who will sell spices to the player base. Dealers can be found in most NPC cantina’s across the galaxy. If the owner of a player city cantina is also a smuggler, he will have the ability to place a vendor in his cantina as well (see the section on “sidekicks”). Dealers are also potential pick up points for smuggled goods done for other players.

Dealers are stocked by player smugglers taking missions from contacts (see below). If a dealer in an NPC cantina runs out of spices, it will remain empty until a smuggler runs a delivery mission to that particular vendor. This avoids a glut of spice on the market and removes the “always stocked” threat to PC Cantina vendors. Also, an NPC cantina vendor will hold only so much of each kind of spice, so a delivery mission will only “top off” the vendor, not overload it with spice X.

If a Dealer in a PC Cantina runs low or out of spice, it is up to the Owner to request a restock through the contact. The owner can request the kind of spice to be delivered, which determines the cost of the spice. Once the credits are paid, the mission goes onto the contact for a smuggler to take. The payout for this mission will be generated by the difficulty of the level of the spice, to fall in line with the NPC missions. If no smuggler takes the mission within a set amount of time (2-3 days) the spice will appear on the vendor; this allows the cantina owner to proceed with their commerce without the obstruction of no one ever taking the mission, but also gives content and a form of PC smuggling to the smuggler base.

Contacts are the NPC’s that issue missions to the player smuggler. Missions can be either spice deliveries to NPC cantina dealers (available at all times), spice deliveries to PC cantina dealers (available only at the request of the cantina dealer) or at the request of another PC trying to move some form of contraband they cannot get off the planet they are on. When a contact has a Player mission, when a smuggler walks by within a certain distance, the contact would say something like “psst – buddy, I have some work for you.” to let the smuggler know that a PC mission is available. Players with negative numbers in the affiliated faction might find it impossible to get anything other than a player sponsored mission.

With these two NPC’s in place throughout the galaxy, a smuggler can network and finally ply the profession for what they are named, smuggling.

Message Edited by Shrendyc on 01-13-2005 01:24 PM

Message Edited by Shrendyc on 01-13-2005 01:31 PM

Message Edited by Shrendyc on 01-13-2005 01:41 PM

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DRWolfe wrote:
That's all good, but I wouldn't limit the PC cantina Dealers to just cantinas owned by Smugglers. That would generally lead to the Smuggler owners Smuggling for themselves. Let any PC cantina owner place a Dealer in the cantina, and they can request spice the same way you described. That way, we'd be smuggling for PCs other than Smugglers or ourselves.

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Ternque01 wrote:

How about CREATIVE ways of obtaining spice? Kessel and criminals aren't the only places with it. Try government facilities. They have mounds of spice stored in military and confiscation holders. Sound challenging to get it?

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Shrendyc wrote:

SIDEKICKS

It has been mentioned in the past that smugglers should have sidekicks, or NPC’s that would take the place of a “pet”. This sidekick would be stored on the datapad, and could be called when needed to help fight for the smuggler, lending support when needed.

Sidekicks would be granted at the faction headquarters by someone high up on the chain of command, perhaps even by the faction boss themselves. This would cost faction points, as the granting of a sidekick would be deemed a favor by the boss. There would be several levels to the sidekick, all costing various amounts of faction points. Lower cost sidekicks would be fairly weak; higher cost sidekicks would be much stronger. A smuggler could only have one sidekick at a time, and there would also be a 2 week time limit within which a sidekick cannot be replaced should it meet its death.

Sidekicks could be given weapons or armor to use, with the knowledge that once the equipment is given, that equipment cannot be reclaimed.

For a smuggler to have a vendor in their Player City Cantina, they would need to use their “sidekick” slot for the vendor. This way the smuggler would need to make a choice on how they choose to do business, but would not lose out on having a vendor if they had no merchant or artisan skills.

Message Edited by Shrendyc on 01-13-2005 01:40 PM

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