Smuggler Archive

Wish I was still sleeping. Lousy work Think people playing MMO's are obsessed with their hobby? talk to a fisherman. Specially the bass guys.

So anyway, just sittin here, pensively, waitin for the sun to come up proper, and felt like sharing a few things I feel would be nice to have in a contraband system.

(This post assumes that they've implemented both a contraband system AND visible weaponry storage (IE slings, holsters, scabbards)

1. Regionality. Walking into the Theed cantina with a LEGAL blaster in your holster is going to raise eyebrows. Walking into Theed cantina with an arsenal strapped to your body is going to raise alarms. Law Enforcement agents WILL be arriving shortly. Walking into the Mos Eisley cantina with an arsenal strapped to your body isn't going to get a second glance, unless a Stormtrooper patrol happens up on you. Variations on this theme should be present in all cities, based on the civility and/or allegiance to the Empire in each region and city. Overall Tatooine and Lok would be low, but Lok might be higher than Tatooine because Nym might get worried about some walking tank running through his city unchecked, and so forth. For RP purposes, player cities could select an amount of Lawlfulness, so that each city could determine whether it enforced these contraband rules or not.

2. Player City Patrols. Player cities can have both player AND npc patrols in their city. For NPC they can choose to have Rebel, Imperial, or Planetary Authority patrols. Players on the city's militia also have the right to patrol and scan visitors for contraband. Depending on the rules of the city, upon finding the contraband, it could be confiscated (at which point it is automatically sent to an NPC in the City jail), disabled until repair, or the individuals enter combat.

3. Registration. I would prefer this be done at NPCs, but as this WOULD I suppose, create a "choke point" I would tolerate being able to do it through the UI. ALL weapons and armor in private ownership must be registered (smiths exempt, they possess a smith's license), any weapon or armor not registered is contraband. Upgrading a weapons with say, a powerup, makes the registered weapon subject to scrutiny in the stricter regions. Sliced weapons cannot be registered as they are completely illegal.

Finally, I believe some weapons should just be plain illegal for a private citizen to own. Just a few, specialty weapons, just for the extra fun.

Above all this, drawing/firing a weapon in a crowded area should call forth the authorities, just to investigate the situation. This would happen about, say 30 seconds to a minute after a fight ended, or 5 minutes after your gun was drawn. If you really did something wrong (killed an imperial in an imperial town, or are carrying an illegal weapon, etc) you should leave immediately or get ready for a series of escalating battles. If you're in the right, you can hang out, they'll investigate, maybe fine you for not using a sound suppressor, and leave. the only time this wouldn't happen would be in say, a few select Outposts, and Player Cities designated as "Lawless"

Ah well, it's fun to dream right? And a good waste of time...

I like....

But that would force people to push one button to holster/sash their weapon whenever they enter a city... You have any idea how hard that is for some people?

</sarcasm off>

It's one of those ideas that sound cool because they bring more realism into the game, but when you consider it from a gameplay point of view it appears problematic.

Most players do not want to bother hiding their weapons and they don't care about realism. They just want to shoot stuff and hiding your weapon would be just annoying. As a roleplayer, I always carry my weapons in hidden compartments, especially as a smuggler I wouldn't want to draw attention, but most players will just find it annoying. It's also a matter of habit, since in other games carrying weapons with you is just normal. Imagine a new player wielding his CDEF and suddenly discovering a Stormtrooper squard charging to him.

Furthermore, giving authority on players is bound to create harassment issues (abusing their power to confiscate weapons) or bad sentiments (rude remarks and personal grudges when weapons are confiscated).

Boy, that all would be pretty awesome.

You know, the dev mindset that high-end slices should be rare has had me thinking about ways to push for meaningful contraband enforcement for slicing components, if not for sliced gear itself. The two interests seem to align pretty well. The only real trick I see is coming up with a contraband system for these parts that's not considered "not fun," which, as we've seen, is a death knell for many of the types of systems we'd like to see introduced.

Honestly though--if they're supposed to be rare, isn't it much more fun to make a part of that rarity resultant not merely from making the loot parts rare, but rather from the long arm of the law slapping you down when it finds you in possession of illegal materiel?

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Aenfer wrote:
It's one of those ideas that sound cool because they bring more realism into the game, but when you consider it from a gameplay point of view it appears problematic.

Most players do not want to bother hiding their weapons and they don't care about realism. They just want to shoot stuff and hiding your weapon would be just annoying. As a roleplayer, I always carry my weapons in hidden compartments, especially as a smuggler I wouldn't want to draw attention, but most players will just find it annoying. It's also a matter of habit, since in other games carrying weapons with you is just normal. Imagine a new player wielding his CDEF and suddenly discovering a Stormtrooper squard charging to him.

Furthermore, giving authority on players is bound to create harassment issues (abusing their power to confiscate weapons) or bad sentiments (rude remarks and personal grudges when weapons are confiscated).

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So do you go around to all the posts like this and give the Devs reasons not to do it?

A New Player wielding a CDEF currently starts in Mos Eisley, and runs out and shoots Tuskens. Doesn't seem like he'd get ganked too fast, as I think we've already established, Eisley is not exactly Coruscant. PLAYER INTERACTION is and should be the cornerstone on which the game is founded. You come into someone's town toting an illegally modified pistol, They should have a right to confiscate it. Many RP cities have policies on weapons already, and you know what happens when some idiot comes in with his gun in hand? They're asked to put it away. As I said, THIS ALL ASSUMES THERE IS A WORKING CONTRABAND SYSTEM ALREADY IN PLACE. That means, the guy can go to the local Constabulary and get his gun back, stripped of its illegal mods, and properly registered. I didn't include the working details of the system because it's already been discussed ad nauseam in this forum. People would quickly learn which towns supported which rules, and the game could even help that along by offering that info in the system message you get when you enter a town. And wouldn't you expect someone who just got their gun confiscated to be upset and say something rude?

It's sad you think RPers should be second class citizens in an RPg. Especially as you say you are one. But to each his own.

Message Edited by GanymedePharuu on 07-02-2005 06:50 AM

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GanymedePharuu wrote:

keck that's sheer effing brilliance!

why would anyone say that players wouldn't want realism in a Roleplaying Game?

unless they were some whiney punk who couldn't handle a little thoughtful challenge in their game.

seriously. if anyone ever hears of an MMORPG that comes out with a system like this, let me know cause i'll be there in a heartbeat.

Message Edited by GanymedePharuu on 07-02-2005 06:50 AM

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You and me both. mmorpg's seem to be slowly gravitating towards losing the RPG part, and basically being 3d side-scroll fighters with a bunch of people playing. Even SWG, arguably the most robust of the mmorpg's as far as rp-ability and non-hackandslash arcading goes, is losing that flavor.

Hopefully there will be a break in the genre, with more solidly RP games appearing and being spearate from the current spate of "HEY IT'S EASIER THAN EVER TO KILL NONSENSICAL CREATURES!" games.

Dirty shame. I think there's a Penny Arcade that sums up my feelings about gaming these days...

I can't find it so I'm goin with this one

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maxtheusher wrote:


So do you go around to all the posts like this and give the Devs reasons not to do it?


....


It's sad you think RPers should be second class citizens in an RPg. Especially as you say you are one. But to each his own.

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If I consider it a bad idea, I'll speak my mind. If you just want to hear positive remarks, I'm sorry for you.

You didn't say it was a bad idea, you said "Most players don't want the hassle bla blah blah"

Now personally, I don't go around thinking I speak for most of anyone. So either you're the vice president of people, or you shouldn't be saying things you can't prove using any valid method.

"Most players" were against the CU, according to a web-based petition. And all these people were so deadset against it, and they're going to leave and whatever. Mind you this is "Most players"

CU comes, and what happened? an INCREASE in server populations. GAWHUH?!!??! You mean 3000 people spamming votes in a petition aren't "Most players?"

Wait, wait, you mean people are actually having fun in the CU and it didn't kill the game dead? NO! Impossible! "Most players" were against it!

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Aenfer wrote:
It's one of those ideas that sound cool because they bring more realism into the game, but when you consider it from a gameplay point of view it appears problematic.

Most players do not want to bother hiding their weapons and they don't care about realism. They just want to shoot stuff and hiding your weapon would be just annoying. As a roleplayer, I always carry my weapons in hidden compartments, especially as a smuggler I wouldn't want to draw attention, but most players will just find it annoying. It's also a matter of habit, since in other games carrying weapons with you is just normal. Imagine a new player wielding his CDEF and suddenly discovering a Stormtrooper squard charging to him.

Furthermore, giving authority on players is bound to create harassment issues (abusing their power to confiscate weapons) or bad sentiments (rude remarks and personal grudges when weapons are confiscated).

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Yea its kinda sad the power gamers always win in the end. They just want to be somebody, wannabe ubers. The majority of players don't want anything that caters to RP because thats a hindrance to their rise to uberness. 80% of players it seems care nothing except becoming level 80 and Jedi Knight. I like the idea alot myself because it would give each city its own vibe and atmosphere.

So far these are some of the best Ideas I've heard. Now granted in some respects I can see how some wouldn't like it because of the hassle of removing their weapons. But being as I am one of the members of one of the largest and one of the few All wookiee RP guilds at least on Sunrunner as far as I know of, Our entire guild is Based on RPing and working with other guilds and setting our city up to be both player friendly And mainly used for RP events. Have you ever seen 115 Rping wookiees in one place?

Now for the contraband, set up a spotin the cities with NPC official in a jail and city hall type senario. Pay so and so fines for this ticket, and to get your personal weapon back. Have the jailor or Official to talk to for those thing. Roaming NPCs guarding the city small police force. In our city mind you wouldn't be Faction based only because we do have customers to our vendors from all factions, But the local police authority would be a good idea. Also I saw in someone else's post (dont remember who's) about the Criminal faction terminals in the cantinas and such, could also put it for master smugglers, who have gained a certain amount of FP with more than one of the Big Bosses to be able to put a novice smuggler type terminal in the player based cantinas for lower lvl smugglers to use as well maybe get more movement in and out of the cities and create a nice little web of smugglers/and pirates helping the lower ones out as well.

Wyzcheky