Smuggler Archive

Wow, it looks like things are a lot more cooled down than last week Tomorrow let's start a conversation on the underworld skill tree. I think based on the conversations we've had in these first two giant threads, I can come up with a compromise system. But let's worry about hammering out more specific details later (we have a lot of time).

Brandon Reinhart / GreenMarine
SOE Designer, Star Wars Galaxies

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=100334#M100334

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• Underworld 1
  
  
  
  • Abilities
    
    
    
    • 10% Faction Perk Cost Reduction - Nice for GCW participants, but useless for smugglers who are not taking part in the GCW.
    
    
    • ScanEvasion Ability- Allows the smuggler and their groups to successfully evade scans that search the player for contraband items and faction affiliation. This skill is undocumented in the skill tree and while critical to smugglers and their role, the need for this skill is bypassed by being involved with the Imperial GCW faction or using Droid storage. Almost completely useless at this time.
      
      
  
  
  • Skill Modifiers
    
    
    
    • Language Comprehension +100 - No real value. Players can learn every language save Lekku comprehension in minutes upon entering the game. The jawa trash game is not worthwhile, though it does make use of this ability.
      
      


• Underworld 2
  
  
  
  • Abilities
    
    
    
    • Half of normal faction lost in PVP deaths. - Only valuable for those players who participate in the GCW, does nothing for smugglers who do not take part in it.
    
    
    • ScanEvasion Ability- Allows the smuggler and their groups to successfully evade scans that search the player for contraband items and faction affiliation. This skill is undocumented in the skill tree and while critical to smugglers and their role, the need for this skill is bypassed by being involved with the Imperial GCW faction or using Droid storage. Almost completely useless at this time.
      
      


• Underworld 3
  
  
  
  • Abilities
    
    
    
    • Sell Out - The player can sell faction to a recruitor if they are GCW participants, however they are unable to sell faction to the opposing recruitor unless they resign from their current affiliation. The faction is sold in fixed amounts when it should be dynamicand for hardly any amount of credits compared to what smugglers have to spend to buy it. This skill is unrewarding and worthless at this time. This skill does not help smugglers who have not chosen to support a faction. This skill is not well documented.
    
    
    • ScanEvasion Ability- Allows the smuggler and their groups to successfully evade scans that search the player for contraband items and faction affiliation. This skill is undocumented in the skill tree and while critical to smugglers and their role, the need for this skill is bypassed by being involved with the Imperial GCW faction or using Droid storage. Almost completely useless at this time.
      
      


• Underworld 4
  
  
  
  • Abilities
    
    
    
    • Faction Purchasing - Allows the smuggler who participates in the GCW to purchase faction from their recruitor in fixed amounts. The purchasing process is tedious and needs to be more dynamic. The cap imposed on smugglers as to the limit of faction they can purchase at one time is far too low and while it helps to fuel the GCW greatly, it does not help unfactioned smugglers any.
    
    
    • ScanEvasion Ability- Allows the smuggler and their groups to successfully evade scans that search the player for contraband items and faction affiliation. This skill is undocumented in the skill tree and while critical to smugglers and their role, the need for this skill is bypassed by being involved with the Imperial GCW faction or using Droid storage. Almost completely useless at this time.
      
      
  
  
  • Title Granted
    
    
    
    • Fixer - There has to be a better title that smugglers can have over this.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=92190

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• Specialized Delivery missions that provide PvE encounters during the travel portion. These encounters can come in the form of direct combat, threatened combat in exchange for the smuggled item, or non-combat encounters seeking to bribe or convince the PC to give up the item.
  
  
  
  • Rewards:
    
    
    
    • Immediate Travel Tokens
      (This, for the record is extremely complicated)
    
    
    • Equipment buff programs
    
    
    • Datadiscs to further adventure
  
  
  • Ethical decisions that effect the smugglers reputation.
  
  
  • City and travel combat.
    


• PvP smuggling whereby a player can contract another player to take a shipment from point a to point b.
  
  (Just as an example, this is a great statement of a single sentence that probably amounts to months of work by multiple teams. Some challenges are, “where do they take it from and to? How is it registered? How is it discovered? How do you prevent it from being exploited by a player with two accounts?” etc…)

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=85393&page=1

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Underworld:

This skill tree represents the underhanded dealings, contacts, the criminal environment the smuggler exists and flourishes within and should assist the smuggler with lining up his next mission, while interacting with various factions that are not solely based on the GCW.

• The Tree:
  
  
  
  
  
  • Contraband Concealment Ability:
    
    
    
    
    • Move the contraband concealment ability to what is currently known as the spice tree for reasons revealed there
      
  
  
  • Change the title Fixer to Scoundrel.
    
  
  
  • Change the XP from Pistol to a Smuggler Mission Based XP, where completion of these Smuggler missions results in 'Smuggler XP.'

• The Smuggler Missions:
  
  
  
  
  
  • PVE Smuggler Missions:
    
    
    
    
    • Extensive NPC driven missions that generate PVE encounters during the travel portion.
      
      
      
      
      • Difficulty is adjusted based on the origin of the missions.
        
    
    
    • GCW faction missions could encourage the smuggler to group with other people, as they could be difficult missions with good rewards. Act 3 for Rebels for Dead-eye is a good example.
      
    
    
    • These encounters can come in the form of direct combat, encountering law enforcement, threatened combat in exchange for the smuggled item, or non-combat encounters seeking to bribe or convince the PC to give up the item.
      
    
    
    • Can include ethical decisions that effect the smugglers reputation and if he warrants a bounty placed on his head.
      
    
    
    • City and travel combat.
      
      
      
      
      
      
      • Rewards:
        
        
        
        
        • Equipment buff programs.
          
        
        
        • Datadiscs to further adventure.
          
        
        
        • Rare Artwork.
          
        
        
        • Rare Components.
          
        
        
        • Rare Schematics.
          
        
        
        • Credits.
          
        
        
        • ‘Magic’ items.
          
        
        
        • Rare Spice.
          
        
        
        • Faction (If mission is granted by a GCW or Criminal faction)
          
        
        
        • Skill tapes with suitable bonuses for the missions’ difficulty.
          
        
        
        • Locked Containers to assist Novices in initial slicing experience.
          
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Player based smuggling:
    
    
    
    
    • When a player can contract a smuggler player to take a shipment from point a to point b.
      
      
      
      
      
      
      • The use of NPC intermediaries who can ‘set things up’ and generate a mission and a flagged item to for the smuggler to take in order to copy the items to the new location so the client can pick them up.
        Or
        
      
      
      • Have the client interact with an NPC, pay the bill, and have the items copied to their destination immediately. A suitably difficult smuggler mission should be generated at that location for a smuggler to attempt at that time with a good reward to encourage using player-based missions.
        Or
        
      
      
      • Simply have smugglers take the items themselves from one point to another.
        

• Existing Skill tweaks.
  
  
  
  
  
  • Language Comprehension:
    
    
    
    
    • Give smugglers the ability to communicate and understand a new language known as either Traders Argot or Smuggler’s Cant.
      
      
      
      
      • Allows for smugglers to discuss illegal dealings with NPCs in more public areas for potential missions.
        
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Fast Talking
    
    
    
    
    • The ability to bribe, convince and otherwise schmooze NPC from either letting you go for a price, giving you a discount on services or otherwise letting you know things you shouldn’t.
      
      
      
      
      • Should be directly comparable to the Force Sensitive Persuasion skill
      
      
      • Should continue to reduce faction lost when the player is defeated in a GCW encounter.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Sell Out:
    
    
    
    
    • Raise the value per faction point sold to a more reasonable level.
      
    
    
    • Allow smugglers to choose exactly how much they want to sell instead of in fixed amounts.
      
    
    
    • Allow smugglers to sell their faction to the opposing faction's recruiters without resigning.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Purchasing Faction:
    
    
    
    
    • Allow us to purchase faction for nearly all factions, especially those like Hutt/Nyam/Jabba/Corsec/Rogue Corsec/Borvo, etc.
      
    
    
    • Allow smugglers to set exactly how much faction they want to buy, at a fixed rate per faction unit.
      
    
    
    • Raise the 500-faction cap to purchase more faction points.
      
    
    
    • When purchasing faction from a criminally oriented NPC, the player should be able to purchase as much faction as they wish, as it is not GCW related and no real perks are involved. The criminals could perceive you as a business partner with a lot of money, so they will gladly take it from you in whatever degree you wish to spend it.
      

• New Skills:
  
  
  
  
  
  • Stealth Skill:
    
    
    
    
    • An ability that will allow smugglers to help conceal themselves and/or their group members in hostile situations in various hostile situations that can include the GCW.
      
      
      
      
      • Perhaps allow them to travel safely through areas with covert detectors undetected, and disable them.
        
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Resilience:
    
    
    
    
    • Through underworld dealings, the smuggler has learned to build immunities against various diseases and poisons, as well as a better understanding of tricks designed to inhibit him.
      
      
      
      
      • Poison/Disease/State resists that are all-inclusive, and allows smugglers to better resist and recover from the various negative effects in the game.
        
      
      
      • Another Option is calling this 'Bravado' and having high resists granted against Intimidation or delays instead.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Opportunist:
    
    
    
    
    • Essentially an ability that will allow smugglers to trade freely with opposing factions, regardless of affiliation or Overt status.
      
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Connections:
    
    
    
    
    • Allow smugglers through their connections and various factions, gain knowledge of when a Bounty Hunter has accepted a mission to take them out.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Pilot’s Empathy:
    
    
    
    
    • Proper use of this skill would allow smugglers to find a transport for themselves and their group members without having to wait for the normal starport shuttle by appealing to the Ticket Collector to find them another pilot with a ship, who would be willing to take them for a fee.
      
    
    
    • Depending on how much time is left till the shuttle arrives, the droid will deny the request.
      
    
    
    • Party members should be prompted if they wish to travel at that time.
      

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=90886&page=1

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This message is an attempt to spark discussion in the community.

Instead of sitting idle, it wouldn't hurt to keep a discussion going for GM to read sometime...

***If anything is improperly documented, I apologize, if Caylin or GM would like to start a better post, please do so. Sparking discussion on the forums is not a talent of mine

Message Edited by DigiDante on 07-18-2004 04:20 PM

Message Edited by DigiDante on 07-18-2004 04:22 PM