Smuggler Archive
Thread: Heres a few more ideas! Dont just pass this one up like you did the one before it.
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Col_Osiris
Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:38 am
#1
This is small portion of proposed revamp ideas that I have written. This particular piece deals with Smugglers, but I think its good to throw in the pot. Also, you should check out the original post to have a look deeper into some more ideas I have.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=GCW&message.id=292809
On the other hand, Smuggling has absolutely nothing to do with precision. Its all about the slight of hand and at the same time abrupt "in your face". How many times can someone blast at this guy and how many times will that guy get hit? Therefore Speed is essential. Also, because Smuggler is half combat and mechanical engineer, they need to have at least 6 Levels in Artisan. Why Artisan? Well, thats simple.
Smuggler: 6 Levels in either Brawler or Marksman; 6 Levels in Artisan
4 Levels of General Speed - player gains General Speed and also gets Abilities which allow them to adjust how much damage they do
4 Levels of Swidling - governs how well the Smuggler is at the craft of Spices, effectiveness at Slices, and how capable they are at Negotiating and the Ability to Smuggle
4 Levels of Smuggler Abilities - player gains Smuggler Abilities and the Ability to designate a personal weapon
4 Levels of General Defense - player gains defense mods that adjust not only their difficulty vs attack, but also adjust their HAM because of physical conditioning
4 Levels of General Speed - player gains General Speed and also gets Abilities which allow them to adjust how much damage they do
4 Levels of Swidling - governs how well the Smuggler is at the craft of Spices, effectiveness at Slices, and how capable they are at Negotiating and the Ability to Smuggle
4 Levels of Smuggler Abilities - player gains Smuggler Abilities and the Ability to designate a personal weapon
4 Levels of General Defense - player gains defense mods that adjust not only their difficulty vs attack, but also adjust their HAM because of physical conditioning
Alright! There are a few interesting things to take notice here. Number one, there is no Accuracy mod, but there is a Speed mod, and there is a Damage Adjustment Ability. First, the cool part. There is no Accuracy mod because the lifestyle of a Smuggler is so fast paced, there is no time to aim. Shoot first, shoot second, shoot some more, and when everybody is dead, ask questions. However, because there is no Accuracy mod, there is also no additional Damage. The truth is, if a Smuggler takes time to aim, shes using up a lot of time she could be using to take another shot. Better odds that way. No matter, because she can Overcharge her weapon to produce more Damage at the cost of the Power Pack on the weapon.
(Note: The Overchage works the same way as it always does. Only difference is, that unlike a Speed Overcharge, where the player is using more Power because of an increase in the amount of attacks being made, a Damage Overcharge will cause more Power to be depleted when firing normally and considerably more when using a Special Attack. Its not making you shoot faster, its making you use more Power to increase the damage output. Secondly, unlike the Accuracy Adjustment Abilities, you are not adjusting the Target Distance. You are simply allowing the weapon to use more Power to increase the strength of the attack.)
Now, Smugglers have the Abilities to create Spices and also Slice weapons. Slices will be reserved for allowing the player to temporarily increase their mods. For instance, a Chef made food or drink focuses mainly on Buffing a players resistance to a specific kind of attack like Knockdown and aids in HAM boosts. Spices will increase specific mods such as Aiming or Speed for a temporary time. The effects wont have anything to do with your weapon, so its not putting any extra strain on it. The effects will have to do with your Accuracy and Speed mods. The drawback to using these wont actually happen until after the effect wears out. An example of how an encounter would happen when using Spice.
Your Accuracy is at 50. Which means your ability to hit your target and how much damage you do are calculated with a value of 50. Well, this is a pretty tough opponent so youre going to need a little extra umph. Well, you are already using your Accuracy Adjustment mods, and youre able to Kite the Opponent more succesfully. Well, the thing is, youre doing the damage you should be doing, but youre still just not able to hit them as often as youd like. No matter, you just pop in some Accuracy Improvement Spice (not actual name) and suddenly you have a temporary boost in your 'To Hit' mod from Accuracy. This is great because now youre able to hit the opponent more often, and youre doing great damage! YAY! Oh no, the Spcie has a countereffect!? Well, it seems you stressed your senses just a little too much. As a result, youre recieving a draw back in Accuracy thats going to last a few minutes. Well, its a good thing you took out that Gurk. It would have had you for sure.
This is one way a Spice could effect someone. Also, Spice crafting and its quality is affected through the Domestic Arts in Artisan.
Spice is also illegal! Good thing a Smuggler can Smuggle! Your Smuggling Ability will be improved through the Swindling tree mostly, but also through the Business tree of Artisan. This Ability is mainly an Ability that allows you to 'size up' how much discretion youll need to carry up to a certain limit of Illegal goods with no chance of being caught. Anything more than that limit will be affected by your Ability, but doesnt always pass a search because there is always a great risk involved. For instance, if your Smuggling Ability is at 75 (after factoring in all mods from both Business and Swindling) then you will be able to guarantee that 75% of your goods will not be detected. Furthermore, the more you can guarantee, the less risk the stuff you cant guarentee will be at. So, if you can guarantee 75%, then the unguarentee has a 75% chance of not being detected. If your Ability is at 25. then you can guarantee 25%, and what you cant guarantee has a 25% chance of being detected. If you are caught, then the cargo you cannot guarantee is tallied up on a danger scale.
The Danger Level will be calculated through a means of the quality of goods. Every ten units of Spice will be counted as one. Every individual weapon and piece of Sliced armor will be counted as equivilent to their Grade. The points will be tallied together and then will fall under the Danger Level meter.
Quality Grade
Grade E - 1point
Grade D - 3 point
Grade C - 5 points
Grade B - 7 points
Grade A - 10 points
Grade S - 15 points
Grade E - 1point
Grade D - 3 point
Grade C - 5 points
Grade B - 7 points
Grade A - 10 points
Grade S - 15 points
Danger Level
1 -25 - AFee, not to exceed 5,000 credits, will be demanded as a Transit Tax. If the playerdoes not comply, then she is to be placed under arrest.
25 - 50 - ASmallFee no less than 5,000 credits, not to exceed 10,000, creditswill be demanded as a Transit Tax. If the playerdoes not comply, then she is to be placed under arrest.
1 -25 - AFee, not to exceed 5,000 credits, will be demanded as a Transit Tax. If the playerdoes not comply, then she is to be placed under arrest.
25 - 50 - ASmallFee no less than 5,000 credits, not to exceed 10,000, creditswill be demanded as a Transit Tax. If the playerdoes not comply, then she is to be placed under arrest.
50 - 75 - AMedium Fee, no less than 10,000 credits, not to exceed 15,000 credits, will be demanded as a Transit Tax. If the playerdoes not comply, then she is to be placed under arrest.
75 - 100 - Reinforcements willarrive via dropship,and aLarge Fee,no less that20,000 credits, not to exceed 30,000 credits will be demanded as a Transit Tax. If theplayer does not comply,then sheis to be placed under arrest andconfiscation of illegal substances willcommence.
100 + - Reinforcements willarrive via dropship,and aHeavyFee,no less that40,000 credits, not to exceed 50,000 credits will be demanded as a Transit Tax.If the playerdoes not comply,then sheis to be placed under arrest, confiscation of illegal substances willcommence, and theplayer will be placed on the Bounty Hunter Terminals as a known Broker of illegal goods under a classification of their Profession.
At this point, the Bounty Hunter has options. They will know when they accept a mission what Profession the target is. If the target is only a buyer (in other words, not a Smuggler), thenthe Bounty Hunter may choose to let the target live in exchange for information;who their broker is.If the target accepts the terms, then the Bounty Hunter's mission is updated to that of the Smuggler which sold the goods. The Bounty Hunter will lose any reward from the mission, but they will serve to teachthe Smuggler a lesson.This is of course all Role Playing, and the persons involved can either choose to accept the terms or not, but the thing is, its Role Playing the GAME allows them to participate in. Its not just something made up. Maybe the Bounty Hunter is looking for a particular Smuggler. Maybe she has a soft heart for the victims of modernday destructivetemptations. Who knows? The thing is this does three things. One, it emphasizes the risks involved with carrying illegal goods, second, it creates a Role Playing opportunity for everyone, and three it makes the Smuggler pick who is a worthy person to sell their goods to. They dont want just any old Joe ratting them out, and they dont want their goods to be bought by everybody and their brother off a vender because they dont know who that person is. For one, this keeps illegal items from being out in the open all over the place, and also keeps deals where they should be, in the back allies. This is good fun and great design I think.
(Note: All players are subject to these rules except for Imperials. They will not have a consequence if they are caught with less tan 50 units of illegal goods. As a reiteration, Smugglers will be able to gurantee or successfully hide reguardless of outcome to a percentage of that which is equal to their Smuggling Ability. If they are scanned only that which is not guaranteed is scanned, and if it IS scanned, those goods will have a chance of successfully being Smuggled, equal to percentage of that which was guaranteed. This is effectign everyone because everyone will at some point or another be scanned. If you arent a Smuggler, you still have a chance to not be caught, but this figure is minmal, and cannot be improved just through Leveling in Survey. It only calculates when you have the Smuggle Ability.)
(Note: Business is used here because it takes some pretty fast talking to hide such a large cargo. The more Business skills you have, the more you can convince a Stormtrooper that, "You dont need to scan my inventory. These arent the goods youre looking for. I can go about my business.." without the help of some hokey religion. A Smuggler relies on his Business sense to help him understand what 'officials' look for and what they dont. Good thing for you, you know that them finding a little shipment is better than them finding none. If they didnt find anything, that might raise suspision resulting in you getting scanned more often that the average Joe - thats a less than obvious hint to the drawbacks to being a Smuggler lol.)
Now that that is out of the way, on to Slicing. Slicing will stay for the most part, the same. However, the player will have control over what aspect of the unit they are slicing will be. For instance, they can choose to either Slice the Weapon Speed on a gun, the Encumbrance on armor (will discuss later), or the Damage on a weapon, but they can only choose this once on any unit. Furthermore, the unit can only be attempted to be sliced once and if it fails, it fails. The outcome of the Slice will be completely random as well..... to a certain extent. The Smuggler now has the Ability Scoundrels Word. This Ability allows the Scoundrel to 'guarantee' a certain amount of enhancement on a unit which will be affected by the Survey tree in the Artisan Class. For instance:
Scoundrels Word:
Level 1 - guarantees a Grade E Slice - results in a 1 - 10% increase in performance with a 55% chance of success
Level 2 - guarantees a Grade D Slice - results in a 10 - 20% increase in performance with a 45% chance of success
Level 3 - guarantees a Grade C Slice - results in a 20 - 30% increase in performance with a 35% chance of success
Level 4 - guarantees a Grade B Slice - results in a 30 - 40% increase in performance with a 25% chance of success
Level 5 - guarantees a Grade A Slice - results in a 40 - 50% increase in performance with a 15% chance of success
Level 6 - guarantees a Grade S Slice - results in a maximum of 50 - 55% increase in performance with a 5% chance of success
Level 1 - guarantees a Grade E Slice - results in a 1 - 10% increase in performance with a 55% chance of success
Level 2 - guarantees a Grade D Slice - results in a 10 - 20% increase in performance with a 45% chance of success
Level 3 - guarantees a Grade C Slice - results in a 20 - 30% increase in performance with a 35% chance of success
Level 4 - guarantees a Grade B Slice - results in a 30 - 40% increase in performance with a 25% chance of success
Level 5 - guarantees a Grade A Slice - results in a 40 - 50% increase in performance with a 15% chance of success
Level 6 - guarantees a Grade S Slice - results in a maximum of 50 - 55% increase in performance with a 5% chance of success
When using Scoundrels Word, the Slice will be 'guaranteed' or Locked to acheive a specific result. Which means you designate what Grade of a weapon you are wanting. Youre essentiall Gambling. If you have a Slicing score of 100 (which is pretty good by the way) after tallying up your Swindling and Engineering (from Artisan) mods, then that score will be affected by the chance of the Grade you are trying to Slice. Meaning, if your score is 100 and you are trying to make a Grade S slice, then you have a 5% chance of success. Well, that means that if a 'roll' is made (which by the way, just as a reminder, is affected by the Force), and that roll is less that 5, then you succeed in your Slice. If it is more than 5, you fail. If you attempt a Grade C slice, with a 35% chance of success, then the roll will need to be less than 35. If the slice fails, then the unit isnt affected and cannot be Sliced again. If it succeeds, then your Scoundrels Word mod, tallied along with your Survey mods, will determine how much of a success it is in that Grades increase percentage. The more you put into Survey, the higher your final score.
(Note: It is reasonable to assume that not every Smuggler will be able to successfully attempt a Grade S Slice. This is because not every Smuggler is exactly the same. Ive tried to create a sense of individuality here with this system. I think it follows through with every Profession, but none so much as the Smuggler. This is because Smugglers are more 'loud mouth' in nature and because they are a 'Wild Card' to the economy, just like the Force is a 'Wild Card' in the balance of the game, just like Jedi are a 'Wild Card' to the balance in combat.)
(Note: A Smuggler doesnt even need to use Scoundrels Word if they dont want to. Its simply by choice. They still get to choose what part of the unit they want to slice, but after that, it is a completely random 'roll' based on the Skill Level the Smuggler has in Slicing and Engineering.)
Now, as far as the rest of Smuggler is concerned, its business as usual.... except for one teensy detail. Smugglers do not have Weapon Specializations. This is because number one, they arent exactly a Combat Profession, but they arent exactly NOT a Combat Profession. Two, because they arent exactly a Combat class, they give this up to have a more significant roll in the GCW economy, furthermore, their nature is to avoid conflict. Three, because they ARE a Combat Class, they also arent afraid of a ".... straight up fight.". So, what does this mean? Well, a Smuggler, like Bounty Hunter, will choose whether to be Brawler or Marksman. How far they choose to go into that is at their discretion. Furthermore, because they dont specialize in a specific Weapon Type, they also dont have very many Weapon Certifications. This is another reason why you recieve Weapon Certifications in the Profession and why you reicieve Weapon Grade Certifications in your Class. A Smuggler has to decide whether they want to be more Combat docused or more Economy focused. If they want to be more Economy focused, then they are more or less applying themselves more into Slicing, Smuggling, Spices, and things of that nature at the expense of Combat. On the other hand, if they are more Combat Focused, they do recieve some nice Combat Abilities, so they should probably hit up another Profession and try to become pretty good with a specific wepaon. This is why most Smugglers choose a specific 'trusty' weapon they carry around allt he time. Or, they could be a hybrid of both, and be not great at either one, but not too shabby. Sure, they have a serious peice of hardware strapped on in their holster, ready to be drawn to blast the ears off a Gundarp, "..... but even they get boarded somtimes."
(Note: Its not uncommon to see Smugglers run around with a body guard or best friend that is more Combat oriented than they are. Some Smugglers choose to be the best they can be as far as their craft is concerned, and just let them worry about pulling the arms out of the sockets of any unwelcome droids or Bounty Hunters that come along. Speaking of which, TEFs will behave differently from now on. Ill get back to those.)
So, because a Smuggler doesnt have Special Weapon Certifications, she can designate one weapon at a time, that she is certified in, as her Personal Weapon. This Personal Weapon will be no different than any other weapon except that when she uses it, the weapon is enhanced in Accuracy, Speed, and Damage, that is also stacked on top of a Slice. The other side to this is that the when used, the weapon uses a little more Power to operate than it normally would.
(Note: A weapon designated as a Personal Weapon may not be traded or sold on a Vendor.)
maxtheusher
Mon Jan 03, 2005 10:20 am
#2
very detailed, some good ideas in there. I saw something about the Force being involved, that's got to go 
Col_Osiris
Mon Jan 03, 2005 11:08 am
#3
Did you read the rest of it? It explains why you read something about the Force. Its not just what it seems. Theres a reason for it to be there.
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