Forums » Suggestions
Dynamic smuggler missions
I would like smuggling missions that are created in the same way as escort missions. I would like to get a mission from corvus asking me to acquire Serco ale, without serco's permission.
Where would they be? - Any Corvus station of course. Corvus is a fairly powerful syndicate, but everyone loves buying things without having to pay all those damned corrupt customs officers. Therefore Corvus has decided that it's time to enlist the help of grey MySpace's finest smugglers.
What would you be smuggling? - Any commodity/weapon that is only available in nation space, ie Serco ale for those cold night at Sedina V, or perhaps Corvus feels that their pilots need more firepower in which case they'll have you acquire Gauss mk3's, anything that would otherwise hassle Corvus with endless customs.
But that sounds just like a normal procurement mission, where's the fun? - ah yes, now to get to what will truly make it smuggling. Whenever leaving the target nations station or at their border wh there is an increasing chance that a customs officer and a strike force will stop you for a surprise "inspection" if you have the goods in your inventory then he will ask you to jettison them an you would fail the mission. If you fail to comply to his demands by flying away or not doing it fast enough then he will order the strike force to zap you out of the sky.
Drop in faction standing? - Now, this isn't necessary but it's certainly ideal for the smuggler rp. When you do a smuggler mission and are stopped your standing with the target nation will drop by a little bit until it reaches dislike.
What kinda credit profit rewards are we talking here? - Corvus will reward more for missions of higher commodity value as well as the level of danger. If your hauling 120 crates of dantia spices and are stopped by a customs officer then your reward will be much higher than if you quickly fly in an out of nation space with 10 Pyronis Farming kits adjacent even stopped.
I think that smuggling missions like this can also be replicated fairly nicely by the pcc while the devs try to make them dynamic, so if not a dynamic part of factions I'd love to see this type of mission created by the PCC please.
Where would they be? - Any Corvus station of course. Corvus is a fairly powerful syndicate, but everyone loves buying things without having to pay all those damned corrupt customs officers. Therefore Corvus has decided that it's time to enlist the help of grey MySpace's finest smugglers.
What would you be smuggling? - Any commodity/weapon that is only available in nation space, ie Serco ale for those cold night at Sedina V, or perhaps Corvus feels that their pilots need more firepower in which case they'll have you acquire Gauss mk3's, anything that would otherwise hassle Corvus with endless customs.
But that sounds just like a normal procurement mission, where's the fun? - ah yes, now to get to what will truly make it smuggling. Whenever leaving the target nations station or at their border wh there is an increasing chance that a customs officer and a strike force will stop you for a surprise "inspection" if you have the goods in your inventory then he will ask you to jettison them an you would fail the mission. If you fail to comply to his demands by flying away or not doing it fast enough then he will order the strike force to zap you out of the sky.
Drop in faction standing? - Now, this isn't necessary but it's certainly ideal for the smuggler rp. When you do a smuggler mission and are stopped your standing with the target nation will drop by a little bit until it reaches dislike.
What kinda credit profit rewards are we talking here? - Corvus will reward more for missions of higher commodity value as well as the level of danger. If your hauling 120 crates of dantia spices and are stopped by a customs officer then your reward will be much higher than if you quickly fly in an out of nation space with 10 Pyronis Farming kits adjacent even stopped.
I think that smuggling missions like this can also be replicated fairly nicely by the pcc while the devs try to make them dynamic, so if not a dynamic part of factions I'd love to see this type of mission created by the PCC please.
I think maybe if the idea was changed a bit... like rather than smuggle goods that really aren't illegal, data pads are used to siphon government secrets back to Corvus prime in odia. Upon taking the mission, you would receive a message from an npc of the nation which the mission designated you are to smuggle secrets from and to meet in a given sector close to the faction's capital. Upon you jumping in he would drop a data pad containing classified data. You have to kill him or he'll alert the government that you stole the data pad to throw them off his scent. Otherwise you have a minute or two head start.
The given faction's government becomes aware of the data theft and dispatches patrol ships to each wormhole under it's control. Like mentioned above, this may lead up to being inspected and discovered carrying the data pad. Though, i would change it to cause an immediate temp KOS for the faction standing and you are smuggling from. Docking at any point in the mission is not allowed (including tridents)
There would be no need to force a drop in standing as once you are temp KOS, you are likely to have to kill some of that faction's guards ..which would result in standing loss not returned once the Temp KOS is over.
The dynamic part can be the reward. Based on any number of factors ... but given a huge range in the form of credits.
Unless you are suggesting that a character would only get smuggling missions visible to them if it's for a nation that they are hated in, then maybe the goods method would work. But i think that may end up getting a little weird when you consider UIT can trade easily with all nations and negate the entire need for them to pay a premium to have it "smuggled"
The given faction's government becomes aware of the data theft and dispatches patrol ships to each wormhole under it's control. Like mentioned above, this may lead up to being inspected and discovered carrying the data pad. Though, i would change it to cause an immediate temp KOS for the faction standing and you are smuggling from. Docking at any point in the mission is not allowed (including tridents)
There would be no need to force a drop in standing as once you are temp KOS, you are likely to have to kill some of that faction's guards ..which would result in standing loss not returned once the Temp KOS is over.
The dynamic part can be the reward. Based on any number of factors ... but given a huge range in the form of credits.
Unless you are suggesting that a character would only get smuggling missions visible to them if it's for a nation that they are hated in, then maybe the goods method would work. But i think that may end up getting a little weird when you consider UIT can trade easily with all nations and negate the entire need for them to pay a premium to have it "smuggled"
That sounds like a spy/espionage mission. While that's a very good a and fun idea it's not what I had in mind. I was thinking more along the line of a proc mission with a twist. The missions I detailed would require a behemoth for the large ones or a centaur/atlas for the small ones. Its not supposed to be about killing guards in your way, it's about getting through without dying or outsmarting them somehow.
Requiring a ship with a large cargo hold and filling that hold makes it truly smuggling ;)
The rp reason is because Corvus doesn't want to pay the customs fees that come with shipping it out of greyspace. That doesn't sound weird, they're profit hungry and not afraid of the law.
Requiring a ship with a large cargo hold and filling that hold makes it truly smuggling ;)
The rp reason is because Corvus doesn't want to pay the customs fees that come with shipping it out of greyspace. That doesn't sound weird, they're profit hungry and not afraid of the law.
I think the confusion with your RP desires is that currently the player doesn't experience customs fees for taking goods across borders.
I guess if you made it such that the mission you take in Corvus requests you go to a specific station in the given faction that has the goods they are asking you to smuggle. Once you reach that station, the mission would load your ship up with the goods (however much can fit) free of charge via covert Corvus personnel and in this way you provide the more visible dodging of paying the fees and give reason why you are being looked for, inspected, and penalized if caught.
It's not so much stealing, since you will have a number of credits deducted to pay off the inside-man but it's less than the cost of buying outright would be. much less. It still wont fully retcon the game into making trading between faction spaces across the board more expensive since you dont pass through checkpoints to get taxed when taking goods across boarders but it's better than having no obvious reason why you are being hassled while still in nation space (ie, why the game is reacting to your smuggling when you haven't left the faction space yet to be considered a "smuggler").
The only other option is to invent "illegal" goods that you smuggle INTO faction space from corvus. Now that would be fully in line with your idea and not require any retconning of the economic model.
I guess if you made it such that the mission you take in Corvus requests you go to a specific station in the given faction that has the goods they are asking you to smuggle. Once you reach that station, the mission would load your ship up with the goods (however much can fit) free of charge via covert Corvus personnel and in this way you provide the more visible dodging of paying the fees and give reason why you are being looked for, inspected, and penalized if caught.
It's not so much stealing, since you will have a number of credits deducted to pay off the inside-man but it's less than the cost of buying outright would be. much less. It still wont fully retcon the game into making trading between faction spaces across the board more expensive since you dont pass through checkpoints to get taxed when taking goods across boarders but it's better than having no obvious reason why you are being hassled while still in nation space (ie, why the game is reacting to your smuggling when you haven't left the faction space yet to be considered a "smuggler").
The only other option is to invent "illegal" goods that you smuggle INTO faction space from corvus. Now that would be fully in line with your idea and not require any retconning of the economic model.
Contraband would also make scanner spoofers and blockers a bit more useful...
Either works. My main desire is generic dangerous combat misions that require a cargo ship and hauling of goods. The rp details can be polished later.
+1 to this
Make spices and hootch contraband with systems that have like products. For instance, Bethashee spices should be contraband in Divinia and Pelatus, etc.. Dau wine should be contraband in Deneb. Deneb rum should be contraband in both Serco space and Dau, and so on.
Certain weapons could also be made illegal. Moving AAPs to Deneb... ineubis defense systems to Serco space...
The real trick is how to make them contraband I suppose. It would probably mean that Guards and Strike Force have the ability to scan your cargo if withing 1000 m. Or maybe 500 since they're in Vults and might have smaller scanners. Perhaps the smuggler needs to remain 1500 m from Nation capital ships, 1000 m from WTDs, and 500 from Vults to avoid being scanned. If scanned and contraband detected, the pilot has the opportunity to run, dump the load, or fight with varied degrees of faction loss.
Smuggling should pay well and smuggling missions should have some lucrative rewards at the end of the mission tree.
Make spices and hootch contraband with systems that have like products. For instance, Bethashee spices should be contraband in Divinia and Pelatus, etc.. Dau wine should be contraband in Deneb. Deneb rum should be contraband in both Serco space and Dau, and so on.
Certain weapons could also be made illegal. Moving AAPs to Deneb... ineubis defense systems to Serco space...
The real trick is how to make them contraband I suppose. It would probably mean that Guards and Strike Force have the ability to scan your cargo if withing 1000 m. Or maybe 500 since they're in Vults and might have smaller scanners. Perhaps the smuggler needs to remain 1500 m from Nation capital ships, 1000 m from WTDs, and 500 from Vults to avoid being scanned. If scanned and contraband detected, the pilot has the opportunity to run, dump the load, or fight with varied degrees of faction loss.
Smuggling should pay well and smuggling missions should have some lucrative rewards at the end of the mission tree.
Other contraband items we already have that just need to treated like it include Sedina Chocolates and Corvus Holos. There are also those Serco and Itani training disks that I sometimes find convoys hauling around.