Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Id say the best way to make smuggling a profession would be to make more things illegal throughout the 4 empires. Or have the empires customs enforce taxes on incoming materials and things to sell that are coming from outside their space. This would cause a Freighter pilot from Amarr to pay X % money of his goods upon entering Caldari space to sell the stuff at Jita but only if they are caught and Scrammed by the customs ships *Pretty much a freighter would end up paying every time* . Id almost say that Customs will only stop in systems with a Certain Sec status to be determined. Your smugglers intent is to avoid paying the taxes in space will be fast ships or cloak ships fitted with warp core stabs and what not in order to run away from these customs agents and make it to the Hubs to sell the goods. And by not paying the Tax for Importing goods they are able to make enough of a profit to be Viable.

This is just an idea no set numbers but just saying if there was import taxes for things coming through the eve universe or more illegal things then smuggling would become an easier profession to create

The customs would be doing the stops in trade hubs is what im thinking not each system along the way. This is just a basic idea that still needs some work

Also have certain Skills in the Trade tree that reduce the amount you pay on the taxes

Its less fun for the freighter pilots who passively move through space. The smuggler would be the person to use to avoid having to pay the taxes. And i know you mentioned more illegal stuff that's why I did not go much into it

That's the point of my licenses. Freighter pilots could just store a license and slowboat their comfy little behinds from gate to gate without a care like they normally do. Licenses are a tax by another name. I was just suggesting other ways to go about getting them. Import taxes would nearly guarantee extra overhead on tons of items without really requireing extra gameplay.

Got ya. Tarrifed, excised, taxed, tolled, levied ... perhaps.

Not sure how well it will go over though with regards to faction items. Might go over well though with regards to things like boosters.

Lots of players wander all over high sec, from War decers to cosmos runners and incursion folks with faction things and ammo and what not. I suspect many of them would not be happy for being taxed on what amounts to "day to day" items. I do understand your perspective and do see it would add some depth, just not sure it is depth in the right area.

Grandma wanting to take some candy home for the kiddies vrs Pablo Escabar's 'Girl friend' with a balloon full of coke up her whoohaa.

Not sure we want them to be quite the same thing.

Holy text wall, Batman

1) Making faction ammo illegal in non-race space is a BAD idea. An OUTRAGEOUSLY bad idea.

Faction ammo is a standard ammo of PvP. Almost every ship I fly, and everyone I know flies, in PvP uses some form of faction ammo.

However, PIRATE faction ammo is not a standard ammo of PvP and is currently underused because it is outrageously expensive even though it is superior. If it were to be reduced in price and then made illegal, that would make more sense without completely ******* the market up.

2) Messing too much with the nature of Navy LP is a BAD IDEA.

T1 -> Navy Faction -> T2 -> Pirate Faction is the cost scheme of ships in EVE, and a precarious one at that. If navy faction ships costed more then T2 ships, or so similar it doesn't matter, I don't see anyone flying them. Making this LP too cheap, or saturating the market with goods, would similarly destroy the budding new profession of FW Plex Runners. And, as much as I hate those triple WCS, risk-free carebears ruining my PvP-designed system, they still bring a lot of targets to lowsec.

3) Importing things from lowsec to highsec that pertain to PvP is also a bad idea. It would be less of a profession and more of a niche alt perma-occupation for wealthy war dec'ers. If you want things produced in low sec and imported to high sec en masse, you make it pertain to the making of isk. (Because, let's face it, most of the people in highsec are in highsec to make some isk)

NOW FOR CONSTRUCTIVE THINGS:

Why has no one made the distinction between regular and regional gates? Countries don't stop and check you routinely on every highway, they stop and check you at the border. Smuggling should be done through regional gates, but once it's into that region they should have free reign. Because if you have the best ship evarrr but you can't jump to the next system (for that elusive WT or an out of system mission) it defeats the point both in PvP and PvE.

I also like your licencing idea. Failed smuggling shouldn't end in the loss of your expensive cargo altogether, just the unfortunate extra overheard of bribing the gate guards. +1 on that point

After mulling over this topic, I think I've come up with my own smuggling ideas. This system would focus on interactivity and charisma-based skills

OVERVIEW:
Reason for smuggling: New drugs have been found that make it easier to gain lp/get salvage/mine more quickly/etc. that have caused a huge demand for drugs in high sec.

Let's say I'm a smuggler who is leaving station in lowsec with a cargohold full of illegal goods

Gate into high sec (regional): 50/50 chance (at max skills, chances are also changed by how much illegal stuff I'm bringing in) I trip the stargate's internal sensors when I try and jump through the gate. If I do trip them, I have to hack the gate through the hacking interface in order to get through the gate.

Gates to my destination (not regional, also changed by illegality): 25% chance at max skills a customs officer notices some strange readings in my cargohold and starts a conversation with me to investigate (new minigame)

New Minigame:
The customs officer talks to me and I'm given a series of choices in responses (like in Deus Ex). My skills will color these responses Green (for most likely a good response) and red (most likely to **** him off). I'm prompted a few times, following a dialogue with this customs officer, and if I make him happy he lets me jump through the gate. If I **** him off a little bit, I may have to bribe him a small fee. If I **** him off a bunch I can show him my cargo licence (mentioned in previous posts, consumable item) to ward him off. If I **** him off a whole lot (only in the most dire of situations) he flags me as attackable to bounty hunters (players with special licences in their holds that allow them to help out the custom's officials) and attacks me. (strong NPC that stops your jump and scrams you, but doesn't do a whole lot of damage to you, could be beneficial to have an escort along in case things don't go your way)

Illegality of your cargohold: The more estimated isk worth of illegal items in your cargohold/higher m3 of illegal items changes the chances of being detected. So, if you're solo, you can handle small amounts of illegal cargo on your own in a small ship and try your luck getting past the gate without needing a hack and hoping your cargo won't be detected. But, if you have an enormous amount of drugs to move, the chances would be extremely low you'd get by without a hack, and it would be obvious to the guards. So what do you do? You can either make tons of small trips, setup lots of black market courier contracts, or make one huge trip with lots of buddies! Imagine a convoy of player ships fighting against increasingly difficult NPCs every jump, repping their freighter, trying to make it to their destination!



Now does that sound like a Han Solo -eque system to you? Having to hack your way into high sec, talk your way past the guards, and even fight your way out with a buddy if things don't go your way?



Positives of this idea:
Another use of the current hacking system
All skills for smuggling are Charisma-based, finally making it something other then the bastard child of attributes
Interactivity means that this wouldn't be simply be an alt profession of loading up your stuff and having random rolls decide whether you succeed or not
Having a buddy along lets you fight your way out if things go bad

Emergent Gameplay:
If you get stuck hacking a gate, someone could show up to that gate and shoot you!
If you produce lots of drugs but can't move them yourself, you could set up black market courier contracts (collateral being +10% of the estimated value of the items and automatically set) and have dedicated smugglers move your products for you!
Bounty Hunters would get yet another use by sending spies into drug-producing corps and forming up fleets, all with these special Bounty Hunter licences, to hit their convoys!

What do you guys think?

EDIT:
Every NPC Customs officer could have his reactions colored by his race, introducing players to EVE lore and letting them get to know the everyday mindset of the faction.

The longer you take to respond the more red the options get, so you can't alt tab to a player-guide and figure out all the answers

EDIT: Skills involved

Stargate Operations: Reduces the chance of tripping a stargate's internal sensors
Amarr Lore: Further colors options based on your knowledge of Amarr lore (caldari/gallente/minmatar lore skills as well)
Indiscreet Propulsion/Smuggler holds/etc. : To reduce the chance of a Custom's official stopping you

I think Gorgoth did a pretty good job. It is just going to get a lot of resistance from the community and it will be very unpopular.

Now this second thing about licenses. If every NPC convoy ship dropped a few, and they could be sold on the market, and they were consumed, one per infraction event (event being caught, regardless of how much or how many) then it might not be too big a hassle. The availability of these things would need to be very good and they shouldn't cost an arm and a leg, but should be high enough to induce people to spend the time chasing around NPC convoys and screwing up their standings with various NPC corps.

I still think the best route would be setting up some sort of Import taxes in the empire space and work from there to make smuggling into a profession. Smugglers bring the stuff in to avoid the taxes imposed on the goods. And or legality of it. This would make diplomacy/trade skills important to freighter pilots to lower their tax rates when they deal with customs. While the Smuggler does what they can to avoid the taxes. Difference between the 2 is that the freighter is going to be able to haul more goods than the smuggler but have to pay customs for the importation

While being a trader who is a criminal may not be something that is planned, why not be a trader evading criminals?

I think the link in my signature is something that could partly fulfill what players want from smuggling.

My idea would create an uneven economic landscape, the ability for players to influence the outcome, and a obstacle to be evaded when transporting materials.

As a drug smuggler, I'd want drugs removed from highsec station listings (if they are illegal, why can we sell them on the public markets in highsec?!?!)

Dust would open up a fairly decent additional market for boosters too.

Smuggling is already fairly decent in PvP sense.

But for black markets to form, or to allow drug deals to be done more player to player (with a dealer) which is how we operate you really need to pull illegal narcotics off the highsec markets.

Our corp has posted several times over the years with good ideas on highsec smuggling. But its such a niche area. To be honest it doesnt work if everyone is doing it and its a massive primary feature. The entire alure and appeal of smuggling and drugs is its niche, unknown and rare.