Smuggling, and Cargo running

Not sure how to explain what I mean by this idea. But, I was thinking about some sort of actual item or system. Where-as the officials would board the ship and arrest you if you were transfering illegal cargo. Like Han Solo, where he was boarded by the imperials and forced to drop his load of spice which caused Jabba to put a bounty on him.

Some sort of system, or security thing. Like I said, I can’t explain to the idea.

It would also be cool if there were more contraband cargos than spice. And make them illegal on certain planets but legal on others.

The legal planets you wont get much for them, but the planets that they’re illegal on, would be harder to get them there.

When you jump into that system, there could be NPC ships there that ‘scan’ your cargo, and if you’re found to be carrying any one of the contraband items to that planet they’d either board your ship/strip your cargo/fine you or just open fire (depending on the extremity of the illegal good). Spice being say medium threat, where as stolen goods (IE: stolen datapads) would be low threat and weapons (IE: Illegal Blasters) would be a high threat. Nar Shadaa/Nal Hutta would be the main ports to pick these goods up, and PC ‘cops’ could patrol that space and the space known to pay the most for them. Doing all this would essentially create smugglers and Blockade runners, and leading to an immense increase in space RP, rather than just "Target ship" "spam fire".

But then a component would have to be created called "Scanner proof cargo holds" or some such, for the more sly smugglers to purchase, which would be expensive, but would take the place of regular cargo holds, where as a blatant blockade runner wouldn’t bother with that but just try to punch his way through a blockade. Which would lead to some piloting skills.
In the Starwars: Starships of the Galaxy roleplaying resource book, a blockade runner is:

The blockade runner is to space transports what the starfighter ace is to smaller ships. She’s a master of ships that are normally overlooked as too big for hit-and-run tactics and too small for effective shields and firepower. In the hands of a blockade runner, space transports come to life as dangerous and versatile vessels able to outrun anything they can’t outfight. A blockade runner takes great pride in her ability to maneuver her ship in ways no capital ship could ever manage, while at the same time taking advantage of more weapons than a starfighter has room for. A blockade runner often creates new maneuvers on the spur of the moment, then proceeds to name them after herself and mention them to everyone she meets.

Most blockade runners are smugglers or couriers hired to guarantee that small shipments safely arrive at their destinations. A few are mercenaries, selling their services to the highest bidders. The main trait that unites blockade runners, beyond their choice of craft, is their need to test themselves. Some seek combat with all manner of opponents, while others are more interested in the challenge of escaping an overwhelmingly powerful force. Blockade runners constantly pus the envelope of what they can make their ships do, even at the risk of being killed by a slight miscalculation.

As a rule, a blockade runner operates with a copilot or alone-her ship is rarely part of a squadron or fleet. When she does work with a group, she’s generally at the vanguard of an attack run and in the thick of the fighting, regardless of her mission orders. The opportunity to prove herself superior to everyone else is at the heart of a blockade runner’s personality. Operating with others is just one more opportunity to show off.

Blockade Piloting skills could involve: (Note: These skills would only be accessible to a Pilot main. bolstered by specific race even IE duros, chiss, corellian). Or it could be a sub-class of Piloting, but just adding the skills at higher ranks would eliminate the need to create a whole new class.

Familiarity: (a blockade runner constantly flying on the edge of his seat and pushing his ship to it’s limits time and again would become more familiar with his ship). This could translate in game to having more maneuver/speed in a ship when you learn the skill. Automatic when you fly a ship you designate as your familiar ship. Has to be a ship you own. Not just pilot or co-pilot. And it can’t be changed afterward.

Familiar Defense: Like familiarity but for boosting shields.

Maneuver (Break tractor lock): this would essentially be a maneuver, like barrel-roll, that would allow a blockade runner to break a tractor beam on his ship, be it through sheer force of ship or maneuverability. Ect.

Just some thoughts.

The familiarity stuff would work out well as feats, but before you go giving speed and manuever boosts to pilot character, the amount of quota on the ships needs to be chopped in half!!!

Dude, you ROCK. That’s EXACTLY what I was looking for. Something such as that, it makes perfect sense and would make great feats/etc. How I see it, instead of like 2 feats per person. It should be like 1 feat, each feat would give access to several new skills or something, but branching piloting skills is a great idea too. Keep up with that, and we may have more interesting piloting mains then we do now. Cargo running is boring. Imperials don’t care what you run. Etc etc. Increases alot of RP.

[quote:x59f7b3x]Why? These skills would be hard to get to and well earned[/quote:x59f7b3x]

Well that’s the point. Feats you can’t research in a library/be taught by someone else/study a datachip. Ideally you would have to complete a quest before learning the skill.

[quote:x59f7b3x]As it is, what’s the point in being a pilot main? Aside from doing cargo runs, not a whole lot from what I see, and still yet, once you can pilot a cap … if your clan has one, you’ll never use mids again, less it’s to jump down to a planet. These skills/abilities would make it so more people strive to stay as a midship pilot.[/quote:x59f7b3x]

Well that’s exactly what I said in the other thread. There is no reason to be a piloting main. I’m not going to sit here and argue about the utility and usefulness of the skills and abilities, as that wasn’t my point.

[quote:x59f7b3x]Hell, could even branch the piloting class into three parts. Pilots who strive to become starfighter aces, blockade runners, and cap ship pilots. Choose one, forsake the other two. I think that’d be very realistic and entertaining.[/quote:x59f7b3x]

I would love to branch out on this concept more; I think it’s something that could also be adapted for engineering. Both classes (engineering + piloting) are so broad that it’d be possible to provide some sort of ‘subclass’ system for specialization. A whole seperate class might be wanky, but some sort of skill tree for different subclasses might work out.

I still love this idea. Branching engineering has always been a want for me. No more max level engineers that make everything. We need gunsmiths, demolitions, swordsmiths, armorsmiths, and ship techs. That’s why I refuse to learn any normal weapon skills aside from makegrenade and makelandmine. As well as some ship techs, like upgrading and stuff. I personally would want to be a demolitions man, who can perform minor ship modifications.

I agree engineering could use the branching system as well. Though, I don’t know the coders here, or coding in general, so these ideas could very well be too much to bother with. It’d just be nice to see a pilot main worth more than his weight in gold, in space, when compared to someone who isn’t a piloting main.

EDIT: Also along those lines, one aspect of engineering that would be awesome to see would be outlaw techs. Sure, upgrade ship allows someone to add on to their ship. An outlaw tech though, makes illegal modifications to those components, making them not only illegal via governing standards, but more lethal/protective/explosive/faster.