Re: Smuggler's Run

From: William McDuffie <bmcduff@worldnet.att.net>

Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 00:00:00 +0000

As another long-time player of SR, I thought I'd be remiss if I didn't
chime in on this discussion...

Quicksilver wrote:

> The interaction is on an informational basis for the most part. There is no
> way, for example to team up with a player for ANY action. You may give items/
> money, trade info, and attack each other's ships  There is little incentive for
> cooperation at this point, as there is little information to trade due to the
> dearth of special locations and items. I think of the game as almost a
> solitaire.

Quicksilver's absolutely right about this. There's little incentive for
players
to communicate at present: only an exchange of information about SO's is
of
any importance.  And since there's only about 6 of these in the game
world,
there's little enough of that.  The game *is* played solitaire, unless
you're
willing to attack other players, for which there's little reward.  For
example,
last week I considered waxing Quicksilver at Cor-Caroli <g>, then
thought:
what's the point?  The small bounty I would have received for doing so
wouldn't
have paid for the repairs to my ship...

>
> Things I would like to see:
> 1) A way for players to operate as a team, particularly when fighting pirates.
>     How about an order to steal from another player, an order to fight
>     hand to hand with another player, an order to train another player, and
>     more importantly, reasons to do so. Special orders that require a
>     team to get the item. etc, etc.

Great idea, but there'd need to be substantial rewards for all the team
members
for cooperating, ie. "reasons to do so."

> 2) More special items for color besides weapons and armor. Clues
>    about them and where they can be gotten obtainable by the
>    snoop order.

And special items that actually do mean something once you've gotten
them,
in terms of QPs or enhancements to attributes or abilities.  And the
possibility
of outfitting your crew members with special items as well.

> 3) The snoop action to actually provide useful information. I usually
>    (cancel that, make it always) get information on surplusses and
>    shortages in common goods I never deal in anyway as they make
>    little profit for an advanced smuggler.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but surpluses/shortages were taken out of the
game
long ago (to its detriment, IMHO), though they still appear on the
Bigelow's
Guide planet description when docking.

> 4) Undo the unlimited movement modification and have a maximum
>    move based on jump drive again. I don't even look at the map
>    anymore as everything is only one hop away.

Actually, I rather like the unlimited movement modification.  Though my
ship is close to being maxed out, I thought the jump drive restriction
unfairly prejudiced new players: and you still pay in fuel costs for the
length of the jump.  Also, the ability to "wrap-jump" was a great im-
provement.

> 5) More SO's, again for color. There is little point in exploring and
>    visiting new planets as there is nothing unique about any of them.
>    Or if there is, it is either rare or very difficult to find out the special
>    order usable there. I think just about EVERY system should
>    have something unique about it.

Hear, hear.

> 6) To be able to get something useful out of visiting an Alien planet.
>    I either get trashed or end up with an ale flask or something
>    equally stupid and frustrating.

Gee, I get trashed AND get some stupid and frustrating item: you're
getting shortchanged!  Why land on Alien planets at all?

> 7) A more understandable combat description. Currently the text
>    gives a blow by blow that implies that the character has been
>    hit and injured many times and will often end up with little
>    or no damage. Sometimes the text does not mention a single
>    hit but I still take damage.

This is sometimes a bit nonsensical, and a better (and more varied)
description of combat would improve the game.  Perhaps better rewards
for winning the fight, in items and snoop information as well?  (I
beat the information out of the creep...)

> 8) Players affecting economies with their trade.

For the game in its present form, this would be the biggest improve-
ment of all.  As it stands there's little incentive to visit many
planets when trading normal cargo because there isn't enough of an
index difference between production and demand on them.  Moreover,
player trade doesn't seem to have *any* effect on supply and demand,
and it should.  Also, player trading ought to effect stock market
prices, which I cannot distinguish from random fluctuation.

> 9) Reasonable destinations for Contraband goods. Why deliver
>    them to the requested location when I can make twice as
>    much going elsewhere. Perhaps add a biger bonus to a
>    successful delivery (like 50%) and make sure the destination
>    has a demand greater than 7.5 (out of 10).

And sometimes, any destination at all: I've received several offers
that didn't have one, or made no sense at all.  Waste of an order.

> One thing I do like about Mark is that I know very well he will
> listen to those ideas and may very well implement them. The reason
> I stopped making suggestions is that Mark at one point made it
> clear that he did not have enough time to do the game justice. But
> having hust looked over the latest game results and compared
> them to previous ones, it seems he has been busy cleaning up
> the most obnoxious of the textual errors.

I'd hate to think anyone listening to Quicksilver and I bitch about
the game would be put off trying it.  For the most part the game
mechanics work fine, and the textual errors are minimal at worst.
(And needless to say, we wouldn't have played so long without the game
had its good points as well.)  Mark is a responsive and fair GM, and
seems always willing to listen to new ideas.  And it is free...

References

Smuggler's Run
"Off-Planet" <mwmartin@gte.net>
Mon, 30 Mar 1998 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Smuggler's Run
Quicksilver <michael.kelly@lmco.com>
Tue, 31 Mar 1998 00:00:00 +0000