Lets wait for MA to fix pvp first; It would cost way too much. Just ask OP about his PvP adventure last night, and that was half an hour.
few thoughts i will spit out... these are rought ideas that need alot of refining but maybe something can be of use, Smugglers Master Race! right now all ned is talking about is pvp players muscle will not win a war, Ned may have been a former IFN military member, however that also means he has studied indepth traditional military tactics and has had less emphasis on thinking outside the box to win by whatever means necessary. you need to have the muscle, however you also need to get other people doing other things fo you as well, resource gathering of raw materials(mining), and then the processing of those materials are also of importance(crafting). this may be an extremly controversial idea. but i think it could be an interesting one. smugglers would be a very secretive society since they are freedom fighters the main government of the planet sees them as terrorists. in that case, all firebase turrets (ie.aakas would be fine, resolute firebase not so) will kill any player teleporting there if they are in smuggler armor and in the reverse have a "hacked" town for the smugers ifn gear gets you shot in. this is a rough idea that needs more refining however i think with the right ammount of tweaking it could be intresting idea. Another idea is have a "exile" timer so you join teh smugglers but want to finish the 10000 whatever ifn mission it results from you being exiled form the smuggler base for a period of time it would allow you to finish the mission you are working on but also penalise you for doing so. a complete opposite idea to all things stated before. have an inforamtion network avalable to ONLY to smugglers a locked fourm area or a very tightly locked webpage only avalable by very well trusted members of the smugglers and it is up to them to pass the information to the other members of the faction via ingame private chat. anyone caught telling non smugglers information about the smugglers are exiled perminatly.
I didn't say I trust the IFN completely, but I approve of their actions so far. They established this colony and defended it with their lives (before the revival network was in place). I came here with Fleet Arkadia and I saw myself the immense amount of work that has been done. You object to bounties on wildlife? I've been a hunter for many years and I can tell you that all this hunting is not hurting the animal population at all. There's even more game now then when I came here. On the other hand, the Smugglers are killing people and the only thing they gave as reason was "Underground is ours now, so get lost or we'll kill you". Perhaps they're right, but if so, they should give us the facts, and I very much disapprove of their methods. You make up your own mind, just make sure you won't regret it later.
It's funny how I wrote this before finindig out about the oratana dailies and IFN ranks, that is basically what I asked for. =)
I still say they should do the smuggler mission on a point basis, as was talked about with lars at Sanct cove after one of the events. 12 of us showed up there, I even brought motorhead kegs. All smuggler mobs, including shared loot ones, will have a point value towards the mission. All Avatars shooting that mob will get part of the points dependant on the damage they do, just like with the loot system. Algorith is already there, just have to adapt it for points vs loot.
I want to accept a mission(s) from a Smuggler to prove my loyalty to our great man Ned! Destroying IFN Defense Bots & Badgers_710R so that I can give the spoils to the Smugglers to help them aid their struggle against the IFN. When in a battle, I want to join with the ranks of the Smugglers, hacking slashing and maiming the IFN puppets. My reward is my growing trust for the Smugglers.
Until now i have seen few things that Ned or smuglers have. Some sowrod, gun, fap, armor. All they have is based on big damage and super decay what is not usable for evry day grinding. So i dont want anything from them.
What I would like to see from The Smugglers is a more expansive storyline. More back story as to why they do what they do. How they became what they are today, and why the Underground and not planet side Arkadia. Also, I'd like to see more goodies come out for the players, like unl. faps that everyone can get, (L) Smuggler type guns, you name it. Make it a faction like we have with the Oratan.
Remember Ned asked for this thread to be created ;P What Might be good as well is there are different smugglers as you can tell from the smuggler plushies & smugglers themselfs so there could theortically be different armours - smuggler - smuggler special forces - smuggler grand masters - each differing but all part of a big chain. Maybe as you move up through the smuggler faction you hand your armour in to upgrade - change sets especially as your proving your loyalty to the Smuggler Faction.
I would like to see UL Smuggler weapons dropping from the high level mobs and maybe some UL Smuggler armour and Smuggle clothing as well. We can but wait to see if these things come true! Maybe Smuggler night vision goggles, Smuggler hoverbikes, Smuggler drone pets etc
Given that they are called Smugglers, I would expect them to be wanting to employ the services of people with space-worthy vehicles to either fetch rare commodities or ship products they cannot market openly on Arkadia to other planets outside the reach of the IFN. ie: Black Market goods transport.
Giving their interest in the Underground, it will be cool if they give us a limited access to an area under their control, unknown to the IFN and other authorities. Bit like a key-run, but then when the time's up you get transported back to the known. There we can hunt creatures that aren't found anywhere else. Discover clues about the origin of the Smugglers, Oratan and ancient Arkadians. The area that you are allowed in depends on the mission you've completed.
The bots were compromised by Smuggler hackers, as such the IFN had no choice but to have them... decommissioned...