(02-23-2017, 11:44 AM)etaphreven Wrote: I make 12 million profit in my Serenity, which is nice for such a straight forward route. Lanes only and it's really short imho. Not so much money on the return route, but eh, at least I'm playing on a route that's active for now. Trading with nobody else around is boring as hell.
You could probably fly to the Taus and pick up Niobium from the IMG?
Stop luring people to your shooty zone. ;333
XD
I like shooty zones though. The more players, the merrier.
Back to the trade route though, it's also a nice activity boost to Kusari and Rheinland instead of Lolwutberty for a change.
I also understand that the profit is not that great, but everyone is too focused on it. Normal traderoutes are zero risk, only profit which is not okay. It means they're mostly used for making money so you can meta /givecash to your other/new characters. This event brings trading back to normal imho. Of course you can make a lot more money on other routes, and if that's the only thing you care about, then you can still use your old routes. If you want a normal trade route with danger and all that jazz that should come with one, then do this. What's the point for my Freelancer trader to do more than one route otherwise? If I make 40 million profit, it means my char can rebuy his Serenity - that makes him very rich in roleplay terms, he's set for life.
To be honest, I think the trade profits are way too high as they are right now. At least some of them. The only real reason you keep trading with your trader after the char already has everything it needs (ship, equipment, etc) is to OORPly fuel other chars. Sure, there are exceptions, like some people feed their gains into corporations or POBs, which make sense in RP. But the main reason people play traders is to fuel other chars, not for the roleplay that trading provides (which nowadays is close to none, if you take into account the number of profitable traderoutes and low player base).
EDIT:
I play my freelance trader HOPING to encounter pirates as often as possible. I have nothing else to do with the 1.5 billion credits on him, so I'm using it for RP encounters.
This is why the Navy for example idles near bases - the characters are already set for life. They don't -need- to make money so they have nothing to do. On the other hand, they have the PVP element, hunting for pirates and contraband, etc. Traders don't really have that. They have trading for RP, but for that RP to happen they need to encounter someone else. If they don't, it's all pointless. They just get richer and richer and the cash they make fuels the economy OORPly, instead of RPly, such as losing the cargo to raiders, paying the pirates and so on and so forth.
