http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=88081
There I am also complaining about the same thing. Zero progress however.
I explained the same thing as Antonio but just a bit longer and with more examples. May be you all can also complain there and we could get the crowd justice?
(10-09-2013, 10:51 AM)Knjaz Wrote: Official faction players that are often accused of elitism, never deploy them and have those weird, immersion killing "fair fight/dueling" suicidal hobbies. (yes, i've seen enough of those lolduels, where house military with overwhelming force on the field willingly loses a pilot in a duel. ffs.)
Lot of people don´t have time for smuggling because they are building and supplying bases and making cloaks/jump drives etc. with their trader chars. Dark side of this stuff... And of course it is not worth enough. You can do it for fun, but not when you want money.
here's a long post, but i've recenty grinded to get two battleships and cau's solely from smuggling, so i believe i've got a pretty good picture of how it is at the moment (I've bumped into you guys and flown with you too). its not so profitable, fairly boring, but it's darn easy. You can pop on a film and let the transport make money by itself, only having to visit the controls for a few seconds every system to pop above/below plane and docking with the JH's. By the time the film is done, you'll have made a hundred million and have avoided all interactions (for good and for bad). Extremely effortless profits compared to the F2/F3 nightmare of tradelane trading, it just takes a bit longer to get rich (or a lot longer compared to precious ores).
on the other hand I have run into other smugglers using my exact trade route (yes, I've run into them on my flight path above plane) and teamed up for a more delightful journey and fun RP. as escorts I imagine you will hardly ever meet us, unless you are constantly on the route yourselves or if you happen to be in front of malta when we arrive. perhaps you could sign a long-term contract regarding keeping the cardamine-corridor open (tau's through coronado into Liberty), be it by pews, by collecting intel and so on - however that might foster more activity in those systems, and us that "smuggle for a living" aren't exactly looking for that. your light fighters give large transports a speed boost when on "follow mode", I've benefitted from that by smuggling alongside a bactrian but I haven't paid attention to how much the speed boost actually pays off on the bottom line. it might be a selling point for you though if you meet profit-maximizing power-smugglers.
a long term solution would be as mentioned to buff the profit on smuggling, while increasing the risk through higher commodity cost. it would limit the easy mode smuggling described above or at least make it a lot more risky - you might get killed or fly into something if you dont pay attention, and you'd actually lose something from it. buffing profit will also make things more interesting: As it is now you will have to be in a large-ish transport for cardamine trade to really have a decent profit, which means you'll need a faction ID (rogue or outcast for instance) which in turn severely hampers your options - there's more or less only 1 route for Outcast ID'd transport, if you don't count more advanced routes into gallia involving brigands/junkers. One route makes trading extra repetitive, and a Freelancer "I-go-where-I-please" ship don't bring in decent enough profits.
I can remember that LR- used to do large smuggle runs (Cardamine - Slaves). Those were fun times. Unfortunately people don't use that route anymore, since it's not quite profitable, and we often got hunted by CR's, Lost Star Vigliantes, IMG etc. Blame the tag. And the ooRP playerlist even more. Anyways, I never cared about the low profit and the pews. Though, some people did, and for that reason those runs got rare. My pirate train is catching rust now, but I'd love to fill its bays with Orange stuff once more. If I just wouldn't be all alone.
How about sending a transmission to LR for a proposal?
It is simple money vs risk vs time question. If there is more risk and more money people would do it, add high risk- hell even I would smuggle for fun even that I does not need money at all- also it is good idea to post in the linked topic from my previous post, here we are just talking and there it would been seen by the people that make the trade system.
(10-09-2013, 10:51 AM)Knjaz Wrote: Official faction players that are often accused of elitism, never deploy them and have those weird, immersion killing "fair fight/dueling" suicidal hobbies. (yes, i've seen enough of those lolduels, where house military with overwhelming force on the field willingly loses a pilot in a duel. ffs.)
(11-15-2012, 04:58 PM)Wizard. Wrote: make full trans of cardamine worth say 30 mil,selling price say 60mil,profit-30 mil per cargo.
That way there will be no power-smuggling due to a high cost of goods,
risk will be higher,reward will be higher,more smuggling activity,
more lawful activity,more fun for everybody.
A good idea!
(11-15-2012, 05:35 PM)madvillain Wrote: There are quite a few artefact smugglers.
Maybe you could try to give bonuses to cardi smugglers like the sairs do to their business partners.
There's no rule banning artificial profit enhancement.
ah, yes, i know, but inrp the 75th is very small, we run the faction closed economy, new recruits cost 25 million, repairs and ammo costs for all ships come out of money we have earned or pirated, we only have 270 million in total, we dont have the financial power to give out bonus money for cardamine smuggling without crippling the faction our flagship is a Gull transport afterall.
(11-15-2012, 10:03 PM)Anaximander Wrote: perhaps you could sign a long-term contract regarding keeping the cardamine-corridor open (tau's through coronado into Liberty), be it by pews, by collecting intel and so on - however that might foster more activity in those systems, and us that "smuggle for a living" aren't exactly looking for that.
A contract is interesting, but the 75th move around on a two week rotor, though we do still escort smugglers if no other targets present themselves. signing a contract would again force us to stay in one place, and we aren't large enough to split and do two things at once.
(11-15-2012, 10:34 PM)Narcotic Wrote: How about sending a transmission to LR for a proposal?
for reasons you explained, never seen an LR- smuggler, but if there is a chance of a comeback then I see no reason not to try.