As others have said: make them harder, riskier don't just cop out and "nerf" them. Smuggling should be lucrative yet risky and dangerous as hell.
The Smuggling discussion thread
- Thread starter Sheepykins
- Start date
Pablo Escobar wasn't a smuggler.
People on his behalf smuggled cocaine into the US. And made him the richest man in Colombia.
Anyway the point is, smuggling illegal stuff yields high pay, else no one would risk jail or worse to do it.
Ok lets break this down.. These are both considered smuggling:
-400t of illicit cargo using a 150m ship = 1.2m proffit
vs
-8t of illicit cargo using a 0.4m ship = 1.8m proffit
Would you like that explain in what world that makes any sense? You talk about freedom of choice? ok.. Lets compare that to fighting. As a newbie I should have the freedom to buy a ship worth less than a million and be able to kill a cmdr Anaconda right off the bat? Because I dont want others to personalize my choices? Your logic makes no sense....
You pretty much just made the argument that in the most ideal ship, and using the best tactics, you should still fail. I'm fine with the concept, if they say guaranteed 1 out of 3 trade runs was a failure as well.
Welcome to inflation. The economy is broken, in order to bridge the gap between new players and old without making it seem like an endless struggle for the new players, they're increasing the income for new players.
Yes, that seems a little odd, I agree. Yesterday, I was offered 2 missions to smuggle narcotics in the same station of the same system. One was 1.7M reward, the other 1.1M. The difference was in the quantity, though. The 1.7M had slightly more tons of narcotics to smuggle than the 1.1M one.
I'm not sure in your case. Are we talking about the SAME illicit cargo? If not, what was it?
Last edited:
Hes talking about missions versus freelance smuggling. He thinks it is unfair that smuggling small quantities on request to those who desperately need it should not pay as much as just filling your trunk and dumping at random black markets. I disagree.
Oh, I see. Well, I disagree as well. Maybe the penalty for being caught could be higher but, IMHO, when you take a smuggling mission, you're doing it for profit, of course, but also to increase your standing with the faction that is giving it to you and you're also risking your influence with this faction if you get caught. Not exactly the same, IMHO.
That sounds like you are a Founder or Elite. New players would not have access to such missions and those whit high rank probably have enough credits that they would not bother with missions that don't bring it so much profit.
I do recognize that many, er most of you see things in far more depth and detail than I do at this point and regarding this topic, i am really just wanting as many to enjoy the game as possible, the have's and the have-nots.
Nerf's in MMOs tend to at least in my experience end up reducing that a lot. QUITE a lot. I enjoy the this game and to have it continue and prosper, that is most assured when all levels of players are enjoying it as they flow fwd in their growth...not just at the levels of higher capabilities.
My main point is very general...if a mission is going to pay you -me 650k when before it might have been 120 ish even though i have to jump 13 times more to complete the mission, whats the harm? My having a bit more CR to pay for hull damages that to some now occur more often or due to increased scans and higher fines, i have that to pay too? Come on ref? ..........more money means more fun and more options
Nerf's in MMOs tend to at least in my experience end up reducing that a lot. QUITE a lot. I enjoy the this game and to have it continue and prosper, that is most assured when all levels of players are enjoying it as they flow fwd in their growth...not just at the levels of higher capabilities.
My main point is very general...if a mission is going to pay you -me 650k when before it might have been 120 ish even though i have to jump 13 times more to complete the mission, whats the harm? My having a bit more CR to pay for hull damages that to some now occur more often or due to increased scans and higher fines, i have that to pay too? Come on ref? ..........more money means more fun and more options
Last edited:
Harming your preferred faction, would be like, if they caught you trying to smuggle and they get upset and start to shoot you. Then you destroy them. That would harm them.
Also if you happen to take a smuggling run that negatively affects their influence in the system for whatever reason (sometimes it is NOT clear in the mission details that will happen).
Smuggling is profitable, and can have weird side effects on the factions in the system you are pulling/sending to. Normally smugglers just dont care about the politics or factions, and just smuggle what ever is most lucrative. So its kind of hard to be pro-politics AND smuggle. Sometimes it works in their favor, sometimes you get a nice red down arrow on the wrong thing, woops!
Also if you happen to take a smuggling run that negatively affects their influence in the system for whatever reason (sometimes it is NOT clear in the mission details that will happen).
Smuggling is profitable, and can have weird side effects on the factions in the system you are pulling/sending to. Normally smugglers just dont care about the politics or factions, and just smuggle what ever is most lucrative. So its kind of hard to be pro-politics AND smuggle. Sometimes it works in their favor, sometimes you get a nice red down arrow on the wrong thing, woops!
Its not so huge a thing. If you do bad/illegal things and get caught you can lose rep with a faction. If they go hostile you'll have problems docking (unless you manage to sneak yourself in), and can be targeted by that faction's ships, especially when in their space. I've mostly played the legal trader role up until recently. I could just try to raise rep again if I get caught, or just not worry about it. Lots of other systems to move to if things become problematic.
I just like not having anyone hate me other than pirates... but with smuggling comes risk.
I'm empire focused, so I just need to be sure to smuggle into another faction's space from empire space.. which is what I have been doing of late.
Are you talking about all smuggling profits or just smuggling slaves of one sort or another?
Last edited:
You fail to understand that this isnt about fairness but about logic. These missions pay WAAAY to much for the task required. If this cargo is so "desperately" need it must be because is hard to get (simple supply/demand fact), but its not hard to make the delivery, in fact its much easier and for a greater reward.
However if you want to discuss the topic of fairness, we can compare it to a job. A person that just started with the company should be able to make more money in a easier fashion than a CEO that has worked their way up and has been there for 10 years. In which case you also probably believe a "click here for a billion" button should be added to completely suck the fun and any hint of a challenge out of the game.
Why not? I'm now making more money doing easy smuggling missions than I can trading with a Conda... And believe me its easy. Just get a cobra, remove all the weapons, get all D parts except your FSD and engines to get your top speed around 460ish and interdictions cant do anything to you. Boost twice and youre gone. Same goes for docking, at that speed it will be very unlikely that authorities will be able to scan you before you make it to the slot.
Easy money..
How are you finding things in 1.4 Ben, regards smuggling?...you're probably the best person to ask since it's what you do.
See post #12.
If missions aren't paying out more than simply grinding away at trading then nobody will do them.