It's the same as with the original smuggling exploit, back when hauling performance enhancers from high tech stations to Type 9s waiting in planet orbit netted you millions in a matter of minutes.
All the players flocked to it. The news of this grand new way of making easy money spread like wildfire. This was before community goals were even introduced, and had the same effect, if not even a better one. Dozens of smugglers buzzing around the same spaceport, until it became a challenge to enter the mailslot without colliding with another player.
Then the pirates appeared and tried to blockade the station. Then the already rich smugglers paid bounties in palladium for any combat capable ship destroying wanted CMDRs in the system.
And all without even having to inject an event specifically designed to do that. All of us had fun, it was a rewarding experience, both in credits and in player interactive gameplay.
Then the voices of those who felt left out of the game or had already gotten rich and could already afford several combat fitted Anacondas got louder, crying for a nerf because they could not stand others having more fun than they themselves. The fools that thought getting to an A-rated Anaconda was the goal of the game, and once past that hurdle, there would be no incentive to play, cried out ever louder, blabbering about imbalance and finding ever more adventurous explanations for why this fun gameplay had to be stopped immediately, before even more people found joy, reward and ingame profit in it.
And FD obliged. "Seeking Goods" was nerfed into oblivion. It is now a legend of the past. Those of us who were there remember it fondly, because it was fun while it lasted. More fun than any regular ED gameplay had ever been up to that point. Finally we had found a gameplay experience that we found REWARDING. One we could SHARE without ruining it.
The revamped version of "Seeking Goods" was a community breaker, same as the nerfed and broken trade routes. They called it the background simulation. No trade route would ever be persistent. The more CMDRs traded along a route, be it smuggling to the T9s or regular bulk trading, the more profits would diminish.
A few days or weeks people still kept holding on to the old fashion of sharing trade information. They tried to keep the community spirit, the cooperative gameplay... but it quickly became clear that FD had reprogrammed the game so that playing cooperatively would be punished by diminishing ingame rewards. Soon it was "every trader for themselves". Trade routes were rare to be found, the profitable ones would be bragged about on the forums, but never even hinted at as to where they were located. "I make 3000 profit per ton on my route, but I won't be so stupid to tell you were it is!" That is the spirit they encouraged with their background simulation. Every player for themselves. Sharing trade routes, cooperative gameplay, making profit together instead of trying to screw each other over? Nope, not in Elite's "cutthroat galaxy" (tm).
Introducing community goals, they tried to bring the spirit back that they themselves had banned from the game in the first place. Only now, the profits were laughable, the rewards a bad joke. Community goals felt like every other aspect of the game: A grindfest.
They paled in comparison to what had come before. The rares trading before the nerf, the "seeking goods" smuggling before the nerf...
And now they tried to bring back smuggling again, and it was fun while it lasted, but the nerf crybabies were there again to ruin it. And FD obliged. As always, they nerfed it into oblivion. Smuggling missions will share the same fate as rares trading and the "seeking goods" smuggling...
Sorry for my negativity on the topic, but I do not see the imbalance that people cry about. All I see is fun, rewarding, cooperative gameplay being stomped into the ground wherever it emerges. As if FD only want us players to work together on their specifically designed "Community Goals".
I had so much fun sharing the same trade route with other CMDRs back when they were still persistent and profits wouldn't diminish between two large population systems, just because a dozen player T9s would haul goods from A to B for a week. But that is a thing of the past now. Long gone. I had fun trading rares, back when you wouldn't fly dozens of lightyears only to find that the starport currently had only 1 ton of their rare commodity in stock, but could count on there being at least 15-20 tons available for you to pick up. But that is also a thing of the past. At least the rares routes are still persistent, if also become a frustrating grind due to resource allocation RNGs.
At least the new hazardous RES's are still profitable, if you are lucky enough that the RNG hits the sweet spot and you get the big ones. I wish I had more time for playing and could get some use out of them before the inevitable cry for the nerfhammer comes, and as a reaction wanted ships will disappear entirely from all RES's, being replaced by the occasional miner and/or lots of police - as it has been before, when people found that RES's had to be nerfed.
Never before has the development of a game and its community made me so sad and bitter. If I could have but one wish, it would be for FD to ignore any negative community feedback in the future and never again nerf something, but rather adjust the rewards for all other activities to match the payout of the so-called "exploit".
Sorry, I am sure many people find the changes to their liking. There are those of the faction that say "good! Now you finally have to put in some effort to make a profit again!"
Thing is: The smuggling missions WERE challenging. You HAD to put in an effort. They were dangerous, time-consuming, they had you on the edge of your seat... the only thing they did different than any other ingame-content: They actually gave you a frakkin' reward for your efforts. One that matched the time and energy invested for a change.
I know my words fall on deaf ears, but I had to get it out of my system. Carry on as if I said nothing - do your usual thing. I don't mind. Nothing to see here.
