Frustrated smuggler

sasani · Jun 11, 2015

I've been searching around for a smuggling route that is worth doing since the double nerf. And I've come up with squat.

Even when buying battle weapons from a Hudson station and selling them on the black market at a Archon system I only got 500c/t profit. Other frustrations include seeing comodities listed as prohibited on the system map, but when I get to the station they are actually perfectly legal.

The best I have found is 1.5k/t on an Intra-System imperial slave route, but the return commodities are poor.

Clearly I don't expect 8k/t any more but are there still good Smuggles out there capable of 3.5 or 3k per tonne profit??

I don't want to keep searching if it will be fruitless.

Arry · Jun 11, 2015

Talk to Ben Ryder, he is the smuggling teamster around here.

Arry.

salad · Jun 11, 2015

Double nerf?

Wasn't smuggling buffed in 1.3? but accidentally buffed too much and then back to what it was supposed to be, but still better than 1.2?

sasani · Jun 11, 2015

salad said:
Double nerf?

Wasn't smuggling buffed in 1.3? but accidentally buffed too much and then back to what it was supposed to be, but still better than 1.2?

Since 1.3 it was double nerfed I was getting 7.3k/t on Sunday - 3k/t on Monday - and then in the Tuesday patch it was cut again, that same route only gives 700/t

Rauminen · Jun 11, 2015

sasani said:
Since 1.3 it was double nerfed I was getting 7.3k/t on Sunday - 3k/t on Monday - and then in the Tuesday patch it was cut again, that same route only gives 700/t

Lol, 700? so there's no point in smuggling again. I really hated the part where you risk getting fired at & fined for
- no profit at all, bc you can't check the black market prices unless you have cargo
- worse profit than normal trading, bc see above.

If even with Archon's buff it's worse than normal trading, what's the point exactly?

Or black markets are there to sell stolen goods, not for smuggling?

I'll check my golden route I was running over the weekend & get back with confirmation.

Temple604 · Jun 11, 2015

Well they "fixed" one thing. It is certainly more risky now as fines will be about double what profits now are

Rauminen · Jun 11, 2015

Temple604 said:
Well they "fixed" one thing. It is certainly more risky now as fines will be about double what profits now are

OK, so I just checked. There's no profit over normal trading (even with the 20%)

It's not that the fines are over your profit. It's that your profit is the same as for normal trading. The only difference is you can't check the prices before you deliver something. Meaning it's much harder to find a profitable route, and while you do the finding, you risk getting fines & losing rep. So what exactly is the point? Because I don't see any now.

So conclusion, black markets are there to sell stuff that you "find" floating in space. That's it. There's no such thing as smuggling, it's just needlessly overcomplicated trading, with a chance of getting fines. That's what it is.

Xephys · Jun 11, 2015

It's really sad, I tried smuggling right after the first 1.3 nerf to it, where you could still get 3k/t. The money wasn't the best (there are better trade routes out there) but it was fun, and I would want to smuggle for the same/slightly more money than trading, but right now it's pointless. Oh well, now I'm doing a trade route that's arguably more broken than the 3k/t smuggle routes they've already nerfed, just with less excitement.

JimSpitfire · Jun 11, 2015

Oh well.. didn't last long then.

On the plus side the missions are really good, especially as I fly a Cobra for smuggling.

Would be nice though for those smugglers with the fatter ships if illegal trading was more in line with the risk over regular trading.

psyantologist · Jun 11, 2015

I would try the new smuggling missions. They combine well with farming WSS for shiny things to complete missions with those as well.

shadragon · Jun 11, 2015

JimSpitfire said:
Oh well.. didn't last long then.

View attachment 43411

On the plus side the missions are really good, especially as I fly a Cobra for smuggling.

Would be nice though for those smugglers with the fatter ships if illegal trading was more in line with the risk over regular trading.

Repped for the post, virtually-repped for the Han Solo pic, virtually-repped again for your signature block.

Damned good show.

Troy Manstarr · Jun 11, 2015

I am currently doing Smuggling missions using a Diamondback Scout, and it's brilliant. It can run in "Silent Running" mode for ages. Equip with some heatsinks and you are laughing.