How about adding some very expensive commodities sold by the gram?

[Jay8ch]

In the original Elite you could buy things like gemstones by the gram, meaning you could pack a vast sum of cargo in your hold. How about adding that to Elite Dangerous? Think of the risk of hauling a full Anaconda of gem stones at 5000 credits a gram?

 

[Jigster]

In the original Elite you could buy things like gemstones by the gram, meaning you could pack a vast sum of cargo in your hold. How about adding that to Elite Dangerous? Think of the risk of hauling a full Anaconda of gem stones at 5000 credits a gram?

I was just thinking the very same thing just now.

There could be all sorts. Blood diamonds for smuggling.

Fakes bought on the black market but you don't know until you come to sell them and then you need to find the perp who sold them to you and destroy his ship.

Stolen gems with the original owners sending bounty hunters after you.

Imperial gems.

 

[lifeschool-amiga]

As everything is measured in Tons in the game, I cant see FD rushing to change it.

Either Gems would be measured in Tons, like Frontier, or

Players have to buy a Gem Safe which takes up at least one ton of cargo space and holds 8, 16 or 32 depending on size of bay

 

[Jigster]

As everything is measured in Tons in the game, I cant see FD rushing to change it.
Either Gems would be measured in Tons, like Frontier, or
Players have to buy a Gem Safe which takes up at least one ton of cargo space and holds 8, 16 or 32 depending on size of bay

Fine by me. Be it 1g or 1,000,000g it could take up 1T of cargo space. On the lines of your gem safe there could be special smuggling cargo racks that hold less than a normal cargo rack but take much longer to scan.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Fine by me. Be it 1g or 1,000,000g it could take up 1T of cargo space. On the lines of your gem safe there could be special smuggling cargo racks that hold less than a normal cargo rack but take much longer to scan.

i would be all for ships having a small hidden compartment for smuggling certain smaller high value items..... indeed narcotics could be changed from tons to KGs in this instance.

this would give the sidewinder level of ships a new lease of life, but imo IF you are caught smuggling such items imo the law should be proper hard on you... more so than smuggling a few tons of beer imo.

I DONT think 500 tons of gems valued in grams would be a good idea however. as it would break the entire market in 1 delivery. (which has happened in real life with diamonds being dumped in the sea to get margins back up!.


indeed This could go 1 step further, where you could work up a reputation with a cartel, and only when you reach a certain level with them would you be trusted with smuggling their high value narcs

I would have class C and class A drugs, class C acts much like now, you get a fine but not much else... but class A.... there would be real money to make here, but get caught smuggling these and everyone turns on you. no 7 day shinanigans either. if you want to potentially make good money for the cartels you have to risk it all (so talking here about delivery missions not trading per se)

if you get caught by the federation maybe you get cornered in the space station where you have an option to be a turn coat - imagine the missions available here and if you do a set number maybe the entire head of a cartel boss goes down. if this happens that cartel is then at war with you - maybe for even a month or so - but your slate is clean.

BUT refuse to be a turn coat and you are at war with the federation (or alliance, or empire depending) for the same month and on top of that they send people after you to take you out.

there is a lot of milage for real risk reward consequences here, but also the sorts of profit that you cant get any other way with sidewinder ships.

sorry if i went a little OT OP but i think hidden compartments and smuggling on the smaller ships has real legs, but it can only really work imo if the pay is good, but this can only balance if the consequences are hard.... harder than anything currently in game

 

[Jay8ch]

As everything is measured in Tons in the game, I cant see FD rushing to change it.

Either Gems would be measured in Tons, like Frontier, or

Players have to buy a Gem Safe which takes up at least one ton of cargo space and holds 8, 16 or 32 depending on size of bay

Everything was tonnes in the 1984 original too, but gems weighed 0.000001 tonnes each if I recall correctly. If they could do it in 32k of ram on an 8 bit machine I'm sure it doesn't pose too much of a challenge!

There's been some good feedback in the thread.