This is not a literal problem, just something I realised when I was looking at the data mined from Mini-Elite.
The planets in Elite seem to be overpopulated hellholes. Rather than having scaled down from the current planet busting 7 billion Earthling, most major planets seem to have more than that.
Now consider the millions of tons of cargo that is shipped around the planet today. The numbers are mind boggling. Then think about the fact that a huge freighter in Elite ferries a load of half a kiloton, and most are much less than that. Despite this, the space traffic is supposed to cause major fluctuations in the price and availability of goods.
Can you see where I'm coming from? On a planet with (greater than) modern earth scale population the freight capacity of a few Anacondas or a swarm of Sidewinders is a fart in the wind.
***
It's not a problem though. I just realised that to keep things dynamic and interesting Frontier are probably adding a lot of zeroes into the effect of our cargo runs.
The planets in Elite seem to be overpopulated hellholes. Rather than having scaled down from the current planet busting 7 billion Earthling, most major planets seem to have more than that.
Now consider the millions of tons of cargo that is shipped around the planet today. The numbers are mind boggling. Then think about the fact that a huge freighter in Elite ferries a load of half a kiloton, and most are much less than that. Despite this, the space traffic is supposed to cause major fluctuations in the price and availability of goods.
Can you see where I'm coming from? On a planet with (greater than) modern earth scale population the freight capacity of a few Anacondas or a swarm of Sidewinders is a fart in the wind.
***
It's not a problem though. I just realised that to keep things dynamic and interesting Frontier are probably adding a lot of zeroes into the effect of our cargo runs.