Lakon ships could be great.

[Duel]

It appears that between the large ships, if you’re a trader, there seems to be now one option for the “best” ship. I don’t necessarily mind this but it does seem to be caused, partly by ship design but also by gameplay design.

That being said I want to put forward some suggestions for balancing out trading between the ships and adding some variety.

Starting with tweaks to smuggling, stealth/thermals, possibly modules or adjustments to Lakon ships.

1. Make smuggling significantly more profitable, potentially much more than normal trading.

2. Iterate on “stealth” mechanics like using low thermals to sneak past authorities or having specific modules that mask cargo from authorities.

3. Adjust T6, T7, T8, T9 to have these capabilities to an extent that would make them a viable option for their respective classes. Possibly a utility that ONLY Lakon makes that temporarily masks cargo (works the same way as shutdown field neutralizer).

Just talked to someone about how the Panther clipper will make other trading ships basically obsolete, which seems to be true. This would bring back some variety as stated before and add a bit more nuance to how people choose which ship they want to fly.

The meta would be as follows, Panther Clipper for high volume legal cargo, T9 for high volume smuggling, Cutter for a more combat capable trader.

 

[PilotB]

Smuggling is often a medium ship task because outpost are your best option to get hundreds of tons of contraband. That kind of takes the T7 and T9 out of contention but the T7 really could use a role. Sadly I'm not sure we'll get old ship updates as it seems they want to sell us one bread crumb at a time.

As the current mechanics stand there basically isn't any threat to smuggling either you stroll in unscanned or you stroll in unscanned and you get fined anyway. It's very random. No amount of stealth / silent running seems to matter. It is more profitable than basic trading it's nowhere near as profitable as the good normal trades though I should look into smuggling slaves to boom systems.

A huge issue with smuggling is powerplay disabling black markets over a large portion of the bubble.

 

[Duel]

Smuggling is often a medium ship task because outpost are your best option to get hundreds of tons of contraband. That kind of takes the T7 and T9 out of contention but the T7 really could use a role. Sadly I'm not sure we'll get old ship updates as it seems they want to sell us one bread crumb at a time.

As the current mechanics stand there basically isn't any threat to smuggling either you stroll in unscanned or you stroll in unscanned and you get fined anyway. It's very random. No amount of stealth / silent running seems to matter. It is more profitable than basic trading it's nowhere near as profitable as the good normal trades though I should look into smuggling slaves to boom systems.

A huge issue with smuggling is powerplay disabling black markets over a large portion of the bubble.

Not sure how this supports or refutes any of my ideas. I’m suggesting changing the meta and you’re stating what the meta currently is. All of the issues you’ve stated could certainly be addressed with a tiny bit of creativity.