Long distance smuggling missions

[B33 ENN]

I was catching up on some Elite videos, and one talked about some new smuggling mission changes that came in with 1.4. In these you can, apparently, make a lot of credits by doing long distance runs, sort of the same way rare goods scale with distance up to a limit.

Last time I did smuggling after 1.3, exploiting some PowerPlay stuff, it got nerfed pretty fast. So, before I waste time looking for these new ones, I figured it'd be worth asking if they are still there, or have they been nerfed to the point of being not so lucrative?

 

[Soliluna]

I was catching up on some Elite videos, and one talked about some new smuggling mission changes that came in with 1.4. In these you can, apparently, make a lot of credits by doing long distance runs, sort of the same way rare goods scale with distance up to a limit.

Last time I did smuggling after 1.3, exploiting some PowerPlay stuff, it got nerfed pretty fast. So, before I waste time looking for these new ones, I figured it'd be worth asking if they are still there, or have they been nerfed to the point of being not so lucrative?

They were nerfed considerably so if it was discussing making 20m+ an hour then yes that has ended (from smuggling missions at least). If it is whether they are still enjoyable missions that can provide a decent payment (particularly compared to most missions) then no, they are still there.

They nerfed them by making them rarer as the main problem with their income was how you could stack them by switching modes non stop. Obviously, you can still switch modes to stack them but they are rare enough that you will not be making ludicrous amounts compared to other professions.

Personally, I think they should have just made 1 BB for all 3 modes and left them alone.

 

[B33 ENN]

They were nerfed considerably so if it was discussing making 20m+ an hour then yes that has ended (from smuggling missions at least). If it is whether they are still enjoyable missions that can provide a decent payment (particularly compared to most missions) then no, they are still there.

They nerfed them by making them rarer as the main problem with their income was how you could stack them by switching modes non stop. Obviously, you can still switch modes to stack them but they are rare enough that you will not be making ludicrous amounts compared to other professions.

Thanks for the info. I was hoping you could stack a few and do a long run that might make a few million. I won't be looking to devote a lot of time to the game in future and want to make each session count so I can save up to kit my Python with A-grade stuff.

 

[Soliluna]

Thanks for the info. I was hoping you could stack a few and do a long run that might make a few million. I won't be looking to devote a lot of time to the game in future and want to make each session count so I can save up to kit my Python with A-grade stuff.

You can certainly do that, but because of the change they made you would probably want to commit 30 mins to an hour in just mission stacking alone. I would also only do it if your trade rank is considerably high as you need a decent trade rank to get the higher paying missions to make it worthwhile.

The highest rank missions will pay you a few million just by themselves.

 

[Kavaros]

YOU CAN STILL MAKE SOME DECENT MONEY DOING LONG DISTANCE TRADING RUNS AT CERTAIN PLACES LIKE ROBIGO AND AS AN ADDED BENEFIT IF YOU TAKE FACTION ASSOCIATED MISSIONS YOU CAN BE VERY EFFICIENT IN HOW YOU ARE ADVANCING YOUR CREDITS AND YOUR FACTION RANK AT A SATISFACTORY RATE AT THE SAME TIME. IT IS A VERY HELPFUL OVERLAP. I NOTICED HALFWAY THROUGH THIS POST I FORGOT TO TAKE CAPS LOCK OFF AND I'M TOO LAZY TO FIX THAT SO I GUESS I AM JUST ACCIDENTALLY SCREAMING THIS AT YOU. I APOLOGIZE.

 

[Fire70]

YOU CAN STILL MAKE SOME DECENT MONEY DOING LONG DISTANCE TRADING RUNS AT CERTAIN PLACES LIKE ROBIGO AND AS AN ADDED BENEFIT IF YOU TAKE FACTION ASSOCIATED MISSIONS YOU CAN BE VERY EFFICIENT IN HOW YOU ARE ADVANCING YOUR CREDITS AND YOUR FACTION RANK AT A SATISFACTORY RATE AT THE SAME TIME. IT IS A VERY HELPFUL OVERLAP. I NOTICED HALFWAY THROUGH THIS POST I FORGOT TO TAKE CAPS LOCK OFF AND I'M TOO LAZY TO FIX THAT SO I GUESS I AM JUST ACCIDENTALLY SCREAMING THIS AT YOU. I APOLOGIZE.

Was gonna say no need to yell we can hear you fine..

@OP FD heard some people were earning credits so they made it so you couldn't make so many credits. They didn't want traders to up rise..

 

[android]

YOU CAN STILL MAKE SOME DECENT MONEY DOING LONG DISTANCE TRADING RUNS AT CERTAIN PLACES LIKE ROBIGO AND AS AN ADDED BENEFIT IF YOU TAKE FACTION ASSOCIATED MISSIONS YOU CAN BE VERY EFFICIENT IN HOW YOU ARE ADVANCING YOUR CREDITS AND YOUR FACTION RANK AT A SATISFACTORY RATE AT THE SAME TIME. IT IS A VERY HELPFUL OVERLAP. I NOTICED HALFWAY THROUGH THIS POST I FORGOT TO TAKE CAPS LOCK OFF AND I'M TOO LAZY TO FIX THAT SO I GUESS I AM JUST ACCIDENTALLY SCREAMING THIS AT YOU. I APOLOGIZE.

LOVING THIS CONCEPT I CAN TELL BY YOUR VOLUME THAT YOU HAVE A BURNING PASSION FOR ELITE

 

[n4p0l3on]

Eh so where can I get those missions other than robigo?

Also does smuggling and transport missions count toward trading rank progression?

 

[_neuron_]

Eh so where can I get those missions other than robigo?

Also does smuggling and transport missions count toward trading rank progression?

Off the top of my head, Sothis, 17 Draconis, and Fehu. (There are others, though -- as mentioned, those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head.)

And yes, they count toward your trading rank progression.

 

[Soliluna]

Eh so where can I get those missions other than robigo?

Also does smuggling and transport missions count toward trading rank progression?

Yes they count towards trading rank and the best place to find them is at stations with long distances to any other station.

 

[Hammerhai]

HIP 8396
Takurua and I believe there is a system nearby. So you can stack legally by hopping
Sothis
Robigo
Varati (Varatis???) close to the bubble and nice if you are below broker level

Empire
Quince (very far out)
Fehu (also quite far out)
Tip: Bring a Advanced Discovery scanner, and for the Cobra or Asp at least a 3 class Fuel scoop. Saves time.

My Asp configuration:
A5 FSD
A4 Power Distributor
3 8t fuel tanks extra
A3 class scoop

Set up your star map to show scoopables. All those answering to "Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me" can be scooped.
The extra fuel tanks are nice if you run into a field of unscoopables. Also since you will be chased by gangsters you may have to push on rather than scoop, making all this less critical. From Fehu you will have to scoop, out to HIP 8396 you can run without scooping on this build. Real life time is precious, fuel scooping wastes time.
You also do not want to run shieldless and have to carry weaponry. On the cobra I would stick on 2 Multi cannon 2 lasers. Avoid Combat if possible, try to run rather, it saves time.

 

[Shaamaan]

"Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me"

I prefer my stars to be covered in secret, Soviet-made KGB FOAM.

 

[askavir]

Once upon a time, Frontier released Long Range Hauling missions, some legal, some smuggling.

The most profitable ones were mostly available on remote, far away systems, as the reward scaled not only with rank, but with distance to destination.

They were fun, you had to equip a vessel not only for distance travelling but for fighting pirates and evading cops. You would travel to a remote, far away system, pickup a handful of missions, and then you were commited for 3 or 4 hours of high speed chase from pirates and cops, always on the clock, with a lot of far away destinations waiting for you, trying to scoop while being chased by pirates, trying to jump while being chased by cops. Then you had to enter stations undetected, land on outposts undetected. After a 3 or 4 hours thrill, you could finally put your feet up and rest.

You had to use fuel scoops, heat sinks, silent running, fighting, fleeing, navigating unscoopables, looking for gaps between cops in outposts, etc.

They gave you reasons to jump back to smaller ships once again, use various game mechanics, travel again to systems once forgotten.

But they had a terrible sin: they were fun AND profitable at the same time...

The grind inquisition could not stand the heresy, they picked up the pitchforks in anger, and demanded this to be stopped. People could not be allowed to both make credits and have fun at the same time! If they wanted credits, they had to suffer in penance, and repeat trivial menial tasks a billion times over and over and over and over! And after a short while, FD capitulated, and the missions were "made rare". Rare as in "mostly gone".

Now you spend a lot of time travelling to the @ss end of space in search for one, and risk finding none and having to travel back empty-handed.

Ironically, the only way to effectively get them now, is by cheating the bulletin board by playing login-bingo until you get a bunch of them in the login lottery. A whole new, fun feature which added diversity and encouraged use of multiple game mechanics was nerfed to the ground, and playing login-bingo was once again rewarded. Great job!

 

[DidierDrbois]

snip

Exactly my thoughts, have some rep and good luck out there Commander!

 

[_neuron_]

<snip>

Awesome post, rep to you. Perfect summary of why long-distance smuggling/hauling missions are (were) so great, and why nerfing them exemplifies what's wrong with ED and the "nobody can have a more profitable activity/more powerful ship than <insert poster's favorite activity/ship here>" mentality of a vocal minority of the community.

 

[Hotshot Jimmy]

I think its all relative really. Depending how far into E you are. I consider smug...i mean discrete cargo solution missions being great at 150000-200000. That's usually where I make my big bucks. 2 or 3 of them in a run without refuelling works well. I pack the last of the room with beer or Palladium. If i'm lucky enough the missions will be to the same destination.

 

[Noob]

Once upon a time, Frontier released Long Range Hauling missions, some legal, some smuggling.

The most profitable ones were mostly available on remote, far away systems, as the reward scaled not only with rank, but with distance to destination.

They were fun, you had to equip a vessel not only for distance travelling but for fighting pirates and evading cops. You would travel to a remote, far away system, pickup a handful of missions, and then you were commited for 3 or 4 hours of high speed chase from pirates and cops, always on the clock, with a lot of far away destinations waiting for you, trying to scoop while being chased by pirates, trying to jump while being chased by cops. Then you had to enter stations undetected, land on outposts undetected. After a 3 or 4 hours thrill, you could finally put your feet up and rest.

You had to use fuel scoops, heat sinks, silent running, fighting, fleeing, navigating unscoopables, looking for gaps between cops in outposts, etc.

They gave you reasons to jump back to smaller ships once again, use various game mechanics, travel again to systems once forgotten.

But they had a terrible sin: they were fun AND profitable at the same time...

The grind inquisition could not stand the heresy, they picked up the pitchforks in anger, and demanded this to be stopped. People could not be allowed to both make credits and have fun at the same time! If they wanted credits, they had to suffer in penance, and repeat trivial menial tasks a billion times over and over and over and over! And after a short while, FD capitulated, and the missions were "made rare". Rare as in "mostly gone".

Now you spend a lot of time travelling to the @ss end of space in search for one, and risk finding none and having to travel back empty-handed.

Ironically, the only way to effectively get them now, is by cheating the bulletin board by playing login-bingo until you get a bunch of them in the login lottery. A whole new, fun feature who added diversity and encouraged use of multiple game mechanics was nerfed to the ground, and playing login-bingo was once again rewarded. Great job!

Rep to you, man. You've got it right, especially the highlighted part.

Looks like ED wants to suck every inch of passion out of the game. All has to be clinical, austere and arduous.

 

[Broon]

I finally decided to get in on the long haul action for a change of pace and have found it to be quite lucrative in two ways.

Firstly, in two days I have managed to acquire roughly 50mil Cr even with tossing untold hundreds of thousands into the charity coffers. And those charity missions not only benefit in the quality of missions offered but also help with the navy ranks as well. I had just advanced to Baron before beginning this new adventure and have quickly moved up to Count in just a handful of days.

Now I was doing this all in a Python but kept reading "bring an Asp" so I ran over to Diaguandri and A-spec'd and Asp (24mil) and brought it out to play. I admittedly feel a bit stifled in it though with my cargo space being cut in half. We'll see if the added jump range compensates for this and makes me happy. And I have yet to try the Asp in combat so that is another unknown.

Oh btw, I am operating out of Aditi but I may run over to Fehu today and get to know those guys and see what they have to offer.

 

[Cyda]

Once upon a time, Frontier released Long Range Hauling missions, some legal, some smuggling.

The most profitable ones were mostly available on remote, far away systems, as the reward scaled not only with rank, but with distance to destination.

They were fun, you had to equip a vessel not only for distance travelling but for fighting pirates and evading cops. You would travel to a remote, far away system, pickup a handful of missions, and then you were commited for 3 or 4 hours of high speed chase from pirates and cops, always on the clock, with a lot of far away destinations waiting for you, trying to scoop while being chased by pirates, trying to jump while being chased by cops. Then you had to enter stations undetected, land on outposts undetected. After a 3 or 4 hours thrill, you could finally put your feet up and rest.

You had to use fuel scoops, heat sinks, silent running, fighting, fleeing, navigating unscoopables, looking for gaps between cops in outposts, etc.

They gave you reasons to jump back to smaller ships once again, use various game mechanics, travel again to systems once forgotten.

But they had a terrible sin: they were fun AND profitable at the same time...

The grind inquisition could not stand the heresy, they picked up the pitchforks in anger, and demanded this to be stopped. People could not be allowed to both make credits and have fun at the same time! If they wanted credits, they had to suffer in penance, and repeat trivial menial tasks a billion times over and over and over and over! And after a short while, FD capitulated, and the missions were "made rare". Rare as in "mostly gone".

Now you spend a lot of time travelling to the @ss end of space in search for one, and risk finding none and having to travel back empty-handed.

Ironically, the only way to effectively get them now, is by cheating the bulletin board by playing login-bingo until you get a bunch of them in the login lottery. A whole new, fun feature which added diversity and encouraged use of multiple game mechanics was nerfed to the ground, and playing login-bingo was once again rewarded. Great job!

Brilliant description of a stupidly handled situation. Have reps!

 

[Hotshot Jimmy]

Ah so when we give money to "repair the station" etc it makes the missions better?