First I think that system authority should be seriously beefed up. They're supposed to be trained pilots.
* There should be different wanted levels. For low bounties the authorities should label you as a criminal and authorities should give you slightly lower priority. When your bounty crosses a certain threshold the system should label you as a terrorist and the authorities should be relentless in their quest to end your reign of terror. Living with a high bounty should be difficult.
* Fighting them should be scary if your a terrorist, the ai needs to be seriously upgraded. Governments send military and anti-terrorist squads after terrorists. If your a petty criminal then fighting should be the same, they'll just be normal police
* If you are a terrorist then interdictions should be common. If you are close to a station or you interact with an npc they'll be placed on high alert and hunt you. As a petty criminal they should almost ignore you unless you get to close or do something heinous near them.
* Station defense should be tighter. In secure systems there should be more security vessels and/or their scanners should be much better at detecting you and faster at scanning you. This will make smuggling or being wanted harder. If your only a small time criminal, or don't have too much illicit cargo then the station security should be less deadly. Not every turret should fire on you, only some and not every security ship should chase you, you need a chance to escape. If your a terrorist or have a lot of illicit cargo and your detected then God bless your poor soul.
Now, with harder smuggling and making having high bounties more difficult there should be some more scoundrels survival tools.
* stealth plating, this should be a hull plating that is slightly weaker than normal plating, but greatly reduces your thermal signature on sensors making you difficult to detect. This should work in supercruise as well to reduce the number of authority interdictions and make it easier to sneak into stations.
* Scanner decoy, works like deploying a heatsink making a radar contact and distracting security. Might be helpful in sneaking into stations. (Of course... there is the heatsink, so might it be necessary.)
* Scanner jammer, increases the time needed for your ship to be scanned.
* cargo spoofer, when scanned there's a chance that the scan will show a small quantity of a cheap, legal commodity. Higher grade cargo spoilers increase chance and give better spoofed results if spoofing is successful.
* low heat thrusters? Reduce speed and maneuverability but does not generate significant amounts of heat? Might not be a good trade-off.
Now, if smuggling was harder, but had cool new toys then the rewards should be greater. The black market should be much more dynamic based on supply and demand than normal commodity markets. It should also have much higher profit margins between supply/demand black markets than normal commodity markets due to the increased risk. Supply and demand should shadow the normal commodity market at that station, while banned goods should always have very high demand.
I feel that these suggestions would work well with the increased murder penalties, making playing as a psychopath or griefers much more difficult. It would make piracy and smuggling much riskier, but also potentially more lucrative. You would have to watch your bounty, and be crafty. It would make being wanted much scarier and more exciting. It would reduce the deadliness of a 400cr bounty with the wanted levels. It could also give traders more tools to fool pirates.
* There should be different wanted levels. For low bounties the authorities should label you as a criminal and authorities should give you slightly lower priority. When your bounty crosses a certain threshold the system should label you as a terrorist and the authorities should be relentless in their quest to end your reign of terror. Living with a high bounty should be difficult.
* Fighting them should be scary if your a terrorist, the ai needs to be seriously upgraded. Governments send military and anti-terrorist squads after terrorists. If your a petty criminal then fighting should be the same, they'll just be normal police
* If you are a terrorist then interdictions should be common. If you are close to a station or you interact with an npc they'll be placed on high alert and hunt you. As a petty criminal they should almost ignore you unless you get to close or do something heinous near them.
* Station defense should be tighter. In secure systems there should be more security vessels and/or their scanners should be much better at detecting you and faster at scanning you. This will make smuggling or being wanted harder. If your only a small time criminal, or don't have too much illicit cargo then the station security should be less deadly. Not every turret should fire on you, only some and not every security ship should chase you, you need a chance to escape. If your a terrorist or have a lot of illicit cargo and your detected then God bless your poor soul.
Now, with harder smuggling and making having high bounties more difficult there should be some more scoundrels survival tools.
* stealth plating, this should be a hull plating that is slightly weaker than normal plating, but greatly reduces your thermal signature on sensors making you difficult to detect. This should work in supercruise as well to reduce the number of authority interdictions and make it easier to sneak into stations.
* Scanner decoy, works like deploying a heatsink making a radar contact and distracting security. Might be helpful in sneaking into stations. (Of course... there is the heatsink, so might it be necessary.)
* Scanner jammer, increases the time needed for your ship to be scanned.
* cargo spoofer, when scanned there's a chance that the scan will show a small quantity of a cheap, legal commodity. Higher grade cargo spoilers increase chance and give better spoofed results if spoofing is successful.
* low heat thrusters? Reduce speed and maneuverability but does not generate significant amounts of heat? Might not be a good trade-off.
Now, if smuggling was harder, but had cool new toys then the rewards should be greater. The black market should be much more dynamic based on supply and demand than normal commodity markets. It should also have much higher profit margins between supply/demand black markets than normal commodity markets due to the increased risk. Supply and demand should shadow the normal commodity market at that station, while banned goods should always have very high demand.
I feel that these suggestions would work well with the increased murder penalties, making playing as a psychopath or griefers much more difficult. It would make piracy and smuggling much riskier, but also potentially more lucrative. You would have to watch your bounty, and be crafty. It would make being wanted much scarier and more exciting. It would reduce the deadliness of a 400cr bounty with the wanted levels. It could also give traders more tools to fool pirates.