RIP Smuggling (Discussion of smuggling changes in 1.3.01)

[B33 ENN]

A lot of this rubbish gameplay would be cured if they created a dynamic market where these anomalies could occur by themselves until exhausted by traders and smuggler exploitation.

It's 2015 and we can have a 400 billion star Milky Way model, but can't have an economy where they can simulate natural supply and demand.

 

[Fearless Sister]

I've read a lot of R.I.P. this or that type posts, most go into a little more detail about what the percieved problem with said mechanic is, but what seems to often be the result of these types of threads is that the OP is in some cases suppoted, but mostly from cry babies, and someone else comes along and explains that the aspect of the game being whined about has actually just been balanced, and in many cases fixed and made better. This was recently the case with bounty hunting, many cried the RES and therefore bounty hunting was dead, many others who saw the RES for what it was (farming) rejoiced at the fixes in gameplay. As you have, very badly, explained why you believe that smuggling is dead, I can't very well refute you. But rest assured, smuggling is not dead, it probably just got a little more difficult and is a little too complex for you. Don't worry I'm sure when you grow up you'll learn the mechanics. Until then, maybe you should stick with the simple missions, or maybe I can recommend some other games for you, my 3 year old has a selection of Lego Duplo Android apps that might be right up your alley, I can recomend the train one.

Im sure somewhere in there your being a try hard and trying to be edgy and insult me in someway but in all honesty i care as little about what you have to say as i do about the smuggling nerf. Hense why i didnt feel the need to go into great depth because im sure people who actually log into the game and play rather then try to be a forum warrior, would already know excatly what i was talking about.

But just for you i should probably change the title of my thread to say: You cant make as much money as you could before by selling imperial slaves on the black market because _______ (insert reason here)

Thanks for your comment.

 

[Mikkel Toxwenius]

Yeah my 3k/t one way trip is now a 1k/t one way trip and thats the best ive found so far other systems are even less then that.

Yeah, I can confirm this. I have at best found a 77 ly one way trip yeilding 2.5K/t... There's no point in smuggling now, profit from normal trade is much higher, as is bounty hunting. No point in smuggling now, except for the 'challenge'.

 

[CMDR Jenna Nord]

People going from Sidy to Anaconda over a weekend (yes I actually talked to someone that did) is broken game mechanics. It was way too profitable and the risk was nearly non-existent. I am glad they fixed it.

How can that be? It took me two weeks to figure out the core mechanics of the game back in december... no way a new player could exploit smuggling up to a conda w/o knowing the basics.

 

[puca]

I would have buffed the penalty for getting caught instead. But that's why I don't design games, I guess!

Kind of silly that the most profitable way to make a living (legal trading) entails absolutely no flying skill whatsoever.

 

[Fearless Sister]

I would have buffed the penalty for getting caught instead. But that's why I don't design games, I guess!

Kind of silly that the most profitable way to make a living entails absolutely no flying skill whatsoever.

Think i would of prefered this too.

 

[Quineloe]

8000cr/t is not exactly too high, if the quantities traded are really small, which is what smuggling should be like. You don't bulk wholesale slaves or drugs.

 

[puca]

I am pretty sure mexican cartels bulk move drugs across the border.

---

But yes, they could have done a lot of things to make smuggling interesting and require skilled piloting. Oh well.

 

[deathmagnet]

How can that be? It took me two weeks to figure out the core mechanics of the game back in december... no way a new player could exploit smuggling up to a conda w/o knowing the basics.

He didnt have to figure out the core mechanics. The group he joined told him.

 

[Fyrd Judge]

I make a round trip of 1.6 million every ten minutes with Empire slaves, i can't complain i make more now than before Powerplay. Narcotics i am trying out next, to see what exactly i get for the 5000% increase in profit.

 

[B33 ENN]

I would have buffed the penalty for getting caught instead... Kind of silly that the most profitable way to make a living (legal trading) entails absolutely no flying skill whatsoever.

Exactly my thought.

If I'd have been in the Frontier staff meeting, this is how it would have gone down:

Me:

"Right, people find discovering these high profit/more danger routes rewarding and fun. Let's go with that, but we have to make sure that it doesn't get out of hand as an exploit.

So, how about we rework Silent Running to be actually a necessary mechanic rather than a waste of time and space? You know, like make it so that it becomes a necessary skill for a smuggler and you have to work at it to successfully get your cargo into dock?

You know... Like when Han Solo escaped the Imperial Cruiser by masking the Millennium Falcon as junk? Remember that scene? Cool, no? So how do we do that? ​

Boss:

Erm... :S​

Me:

Well, I suppose we could remove Silent Running as a useless button from all ships as it is right now, since you know, most practised smugglers never use it anyway because they can speed or boost in after lining up and requesting docking.

We could then sell it as a scrambler or cloaking module you have to equip, taking up a slot, sort of like the heatsink launcher, and then rework the station scanning system so all ships get scanned after docking permission is granted, like, you know, customs at air and sea ports.

Now, when they scan you, they can't lock onto you so easily and think their systems are malfunctioning; but even with that scrambler/cloack thing equiped and active there's a chance it won't work to mask you because you have to learn to use it in the right way in a narrow window of opportunity while the station adjusts its sensors to compensate.

We could base that on piloting skills of timing, careful speed control, angle of approach... You know, stuff that's challenging, fun and rewarding so that when they get their 8,000/T of profit, they feel they've earned it? ...And if they fail: big fine!" ​

Boss:

Or... why don't you just play with the numbers and add some more grind? ​

Me:

​

 

[CMDR Jenna Nord]

Exactly my thought.

If I'd have been in the Frontier staff meeting, this is how it would have gone down:

Me:

"Right, people find discovering these high profit/more danger routes rewarding and fun. Let's go with that, but we have to make sure that it doesn't get out of hand as an exploit.

So, how about we rework Silent Running to be actually a necessary mechanic rather than a waste of time and space? You know, like make it so that it becomes a necessary skill for a smuggler and you have to work at it to successfully get your cargo into dock?

You know... Like when Han Solo escaped the Imperial Cruiser by masking the Millennium Falcon as junk? Remember that scene? Cool, no? So how do we do that? ​

Boss:

Erm... :S​

Me:

Well, I suppose we could remove Silent Running as a useless button from all ships as it is right now, since you know, most practised smugglers never use it anyway because they can speed or boost in after lining up and requesting docking.

We could then sell it as a scrambler or cloaking module you have to equip, taking up a slot, sort of like the heatsink launcher, and then rework the station scanning system so all ships get scanned after docking permission is granted, like, you know, customs at air and sea ports.

Now, when they scan you, they can't lock onto you so easily and think their systems are malfunctioning; but even with that scrambler/cloack thing equiped and active there's a chance it won't work to mask you because you have to learn to use it in the right way in a narrow window of opportunity while the station adjusts its sensors to compensate.

We could base that on piloting skills of timing, careful speed control, angle of approach... You know, stuff that's challenging, fun and rewarding so that when they get their 8,000/T of profit, they feel they've earned it? ...And if they fail: big fine!" ​

Boss:

Or... why don't you just play with the numbers and add some more grind? ​

Me:

​

Have one imaginary +1 rep, couldn't give you another one yet

 

[Rich Bramwell]

I've tried it at multiple stations with varying levels of demand. Profits were down by a set amount (exactly 15% of the Imperial Slaves galactic average), due to the stacking of Blackmarket bonuses being fixed.

The reason people are upset is because it was this bug that was causing the over the top profits, not the values themselves. And as I predicted, the valeus were changed, and then the bug, resulting in smuggling being nerfed x4 rather than x2

This is what annoys me the MOST ! That FD should have just acted on the bonuses and left the actual commodities price alone, Risk Verses Reward ! This makes the act of smuggling to me now obsolete because I can now go back to my normal trade runs in my old system and earn almost the same in my Conda trading as I did in my Python smuggling. I was not stacking bonuses and only made marginally more per-hour ( 6 to 7 million) than trading.

 

[Badben]

It's not in any way more difficult. It's simply less profitable.

More danger would be welcome, if we're getting paid!

Your logic is flawed. Making it "less profitable" as you say is another way of saying "making it more difficult to make a profit". Do you see where I'm going with this? Smuggling is now more difficult because it's harder to turn a profit.


and also, I suggest that you simply look at the bulletin board. Missions pay more the higher the rank you are, so smuggling missions also pay more, you just have to work at it a little more.

<snip>

 

[Alexander the Grape]

Your logic is flawed. Making it "less profitable" as you say is another way of saying "making it more difficult to make a profit". Do you see where I'm going with this? Smuggling is now more difficult because it's harder to turn a profit.


and also, I suggest that you simply look at the bulletin board. Missions pay more the higher the rank you are, so smuggling missions also pay more, you just have to work at it a little more.

Seriously though, this is just a whining thread that the game isn't as easy as it use to be, you're all cry babies. My 3 year old whines less than you lot.

Your confusing difficulty with grind. I wouldn't mind if, say the authorities destroyed your vessel on detecting illegal cargo. However this knock to profits, making it worse than legal trading, was unnecessary and unfun

 

[hannibal0216]

I smuggle exclusively (diamondback scout), ED has never been this fun.

Sounds fun!

 

[ruffsfunnel]

Your logic is flawed. Making it "less profitable" as you say is another way of saying "making it more difficult to make a profit". Do you see where I'm going with this? Smuggling is now more difficult because it's harder to turn a profit.


and also, I suggest that you simply look at the bulletin board. Missions pay more the higher the rank you are, so smuggling missions also pay more, you just have to work at it a little more.

Seriously though, this is just a whining thread that the game isn't as easy as it use to be, you're all cry babies. My 3 year old whines less than you lot.

This game is hard? This game is easy! You don't even know how grindy this game is. Do stuff 1 000 000 000x over and over and over and over and over and over and over ctrl+c ctrl+v. That's not hard that's not game that's real life kicking you in the balls. But at least you get paid real cash there.

 

[Jordan Cobalt]

When was smuggling ever alive?

 

[Alexander the Grape]

When was smuggling ever alive?

Friday-Today

 

[Nagual]

Just completed a test run between Archon and Zemina Torval control systems. Bought Imperial Slaves(10%discount) @13.5K ish and sold at an Independent stations blackmarket (15% bonus) @17.5K ish. Based on the Galactic average of 16.5 the sell price should have been 18.9K