Smuggler's Blues

Cmdr Parsnip

C
I really enjoy Elite overall but the black market needs work.

I've moved prohibited items into a station and actually sold them at a loss. For example I've moved narcotics into a wealthy high population system only to find that the selling price is lower than the purchase price in a system where they are legal and in good supply. There needs to be a realistic multiple on the selling price with the multiple increasing the further away the closet source would be.

When checking out the black market, there is no information about what goods are illegally wanted in a system. It would be nice to see what the system wants and what they are willing to pay for it.

At the very least there should be missions involving procuring illegal goods besides black boxes, message capsules, and slaves. Realistically there would be buyers interested in all illegal items.

Love the game overall but I would like more options for people interested in smuggling. I am a honest galactic citizen and wouldn't dream of doing anything less than legal but I have a friend who would love to see these features.
 

Rich Bramwell

Rich Bramwell
I er know a guy who know's a guy who would like to smuggle more items too CMR Parsnip, they er say that they would like to have a better selection of items to smuggle and prices reflected in the risk to systems wanting this slightly dodgy cargo requirements. Also my mate is with you on the fact that the prices can sometimes be the opposite to what you may expect if a commodity is illegal in one system and not in another, he er finds it annoying when he expects bad people to sell bad things and all they sell is food cartridges and frown on smuggling anything illegal in Anarchy systems. Your better off going straight in Elite than smuggling and the life of crime often pays less than expected I guess.
 

ethelred

ethelred
I switched to a hauler and stealthed it up with no shields and heatsink launchers.

Then I bought one of each illegal cargo for the mainly fed systems I was in. These are generally lethal weps, slaves of any kind, tobacco and narcotics. Each system lists what is illegal in their jurisdiction on the system map.

Then i visited all the black markets I had found within 20ly of my source of battle weps to and recorded the prices for each BM to see which was the most profitable. Outposts are easy to sneak into - stations less so (especially on the way out) but it's good practise of silent running and module management, and having the heat sink mapped to your primary fire button.

Worse case are you only get fined once per ton, but as it's a really low signature ship I never got scanned anyway.

Fly safe CMDR.
 

Cmdr Parsnip

C
Smart. I will relay that to a guy I know.

- - - Updated - - -

My friend says that the black box and message capsule jobs pay pretty decent, at least at first. It was good enough to outfit my... I mean his sidewinder and upgrade to an eagle.
 

Sir SaiCo

S
I'm not sure if there are loads of 'dodgy' people about or if we all happen to know the same guy, but i know a chap who feels very strongly about these same issues.... odd!
 

GimpstersGhost

G
The law don't read this forum. Stand proud. I have been known to move cargo of a less that legal nature from time to time. The trick is the custom cargo racks I put together, yea I know a guy who has a way with electronic scanners and a welder. Anyway, the markets for less that legal cargo could use some attention for sure.
 
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Rich Bramwell

Rich Bramwell
Yea I have since heard from a few er.....shall we say less than salubrious pilots who are looking to buy some nuclear missiles and bio-weapons near Yembo and do not know who to approach to ''middle-man'' the deal. Substantial profits my er friends are saying if the goods can be procured and smuggled to a nearby annoying Anarchy system with a Orbital platform full of pirates/business rivals that needs to be.....er reduced to ashes.
I hear nothing, see nothing and know nothing, this shall not stand up in court should I or ''my friend'' be called in by the ''Authorities'' for questioning.
 

Fire70

Fire70
I wish I knew some guys too then I could contribute..

So nobody can tell me why stuff isn't more expensive on the black market. If I knew about it it would seem strange.
 
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reverendK

R
I refuse to hide behind supposed acquaintances. I am not ashamed. I distribute freedom and substance to the disenfranchised across the galaxy. I believe that consenting adults should have the right to bare arms while smoking cigars and pounding whiskey. That they should have the means to stand up against the oppressive regimes they live under while high as a kite. COME AT ME COPPERS.

I also feel I should turn a profit while doing so. But freedom isn't free...

Murica
 

Ben Ryder

Ben Ryder
CMDR Hagglebeard said:
I was expecting to see Ben Ryder here! Where is Ben Ryder?
Click to expand...


Morning :) Time for cuppa and to poke smuggling with a pointy stick.


It's great there's a smuggling community goal that's actually profitable but the profit mechanic still needs fixing. Typically my PC got so excited when it saw the CG that it decided to keel over and have stroke. It's literally on it side rigged for silent running with its guts hanging out as I write this, a pile of disconnected parts (think it needs a A class power plant). So got my smuggling fix last night from Guardians of the Galaxy (that's us that is ;) ).

The Dark Wheel can have a rest for a bit as I try out smuggling in my brand new balsa wood, shieldless D classs anaconda.

How are other's finding the profits on prohibited items out side of the community goal? I've found that make vanilla trade route still bring sin much more than the CG. About 30 percent more profit for doing an 8ly jump compared to the goal (and it adds to my elite trade rank where smuggling doesnt).

Totally agree with the opening post and hopefully the CG is a promise of improvements to come.

Smugglers unite. Share your sources for the smuggling community goal and lets generate some more thingy... stuff about smuggling or some such.

BTW - I'm planning a heist but it might only be in the beta fr 1.3 because of... reasons...

Anyone fancy taking part in a weekly smuggling challenges thread for fun. I've had a few ideas.
 
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Irie 3030

Irie 3030
Ben Ryder said:
It's great there's a smuggling community goal that's actually profitable
Click to expand...

damn i must have missed that one... Still too much to learn about that game before being able to make worthy contributions i believe.. would anybody care to fill me in?


Ben Ryder said:
How are other's finding the profits on prohibited items out side of the community goal? I've found that make vanilla trade route still bring sin much more than the CG. About 30 percent more profit for doing an 8ly jump compared to the goal (and it adds to my elite trade rank where smuggling doesnt).
Click to expand...

Same... i also know somebody that has been "smuggling" personal weapons for a cpl of days into a station that accepted them as totally legal [Alas Station], even though they are illegal in the system [Gliese 868]... as a result, i --eehm, that guy-- made tons of money [from a noob's perspective] so he could finally afford that Asp that he wanted so badly, ranked up 2 trader ranks, still managed to get a 116k fine [104 tons of wpns in a Type 6] because cops apparently rather care to check out the interdicted "trader" than the interdicting "pirate".. and obviously not a single credit from those runs did contribute to the "smuggling" column in the "assets" screen [since the station accepted them as legal despite of system laws]...


Ben Ryder said:
Totally agree with the opening post and hopefully the CG is a promise of improvements to come.
Click to expand...

+1 for that!!


On another note, i think it might be quite nice to have another ranking system for Smuggling as you have for Combat, Trading and Exploring, even though it might be worth debating because as cool as it would be to have a "rewarding" ranking system, smuggling is a rather covert operation in most cases, so it might be contraproductive to have an Elite smugglers ranking..

Any thoughts? [unless that violates forum rules because of thread hijacking - in that case let me know and i open a separate thread]
 

Troa Barton

Troa Barton
Personally I'd love to see it be a sort of late game rare item market without a limit in quantity with the only limitation being your bank account.
Very high buy in so you're pirate bait. Full type 6 equal to a loaded battle python.
up the margin from regular rares to 200lys giving you a long time to get caught.
make it a very dangerous high risk high reward way to play.
you get scanned you hand over the cargo.
I'd like to see this be an open only mechanic but I doubt I'd have many people think the same. Wouldn't be opposed to it being availible in solo but this would do a lot for a living universe.
 

Distance

Distance
Ben Ryder said:
Morning :) Time for cuppa and to poke smuggling with a pointy stick.


It's great there's a smuggling community goal that's actually profitable but the profit mechanic still needs fixing. Typically my PC got so excited when it saw the CG that it decided to keel over and have stroke. It's literally on it side rigged for silent running with its guts hanging out as I write this, a pile of disconnected parts (think it needs a A class power plant). So got my smuggling fix last night from Guardians of the Galaxy (that's us that is ;) ).

The Dark Wheel can have a rest for a bit as I try out smuggling in my brand new balsa wood, shieldless D classs anaconda.

How are other's finding the profits on prohibited items out side of the community goal? I've found that make vanilla trade route still bring sin much more than the CG. About 30 percent more profit for doing an 8ly jump compared to the goal (and it adds to my elite trade rank where smuggling doesnt).

Totally agree with the opening post and hopefully the CG is a promise of improvements to come.

Smugglers unite. Share your sources for the smuggling community goal and lets generate some more thingy... stuff about smuggling or some such.

BTW - I'm planning a heist but it might only be in the beta fr 1.3 because of... reasons...

Anyone fancy taking part in a weekly smuggling challenges thread for fun. I've had a few ideas.
Click to expand...

That's what you get when you try to hide onion head in your pc case :D

Really sucks though man, hope to see you back in game soon. I've yet to track you down in game and "relieve" you of some of your goods ;)
 
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