The specialist courier ships already exist. As for rare goods, there may be an issue with balancing with trading. AFAIK private/military couriers have unique cargo, so adjusting the prices shouldn't clash with other gameplay
Smuggling and piracy need to be readdressed
- Thread starter Redrick Schuhart
- Start date
rootsrat
Volunteer Moderator
"Balacing with trading" - I mean... the economy is a mess anyway, I honestly don't think it get can much more messy than it already is. Rare goods used to be very profitable - but time consuming - source of income. Now it's just time consuming.
Maybe instead of increasing the prices they should just remove the cap on price increase? Currently it's around 160 LY, where the price increase is nelligible. I bet people in Colonia, Coal Sack or Which Head would pay A LOT of money for that sweet Lavian Brandy or Kongga Ale
I'm not disagreeing, however by tying piracy to trading you get the same potential issue that occurred when the price of mined goods was dropped, and it had an unintended impact on piracy. That's why my quick win fix is to increase the value of the unique cargo in the private/military couriers. I'm not suggesting that ANY other suggestions on this page are without merit, I just think this one is both low risk in terms of dev/qa effort, and low risk in terms of impacting other areas or gameplay. Given FDEVs priorities at the moment, anything that isn't low impact or an Odyssey issue is not going to get done for the foreseeable future"Balacing with trading" - I mean... the economy is a mess anyway, I honestly don't think it get can much more messy than it already is. Rare goods used to be very profitable - but time consuming - source of income. Now it's just time consuming.
Maybe instead of increasing the prices they should just remove the cap on price increase? Currently it's around 160 LY, where the price increase is nelligible. I bet people in Colonia, Coal Sack or Which Head would pay A LOT of money for that sweet Lavian Brandy or Kongga Ale
Agreed, increasing the value of stuff like Antiquities and Antique Jewelry about by 10x-20x is the simplest and least problematic way to make piracy semi-viable immediately.
But, with that said, they could buff the profit margins of Rare Goods by 20x and it STILL wouldn't match the profits of doing the current best trade routes, even with the rare goods that come in lots of 80, and even ignoring the added time to travel the max sell distance.
There's a LOT of room to buff rares before things become broken. They've really been left far, far behind.
they have already developed the mechanic for odyssey... when you negotiate mission rewards on the concourse.
push for too much and the offer gets rescinded... negotiate in good faith and there might be a deal.
As an smuggler I know what's problem with it - Worst is of course searching a station with a black market (especially in Imperial systems). In all stations (including those, which should be promoting piracy (anarchies)) are treated as an negative. Especially last one shouldn't be have right happen in anarchy stations (which promote piracy). If they deal with it, then should be easier and not harmful for anarchies.
With prices, I agree with you.
In all cases with piracy I agree - should be able to negotiate with NPC and be have more variety with it (and also for cargo available). For example, one ship will be have some salvage in cargo rack or second ship (in agricultures) also hostages and politician prisoners (which they should also add to fleet carriers which still can't be set to sell (same with rare goods)). Those variety will be of course extended during boom/investment/expansion states. And of course same should be in anarchy systems (which should be have more lucrative goods to piracy than in other systems during same state)
@T200 - For this I also agree - Hijacking ships, ransoming etc. also should be added. Especially first one should be added when Odyssey arrive - after hijacking a ship we can for example decide (this ship will be automatic set as an wanted regardless if this ship is clean or not), do this ship sell in black market or keep them (unless that ship is a part of a mission, which also should add).
With prices, I agree with you.
In all cases with piracy I agree - should be able to negotiate with NPC and be have more variety with it (and also for cargo available). For example, one ship will be have some salvage in cargo rack or second ship (in agricultures) also hostages and politician prisoners (which they should also add to fleet carriers which still can't be set to sell (same with rare goods)). Those variety will be of course extended during boom/investment/expansion states. And of course same should be in anarchy systems (which should be have more lucrative goods to piracy than in other systems during same state)
@T200 - For this I also agree - Hijacking ships, ransoming etc. also should be added. Especially first one should be added when Odyssey arrive - after hijacking a ship we can for example decide (this ship will be automatic set as an wanted regardless if this ship is clean or not), do this ship sell in black market or keep them (unless that ship is a part of a mission, which also should add).
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Still, a very complex thing to do, and I get why. Adding a dialog system with ship NPCs would add a whole layer to the gameplay - and not just piracy, because if you have a dialog in piracy scenarios, then why wouldn't you have that in other cases? It's a challenge (for gamedev), but it would be a nice step.
Definitely agree with your sentiment. Anarchies now don't really feel like places where there's a wide opportunity for profitable and enjoyable (gameplay-wise) crime (and supposedly, anarchies should (per se) be such places). And blackmarket availability (certainly lack of it) is part of the problem.
I'm not sure I agree about anarchies being the place where you do crime. Non-criminals are going to avoid them, so there are less opportunities for crime. Anarchy systems should be where you go to sell your stolen goods, so I agree that all stations in anarchy systems should have a blackmarket - or alternatively, the commodity markets in those systems should accept stolen goods
Well, that's definitely what I had in mind - Anarchies are natural hubs for criminals, their safezones, headquarters lets say. But now they are very restrictive in this regard.
Honestly, I don't think anarchies should even have black markets. A black market indicates it's The unofficial market, whereas I would think that in Anarchy systems, it should be perfectly legal to buy and sell stuff that is normally confined to the black market.
I think black markets should have a chance to exist in all systems based on economy state, let's say. Black markets exist in all forms of government IRL, why not in Elite, considering the vast number of populated systems...
Just a thought, what about tainted/stretched/counterfeit product(s)?
I mean that's a part of smuggling and opens up some potential for NPC organizations to have some interaction and effect on the player.
I mean even in the future there's still going to be ways of forging fine art, and moving quantities of falsely branded watches/luxury goods around.
your customer base might not find it funny though.. in fact they might react poorly if they're not in on the nature of the items they're purchasing.
I mean that's a part of smuggling and opens up some potential for NPC organizations to have some interaction and effect on the player.
I mean even in the future there's still going to be ways of forging fine art, and moving quantities of falsely branded watches/luxury goods around.
your customer base might not find it funny though.. in fact they might react poorly if they're not in on the nature of the items they're purchasing.
I think about black markets in non Delaine systems and anarchy stations:
- Non anarchy factions should have opened during those states: Famine/Bust/Boom and Civil unrest.
- Anarchy factions should have fixed black market or changed 'commodity market' with 'open market', where we can buy or sell commodities regardless, do that commodity is stolen or not. (selling stolen commodities here would be have same effect as selling illegal goods in black market (of course if they'll fixed))
I did smuggling for two years in a Cobra III when the game came out as Elite Dangerous (old '84). Rares smuggling was fun. Then a lot of game play payments were buffed. Not rares. Powerplay then killed illegal rares as many systems need a specific minor faction to produce them. Make rares special again.
Thats a really good idea. Why would anyone care wether or not you stole it in an anarchy system?
we already have the dialog mechanic in the comms panel when we choose sides in a CZ or respond to a distress call, this would would require no more from the interface, and the NPC behavior tree would be like that for the sketchy dudes on the concourse.... granted those are in different parts of the game, and the newer code for the concourse may not be backward comapatable with the in-ship mechanic.
True, but keep in mind that this is Fdev. Adding a feature like that (simple as it is, considering all of the code already present) is likely to be added with something like 'Beyond 2.0' update. But, who knows