I want to start this by saying, this isn't a rant, I love the game and I understand it's a constant work in progress. I've just noticed that some of the game mechanics might benefit from a little attention.
So, I've noticed that smuggling is actually pretty easy, there's basically one thing to do, turn on silent running. Heat isn't really an issue if you have a heat sink, and the really cool mechanics of turning off modules to remain extra cool really isn't necessary. I know this because I've been smuggling in my Anaconda, and in my opinion, you shouldn't be able to smuggle in an Anaconda, ever. When I started conda smuggling runs, I would turn off all unessential modules and be really careful to line myself up with the slot 10km out. I've been doing it a while now, and I've realized all that extra work is completely unnecessary. All you need to do is land normally, except with silent running, on, use a heat sink or 2 and you're golden. I never even look at the security level in the system, because this method works 10/10 times, anywhere. Then there's smuggling in my imperial courier with a boost speed of 520 m/s or something ridiculous like that. With that ship, I don't even need silent running because I can get inside the station before anyone could ever hope to run a scan on me. This ships breaks smuggling because it's basically impossible for me to be scanned in it. So, I've come up with a few suggestions that I think would make smuggling a lot more fun.
-Make it near impossible for conda/cutter/corvette/type 9 to smuggle. All ships have strengths/weaknesses, not all ships should be able to smuggle. it seems fair that large ships shouldn't be allowed to smuggle, as smuggling ought to be small amounts for large profits. These large ships should be very easily scanned, even in silent running. They are huge, and hot, it just makes sense, people don't smuggle in super tankers.
-Cargo scan length should be dependent on cargo hold size. This means super fast small ships can't just scoot by security because they know they'll never scan them on time. A small ship like my imperial courier should be able to be scanned in 2-3 seconds. This would make it so that a small ship must rely on being very cold to avoid scans. There should be an upper limit on scan time though, since it would give the large ships an unfair advantage if it took 30 seconds to scan them.
-Make profits on illegal goods higher in higher sec areas. I'm not sure if this hasn't already been implemented to some degree actually, but I think it could be much higher. This goes hand in hand with my next point.
-Make High sec areas REALLY HARD to smuggle into. These are the places where you should have to use every trick in the book to try and avoid scans, turning off extra modules, using flight assist off so you don't need to use your thrusters, even needing engineer mods like low emissions power plant and clean drive tuning. Those seem like perfect mods for a smuggling ship, the only problem is, as the game stands, they're completely unnecessary.
Anyway, these are just my 2 cents, anything else anyone can think up that could improve smuggling?
So, I've noticed that smuggling is actually pretty easy, there's basically one thing to do, turn on silent running. Heat isn't really an issue if you have a heat sink, and the really cool mechanics of turning off modules to remain extra cool really isn't necessary. I know this because I've been smuggling in my Anaconda, and in my opinion, you shouldn't be able to smuggle in an Anaconda, ever. When I started conda smuggling runs, I would turn off all unessential modules and be really careful to line myself up with the slot 10km out. I've been doing it a while now, and I've realized all that extra work is completely unnecessary. All you need to do is land normally, except with silent running, on, use a heat sink or 2 and you're golden. I never even look at the security level in the system, because this method works 10/10 times, anywhere. Then there's smuggling in my imperial courier with a boost speed of 520 m/s or something ridiculous like that. With that ship, I don't even need silent running because I can get inside the station before anyone could ever hope to run a scan on me. This ships breaks smuggling because it's basically impossible for me to be scanned in it. So, I've come up with a few suggestions that I think would make smuggling a lot more fun.
-Make it near impossible for conda/cutter/corvette/type 9 to smuggle. All ships have strengths/weaknesses, not all ships should be able to smuggle. it seems fair that large ships shouldn't be allowed to smuggle, as smuggling ought to be small amounts for large profits. These large ships should be very easily scanned, even in silent running. They are huge, and hot, it just makes sense, people don't smuggle in super tankers.
-Cargo scan length should be dependent on cargo hold size. This means super fast small ships can't just scoot by security because they know they'll never scan them on time. A small ship like my imperial courier should be able to be scanned in 2-3 seconds. This would make it so that a small ship must rely on being very cold to avoid scans. There should be an upper limit on scan time though, since it would give the large ships an unfair advantage if it took 30 seconds to scan them.
-Make profits on illegal goods higher in higher sec areas. I'm not sure if this hasn't already been implemented to some degree actually, but I think it could be much higher. This goes hand in hand with my next point.
-Make High sec areas REALLY HARD to smuggle into. These are the places where you should have to use every trick in the book to try and avoid scans, turning off extra modules, using flight assist off so you don't need to use your thrusters, even needing engineer mods like low emissions power plant and clean drive tuning. Those seem like perfect mods for a smuggling ship, the only problem is, as the game stands, they're completely unnecessary.
Anyway, these are just my 2 cents, anything else anyone can think up that could improve smuggling?
