I am a committed smuggler. It is my main profession in the game. IMO 1.3 was a big improvement to smuggling, with missions and PP mechanics it has become a much more viable profession. People argue that it should be more viable still without those mechanics and in principle I do not disagree. However, I believe there is one very good reason why the black market bonus on prohibited goods should not be raised further in its current state and that is that smuggling is far too easy.
When I began smuggling I went full on frosted, silent running, FA off in a properly kitted smuggling craft. Prepping about 10k out from the station, turning off modules, lining up, it felt tense, it was fun. Then I realised it was all a waste of time. I realised that I didn't have to lower my shields, I just needed to fly fast and direct into the mailbox. I then realised I didn't even need a special craft, I could do it in a Type 7 or a Clipper. Then I realised I didn't even need to fly that well. It all came to a head for me the other, day, perhaps I shouldn't have dipped into the onion head in the hold, but I forgot to request docking, flew my clipper in to the sounds of trespass alerts, hastily reversed, boosted away, requested docking and flew straight back in, casual like, but not too casual and the Feds, well it must have been donut time because they did not even initiate a scan.
Now at this point let me say that I want smuggling to be harder not so much from a career earning balance point of view but simply because I want to recapture the excitement from when I actually thought there was a degree of risk involved. To that end I have some suggestions:
Outpost patrols
Clearly outposts should not have the same security presence as a station. However, there should be a chance that when you arrive at an outpost there may be a random patrol. You would then at least need to be alert on arrival and sometimes make the decision on whether to try and sneak in or go elsewhere.
Enhanced AI ability to detect large and exotic ships
When you drop into a station in certain crafts, lets for arguments sake say anything larger than the Asp, the security forces get an automatic alert and dependent upon other ships in the area and in line with a priority list they automatically head your way to scan.
Scan on docking request
The station itself should have a scanning function. Once you request docking it will attempt to lock on and initiate a scan. How quickly it locks on would depend on heat sig and ship size meaning that small ships coming in cold and fast would not have a problem but a large ship with it's shields on gets scanned immediately. I appreciate you could request docking at the last minute to negate this but even that would be something.
Wider patrols
The patrols currently hug the station. They could be a little further out or you could have the occasional perimeter patrol
High security
I'm sure the number of security ships relates in some ways to the security level of a system. However, it would be nice for this to be accentuated to the point where a high security system has an absolute ton of security making it a very risky proposition (ideally with a suitable black market incentive). High security systems should also spawn more interdiction and scans.
The above are just some suggestions, I'm sure there will be issues with them. I also appreciate that this would have consequences for wanted non-smugglers but I think that's fine. Basically I want to smuggle and I want to have to think about how I do, I want it to raise my pulse, I want it to be meaningful. There is only so far my imagination can carry me pretending that I'm Han Solo and my cat is Chewie. Come on FD give smuggling some tough love.
