Straight up, are combat and exploration professions being made second-class to trading?

[Fian]

While I do think the other professions could use a boost, how much of a boost is a trickier question. Trading scales not only to your route, but obviously to the size of your cargo hold, and that means that even amongst the profession of traders running the same route there are some pretty hefty gaps in income, depending on the ship you're using to get it done.

For illustration, I have a middling 2600 profit per ton roundtrip route that I can usually accomplish in about 10 minutes, sometimes 12, as I usually handle it in a fairly relaxed manner and no longer stress too badly, meaning I handle docking and travel with less of the min/max uber efficiency I did in my earlier days. (When I piloted a Type 6, I was wound up like a clock, trying to get it all done asquicklyaspossiblegogogogo.) It takes me longer, but I feel more zen-ish, overall. Let's just say the route takes 12 minutes, so I can pull five round trips in an hour. Pulling from Elite Shipyard simulator the stats for the different ship's cargo capacities, while giving each ship the smallest shield generator possible to prevent docking-related hull damage... (these figures do not incorporate fuel costs if you deny yourself the occasional use of a fuel scoop.)

The Cobra has a cargo capacity of 44 tons, allowing an hourly profit of around 572k. As hull repairs are relatively cheap, you could probably get away with foregoing a docking shield, in which case you'd get a maximum of 60 tons, giving an hourly profit of around 780k.
The Type 6 has a cargo capacity of 104, allowing an hourly profit of 1.35 million credits. (In the case of the Asp, the cargo space is 120, a marginal increase.)
The Type 7 has a cargo capacity of 216, allowing an hourly profit of slightly over 2.8 million credits. (The Clipper's is 240, again, a relatively small increase.)
The Python has a cargo capacity of 284, allowing an hourly profit of 3.69 million credits.
The Anaconda has a cargo capacity of 452, allowing an hourly profit of 5.87 million credits.
Finally, the Type 9, the largest dedicated trading ship, has a cargo capacity of 500, allowing an hourly profit of 6.5 million.

But it is important to remember that the Anaconda will normally complete the route significantly more quickly that type 9, so for many (most?) routes the profit per hour is similar to type 9, in some cases greater where the Anaconda can do 1/2 less jumps. My normal route is a 17ly direct jump in a full Anaconda, I think it would be three jumps in a type 9. (I didn't run this route when I was in a type 9 I had a 10ly jump route instead that I could do in one jump)

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One more thing: I would never bring my anaconda into combat. Ok it is trade specced anyway and i don't have the cash to upgrade it to a combat spec. But even if I did: The repair costs and the insurance costs are just too damn high to bring it into combat - that is what my viper is for. So ok trading brings more cash than combat and lets players get big ships BUT : those ships are really only useful for trading in not for combat.

 

[babelfisch]

I don't understand why everybody keeps going "Trading ought to make more money". Why? Why should it? People with different skill sets should surely be able to earn at least similar levels of income in a universe like this? A powerful bounty hunter or mercenary should be paid rather well for his efforts - the job he's doing involves far more risk, etc. As it stands, trading is laughably easy and the margins are ridiculously high. It doesn't represent any kind of realistic economy. I'm not saying it should, but it's clear that there's a huge difference in income between being an explorer, a fighter (as a generalizing term) and a trader. Again, I don't mind there being a difference, but why make it a massive difference when one involves more risk and time spent? And why make one ridiculously easy? And why forget about explorers?

Because this guy:



Doesn't look like this guy:

 

[mossfoot]

Fun Fact:
Average income of a real life owner-operator Truck Driver: $163,000
Average income of a real life bounty hunter: $60-80,000