Smuggling is lucrative if you have the rank for the missions, also smuggling should have a lot more danger involved to make it more exciting.
The Smuggling discussion thread
- Thread starter Sheepykins
- Start date
I'm just glad that FD are actually giving you more profitable things to day. I have been going to Haz RES the last few days, not making 17 million an hour but still doing ok (and having fun). It does get a bit old so now I can try some smuggling...
So isn't that good?? Yet on here you see players complaining it is op?? Why? Jealously?? Spitefulness? Why would anyone complain about this when it is open to all who want to make the trip??
Personally it is great actually doing other things besides trading to get credits..
So isn't that good?? Yet on here you see players complaining it is op?? Why? Jealously?? Spitefulness? Why would anyone complain about this when it is open to all who want to make the trip??
Personally it is great actually doing other things besides trading to get credits..
I have to say that I am glad that there is variation in terms of how I want to make money. Mining has also got a buff recently making it a lot easier to make quick cash.
Agreed. Even if smuggling was the most amazing profit in the game, it would get old doing it day in day out. Right now I'm mining, which I've found to be the worst money, even when farming a pristine metallic ring. But I have to have variety or my brain will melt. Some people can tolerate doing the same highly profitable thing all day, and more power to them. But most people just cant, which is why I cant see smuggling being profitable being a huge issue.
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That's a train of thought I wish people would drop. It closes down the discussion we're trying to have by jumping to negative conclusions about people offering their critiques on the change. Obviously I'm not jealous or spiteful because I'm doing those missions myself.
Most of the criticism is simply out of concern for game balance. It's all just opinion and nothing that should be elevated to a personal level.
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It's interesting to read this thread, being 50k Ly from Sol, and the return stage of my trip tot he far edge of the galaxy, with about 100k Ly to go (on my chosen path), the current smuggling payouts are of great interest to me, as smuggling was my most enjoyed past time before I left the bubble in March. It was not very profitable back then, though. Still, I've made about 120m cr from smuggling back than, as apposed to half that for regular trading. It's staggering to think of my bank balance had ther ebeen such payouts for smuggling missions back in March.
Regardless, from reading all the posts, it still seems to me that smuggling itself is just too easy. I was doing it in a Python, and I'd drop out of supercruise at 90º angles to the station to give myself a tiny bit of a challenge at least. I'd then boost to the station and pretty much hit the "cage" at full boost, at which point it was time for full reverse thrust and touch down in 50 seconds or less from SC drop out. Anything over 50 seconds and I classed it a "failure" - that was my personal challenge to myself.
Seems nothing has really changed apart formt he payout, though I do hope, that in stark contrast to FD's normal style, smuggling will not be nerfed (RIP Pre-nerf Cannons, Python, and all the other fun stuff that should have helped to give the res tof the game a buff, rather than a single object nerf smashing), but instead - buffed.
By that, I mean keeping the payouts - smuggling *should* be extremely profitable, but it should be so damn hard that only a few select pilots should even be able to make a living off it without totally ruining their reps within every system they attempt to smuggling a carton of booze, or a swiss army knife. Fewer still should actually be raking in the dough like no tomorrow - and those few will have earned it.
I don't care if you can make 100m cr of a single T of cargo in a Sidey, so long as there are only a couple of hundred pilots in all of ED actually capable of pulling it off. It should be *that* hard. On a sliding scale, though, of course...
SMuggling illegals into any station i Sol should be infinitely more difficult (and profitable) then smuggling something into some backwater system outpost run by a pirate faction with no security. The latter should be giving you 50% market value, and truly only worth dumping illegally obtained goods anyway. Various system types and station security levels will give us the ability to scale our own difficulty (and payouts).
I'd love to see a nefarious rank, too. The pilots federation doesn't like "scum", thus wouldn't give you an "Elite" ranking in smuggling, but nothing stopping us having a "Pirates Federation", where smuggling has it's own ranks. Your smuggling mission payouts then depend on those ranks.
Anyway, it's fun to try and make up, in my head, the perfect smugglers version of Elite. It won't happen like that, of course, but perhaps key bits and pieces will be inserted intot he game in one way or another, and overall make smuggling fun, profitable, and difficult.
As for spreadsheet trading... I'll just put this quote, from Lord of War, right here...
Regardless, from reading all the posts, it still seems to me that smuggling itself is just too easy. I was doing it in a Python, and I'd drop out of supercruise at 90º angles to the station to give myself a tiny bit of a challenge at least. I'd then boost to the station and pretty much hit the "cage" at full boost, at which point it was time for full reverse thrust and touch down in 50 seconds or less from SC drop out. Anything over 50 seconds and I classed it a "failure" - that was my personal challenge to myself.
Seems nothing has really changed apart formt he payout, though I do hope, that in stark contrast to FD's normal style, smuggling will not be nerfed (RIP Pre-nerf Cannons, Python, and all the other fun stuff that should have helped to give the res tof the game a buff, rather than a single object nerf smashing), but instead - buffed.
By that, I mean keeping the payouts - smuggling *should* be extremely profitable, but it should be so damn hard that only a few select pilots should even be able to make a living off it without totally ruining their reps within every system they attempt to smuggling a carton of booze, or a swiss army knife. Fewer still should actually be raking in the dough like no tomorrow - and those few will have earned it.
I don't care if you can make 100m cr of a single T of cargo in a Sidey, so long as there are only a couple of hundred pilots in all of ED actually capable of pulling it off. It should be *that* hard. On a sliding scale, though, of course...
SMuggling illegals into any station i Sol should be infinitely more difficult (and profitable) then smuggling something into some backwater system outpost run by a pirate faction with no security. The latter should be giving you 50% market value, and truly only worth dumping illegally obtained goods anyway. Various system types and station security levels will give us the ability to scale our own difficulty (and payouts).
I'd love to see a nefarious rank, too. The pilots federation doesn't like "scum", thus wouldn't give you an "Elite" ranking in smuggling, but nothing stopping us having a "Pirates Federation", where smuggling has it's own ranks. Your smuggling mission payouts then depend on those ranks.
Anyway, it's fun to try and make up, in my head, the perfect smugglers version of Elite. It won't happen like that, of course, but perhaps key bits and pieces will be inserted intot he game in one way or another, and overall make smuggling fun, profitable, and difficult.
As for spreadsheet trading... I'll just put this quote, from Lord of War, right here...
Z...Yuri Orlov said:
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How is the game "out of balance" if smuggling is the most profitable exercise? Other than it could means more players can get to the big ships or you don't need the biggest ships to make the most money but even then I don't see how it would throw the game out of balance.
The reason why people such as myself use that train of thought is basically because it looks like rotten eggs. As I said it isn't really hurting anyone else, we can all go do it, unlike huge profit trading where you need the biggest ships to do best..
This game needs more profitable exercises which don't involve hours upon hours of mindless grinding to get that ship or upgrade you want..
Personally I do believe the rewards are way to high. Do I have a problem with mode switching? NO. Every game I play that have instances it is allowed. I have a mining and combat ship in a system that gives these missions at the core edge and saw them before sothis was getting all the attention. Grabbed my cobra at 26 tons made 5 mill 1st run WOOT. When the game came out and I finally got a cobra, I never got 500k for 26 tons of anything. Am I going to continue? Hell yes. Do I believe it bad for game mechanics? Hell yes. When one activity becomes so much more lucrative than any other I see that as bad for the game. I have 8 ships, asps, db's and a clipper, don't even want an annie. And btw, I play solo, so I could care less what anyone else has.
I gotta say, this doesn't seem like it's OP to me. I had to do quite a bit with my A grade Cobra to even do the run I did today from Fehu. I had to remove my FSD Interdictor for a cargo rack, my hatch breaker limpet for a fuel scoop, and my shield cell bank for again a cargo rack.
In the time it takes for travel, time spent on fuel scooping, the fights from the pirates and running from cops I ended up doing, my payout ended up running about the same as the smuggling I was doing locally in Eotienses in 1.3. The only real difference was how I spent the time. I made 7 mil in one sitting of 5 hours rather than my usual 1.5 mil and hour I usually do.
If anything it limits me to just smuggling as now I have to run 5 hours to make the 1 run worth it. Where as before I was doing several other small jobs and assassination missions along side my regular gameplay.
In the time it takes for travel, time spent on fuel scooping, the fights from the pirates and running from cops I ended up doing, my payout ended up running about the same as the smuggling I was doing locally in Eotienses in 1.3. The only real difference was how I spent the time. I made 7 mil in one sitting of 5 hours rather than my usual 1.5 mil and hour I usually do.
If anything it limits me to just smuggling as now I have to run 5 hours to make the 1 run worth it. Where as before I was doing several other small jobs and assassination missions along side my regular gameplay.
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I was at 12% tycoon when I started doing these missions. after one full day , I just hit elite in trading
Conan the Barbarian?
I am sorry but I am living proof that it is OP. I was at 12% tycoon before I knew about sothis. after doing so many missions today, I hit elite in trading . My friends that were really poor all got anacondas today. Please this is over powered end of story
I figured it was worth a try. I have never made more $$ in one day before. I went from 18 mil to 80 mil. Broker to Entrepreneur. Definitely will be doing this again.
It was actually kind of fun. I encountered an elite python NPC with railguns that about killed me. Cops everywhere that I'm dodging. I learned that chaff disrupts a ship scan - perfect for those situations. I actually found it more engaging than normal trading. I actually equate this to what rares trading was back when first released.
It was actually kind of fun. I encountered an elite python NPC with railguns that about killed me. Cops everywhere that I'm dodging. I learned that chaff disrupts a ship scan - perfect for those situations. I actually found it more engaging than normal trading. I actually equate this to what rares trading was back when first released.
Great read, Epicurean.
So? People hit Elite in Trading a long time ago. How much time did you actually put into this?
Not true, smuggling is lucrative with low rank too.. just get a cobra. A penniless trading rank can stack 3 mill missions with a cobra. And make around 10 mill/hr. Completing just one of those missions will bring him to broker where he can start stacking 5 mill missions.... (most probably missed that last part so let me spell it out for you... THATS 4 RANKS IN 1 MISSION)
Dont forget up until about a week ago the only way you could make 8 or 9 mill/hr was with a 150 mill ship. That probably took you a few hundred hours to get.
Edit: I think this is breaking the game (and very quickly) btw did you vote? https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=191702
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Although I've said a few times today on this topic that I don't see much of a challenge to it either, a couple of hours ago I was being hounded through about 5 systems, toward a drop-off I'd left slightly too late, by a vulture, a viper and authority ships, each of whom seemed to want me to themselves.
About 20Mm from the destination they interdicted and re-interdicted me 3 times, chased me into a planet and dropped my shields when I turned to fight. Incoming missile alerts appeared as my FSD began counting down, and even after I reached the station they dropped in alongside me and continued shooting me through the slot until I'd fully landed. The other ~18 hours I've been at this have been fairly risk-free, but there are rare spikes of brilliant intensity, and I've never seen the AI so ferocious.
That sounds right to me. I'm an awful pilot and I make little technical effort to avoid scans any more, so it feels a bit off that I can make as much money as the best on a whim. I don't really think of myself as particularly good at anything at all, because the game is handing me armfuls of medals regardless.
I think this reward hike would have worked better if they hadn't done it with smuggling. They have capital ships for us to fight, but they never seem to do much with them. Maybe we could get paid a huge sack of cash to drive one of those away or something, at least until smuggling is better defined. That'd be a bit new and I imagine less controversial. I think I've seen a capital ship twice.
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It does make for fun gameplay. You can't smuggle shieldless anymore. However, I would still be happy with this gameplay if I received half the payout for these missions. I would then still have made 13 mil in four hours, which I think is about right.
This is wrong. People bicker more about nerfs in WoW, and that game is as social as you can get. Same goes for guildwars 2, archeage, eve online, dota, diablo 3, starcraft, or any other multiplayer game that has anything to 'balance'.
Less social gameplay does not imply more bickering about nerfs. There is (demonstrably) no correlation between the two.
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