Why does normal delivery pay more than smuggling?

Because in smuggling, the one bringing in the goods doesn't get rich. It's the one that sells them to the user, that make the dough. Look at how the drug world works. Do you think the guys pulling bales through tunnels are rolling in it?

Drug smugglers get paid much more than UPS drivers
 
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Is smuggling viability affected by the BGS in terms of viability? If not it really should be, certain "states" should make smuggling more profitable. That would fit in well with the rest. If a pirate minor faction in a system is "on the roll" surely this should make more missions of this sort appear.
(It may well be so, I dont know)

Cheers Cmdr's
 
Is smuggling viability affected by the BGS in terms of viability? If not it really should be, certain "states" should make smuggling more profitable. That would fit in well with the rest. If a pirate minor faction in a system is "on the roll" surely this should make more missions of this sort appear.
(It may well be so, I dont know)

Cheers Cmdr's

Yeah I'm also curious about this. Only recently got my rep high enough to get offered smuggling runs, but they're all in the region of 1mil at least. In terms of the BGS, I have noticed that black market prices vary, but I have no idea what accounts for that. I read somewhere that population affects it, but after selling narcotics at the highest populated system in the game for less than a system with around 2mil pop (about 9k/unit at the big pop system, around 10k/unit at the lower pop one), that doesn't seem to be true.

There's not much info out there to be honest. I am - very slowly - making records of black market prices when I can. I've also noticed that selling on the black market increased my rep with the station owning faction.. is that normal?
 
Because someone at FD heard smuggling was profitable and decided the best thing to do would be dethrone it, replace it with a less engaging but higher paying alternative, completely neuter smuggling on top of that so there isn't even fun in it any more, and called it a day's work.

:)
 
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Because in smuggling, the one bringing in the goods doesn't get rich. It's the one that sells them to the user, that make the dough. Look at how the drug world works. Do you think the guys pulling bales through tunnels are rolling in it?

Dont, just dont. This is s game, and there is no point in pretending game options are because of real world issues. Stuff that is riskier needs to be better rewarded, period.
 
Because the risk/reward balance is all over the place unfortunately. Then again there isn't that much more risk involved in smuggling anyway :/
 
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Yes, this has always seemed a bit odd to me..
The smuggling missions do seem to pay pretty well but selling to a Black Market seems generally a waste.
I guess for items that are legitimately available at a station (but stolen) then this makes sense, dealing in stolen cargo which you can acquire legally should be less profitable. I'd expect a commensurate increase in value of locally illegal goods though sourced legitimately or otherwise (though actually stolen should probably still be worth slightly less).
 
Dont, just dont. This is s game, and there is no point in pretending game options are because of real world issues. Stuff that is riskier needs to be better rewarded, period.

So having zero basis for an opinion at all, is better than a slim connection to logic? I got it. You want more credits. Message received.....
 
So having zero basis for an opinion at all, is better than a slim connection to logic? I got it. You want more credits. Message received.....

That was certainly an avid display of slimming in the logic department.

The notion put forward was more risk=more pay...not "buff all the things".

Frankly I have no idea why people feel entitled for 50 to 70 mill a run for poo hauling back from Sothis.

Why don't we neuter payments on that and give smuggling that level of income? Or even a little lower?

Quite simply, smuggling was far more engaging than hauling can ever be. And it made sense economically. People need bad stuff moving? Sure, I'll slip that in under the radar for you for high cost. Illegal activity = high pay with risk = good. Instead we have "here, take 60 mill to carry a hold full of poop". Yeah sure it's a fertiliser but since when did fertiliser become more valuable than diamond by weight?
 
I've no idea - but I'd really like fd to look hard at all the mission rewards and do a detailed balance pass. I find doing the easy delivery missions sometimes pays more than assaination missions and can't make sense of it.

However, the other issue I have is that since 2.2.03 there is no risk in any of these delivery type missions (apart from when docking with illegal goods of course) as I can 100% escape any npc interdiction n my asp explorer.

The price of illegal goods is another area I can't make sense of. For example shouldn't there be a difference between taking stolen goods to a port where the items are legal and legitimately bought goods to a port where they are illegal? I don't currently see much difference yet the latter should make more I think.

More detailed mechanics in all of these areas would really help to create a more interesting, immersive and believable experience in the ed universe. I hope fd give these areas a balance pass at some point.
 
Sometimes higher risk is the reward. For example, I enjoy flying smaller ships much more.

"Realism" isn't the issue here though, because people would "realistically" tend to do easier things that pay more. If you want a Commander in the Pilots Federation to smuggle something for you, you have to be willing to pay for it, or expect to be laughed at.

I don't go about grinding credits in this game the way some seem to, but I do think they should serve a logical function beyond RPing scummy dealings with lowlifes that rip you off all the time, which isn't "realistic."
 
Because smuggling missions used to pay well (they were higher risk higher reward missions), some thought they paid too well (forum logic) and those were nerfed. They didn't nerf trading missions and after that regular trading missions have been better than smuggling missions. Now we just have to choose between easy and somewhat well paying missions and harder missions that pay even less. Go figure who thought it makes sense but people whined about other people doing something that you (meaning complainers) didn't like that (missions that can be failed) paid more than stuff they liked to do and giving other people better income rate than they had. Eventually frontier listened the whiners and smuggling missions were nerfed to pay less than risk free trading missions.
 
I wish smuggling actually involved a ship loadout that was aimed at getting in without being scanned. Needing long bouts of cold/silent running. Ducking behind other ships/asteroids to prevent line of sight and scanning from security services! Heck, even getting other players to "shield" you if necessary?

ps: Yes, I think the line of sight scanning difference in CQC should become the norm in ED.
 
I smuggle all the time, made 2400/ton moving drugs from (redacted) to (redacted)

The trick is finding a boom system with a decent black market, then finding somewhere that sells the stuff legally

Then load up the ol' python, put pedal to the metal and no stopping for no one

Bill

"Alternetly, rank up with the crime factions, then move 37 tons of battleweapons for the fun of it......... and a 600K payment"
 
I smuggle all the time, made 2400/ton moving drugs from (redacted) to (redacted)

The trick is finding a boom system with a decent black market, then finding somewhere that sells the stuff legally

Then load up the ol' python, put pedal to the metal and no stopping for no one

Bill

"Alternetly, rank up with the crime factions, then move 37 tons of battleweapons for the fun of it......... and a 600K payment"
Yes - you do proper, real smuggling and make 2 400/ton while someone doing a smuggling "mission" gets 40 000 /ton. I really think that it should be the other way around; proper smugglers who invest in the goods should always get more than the mission hauler.
 
Because in smuggling, the one bringing in the goods doesn't get rich. It's the one that sells them to the user, that make the dough. Look at how the drug world works. Do you think the guys pulling bales through tunnels are rolling in it?

If I'm driving through Dover with half a ton of pot concealed in the car, I'm going to want a lot more than you'd be paying the guy who brings in half a ton of instant coffee.
 
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