Smuggling as a true high risk/reward endeavor - for realistic gameplay and behavior

[Sath]

...so all raising the Cost/risk of smuggling would do is ensure that only those who LIKE to smuggle and aren't doing it just for the money will continue to do so.

Well, that is the problem here. There won't be many who like smuggling and do it for the fun, given that there are far more fun activities in the server, compared to smuggling.

Consider this: The said change comes through (higher buy price, higher sell price, same profit). It makes the ones who smuggle be even more cautious about that, leads to various incidents like above the plane flying/avoiding interactions as much as possible. People who continue to smuggle, would find this not a fun aspect of the game in the long run, and certainly move on to other fun aspects.

Result will be that, smuggling would become as dead as bounty hunting in it's current state.

Well, what I propose is that, increase the sell prices and buy prices, increase the profit on par with ore trading (most of the factions that are eligible to smuggle don't have access to 5k'ers). Atleast, comparitively more profitable than it is now. So, it becomes like High Risk->Huge Profit/Huge Loss.

Not saying that this would put an end to the "Avoiding interaction" part, but would definitely increase the smuggling activity, which will surely stir up lawful activity around the sell points.