Contraband: Will It Ever Change?

[t0l]

The problem with buffing contraband prices across the board is that people will just powertrade at 2 AM whilst 20k below plane, getting all of a contraband buff's bonuses without any drawbacks.

How is that any different than a powertrader who buys Ores from POBs at 2:00 a.m. and flies below the plane?? IMO, that's no argument for not buffing contraband. Powertraders can powertrade whenever.

If we wanted to make it more fair, buff Contraband sell prices, but also buff the purchase prices a bit so that Smugglers face greater risk of loss if they get caught or lose their cargo.

Besides...2 a.m. server time is also prime time for some OTHER time zones to be active, so they can actually do some policing and smuggler catching if that did occur.

First off, ores are not an NPC base commodity. There's a limited supply of it, and if a group of miners neglects to supply the PoB, there won't be any ore to get. Of course, this is a rare occurance for more active PoBs, but a factor to consider nonetheless (Samura Platinum base in Nagano, anybody?). You can only trade so much ore before the base runs dry, but you can powertrade NPC base contraband until the cows come home.

Plus, if you actually want to curb the whole silent powertrading under the plane thing, the most logical course of action isn't to buff contraband and bring OC 5kers out of the woodwork again.

Next, I meant 2 AM EST. You know, when server pop is 27?

Could it use a small buff? Maybe. Could it use admin-commodity buffs? Sure. Just don't permanently overdo it.

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