Smuggling Is Not Unlawful

[Stewgar]

Would you not be a pretty bad smuggler if you tried to smuggle contraband while ID's/IFF'd as a pirate to Manhatten?

That makes sense and has shifted my thinking on this. You don't see cars plastered with "I'm hauling cocaine!" along the freeway.

However, this opens up a debate about other lawful IDs (police, military etc.). There are still bad police officers and military members, after all. If that is the case, what is even the point of IDs?

Using the idea of lawfuls and corporates hauling contraband, let's look at a realistic point of view. Surely at each docking bay planet side there are scanners that can pick up what the cargo is, weight etc. There are manifests and flight plans. If Freelancer was real life, it would be near impossible for a lawful to haul contraband unless it was pre-approved by authorities for a situation (police killed a smuggler, local transport picked up artifacts and hauled to Planet Manhattan under police escort ex.). It's why in the real world smugglers haul using unmarked cars and trucks.

Freelancer is not real life, which is why we have IDs. At least for me, it's to identify friends and foes so that I can interact accordingly for the sake of fun. If server rules will not back ID and house law rules, it adds a new element to the server that I'm not sure will be entertaining.

Better to make the most profitable sell point for contraband an unlawful base in the destination system (so like Buffalo/Rochester for Cardamine instead of Manhattan).

That brings up an interesting scenario of POBs that I want to add to this. It would be interesting to have POBs, that are unknown to military and police factions, that will be buying contraband items at a premium. The ultimate destination can still be Planet Manhattan etc... but that is where smaller, faster transports come in. It can still be profitable, but the runs will have to be smaller and faster to avoid detection. RP, to sell to private vendors.

This topic introduces a variety of changes that can be made to smuggling, potentially for the better.

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It ain't about what you are capable of, it's about what you're willing to do.