Passing trough my usual trade route (Okinawa - Liberty) made me see some things that puzzle me.
People tend to trade with freelancer / mercenary / bounty hunter / Independent trader ID
Now let's see what does this indie trader actually benefit from:
* He belongs nowhere, aka he's not in faction.
* He doesn't have to give a portion of his money to his corporation (either via donations or some weekly cut)
* He doesn't have to answer to anyone regarding his roleplay. (total freedom!)
* He's free to make contacts based on his own experience
* He's free to dock on most bases and make runs that are profitable
What's he losing? What doesn't he get?
* He can't trade in convoys
- Basically he can, he just needs to find same trader doing same route
* He can't enjoy some protection
- He can certainly hire mercenaries and finance them on his own. Escorts aren't pricy
Anything else you can think of?
Well here's what I see them benefiting from, that they shouldn't benefit from.
* They can dock anywhere.
* They can purchase every commodity
* Basically no matter where they trade, they are neutral to people. Neutral isn't hostile necessarily
Now, I'm not prone to placing this situation in the real world, but someone will surely mention freelancer contractors or, people with their own trucks / hauling vehicles and how they're trading things around.
Well, let me tell you something from start, you can't simply go somewhere and take the things, ship them off elsewhere and expect people to buy them from there. You have to sign a contract with the exporters in question. Why? Well, here's the simplest answer.
Indy trader (A) decides to buy 16 tons of cement and decides to haul it off to construction site (QS)
He didn't sign anything and he's off towards the (QS).
(QS) on other hand has no clue that (A) is coming and orders 16 tons of cement from the exporter (E).
Why would he accept (A) now when he ordered (E's) cargo, that's guaranteed and quality approved.
It seems Ageira is the only company for now (kudos!) that has decided to make people purchase the contract to ship their parts. That's the way things should go.
If you want to enjoy the benefits of being neutral to everyone, you shouldn't enjoy the benefits corporate trader has. - That would be, like previous example said, Ageira ID ships enjoying the benefit of shipping gate / lane parts around.
Having an corporate ID makes you a bigger target. Ageira to hackers, Kishiro to xenos, Kruger to hessians etc. It increases Roleplay, it gives it's drawbacks and advantages. You still remain faction-less and you don't enjoy full benefits.
Sure, why would one do this? Well, they wouldn't ofcourse, that'ld be really dumb to do. On one side you have full benefits, on other hand they're crippling things hard.
But when things go up and more companies follow Ageira (GMG? Synth foods?) and start selling licenses and hiring mercenaries to enforce it and make sure that those without license are forced to drop cargo, trade should become more realistic and less of a chore.
![[Image: omgsig.png]](http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/3852/omgsig.png)