why on this or any other sector would the nomads be smuggling?
smuggling = TRADING in unlawful goods
TRADING = not something Nomads would do.
Sorry, I don't think i'm ever going to see a translucent blue squishy ship hauling Alien Artifacts to Beaumont.
Trading's not as easy as one would make it out to be. Either jumping these frivolous embargos (agrees with Xoria 100%), or running around them; NPC pirates disrupting tradelanes three times in one system (more annoyance than anything, but huge overkill), and player pirates demanding more money than the profit a run gives, all make for an less-than-boring trading session.
Mining your way is a little far-fetched an idea. How many players do you envision here? 6 mining vessels, maybe 6 transports, one escort per transport and vessel, you're already up to 24 PLAYERS, that's 15% of the server population on a full server, more like 40% on most days.
If you wanted it to be like that, a mining "consortium" would be two escorts, one miner, and one transport 5k size. The miner and it's escort can shoot and mine, while the transport and it's escort head back and forth from a station. with more players, the complexity goes up exponentially.
Missions do need a slight boost, either that or ammo needs a slight decrease. 5k for one missile/mine? please. That does NOT stop spamming, it only ups more /drawcash-es. I've been doing 120-150k missions in O15 for my BHG Guard rep, and those are the highest I can do w/o running the risk of capital ships (I'm in a Manta), and when done killing the NPCs and such, my repair/replenish costs are more than what I earn in the mission, equipment and pilots included...I agree on this point, to an extent.
I just lost my train of thought, so I'll end here.
