Trading in .85 - a poll

[FooFighter]

Question 1 - Do you like the new RP trade routes?

Yes. Very much, actually. The new routes are quite awesome - they make sense in RP, and they make you go around a bit as well and not just fly from A to B to A ad nauseam.

Question 2 - What do you think about the cash per hour these routes generate?

This is my main problem with trading in .85. You can make a more or less decent profit by trading slaves or blockade running, but it still isn't very good compared to .84. I'm somebody who hasn't much time playing video games, and when I play them, I want to have fun, and not to trade for hours. Sure, with the right people, trading can be fun, but only so much. Being a corporate trader for Planetform, I need to do at least two runs, each taking me about 40 minutes, to be able to set up a fighter. Gunboats take even longer. Cruisers and Battleships? Keep dreaming, mate.

We know that lolwutters are persistent. Sure, some may be repelled by the high amount of time required to trade for a Battleship, but I think the people who suffer most of this are the actual roleplayers. I'm here because I want to RP. When I log onto this server, I want to do interesting, unpredictable RP, not to fly the same route over and over again, only interrupted by the occasional pirate who is quickly scared off by our large convoy's guns (yeah, it's true that the best defense against pirates is flying in large convoys). Discovery offers many opportunities to enjoyable RP, but I feel artificially forced (or at least, strongly recommended) to only one form of RP.

Question 3 - How do you compare trading in .85 to trading in .84?

As I already have mentioned, the routes themselves and the new commodities are awesome. But the profits are a huge problem for me. When I log onto this server, I want to enjoy playing a game, not to work hard to be *able* to enjoy a game. Work is something to be done IRL, not in a game that is meant to be fun.

Question 4 (post only) - Is there anything not covered by the 3 questions above which you would like to mention, to see changed or improved?

As the head of shipping of the Planetform Inc. player group, I really think we need more and better trade routes. See Gloucester's post for details. But I guess this is something that has to be solved partly by us as well, I guess if we want to have new routes, we should make suggestions as well...