Trading - Brainstorming Changes

[farmerman]

When there are other people around to join in the trading and there are a variety of routes (it's certainly a lot better now, could improve still), I find trading to be fun.

As to freighters and the like, right now they need a lot of love to be able to compete with anything. They have less firepower and maneuverability than fighters and less cargo space than transports. To make them worthwhile, one of the two has to change. What if they were better able to defend themselves than transports? I think it'd be neat if the escort ship of choice was the freighter - then escorts could make some money while still defending.

Alternately, make another type of jumpholes that were inherently unstable. Then when ships other than fighters or freighters used them, they would lose a random amount of hull and cargo. Thus, freighters would be able to sneak through trade wise. Of course, routes would have to compensate.

The other thought is to make specialized ships. Like if Liners had 25% their current capacity but human cargo took up 20% as much as it did in other transports. Freighters could have something similar with contraband, or in certain combinations?

Point traders to the big book of RP so they can establish motivation to play their trade ship whether it's said 600 cargo freighter or a big fricking Shire. Encourage interaction with other players.

Call me weird but I enjoy smuggling whether I'm hunted or not. Sometimes it's uneventful, but the magic of pretending to be a stolen freight launderer or war profiteer never really ceases to entertain me.

To hell with actual profit. That's just the icing on the cake. I'll run a 20c/s route as happily as a 220c/s as long as there's RP involved and a chance to be interacted with.

I agree. Though all other things being equal, I'd take the extra money. And not all interactions are made equal. I'll gladly earn next to nothing if it means interesting encounters. We need more of those.

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