Trading - Brainstorming Changes

[Janus]

There are, I think 2 distinct types of traders, those who are just doing it to finance ships/characters they'll enjoy more and those who actually enjoy trading, rping a trader etc etc.

There's also the whole smuggling/OORP trading vs legit trading argument.

To my mind, smuggling *should* be more lucrative than legit trading. It should also come with concurrent risks which seem to be somewhat lacking. However..

A BWT or whatever else flying through house space full of cardamine isn't exactly realistic. Modern day smugglers go to great lengths to hide their cargos, coffee crates with drugs hidden in them for example.

Also, if you look at the NPC bulk traders, they are usually carrying genuine bulk commodties, oxygen, water etc. No PC carries these except as a fill in to get from one profitable leg to another as there's just no money in it.

Additionally, are the most used commodities in Sirius really slaves, cardamine and artifacts?

Some suggestions, some of which I'm sure it's possible for the software to handle

Smugglers in freighters don't get "caught". If there's a guy in a correo hauling artifacts, if you're the "law" in what every area, let him go. If he's got a BWT full of em, lock him up. You could even put a "can't pirate freighters" rule in to make them appeal to lawful traders.

Put a 10% or 20% limit on transports. If a guy in a BWT has 360 units of contrabrand or less or 720 or whatever, assume it's "hidden" and again, let him go. Again, if he's full, lock him up.

That's one way of making freighters more appealing and cutting down on the totally unrealistic smuggler powertrading. I'm not saying do away with it entirely, I'm saying make it more difficult and other forms of smuggling less appealing.

As to the commodities themselves, perhaps a limit on how much can be bought? Got a whale? Sure, we can sell you 5000 units of water, or oxygen or food or whatever. Oh, you want gold? We've only got 1000 of those. It gives players a bit more scope and choice. Do they want to carry bulk cargoes in large ships or smaller more valuable cargoes in smaller ships Or mix things up a little.

Old fashioned trading ships would often have mixed holds, swapping one portion of their cargo out at each stop along the way. A Zoner whale for instance, making the rounds of the freeports, trading 1k of cargo at each stop.

There would obviously need the prices modified somewhat, to make your 5k of oxygen as worthwhile as your 1k of gold or whatever else