So I'm sitting around at home nursing a hangover and I noticed there was a Star Wars marathon on Space network. Han Solo has always been my favourite character out of that franchise, and his freighter smuggler ship. Then an idea crossed my mind. A smugglers guild-like faction, but one that would only use freighters as, lets face it, you don't see tankers full of cocaine docking on Miami - it's small planes or powerboats. RP wise, it would make more sense. But then I thought about it a bit more and came to the conclusion that freighters are few and far between for a reason.
Why smuggle ~600 units of Cardamine when you can smuggle ~3500? That's the main kicker right there. As much as someone wants to roleplay, they aren't going to limit themselves to a small freighter and take home a much smaller amount of credits, unless they were downright hardcore. Sure, freighters are smaller than a transport and inherently have much better survivability, but if a smuggler knows what he's doing, he'll never encounter a lawful on his PTrans/Train. (not to mention adding on Armour 8 takes a larger percentage of cargo space on a freighter as opposed to a transport)
So what exactly are freighters here for except a stepping stone to transports? Cargo piracy, as the Bactrian and Correo have shown to do quite well, is an option. Again, why not use a PTrans instead? Much better offensive, defensive and cargo hauling capabilities. You're also much more likely to get a trader to comply if you have a PTrans as opposed to a Bactrian. I know I can certainly take down a transport in my PTrans a lot easier than in a Bactrian.
That leaves us with the freighter being a stepping stone, which isn't right. A civilian or independent trader is much more likely to own a freighter, not a massive transport. Don't get me wrong, I'm not for restricting transports. Civvies and independents get shafted enough as it is.
Here's my ideas:
1) Give certain freighters a fighter torpedo slot. A Bactrian or Correo with a MR would be a much scarier sight. I acknowledge that it would require rebalancing.
2) If possible, through the same server magic that makes mining viable, give properly ID'd (Smuggler for contraband, for instance) freighters a 2x higher sell price. For example, the Camara would effectively smuggle 1260 units of contraband. Hardly game breaking stuff.
3) I don't have a #3 but it makes my post look more complete to those that just skim over the post.
Discussion is the idea behind this thread. Post your own ideas or comment on mine. Oh and I'm quite thick skinned, so if my ideas are outright stupid, say so. You won't hurt my feelings.
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Now as for the faction idea, I was thinking of organizing a Smugglers Guild, a loosely organized group of smugglers that create their own runs via RP and maintain it themselves. Not just slaves and cardi from Liberty to Alpha. The art of good business is being a good middleman, and getting factions items that they wouldn't be able to directly due to geography, diplomacy, etc, should be a profitable venture. The idea would be to limit to freighters, but that isn't something I'm completely dead set on
If anyone would be interested in this contact me via skype. Username is corporateheadhunter
