Usefullness of trading factions. Or uselessness rather...

[Blodo]

Heh. RHA smuggles blood diamonds with all transports tagged [RHA] with hessian IFF and smuggler ID. You can track us, etc. how much you want but can you catch us? That's a different question:P

I have no idea why other factions are scared to smuggle with tag on, it's an absolute blast.

Also let me say this: all trading factions who think they don't have enough to do, all they need to do is keep active for a month or two more before 4.86 is out. Constructible bases will make all trading factions constantly sought after and ultra active due to the way they will work. That is all.

[SnakThree]

Blodo, you wish to know? Look at the fines IC got. 10 times more than piracy takes away.
Then, my latest innovation with IC to weed out metagamers was successful. Even the Lane Hackers fell for that by logging only after IC| ships were in Shikoku and were heading back to Liberty. Thus no matter if we choose Kepler or Galileo we would have been pirated. That's sad. Imagine if we gave reason for Military and Police metagame on us and get even larger fines. No thanks.

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[Warlord]

All right here is what I think of the matter.

Trade factions are not in-active, I'm in the [*USI*] and we're in the top three almost all the time in the faction activity list. (http://www.discoverygc.com/server/activity_summary.html)

Because I'm not part of any other trading faction I can only speak for my own. What I think most pirates do is look at what ships are with them in their system, and the level of the players to guess if its a trader or not. Yes, if you add the trade faction tag and have a high level the decision is made. But that's the only ''downside'' I can see, because trade factions don't slow you down.

In Universal Shipping you can pretty much have any ship you can afford, no matter the rank. Are you focussed on making a lot of money in a short time period you can always go out on your own, and if it doesn't bother you then you can go along with convoys and shush.

Being the Chief Security Officer I can already tell you that we're not interested in ''PvP-Whoring'' as somebody claimed somewhere. Escorting our ships is number one priority, assisting law-enforcers is second. We act in a defensive matter, if we get ignored we ignore them.

So all I see in this topic is the downside of adding a tag. It will increase the chances you get caught, big deal. Everything will have its up and down sides, our downside may be the tag but I see nothing else.

My two cents.

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[fencore]

I have no idea why other factions are scared to smuggle with tag on, it's an absolute blast.

Yeah, smuggling synth weed from FP14 down through Bretonia can be entertaining.

Another OSI ship that was running around the same time went through the Magellan-Leeds JH and let me know there was a BPA camping the JH running a checkpoint. When I got around to moving through that space later, I pulled right up on the Leeds JH in Magellan, and PM'd ahead about a "Hacker causing some trouble on the Bretonian side of Magellan." There was a LH in system, but I hadn't the foggiest what he was up to, but the BPA bought the line and jumped on through.

Soon as he did, I jumped to Leeds and had a nice head start while his jump systems recharged. He was maaaaaaaaad. :cool:

You can't have that kind of fun carrying legal cargo. I don't do it too often, though. Don't want to tarnish our good name, since both my Zoner transports are tagged.

I tried that again a few weeks later, the bloke didn't fall for it. Pity. Guess I'll just have to get more creative.

[SnakThree]

Look, smuggling is fun, but very very risky for the legal companies. Thus, we cannot compare it. IC for example has much to lose if it gets caught, while RHA or zoners, not so much.

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[fencore]

Zoners are just as vulnerable, we've not got amnesty from the law in house space. Our operations aren't strictly based there, but we do rely on the houses for materials and quicker passage.

I guess the point is to not be terrible at smuggling.

Or to know there's an embargo between Liberty and Rheinland.

[J.Scroll]

Trading factions like USI are excellent. Trading factions like ours give new players of Disco a way to make money, and build relationships with more advanced players. A reasonably safe way to do start.
With escorts watching you, a new pilot is free to trade, without constant threat by pirates.

Trading factions such ours has many routes made, most of which newbies would have absolutely no knowledge of.

We don't force our traders to stay in a ship, no matter the rank. If you can afford a larger trading vessel, you buy it, no matter if you are a trainee or VP.

The way I see things, joining a trading faction is the best thing a new player can do, especially if its one of the more active ones;)

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[jakub963]

Okay, so all in all... Trading factions are just for fun... pretty much nothing else. But i guess everybody is okay with that.

I asked if there is something possible to do to make them more appealing and Knjaz proposed something very interesting. Though, nobody really minds current state so...
Once again...
Indies>Officials

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[SnakThree]

Well. If you do such kind of advertisement, I'll do it too.

IC is better than any other trading faction because we are richer, have style and have routes in all Sirius houses. Join the rich side, and get a loan for a Stork, or get one second hand from the President! We also have smuggling routes, that will give you a dose of adrenaline! Not only that! IC has awesome transmission bars and stylish post style! And weekly bonuses on top of regular profit for ... making the most money! Ain't that cool?

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[Exsiled_one]

Kishiro offers you to create a char that will be a scientists or technician as well as own a trader ship. As far as I'm concerned anyone with a good roleplay idea can join and start a roleplay in one of Kishiro's fields of action.

We had AI ship, we had whole AI ships project (it was fun we got AI ID's!), there's mining projects, new research, I believe there's a terraforming action of a new planet atm as well (ziggeris is leading that), etc etc. Faction is what you make of it.

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<span style="color:#33CC00">I AM GIVING AWAY MONEY TO CREATIVE MINDS*</span>