Lately gray space has been dominated by pirates. I've seen almost no moth activity. When the new Gauss II turret was released last night, no one even bothered to try it out. The traders need some serious motivation to come to gray space, and to man a turret in a moth.

Lets implement a high profit experimental trade run to test the new Gauss Turrets. Set the sale price of Sedina Chocolates in the Latos Stations at 20,000 credits with no supply fall-off. The gauntlet of pirates in B8 will determine the value of the new Gauss turrets, and - in fact - the effectiveness of the whole turret concept.

I'm actually not happy about being confined to B-8.

I do all my trading in edras -> UIT space, not my fault pirates are too lazy to move!

I usually have to announce my route and what I am carrying just to get one to bother to show up!

So.... you're asking Trade players to head into Pirate space with very expensive cargo (+Ship) and a couple of expensive turrets, which have to be manned, leaving no one at the helm if the player is solo (because anyone else thinks he's crazy)... against fully armed kill-craft pirates.

How's about you buy a cargo ship and turret, and have a fellow pirate attack you on you own time instead.

.. or attack an NPC convoy, they shoot from turrets already. (Well less accurately than a player to be sure)

- Taele. :)

You explain the risks well, Tael. The question is, does a 1.2 million credit profit per eight minute run justify those risks? I'm floating this idea to find out just how much incentive there must be for traders to come to gray space.

Unfortunately Mission, very little reason. We can't defend ourselves against dedicated ship killer pirates, so most choose their times well .. monitoring the 'chat waves' to see if infamous captains are docked for the night... then a couple of very very fast/stealthy runs are performed. (Which is very realistic when compared to historical situations)

The greater the level of Piracy, the lower the level of trade will come through a region. In a sense.. Pirates do themselves out of business for being so brutal or over demanding in extortionate fees.

Actually.. it really is a, "You only have yourselves to blame" scenario. :)

On top of this.. several well considered Nation Space runs, I can make equivalent profits with much less risk.

I love that new turrets have been added.. but their use is not practical to solo cargo Traders.

EDIT : In addition, adding turrets to Trader ships will not make them impervious, but allow them to be prickly proposition if they have an escort also. Not only do you dodge their bodyguard.. they're popping odd turrets shots at you whilst fleeing. Even with a full battery of turrets.. I have no illusions that I therefore can actually kill a Pirate.

- Taele. :)

Good feedback. This is the kind of thinking the devs must consider in setting the rewards for trading in gray.

For 1.2 million I'd fly my XC through grey. I do anyways, but the money makes a decent incentive.

I think you are probably not the only one, ryan.

I think a fix to people docking their XCs on cappies would need to be implemented first.

I can imagine plenty of cappy escort missions going through b8 if this happened...

well they would drain the voys pretty quick and not get cappies anymore as the lack of huge voys in grey after the busy weekend has proven.

I agree with Atice, the fix needs be done certainly. But CrazySpence points out an issue some folks seem to miss when berating the exploit.. it takes some luck to even get a Constellation in a convoy. In a week of convoy running I've only seen one in my own escort missions. That may be a low ratio, but certainly points out their rarity if anything.

Didn't really think to slap a Cargo ship in one until recently as a lark.. a laden Moth handles like a pig and I can't be stuffed trying to thread that Needle..hahah. :D

Rather actually escort and blast bots TBH

Hi,

I dont think turrets capable of destroying a good pilot on a Vulture. Maybe a flak turret could, but now used...

I have made a few trials against bots. For basic collectors, it works great. For more agressive bots... not so much.

I compiled a few ideas on new turrets here: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/22323

On Atlas, backward-facing turret only good for defense against pursuiter, backstabs...

On Moth, quite better, good but not complete coverage... and I really dont think the best gunner out there can defeat an average vulture pilot without LUCK...

So far, I believe in turrets against bots. Great for mining.

But really should be possible to operate my own ship's turret on Atlas / moth. So I could lock the turbo and move into turret to defend me against that bot, or nail a pirate wannabe who came too close steady... Or engage mining and go to turret to defend myself against incoming bots.

Alloh: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/22292