Add two zeros (at the least) to the amount of all the trade missions, maybe even more in the case of bulk procurements. Currently (and ridiculously), bulk procs are the easiest and best way to gain faction standing as they reward with a high rate of faction points... (Forgetting the fact that this is equivalent of the president giving me nuclear launch codes and a nuclear submarine with missiles for nipping down to the corner store to pick him up two hundred tins of baked beans)... it's also incredibly safe. In all my years of playing VO, I've only ever been boomed five times on bulk procs... and that is out of over three hundred missions.

I suggest the following.

1. Ninety five percent of Bulk Procs should be out of nation. Serco to UIT or Gray, Itani to UIT or Gray and UIT to Serco or Itani. The remaining five percent can stay as they currently are in all aspects, but... should not be available to people with any license over five.

2. The trade missions were introduced prior to the Behemoth, in those days... it was slightly more of a challenge. Given how easy it is to get a Behemoth and even the XC... the most challenging part is finding a Bulk Proc of a distance suitable to achieve the desired faction points.
I propose for standard procurements a minimum of four hundred CUs and for bulc procurements an absolute minimum of two thousand CUs.

3. Special Delivery missions, should have increased Faction value.

4. There should be a modifier to rewarded faction points for combat involving NPCs (thus cutting down on exploitation).

5. There should be a modifier to rewarded faction points for obtaining items from a blockaded nation.

6. Do away with or drastically increase the allotted time to qualify for the bonus... there is no challenge in getting two hundred CUs from point A to B in under an hour in a universe you can traverse in twenty or so minutes.

General comment: Bulk proc missions used to pay far better and give substantially higher faction rewards. This was nerfed for that reason.

1. I'd make it more like 70-80% but +1 anyway

2. Distance seems unrelated to faction reward. When working up standing, I always look for the bulk proc that pays the most. Frankly, I object to proc missions being the primary means to faction gain. I think this area of the game needs to be redefined and made more complex. But because you should not be able to do a bulk run in a single moth trip I'll give it a +0.5 because your numbers seem a bit high.

3. Only if they are made substantially more challenging. Special Deliveries typically mean a simple one way trip with something easy to carry.

4. I'm not sure what you mean here. I've never been aware of combat awards for running proc missions.

5. Must make the blockades meaningful first.

6. If the cube you are suggesting is implemented, then it will still need to be adjusted, but the timer will be meaningful. In early stages of a character, I find that if I don't cheat and use the ships available, I have usually just a bit of time left over. Besides that, the pay off for beating the timer is pathetically low. Rather than increasing it's credit reward or faction reward, I would suggest that the bonus lead towards a new Trade Badge which at a certain level could benefit the trader in some way as the level rises- perhaps by being offered a higher percentage of prime trade missions.

I remember them pre nerf but still... I can go from disliked to POS in a few hours if I'm selective about distance traveled. Even less, if I have a strategically located stockpile of the most common Bulk Proc items.

"4. I'm not sure what you mean here. I've never been aware of combat awards for running proc missions."

There isn't one, what I'm saying... is (like escorts)... there should be. Combat shows you worked hard, limiting it to NPC's is to cut down on exploitation.

"2. Distance seems unrelated to faction reward."

Pay closer attention, it is very related. The farther away, the greater the faction points.

"When working up standing, I always look for the bulk proc that pays the most."

Then you're making more work for yourself than is needed.

" Frankly, I object to proc missions being the primary means to faction gain. I think this area of the game needs to be redefined and made more complex. But because you should not be able to do a bulk run in a single moth trip I'll give it a +0.5 because your numbers seem a bit high."

So do I but, as it's unlikely to change I used high numbers to make it more work. Being the most respected member of a society should not be something you can accomplish in a few hours.

If I remember right, I went from Serco dislike to POS once in about 40 minutes, by taking bulk procs in GR that wanted goods from greyspace but were sold about three systems over in Itani space. That 40 minute number includes the time spent procuring the goods. Definitely broken :)

I say the devs shouldnt waste their time fucking with this at all for now, don't worry about it being stupid now, just work on the faction redux instead. 'whack a whole bunch of moles, all at once'

I disagree LNH in the sense that we are talking about the current primary method of gaining faction standing. I agree that much of this can wait.

On topic: I would also suggest

1) that the bulk procs be given a dynamic method of selection items available for missions to eliminate stockpiling and that ...

2) dying terminate the mission. Particularly /explode

1) that the bulk procs be given a dynamic method of selection items available for missions to eliminate stockpiling and that ...

This is the MOST important item on list... the most easily exployted one. Stockpile, take mission, load, undock & re-dock and done... They should be really randomized!

2) increase quantities keeping current reward level. At least 4x more, like a XC holds 4 tridents worth of cargo.

3) Make most valuable missions cross borders, i.e., require something that is NOT produced in that "nation", while gray-based corps should request items produced by nations!

Dying should not terminate mission, and the Delivery mission should have penalties in case you do not deliver given items.

No bonus for combat. Those missions are peacefull TRADE missions. Leave kill bonus for escorts.

Not totally random though; the goods should be relevant to the station type and location. Ideally, it should also take into account what goods other people have procured, sold, bought, escorted, etc.

FYI that I am aware of the ongoing discussion.

Also, I generally favor eliminating the current single-mission "trading guild" mission and replacing it with a number of PCC-esque trade missions that have similar functionality and have varied availability on time of day, day of week, and so on. But I'm not sure that I have all the required mechanics to actually implement that yet.

Anyway, not trying to derail onto another discussion, it really doesn't matter if it's the current "trading guild" structure or a variety of missions, the various risk/reward/exploit issues are the same.