Contraband listed as "Contraband" in the market, instead of Trade good/Consumer Product!

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
1

Unexpectedly got caught with “contraband” in Caldari space for hauling small arms. No I didnt know, now I do and it was a harsh surprise. I just went negative 360,000,000 ISK in ONE system. I understand now that it was an “intended game mechanic”, after performing my own personal research, and there is an info-tab with legality. But for a game with a MULTITUDE of info-tabs all over the place im stunned it isnt clearer BEFORE you suffer the steep penalty.

Why isn’t there a warning when you purchase the item if its an illicit good? And when I click “Yes” to hand them over, then mechanically the game should hand them over, not fine me again as soon as I land… WTAF thats pretty harsh, gimme a chance to DO something about it.

The popup said “hand them over or get blown up”, so I said yes… I was already in warp… and the popup came back… I said yes again… still fined me twice… sheesh. Two 180+ mil isk fines and a 0.1 standings decrease before I could do anything about it seems a bit steep for a poorly explained mechanic or poorly labeled illegal good, especially considering what IS illegal and what IS NOT (more later).

Also since when are guns illegal? Controlled sure, but illegal? I was hauling Small Arms, Now Alchohol or Tobacco, maybe I understand (Although they are NOT illegal btw), Slaves sure, but Guns? Maybe my America is showing here but I didn’t expect that. Narcotics however I expected ALL to be illegal but only 1 is… L O L

Fixes that really should have already been in place but IMHO need to happen.

  1. There should be a clear indicator on the icon of the item or even a notification at purchase, or both, that this good has legality issues and you should read the information/be forewarned.

  2. The game mechanic that asks you to hand them over should work that way. Not let you continue on with them just to hit you again. For one hell of a fine… 500%! Pretty steep for people trying to make market profits (~2%). Clicking Yes to handing them over should just dump them from your cargo. Or even an “Are you sure” and not let you warp until then… IDK, a mechanic fix is in order of some type.

  3. And make it make sense… The illicit goods are Small Arms, Protein Delicacies, and Khumaak (An Amarrian Relic Replica)? I mean… what? Not to mention all are listed right in with regular old consumer goods like Coffee and Dairy Products. And Tobacco and Spirits/Spiced Wine are fine? Meanwhile the market has a category all its own for narcotics… all but one of which (Vitoc) have NO legality tab so I guess theyre OK?.. and you can buy all kinds of actual people (including exotic dancers and Janitors aka indentured servants) but not if they are called “Slaves”… but yet you can purchase a KIDNAPPED ORE RESEARCHER, or even a SLAVER… no legality issues at all… WHAT!!! Heck I can BUY “FREED SLAVES” … um… … “passengers”… yeah…

  4. Give illicit/illegal goods a separate category in the market or remove the “illegal” goods penalty mechanic

Fix all this CCP, its just not right, the mechanic OR its implementation. And it does NOT in fact make sense given the obvious logic holes I listed above. And can I have my ISK back please?

Please, thanks, and hope everyone has a great day/night, hope you enjoyed the rant.

2

That sucks. You must’ve been hauling a lot of guns… Also, slavery good - guns bad, mmmmkay?

1 Like
3

Yeah, that’s what I mean. I saw a window for a profit at a reasonable amount of jumps so I loaded up my Bustard with almost 30k small arms and bam, two jumps into Caldari space I met a game mechanic I didn’t actually know existed before… OK but dayum.

4

I wonder - if you’d used a blockade runner - would it have even detected the items? (I know that doesn’t help with the current fines being after the fact)

1 Like
5

I was in a Bustard, not sure about a Crane. May test the theory with 1 small arm lol.

1 Like
6

I remember getting fined “back in the day”. I really thought there was a warning at some point, but my memory on that is hazy. It’s also possible that I got instantly fined and thought the same thing you did: “Why the heck wasn’t there some kind of warning?!” lol

1 Like
7

I remember once (Also a back in the day thing) getting fined for Drugs that I had looted, I guess it must have been Vitoc, but it was a minor fine and I thought I just trashed the goods. I dont remember the popup I got this time.

8

Yeah No, Looks like a crane isnt immune to Customs scans either. Even though it is immune to cargo scans… the whole situation is busted.

9

Even though a blockade runner isn’t immune to customs scans, I imagine it could avoid customs scans by warping cloaked. (Never tried it myself though.)

On topic of listing Contraband as ‘Contraband’ in the market: did you know that these items are only contraband in some regions but not all?

For example Caldari bans different items:

image
image570×594 43.9 KB

than Amarr:

image
image579×612 63.1 KB

Gallente:

image
image598×602 80.6 KB

or Minmatar:

image
image619×633 56.5 KB

What is contraband in one region may not be contraband in others at all! Slave trade is just normal and accepted in Amarr space for example, so it wouldn’t make sense for those items to be ‘contraband’ there.

10

300% vs 500% of EMV for small arms amarr vs caldari. Gees

11

Back when ccp was a fun loving indy studio all non synthetic boosters were illegal in hs

12

Why was that ever changed?

Sounds fun to me to have an illegal drug empire and smuggle it to customers in HS.

Why did CCP remove that?

13

“QoL” creep.

1 Like
14

That’s why I don’t like ‘QoL’ changes that do more than just QoL. Changes for more convenience can take away the character of a game.

I’d love to see that change reverted.

15

So would a lot of people. I had friends who made a good deal of isk smuggling