I'm going to try my best to be cohesive here and hopefully explain the backlash a lot of traders/haulers have shown to the Cargo Refactor AMA, especially for those who don't understand what the fuss has been about. I will try to keep my personal feelings to a minimum, but there will be bias because this matters to me and also I'm just some guy who wants to play a space game. Why some of us feel neglected: Trade has historically sat on the backburner when it comes to any sort of information on updates from CIG, whether it be features shown off in posts or new patches. While ideas and updates for things such as mining, combat, and even salvaging have been iterated upon again and again, trading and cargo hauling have...well, not. Changes to the trade economy (rare as they are) are usually not even listed in the patch notes, leaving people confused to changes encountered until data miners or people in the know post information regarding new or changed systems. While I'm sure it's not intended, the perception among some of us is that the trading gameplay loop is an unloved and neglected one compared to how much attention combat and mining have received, (especially combat) in all forms, be it video posts, forum participation, attention to streamer/influencer types, and everything else. A recap on the (recent) history of trade: The last time trade saw any sort of refresh/update was the 3.6 patch. This took us from infinite supply/demand and static prices to the economy we have now, one that has a basic but mechanically working system fully affected by other players. Keep in mind that 3.6 dropped in July of 2019, which was three years ago. This patch was a colossal change for how trade worked and meant that people had to play smarter and figure out alternate routes when things were flooded by other players, especially since they were now competing against other players in other servers for the first time. Surely there would be some patch notes detailing parts of this (at the time) titanic shift in how things worked, right? The entire patch notes for the new trade system that involved dynamic supply and demand and competition across servers are as follows: "Updated commodity pricing to reflect the addition of black markets and stolen goods." That's it. That's the only explanation we received. And while the change was indeed welcomed, the reluctance to explain anything with the economy changes left felt odd when we've seen so many videos gushing about new systems or changes to things. I'm sure someone will feel the need to bring up Quantum, and to whoever does it first, I would like to ask the date on the last time they talked about the trade economy involving Quantum. Since 2019, trade has seen nothing but shadow nerfs or been advertised updates that have done nothing for actual trading. Some of these nerfs have happened in real time, which shows that the economy can be adjusted on the fly when it feels suitable. For example, in the 3.8 days Laranite refresh rates were nerfed at both Arial locations without any notes to reflect this. The 3.11 patch introduced to us Cargo Decks that were touted as bringing in new options for traders. Several patches later, these continue to be useless set pieces that offer an alternate location to rent a Freelancer or buy a multitool and have had zero gameplay or addition to the cargo/trade gameplay, nor has any updates been given about their future uses since. In 3.12, the three regional economies (Australia, Europe, USA) were merged into one single global economy shared across all servers. This is the intended goal, but it was done so without increasing any supply or demand or refresh rates, forcing the entire community to fight amongst numbers meant for a third of the population. This also saw the introduction of refining, which forced miners to sell their goods as trade goods and making them rub elbows against traders and fight for demand. The only bright spot that we have seen are ILW commodities, which have had notoriously high buy ins for their profit. And while the profit amount is decent, the profit margins are so shockingly low versus the buy in that most real life companies would never chance such a risky thing. And for the brief times that the occasional mistake happens and a commodity pays too much, CIG has swooped in to nerf the payout in real time. Which shows that they can and have adjusted prices and demands on the fly, they just choose not to. All these are definite issues, but it has been especially wounding watching Bounty Hunting and Mining be able to make millions hand over fist for what is comparatively riskless gameplay, as the most anyone is out if things go wrong is their ship and time involved. At this time trading makes the least amount of money between the three and yet carries the largest risk, as personal investment is required. If I lose my ship to any factor be it player or game caused, I am out my ship, my time, and an egregious investment for a profit that is a fraction of what others are making. And even then the only way to make an amount of money that is worthwhile via trading is to use the largest of ships, the Carracks, Caterpillars, C2's. A player using a starter ship up to a Taurus is better off performing the most basic of missions rather than doing trade, as it pays pennies compared to most things. Why should a player risk their own money on a trade run when they can knock out a simple mission that involves zero financial risk, usually in a fraction of the time involved to even do a trade run? It pains me when I have to explain to a new player that their "starter hauler/trade ship" is not going to make them any worthwhile amount of money versus doing a 3 minute Comm Array mission or Bounty Hunting job. And the money situation becomes even worse when attempting to pay turret gunners or escorts who can make more elsewhere. So why is 3.18 so upsetting? For a very long time 3.18 has been touted as the "Cargo Refactor" patch. This whole thing could have been avoided if it was called the "Cargo Box Refactor". And while wording has been vague, the general sentiment among players was that 3.18 would bring changes to a stale system that has not been kept up with. We are tired of going through the motions of hitting the same outposts for the same overtaxed commodities. We are tired of the linear economy that makes only about 5-6 commodities worth trading. We're tired of a drug trade that has been non existent for 3 years. We are tired of forcing ourselves to switch to sub optimal commodities just for a change of scenery instead of following a changing economy. We are tired of the radio silence that we have experienced for a third of this project's life while things like combat see near weekly involvement from devs on Spectrum. So with 3.18 being announced as a Cargo Refactor, we clung to that. And maybe that's our fault. A lot of us took the vagueness of the cargo refactor as a sign that we would have to discover what changes were coming. After all, they have never communicated economy changes before, why would they start now? So a lot of us have been holding out for hope that 3.18 would be what invigorated us. Especially now that this refactor would be giving players the ability to remove boxes from ships and give piracy the options it needs to get aggressive with their marks. With this expected increase in risk from both professional and new wannabe pirates gunning for more aggression and Soft Death now meaning that our ships aren't necessarily needed alive, surely we would see an increase to our reward to both bring it in line with other professions and the increased risk we would now be facing? Especially after this June 9th ISC... "Stay tuned traders and haulers, help is coming." Again, maybe it's on us for clinging to those words and salivating over what else 3.18 would be bringing for us. Until, of course, the AMA happened and we were told that no changes to the economy would be happening at this time (which is incredibly bad for pirates but that's another subject) as they wouldn't want to balance it again once timers become a thing. So yes, a lot of us got upset. Salty. Some of us took to Spectrum to rage, which is what I guess I'm doing now. Us tired traders have been holding out for an update which would invigorate our gameplay and breathe new life into it. We were lead to believe that 3.18 would be that patch, and are now expressing that tired exasperation that the only thing it is introducing is a new way for others to take our cargo, which is yet another thing to make the trade gameplay worse compared to the others. While it can be argued that it is our fault for leading ourselves to believe that, I would like again to mention that CIG's reluctance to talk about anything involving trade economy updates forces us to be left to our own devices. Especially since the pass over on economy updates is only just now being mentioned, this far into the development of 3.18. Continued here, I still can't believe a forum has a text limit in 2022: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/why-some-of-us-are-upset-with-3-18/5490945