I imagined what it would be like, being a small-time trader or smuggler. So I started a new game, and there I was, in my dinky little Wayfarer, a tiny speck in a bustling dangerous world, staring at the commodities screen in Jangala Space Station... Which pretty much told me to buy supplies in Nova Maxios and sell them in Epiphany/Chalcedon. Again and again and again. No rush and no danger, although I got to pay 'tithe' a couple times. Then I bought some Shrikes, then some Buffalos, then an Atlas. Then, a Conquest.
And then I imagined again what it would be like, being a small-time trader or smuggler. The core worlds got small and tame very quickly, with nothing pushing me out of the comfort zone. And believe me, I'm not implying that I'm especially skilled or experienced with this game. Which I am not.
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This issue of getting all this free money, is caused by pirates and LP having low in-faction production, combined with low market accessibility from the "hostilities with other factions" debuff. Leading to persistent shortages for them. Which makes all the other options for making money get crowded out. Even if you make your own rules, putting a post-it note on your screen saying "never sell to raiders", then you still can't see the smaller opportunities on the commodity listings, only the same Umbra, Qaras, Epiphany, Chalcedon. The rewards from bar quests seems trivial by comparison. And the options for exploiting --or creating-- transient shortages seem ... uncertain and complicated. Why bother, when supplies cost 120 in Sindria and sell for 300 in Umbra? Or 80/200 for Maxios/Kantas Den, or whatever. The lack of consequences from black market trading with pirates and independents adds to the problem. And does it really make sense that a haven for smugglers and looters have shortages of such things as weapons and banned drugs?
I don't see an easy solution. Pirate activity counting as an industry in itself would make some sense. I mean, taking stuff from others being ... a source of stuff. Anyway, those were my experiences with trading early-game.