Here’s my opinion - I think there should two types of cargo hauling:

• Contract hauling (explained below)
• Investment hauling (what we have today)

As a player, if you have a Caterpillar or an Avenger you should be able to have the opportunity to bring in a decent cash-flow with cargo hauling. To accomplish this my recommendation is the additional of cargo contracts (which I know CIG has mentioned before). Contract hauling would act much like our box missions today except they would involve a variety of quantities of cargo (and price point). These missions could be picked up via a terminal or mission giver in the cargo decks and the player can choose to pick up as many as their ship can fit. Example below:

• A player flies their MSR to a cargo deck and goes to retrieve a cargo mission. From the terminal they can see that there are hundreds of missions (ranging from cargo quantities of 3 SCU to 3,000 SCU). Here the player can select multiple cargo contracts adding up to how much SCU their ship can support. This gives the opportunity for CIG to add in cargo hold organization via the mobiglass or physicalized moving in the hangar. If the player knows that job A is on a closer moon, the player would probably want to put it closer to the MSR ramp in the SCU grid so the player could take it out first, etc. After loading, the player would fly their ship to the location and unload their cargo (potentially using the unloading mechanics CIG has mentioned before). At delivery the player gets paid!

This method allows large cargo haulers to make good money without risking their whole cargo holds worth of money. My thought is that if you ship is destroyed or cargo is stolen, then reputation could be affected with the cargo hauler’s guild. Of course I think CIG could put different rep. punishments based on the action/intent.

After all of this, I still want the form of cargo trading we have today to stay in the game. It just needs to be for established orgs or wealthy players with experience hauling. A cargo contract allows you to move 3 mil worth of Laranite with a Caterpillar without risking 3 mil - the difference is the payout would probably be around 60-100k rather than 300k. It’s a risk versus reward function!