Well, Currently it seems you get a slight standing loss from killing a Convoy's transport. However, it appears that its so small that UIT players can freely retake it by delivering the cargo to the same nation who had it.

This strikes me as completely bogus, as UIT aren't the least helpful in protecting a convoy, but will just kill it and bring the cargo to the right destination, with a big increase in standing as the results.

As a UIT player, I want to second this. Since UIT gets no "bonus weapon" or whatever out of the convoys, and we can get tons of faction standing in a few easy runs, there is very little incentive not to go on convoy raids. This distorts the agression levels of the UIT and makes both other factions think we are all untrustworthy pirates.

In reality, the true player-vs-player pirates I have encountered seem to come in equal parts from all factions. I have also seen plenty of Serco attack the Serco convoy, Itani attack the Itani convoy, etc. and then bring the goods home simply for to the massive standing increase and relative lack of penalty. Thus, this imbalance affects more than just UIT behavior.

Simply increasing the penalty for killing the convoy would partially address the problem. However, if the penalty were to hold true for kills in unmonitored space, it would be unlike the way players can kill each other in unmonitored space without faction penalty.

Another way to help improve game balance would be to add some way that UIT players can gain equivalent XP or faction improvements for protecting the convoy. This would vastly reduce UIT agression against its neighbors and restore its more traditional neutrality.

Maybe something can be done with the groups stuff. Maybe an automatic group could be available for each convoy. Join the group, your standings fate is tied to the convoy - if the transport dies, your faction standing drops, if the transport makes it, you benefit.

This could probably be abused though.. join the group, sneak up to point-blank range, leave the group, blast the transport and run. Oh well.. The idea needs work.

I would think that the UIT, mostly traders, would want to further the free-trade in the universe. If the convoys were to make round trips to different systems/sectors, then the UIT and other factions would want make sure the convoys came to their stations. If the convoy going to NS1 keeps dying, maybe the Serco send their convoys elsewhere, for example. And maybe the special item could be exported to the UIT or other factions that most supported the trade routes.

Pretty much, once the economy is such that nothing is created or destroyed by magic, we can have true economic issues such as supply/demand, inflation/deflation, competition, etc, rather than artificial tweaks, which would make the whole trade thing much more interesting.