I've been away from the game for some time now. How are the trade runs in the different servers? When I was playing, trade runs seemed almost extinct. The thing is, if traders don't do any trade runs, thieves and hunters have nothing to do.
I think it would be great if Joymax would make it so thieves could rob normal players (or their stalls), even inside town. Make it so thieves can even rob NPCs, or at least attempt to rob them. Of course when robbing normal players or NPCs, you'd just get gold, not trade loot to sell in thief town.
People can then hire hunters to hunt down and arrest specific thieves and throw them in jail, or kill them. Guild leaders can try and bust them out of jail too.
It would at least give hunters and thieves something to do when traders don't have the balls to actually go out and trade.

Of course we could get a bit out of hand with this idea and create rehabilitation centers in each town to try and reform thieves and turn them into traders or hunters. It's for their own good. Think of the children!... until the reformed hunter hops the ferry, switches to a thief suit, and robs the unsuspecting trader! muahahahaha...
ok I'm done.
People bot and making gold , hence trading a waste of time. I personally find this disgusting. Simple solution is for joymax to increase the amount of gold earn by A LOT, 300k profit is shit all.