Save Anywhere's docking sequence might be done quicker by carefully moving the player's ship directly into the docking port so it immediately docks.
But that's only going to reduce part of the time lost.
Each launch from station takes 10 minutes, so it's unavoidable to have increases in time from using Save Anywhere.
Since Save Anywhere is triggered from another station, there's the launch from that station, docking with the main station, saving, launching from the main station, and re-docking with the other station again. That currently uses up over 40 minutes not counting the few seconds burned up in the animations of launching/docking as well as at the docking menu and saving game.
Many cargo contracts only give you a small extra amount of time to reach the destination -- they're horribly contrived and often don't make sense, like taking computers or luxuries from a low tech agricultural world to a high tech industrial world.
In-universe, whoever is coming up with these contracts deserves to be gamed, scammed, robbed, and put out of business. You're paying up front for the cargo, going (typically) *
WAY* out of your way to deliver it, passing through dangerous systems best avoided if you're looking to
get rich quick(tm), often paid only about as well as if you just delivered similar cargo between rich industrial/poor agricultural system pairs, and all you earn beyond the dubious credit profit is a "reputation" that can randomly decay away with each jump. And when you're having to make 10+ system jumps on a 80+ LY cargo contract, you'll likely lose every bit of reputation gained! A side-effect of these long hauls is after each one your ship will need a maintenance overhaul or you'll be regularly saying hi to Thargoids in interstellar space and/or having fuel leaks drain your jump fuel tank dry. If both happens together and you don't have additional contingency plans, Press Space Commander!
If you include the hidden and opportunity costs of cargo contracts, the overwhelming majority of them are a big net loss.
I know how to rig the cargo contract system so I can take my pick out of ~10 destinations, increase each contract's profit, and make only gold/platinum/gem-stones cargo contracts offered once my reputation gets high enough...without using any OXPs or external game hacks. In short, even cheating like crazy doesn't make them crazy profitable.
Taking an illegal trade goods (contraband) cargo contract means every main station you dock with along the way will give you a gigantic bounty when you launch...but the profit from such is typically as bad or worse than regular cargo contracts. Maybe these "naughty" contracts are meant to be
Schmuck Bait?
