In any face-to-face game, "gankers" would soon find themselves being shunned.
Ever play any tabletop wargames, or murder mystery board games? How about a LAN party where the game of choice was a free for all?
If you play chaotic evil all the time, don't be surprised when the rest of the party turns on you.
That sounds like chaotic stupid to me.
Most of the evil parties I've DMed or played in have gotten along just fine. They know they need each other; they're suspicious enough of both each other and outside threats that any proposals of alliances, from within or without, that fragment the party, are usually met with paranoid skepticism. A combination of fearful respect (after a couple of levels, all the surviving party members are typically prolific and skilled killers, not to be trifled with) and necessity is a powerful unifying force, even for the most opportunistic and self-serving types. There is always tension, but as long as outside threats remain, it's the good kind.
Even the odd evil member of otherwise good and neutral parties rarely do things to alienate the only people they can rely on. A big part of being evil is being willing to do what it takes to get ahead; it's not like these people are allergic to pleasantries or performative good deeds. They may strongly prefer the trappings of civility, as long as it doesn't get in the way of what they want. Evil, even chaotic evil, doesn't mean short-sighted or lacking in impulse control.
In my experience, problems with party cohesion usually show up when characters of strong ideals are mixed in with those of equally inflexible, incompatable, viewpoints. Paladins in particular are disasters--even good/neutral mixed parties usually murder them, or bully the player into retiring their character and picking something else. We worked around that problem last time by having the party necromancer execute the Paladin with a
finger of death spell then animate him as an only marginally less intelligent ju-ju zombie, who was more fun for all involved and couldn't overrule his reanimator with his former nonsense. Priests of Lawful deities and classes/kits/templates/whatever (Samurai are a good example) that imply devoted service to some outside force are almost as bad...unless all the PCs have the same patron.
Five LG Paladins, one each of Zeus, Jupiter, Yaweh, Allah, and the
Greater Unknown, walk into a bar. No one walks out.
Anyway,
Elite: Dangerous is not a party-based RPG where all the PCs are part of the same group. The Pilots Federation doesn't count either...it's kinda like the UN, OPEC, or AARP. There is no automatic expectation of alliance with another CMDR just because they get the same newsletter and have access to preferential mission boards.
