The Black Market - Why is it so useless?

So Obsidian Ant's Black Market video today got me thinking.


I basically ignore the black market's in the game because they are basically useless. It's very rare that I end up with stolen or illegal cargo and the few times I do have any it's normally worth so little that I can't be bothered and I just dump it somewhere.


The main reason is that the current implementation of the Black Market makes no sense. Why can I only sell to a Black Market? Why can I only sell goods that are illegal in a given system? Why is it so limited?


The Black Market could be so much more.


  • We should be able to both buy and sell from a Black Market. Maybe not all goods that the commodities market has but things that would make sense for the system/station it's at.
  • We should be able to buy goods from a Black Market and use them to turn in missions but there is a risk. There is a chance the mission giver may notice something is off and that the goods are stolen/counterfeit/etc... The higher your rank with the faction, the more trusting they are of you and they won't inspect it as closely. This could let us buy from a Black Market and sell/turn in on a mission for more profit but if we get found out, there's a fine, reputation hit, etc...
  • Don't want to turn in that cargo Faction A wants you to take to Location B for a measly 25,000 credits? Sell it on a Black Market for 100,000 credits but your rep is going to suffer.

There is probably even more gameplay that could come from this that I haven't even thought of.


It's just a shame to see another thing in this game that could have so much more gamplay tied to it and it just doesn't.

Because, just like the docking computer - You're not supposed to use it!

Doesn't matter if they work then! [noob]
 
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verminstar

Banned
Why is the black market so useless? Because its absolutely nothing like a real life black market...thats why its useless. Fer instance...what wares are fer sale in the black market? None? So what actually qualifies it as a market if it doesnt sell anything? If its just to buy illegal junk ye find, then its not a market, its a fence.

A genuine black market...I very much doubt we will ever see that here because genuine black markets sell anything and everything so long as ye got the coin. They also dont operate anywhere the law can reach them, so when its inside a coriolis station with a whole fleet of peelers eating donuts at the front door, one does have to wonder, raise an eyebrow and remember the game is played by 7 year olds ^
 
Sure, there's a lot of improvements that could be made to the black market system, but I've never had any problem with making nice profits on them. I think about 3/4 of my wealth has been made from bm sales, both smuggled and stolen goods.
 
Here is a copy/paste of my thoughts on the black market in a thread from way back, still think they're good ideas:

"I think every station should have a black market but it shouldn't be on the contact list by default. You should have to successfully complete at least one bulletin board mission for the local shady geezer, spiv, or mafioso before they offer you access to their inventory of black market goods and services. This would allow you to fence stolen goods and allow you to buy and sell whatever goods happen to be prohibited in that system.

It would make a smuggler/pirate have to travel around and build up their network of criminal contacts, the more you have the better your crime Elite rating:


  • Legit
  • Mostly Legit
  • Bent
  • Grafter
  • Fence
  • Mobster
  • Capo
  • Kingpin
  • Elite


The higher your crime rating the more lucrative criminal capers on offer should be. Along with corresponding increase in scrutiny from system security and penalties stiff enough to make you maybe have to choose between being busted for the entire cost of your ship or being a grass . If you do snitch your crime elite rating takes a battering [goes down]and maybe you'll have hits taken out on you [also criminals should stop doing business with you because who likes a grass?].

I think you should also be allowed to try and bribe the authorities like in F:E2, with the risk of meeting an honest copper and having your fines doubled."

link
 
Yeah, every station/port should have a blackmarket since the mechanic of closing one is utterly stupid.

You can't simply close the demand for illegal goods in a system.
 
OK, so for the moment I'm going to ignore the BGS aspects of the Black Market (currently, selling on the black market reduces influence for the owner)

Here's my 40c on how to "fix" black markets and smuggling with commensurate risk/reward.

1. You can buy any available legal goods from the black market at 80% (arbitrary number) of the standard cost. Goods are marked as stolen. (e.g Were gold 10,000cr, you'd pay 8,000cr). You can only buy from the black market if you've docked normally.
2. Introduce a docking override module. Fitting this grants "permission" to dock at a random docking bay, without actually allowing you to dock. Grade E = 30 second docking window, up to Grade A = 2:30 docking window.
3. Using silent running cancels any "legitimate" docking request, but not an override request.
4. Cops no longer scan you for illegal goods. You receive fines for carrying illegal or stolen goods as soon as you enter the letterbox of a station* unless you are silent running, and any active docking request is cancelled and you're marked as a tresspasser, analogous with attempting to enter the dock without permission.
5. To sell stolen goods... use docking override to get permission to dock, engage silent running to avoid fines on entry. Docking using an override allows you to sell stolen goods on the open market (i.e at full price,, profit =~ 20% base cost + standard profit margins), but tresspass counter continues to go down while docked.

If you're too slow, you get popped by station turrets. If you're too fast, you risk slamming a shieldless ship into a station wall. But it makes smuggling a whole lot more interesting and profitable than just "Boost through envelope asap, don't worry about slamming into walls thanks to shields". Docking override module is also a creative and useful start point to buff being hostile to factions.

I remember in FE2 you could "launch without permission". This was useful if docking control was busy and an assasination target was leaving, or if you needed to skip the cops on fines (you got fines for evading payment of fines though)... although there was no ability to dock without permission, interacting with docks "illegally" is something i miss from FE2.


* This doesn't carry over to outposts. I have no useful suggestions here.
 
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There's no shouting involved. You just follow the huge neon signs 'Black Market this way'

That is one of the things that will have to change in the future.
When walking around stations is implemented the black market will need to be removed from the standard station docking menu.
We will then have to go into the station and seek out our shady black market contact in person and deal with im face to face.
 
i dont see the black market as useless but then i pick up high value illegal stuff from time to time from USS or on planet surface then i want someplace to sell it - usually an outpost so i have a good chance to dock before i get scanned.

but im all for having more gameplay to do with it. think about it; where else would you buy a fake ship id for that job from mission board to slaughter the faction opposing them? you wear the fake id in the CZ and get the combat bonds, take it off when you turn the mission in and you dont lose any rep with the side you slaughtered because they think you are someone else, and gain rep and credits.

maybe even some missions require you to go to a certain outpost and buy a specific ship id from the black market, then attack a target in public to blame someone else. lots of gameplay ideas like that.
 
So Obsidian Ant's Black Market video today got me thinking.


I basically ignore the black market's in the game because they are basically useless. It's very rare that I end up with stolen or illegal cargo and the few times I do have any it's normally worth so little that I can't be bothered and I just dump it somewhere.


The main reason is that the current implementation of the Black Market makes no sense. Why can I only sell to a Black Market? Why can I only sell goods that are illegal in a given system? Why is it so limited?


The Black Market could be so much more.


  • We should be able to both buy and sell from a Black Market. Maybe not all goods that the commodities market has but things that would make sense for the system/station it's at.
  • We should be able to buy goods from a Black Market and use them to turn in missions but there is a risk. There is a chance the mission giver may notice something is off and that the goods are stolen/counterfeit/etc... The higher your rank with the faction, the more trusting they are of you and they won't inspect it as closely. This could let us buy from a Black Market and sell/turn in on a mission for more profit but if we get found out, there's a fine, reputation hit, etc...
  • Don't want to turn in that cargo Faction A wants you to take to Location B for a measly 25,000 credits? Sell it on a Black Market for 100,000 credits but your rep is going to suffer.

There is probably even more gameplay that could come from this that I haven't even thought of.


It's just a shame to see another thing in this game that could have so much more gamplay tied to it and it just doesn't.

...you mean like a sort of commodity market with supply and demain, both legal and illegal? Hmmm... I recall the cries for the back ground sim to be more reflective of reality during the first year or so of the game. It truth it seems people have just accepted what we have now. Consider this, why isn't everyone in the bubble starving? Who bothers shipping food? :)
 
...you mean like a sort of commodity market with supply and demain, both legal and illegal? Hmmm... I recall the cries for the back ground sim to be more reflective of reality during the first year or so of the game. It truth it seems people have just accepted what we have now. Consider this, why isn't everyone in the bubble starving? Who bothers shipping food? :)
er i shipped 40 tons of food cartridges just yesterday. admittedly i was hoping the mission at the destinations would ask for them - but instead they asked for the domestic appliances which i had NOT brought that time because i saw missions last 5 journeys asking for food cartridges... its like they only put missions out for the things you ARENT bringing...
 

verminstar

Banned
I love the way everyone keeps calling it a market...a market is usually a place where one can purchase items, and last I checked the so called black market here doesnt actually sell anything at all. So why is it called a market?
 
The answer to the OP lies in the reason Frontier are dedicating the next few updates to improving the core of the game. There's a lot of things they didn't get to do as they would have wanted because of time and resources.
 
The answer to the OP lies in the reason Frontier are dedicating the next few updates to improving the core of the game. There's a lot of things they didn't get to do as they would have wanted because of time and resources.

Thargoids. Planet Coaster. Bob The Builder. :)
 
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