Anarchies

This is not really true. For example in the area I'm doing testing right now there is an Anarchy (not a PMF) that has no black market. So it has some other ethos. There are also social Anarchies which go to elections and/or keep the mat trader open.

Interesting, I've not seen an anarchy faction ever have an election :)

Black markets seem more a feature of the system the station is in, just as CNBs are. You can switch them on & off but I don't think they appear or disappear just because a station is controlled by a particular faction type. Could have changed (either way) but I don't think the BGS is that complex, same as with non-changing NPC population & outpost type (civilian, scientific etc).
 
Black markets seem more a feature of the system the station is in, just as CNBs are. You can switch them on & off but I don't think they appear or disappear just because a station is controlled by a particular faction type. Could have changed (either way) but I don't think the BGS is that complex, same as with non-changing NPC population & outpost type (civilian, scientific etc).

I believe it's the faction ethos that turns the black markets on/off. In the same Anarchy system the 2nd faction that has a station, a democracy, has a black market. It's an interesting constellation I never encountered before.
 
I'd like to see a CG or something that pays tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin by giving us a story about a conflict between two nearby worlds based on Anarres and Urras from The Dispossessed. It could be interesting and might take us beyond this false state vs. anarchist/lawful vs. lawless paradigm.
 
I believe it's the faction ethos that turns the black markets on/off. In the same Anarchy system the 2nd faction that has a station, a democracy, has a black market. It's an interesting constellation I never encountered before.
What is this system and what are the factions?

It sounds like a PMF or inserted faction which has some flags or whatnot set improperly. Generated anarchies never elect.

To the opening post: Ally yourself with an cooperative instead, that's closer to your idea of a nice anarchy than Elite: Dangerous' criminal anarchy.
 
Yeah...it goes back to the original Elite game.

I don't think the political definition of Anarchy really exists in ED...I've always taken Anarchy in ED to mean criminal as the majority of Anarchy factions I've encountered are called "Mob", "Rats", "Mafia" etc... and they tend to deal in the dark arts almost exclusively with the missions they offer.

There are some "partnership" and "syndicate" anarchies but they don't seem to be any less nefarious than the more blatantly named factions.
 
Nothing is criminal in an anarchy system, so none of those missions should be considered so. For something to be criminal, there have to be laws... Of course, if you perform such missions in a system that doesn't follow your views, then it might be a different matter, but that's another point entirely...
 
What is this system and what are the factions?

It sounds like a PMF or inserted faction which has some flags or whatnot set improperly. Generated anarchies never elect.

To the opening post: Ally yourself with an cooperative instead, that's closer to your idea of a nice anarchy than Elite: Dangerous' criminal anarchy.
Cooperatives have too many rules. Anarchies are the only systems where players can police themselves without anything saying what they should or shouldn't be doing.
 
To the opening post: Ally yourself with an cooperative instead, that's closer to your idea of a nice anarchy than Elite: Dangerous' criminal anarchy.

Yes, that's what I was about to suggest too.

Anarchies in ED are generally the "hive of scum and villainy" variety. Idealistic hippie-commune anarchies could be classed as "Cooperative" or possibly "Communist".

If one member of the group casually robs or murders another member: would the group care? If not, they're anarchists (in ED terms). If they do, and have rules against that sort of thing, then they have some sort of government and legal system, even if they don't have a "ruling class", taxation etc. They could still be the hippie-commune variety of anarchy.
 
The issue is that even hives of scum and villainy tend to have some semblance of law and order - Mos Eisley had stomtroopers walking around running checkpoints and so on.

The effect of "anarchy" is more "doesn't have any semblance of an effective police force". In reality, if an area was really under mob rule, they'd have their own enforcers of a sort. They might not be the law in the traditional sense, but causing trouble on their turf might still end up with them putting out a hit on you - and what is a bounty if not the controlling faction of a system putting out a hit on you for transgressing their rules?

Unfortunately every other faction takes the law from 0 to 100 immediately - regardless of security level, if it's anything other than anarchy, if you commit a crime then you receive a bounty instantly. The panopticon is in full effect, it is not possible to commit any crime other than smuggling without being instantly detected, reported, charged, convicted and sentenced on the spot.
 
What is this system and what are the factions?

It sounds like a PMF or inserted faction which has some flags or whatnot set improperly. Generated anarchies never elect.

To the opening post: Ally yourself with an cooperative instead, that's closer to your idea of a nice anarchy than Elite: Dangerous' criminal anarchy.

Can't give you the system as it's opsec. The one I wrote about is not a pmf and native to the system. Don't seem to be a handmade system either as it's to far from anything and nothing special about it or it's surrounding. The faction also has none of that mob, clan, whatever name. There are some PMF Anarchies that have a non-criminal ethos and go to elections.

It's the ethos that determines war or election, not the government type. Check Colonia as there are a few factions with non-standard government-ethos combination.
 
This is not really true. For example in the area I'm doing testing right now there is an Anarchy (not a PMF) that has no black market. So it has some other ethos. There are also social Anarchies which go to elections and/or keep the mat trader open.
Why would an Anarchy have a black market? That's for illegal goods and an Anarchy shouldn't consider anything illegal. Black markets thrive in places with tighter restrictions; booze in Theocracies, books in Communist states.
 
Why would an Anarchy have a black market? That's for illegal goods and an Anarchy shouldn't consider anything illegal. Black markets thrive in places with tighter restrictions; booze in Theocracies, books in Communist states.
Well that's a game mechanic to limit profit from stealing commodities for some sort of balance I would assume. As for tighter restrictions- you'll notice in game that authoritarian factions don't allow black markets, so it's only in the less restrictive societies that you find them.
 
Well that's a game mechanic to limit profit from stealing commodities for some sort of balance I would assume. As for tighter restrictions- you'll notice in game that authoritarian factions don't allow black markets, so it's only in the less restrictive societies that you find them.
It's the power play faction that limits them mostly
 
Unfortunately most people are politically illiterate and conflate anarchism and criminality as effective synonyms :rolleyes:

I guess its just a hangover from the original game where DB/IB needed a government type where they could have lots of nasties and settled on anarchies. The lore itself doesn't seem to state that anarchies are full of bad people, just that criminals love to go there because there is no law. Its more like the wild west. So when you have lots of criminals around running things, then you end up with lots of missions of a criminal nature.

You can still get legal missions for anarchy factions, there's just lots of naughty ones as well.
 
Why would an Anarchy have a black market? That's for illegal goods and an Anarchy shouldn't consider anything illegal. Black markets thrive in places with tighter restrictions; booze in Theocracies, books in Communist states.

Maybe it's to differentiate between bought and liberated cargo, so the 25% BM sales penalty can be applied. Also if it's a non-criminal Anarchy things could be prohibited.
 
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