Black Markets Unavailable (?)

[shadragon]

I'm in the process of upping rep with local star systems surrounding my home system and noticed something. Black Markets, in systems I am neutral with, are unavailable. At first, I thought this was due to UA bombing, but only the BM was affected, no other service. Every station and outpost near me had unavailable Black Markets.

When I became friendly with the local faction, the Black Market became available. I went on to get friendly with other factions in other systems and the same thing happened.

This is either a bug, new feature or remarkable coincidence of UA bombing wearing off just as I get friendly with a faction.

Anyone else seen this?

 

[TERMINATRIXXX]

Wasn't it the result of the lockdown of the controlling faction?

 

[Jukelo]

Some government types close black markets. I don't have an exhaustive list, but typically Dictatorship and Patronage will close the local BM, Corporate and Democracy leave them open if they already exist.
The logic is hard to follow as typically the black market is quite thriving in restrictive regimes like dictatorships, while corporate states shouldn't have much of a need for black markets, being all about free market and all, but that's how it is.

 

[shadragon]

Wasn't it the result of the lockdown of the controlling faction?

Controlling faction remained the same during my time there. No PP changes in ownership or sub-faction.

 

[Sterling MH]

I believe it's a legit mechanic. It was previously: you don't get to ask the fence where you can deal with stolen goods, because as far as they can tell, you're a narc, wired up, to trap them. You gotta earn trust.

 

[Jukelo]

I believe it's a legit mechanic. It was previously: you don't get to ask the fence where you can deal with stolen goods, because as far as they can tell, you're a narc, wired up, to trap them. You gotta earn trust.

It used to be that the BM wasn't displayed on the system map and you had to be physically present to see it (and take notes of where you found BMs). As the BGS can impact the availability of BMs and the rules were even less clear back then, this meant finding a BM was not only random but also very frustrating as those you found would randomly close or open.
Unfortunately at no point have you ever needed to work your rep with the local underworld to access it, anybody can openly trade on the local BM if it's present and not disabled.

 

[Goose4291]

Some government types close black markets. I don't have an exhaustive list, but typically Dictatorship and Patronage will close the local BM, Corporate and Democracy leave them open if they already exist.
The logic is hard to follow as typically the black market is quite thriving in restrictive regimes like dictatorships, while corporate states shouldn't have much of a need for black markets, being all about free market and all, but that's how it is.

Source for this?

Im not doubting your reason, but every bug report Ive seen regarding this wasnt answered beyond "we'll look into it."

 

[Jukelo]

Source for this?

Im not doubting your reason, but every bug report Ive seen regarding this wasnt answered beyond "we'll look into it."

No source, just my experience. As with most things in the game there is very little documentation so you hav to figure stuff out. So far I've seen no counter evidence so it's good enough for me.

 

[goemon]

- blackmarkets are a service like, for exampel, outfitting. either a station has one, or it hasn't. goverment changes and states can disable or enable the "services" - with one notably exception: anarchy factions will always establish a black market, even if the station has non by default. you can see the jolly roger at outposts with a potential black market, even if current ownership disabled them

- your description @OP reads like a powerplay effect to me. some powers close all black markets as a control effect, as others open black markets. could at be that either the stations are newly controlled by a power closing black markets, or a power opening black markets lost control?

 

[ShimEnki]

Some government types close black markets. I don't have an exhaustive list, but typically Dictatorship and Patronage will close the local BM, Corporate and Democracy leave them open if they already exist.
The logic is hard to follow as typically the black market is quite thriving in restrictive regimes like dictatorships, while corporate states shouldn't have much of a need for black markets, being all about free market and all, but that's how it is.

Agreed, and i dont get why there seems to be more wanted / criminals of the controlling faction buzzing about which from what i can get from bgs mechanics is that criminal acts lower the controlling faction's influence.

I could see a few that are there that are actually trying to blend in, in order to get away with crime and dont realize they have been identified, but when >80% of the local bounties come from the controlling faction's ships---makes no sense. If you want to help the controlling faction you end up attacking their own ships which lower their influence only to gain some back on claiming the bounty...like...

 

[SaliVader]

Corporate and authoritarian goverments close BMs.

 

[goemon]

Corporate and authoritarian goverments close BMs.

no, they don't. at least not always and not all of them. here is an exampel. dictatorship, authoritarian as much as possible:

an easy search on eddb.io will find many exampels like that.

i could imagine, that system security + goverment type = "blackmarket enabled threshold" plays a role, or that they disable them by changing the system security via upping it?

 

[Deleted member 115407]

no, they don't. at least not always and not all of them. here is an exampel. dictatorship, authoritarian as much as possible:

http://i.imgur.com/LFUNaNZ.png

an easy search on eddb.io will find many exampels like that.

i could imagine, that system security + goverment type = "blackmarket enabled threshold" plays a role, or that they disable them by changing the system security via upping it?

I'll have a look both in-game, and in my game logs tonight. Have a Corp state that I believe has open markets, also believe security has changed from Mid to High, though I can't tell you definitively since the little H-Jump pop-up gives false info. Will have to actually gather the system details.

 

[SaliVader]

no, they don't. at least not always and not all of them. here is an exampel. dictatorship, authoritarian as much as possible:

http://i.imgur.com/LFUNaNZ.png

an easy search on eddb.io will find many exampels like that.

i could imagine, that system security + goverment type = "blackmarket enabled threshold" plays a role, or that they disable them by changing the system security via upping it?

Oh yes, there are examples like that, but I've not been able to find any new examples. I suspect the rules for black markets changed some patches ago but stations need to change hands in order for the newer rules to apply. So if that station is lost and then the dictatorship regains control of it, it won't have a black market anymore.

 

[goemon]

Oh yes, there are examples like that, but I've not been able to find any new examples. I suspect the rules for black markets changed some patches ago but stations need to change hands in order for the newer rules to apply. So if that station is lost and then the dictatorship regains control of it, it won't have a black market anymore.

here is a very new and recent exampel, it's even a fresh base:

other exampels right of my head are te kaha - control has changed to a dictatorship, black market is still there.

just saying, that dictatorship/corporation = blackmarket closed isn't the rule, and while i definetly have seen corporations closing down black markets - i have also seeing them not doing it. so there is more behind it.

 

[SaliVader]

here is a very new and recent exampel, it's even a fresh base:

http://i.imgur.com/BBgMTOG.png

other exampels right of my head are te kaha - control has changed to a dictatorship, black market is still there.

just saying, that dictatorship/corporation = blackmarket closed isn't the rule, and while i definetly have seen corporations closing down black markets - i have also seeing them not doing it. so there is more behind it.

Hm, I guess I was wrong. The BM rules are way more complicated than I thought :/

 

[xondk]

I'm in the process of upping rep with local star systems surrounding my home system and noticed something. Black Markets, in systems I am neutral with, are unavailable. At first, I thought this was due to UA bombing, but only the BM was affected, no other service. Every station and outpost near me had unavailable Black Markets.

When I became friendly with the local faction, the Black Market became available. I went on to get friendly with other factions in other systems and the same thing happened.

This is either a bug, new feature or remarkable coincidence of UA bombing wearing off just as I get friendly with a faction.

Anyone else seen this?

state/powerplay factions? all can affect this.

 

[Bryan K]

Some stations just don't have black markets. My home station doesn't have one, making it UA-proof. Very handy.