Black Markets

[gapper4]

Hi guys,

Just a thought, but I find the inclusion of Black Markets on the regular contacts tab to be a tad silly. I mean, the supposedly black Market contact is included on the regular spaceport interface, complete with a convenient sell feature ? Black markets are supposed to be illegal, hence the name, and it doesn't make a lot of sense, even in an anarchic station, for them to be part of the "system".

Hope this feature is developed going forward. It should be a bit more risky and should feel rather more illicit to be dealing with a fence !

 

[Uridium]

While I agree with your sentiment, how do you propose that we contact the Blackmarket?

We are still limited to in game menu systems at the moment.

Maybe a sort of separate button that initiates a communication to the 'BM', and the BM menu kind of 'hacks' its way past the standard station services menu... visually like when someone hacks a broadcast signal with their own message in a film????

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

consider that we wont be able to leave our ships until a few years after release when we get the FPS expansion, where exactly would you put the black market?

also the contacts tab on the menu could just be like the contacts on your mobile phone, it may be an android but it still lets you add a number for the apple store

 

[lysan]

Ideally we should walk out of our ships and slip down some shady station street, and find Joe in a bar where we can buy or sell shady stuff

Oh forgot, of course this would be a one time only deal because he will sell us a log in card for the trading computer so we can do the shady trading through there

 

[CaptainKremmen]

Yes, it's a conceit from the developers, presumably as a way to give us the option until something better comes along.

In my imagination, I'm meeting with a dock manager who looks and sounds suspiciously like "Crapgame" from Kelly's heroes. That guy knows everyone, and gives me good creds for stuff that fell off the back of a Hauler... no questions asked...

 

[gapper4]

I don't a particular solution in mind given that I'm not a dev. I'm writing this purely from the viewpoint of a Player. It just strikes me as odd that the BM is just another regular tab.

A possible solution would be a kind of random timer on the transaction, giving you between, say, 3 and 30 seconds to complete your transaction before you're tracked down by the station Software and interdicted/fined/destroyed. Also, perhaps Access to the BM should be possible only through Special Software or hardware that you'd have to find beforehand in some of the shadier systems or from random encounters. Just thinking out loud.

 

[sibbers]

Maybe we could just have second hand and scrap traders in the contacts list, some of which which who will deal in black market goods with varying prices (this allows opportunity for better prices and/or contacts as you become more entrenched in dirty dealing) and others who will report you for a bounty or seizure of goods (but probably not in anarchy systems...)

This way we'd maybe able to have another market which is a little less transparent and goods that you could buy from your black market contacts, which offers some more area to be developed. That said, I have no idea what's in scope for future design so this might all be redundant already - but running illegal goods for higher profits (narcotics and weapons etc) sounds like a great deal to me. Maybe they should introduce taxes which black market gear is free of, to try and make selling things for cheaper a little more lucrative? The tax system could then be subject to adjustments for sake of balancing too.

 

[Krow]

Yep - I'm with Kremmen on this.
I imagine the Blackmarket button to be making contact with my local Fence.

 

[Lobstris]

It would make more sense if the black market was contacted via shady, semi-cryptic messages in the bulletin board, as per the previous two games. Also sets up the potential for the police 'sting' operations, and bribery again.

 

[lysan]

It would make more sense if the black market was contacted via shady, semi-cryptic messages in the bulletin board, as per the previous two games. Also sets up the potential for the police 'sting' operations, and bribery again.

Oh sweet spot located I agree.

 

[Methendor]

Or what about if there was some kind of device you could install on your ship which allows you to contact the blackmarket privately. And when you dock, you can choose to activate that device instead of the station system. and it brings up a different UI?

It could be sold at normal stations as a private messaging system. or something. but when you buy it, you get a message from a "shady character" who offers to "jailbreak" it for you to allow you to contact the blackmarket with it.

 

[Ben Ryder]

How about a revised interface. At the moment it's a crude menu which suits the flight panels but lacks any atmosphere when you interact with the star port.

NPC avatars for interactions would be good.

Or even a start port floor plan style map. With 'areas' to click on. An ammo shop, a ship yard, a bar, the police station and a dodgy side alley. Maybe something in the style of point and click adventures? Rather than a holo memory.