Countering Black Markets

[CMDR John Casey]

Hi, our faction is Democracy and thus we have black markets.
Now, I suspect our adversaries are using the black market to tank our influence. I see quite large swing in the economic status but security is only marginally affected.
Also, traffic reports indicate an anomalous large number of T9 compared to the usual.

What is the best counter? Trading? Exploring?

Thanks in advance
o7

 

[Ian Doncaster]

The best counter is probably the thing you're currently doing the least of - trade, exploration, bounty hunting and missions all have diminishing returns, so a balanced amount of each will (in general) be more effective than focusing on one of them. Hitting a few of the other factions in the system with negatives - black markets if they have a suitable secondary dockable, murder, Odyssey missions might be able to target them a bit - will also help balance things out.

Of course, with today's update significantly changing how trade influence works, the above might be somewhat out of date. It may be that the black market will become more or less effective anyway.

 

[CMDR John Casey]

Thanks! I'll wait and see then

 

[Jmanis]

Thanks! I'll wait and see then

If you can counter the negative influence effects without countering the negative economic effects, that can be a very good scenario; famine, like outbreak, is an excellent state for sourcing easily stacked trade missions for food.

 

[goemon]

Now, I suspect our adversaries are using the black market to tank our influence. I see quite large swing in the economic status but security is only marginally affected.
Also, traffic reports indicate an anomalous large number of T9 compared to the usual.

i suggest you first look into these supicions. you can calculate the demand for illegals from hydrogen levels as detailed in Ians infamous thread https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...ly-demand-and-relationship-to-the-bgs.441646/ , use the state modifiers to calculate demand, bring all illegals in sample size and check demand on the black market.
if you are dealing with t9 smuggling your BMs demand will be significantly below expected levels for high priced illegals.