Criminal/Pirate Career Ideas (inc. purchasing pirated engineered modules, etc.)

[Bluer]

I had the thought about the way I think would be good for pirates/criminals to go as an idea. Obviously I can't know what ideas Frontier have for the direction, but it seems like to be a pirate needs to be properly fleshed out here as a real identity to develop into, with incentives and rewards to offset the risk and consequences.

Permanence: A pirate should develop their identity and notoriety/respect within the criminal circle(s), and as a consequences of this, the pirate will become blacklisted and branded a criminal from policed space in such a way that they can be pardoned with a reasonable amount of punishment and payback to the community when turning themselves in. Of course, the balancing will have to be figured out to make sure the transition with the legal repercussions and benefits of the criminal world is good.

Progression: As your reputation goes up, so does your access to criminal privileges, better missions, with more risk but more reward in both resources and respect. Missions should be appropriately criminal in such a way that they may challenge your sense of morality, as appropriate to being a pirate.

Private black market: Access to purchasing engineered modules that have been taken/pirated from other ships. This would be a big benefit to being a criminal since you can bypass the grind of engineering, but you only get what's available, and it can cost a lot of money. The better your reputation, the more you have access to for buying.

 

[Cmdr Travers]

I like the idea that you'd get more from a black market, including being able to buy illegal goods and rare materials and data there too, if you're a pirate.

This could be implemented quite simply by having more available to you in a black market if you're wanted or unfriendly in the system.

It could be an extremely interesting new way to get materials for Engineers

My own suggestions list can be found here.

 

[Ryan P Bodfirst]

Yes sound like good ideas
Would give some real long term benefits of being a criminal and would make for an alternative way to play the game with a different set of rewards, gameplay and consequences.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

The way I see it, the current "Black Markets" are more akin to Pawn Shops. My feeling is that, as you gain reputation with the local anarchy faction, you gain knowledge/access to deeper levels of the Black Market-such as better prices for pirated/illicit goods & even an ability to purchase illegal goods.
Like you said, though, getting chummy with these factions should lead to "guilt by association", which makes it harder to get work with more lawful factions, as well as increasing the likelihood of being harassed by local authorities.

 

[Cmdr Travers]

The way I see it, the current "Black Markets" are more akin to Pawn Shops. My feeling is that, as you gain reputation with the local anarchy faction, you gain knowledge/access to deeper levels of the Black Market-such as better prices for pirated/illicit goods & even an ability to purchase illegal goods.
Like you said, though, getting chummy with these factions should lead to "guilt by association", which makes it harder to get work with more lawful factions, as well as increasing the likelihood of being harassed by local authorities.

Yup to all of that. There's loads of scope still to flesh out this universe