I thought it would be nice if a) smuggling had a little more depth and b) players had the ability to create black markets. After a collision of brain cells I came up with the following non-fully thought out ideas. Any suggestions or comments welcome - I’m sure there’s plenty sticking points I’ve not thought of 
1. For a black market to form, a non-controlling criminal faction must be in a boom state whilst inhabiting a system that prohibits specified goods.
2. When this occurs players Allied* with the faction will trigger passenger missions to ask players to transport in several 'smuggling logistics teams' as well as a variety of illegal commodities as part of the logistics teams pay-off.
3. If the passenger and commodity missions are successful, players have the opportunity to establish a black market by smuggling in prohibited goods, either by general trade or by taking missions from the appropriate faction(s).
4. When the amount of goods transported into the system reaches a specific value (based on the population of the system) the Black Market will then appear in the station services menu.
5. Once established a black market can then expand to a maximum of three sizes dictated by the size of the population in the system, these being:
Small > Medium > Large
A small black market in a small system will be at its maximum size. A small black market in a large system has the opportunity to expand to a medium and then large black market. Profits in large black markets would be the greatest but are countered by a greater scanning of ships and security presence.
6. The successful formation of a black market will affect the controlling faction by attracting criminals to the system via passenger missions whilst lowering the standard of living, their influence, security levels and cause civil unrest/lock downs. Once a criminal faction takes over a system the black market would disappear.
7. Any illegal goods that are the subject of a scan whilst entering the station/system will result in a negative effect on the formation/existence of a black market.
8. Black markets will shrink and eventually disappear from a system if the faction running the black market goes into bust or fail to receive enough goods to keep them running.
* = I have suggested elsewhere that Frontier should add another level of affiliation with factions which give more high value missions (high value in terms of in game effects, not necessarily credits. I called this rank 'Embedded' (as I couldn't think of anything else!) and it would sit beyond Allied. It might fit in nicely with higher NPC Tier interactions.
Players should be given a wider variety of considerations, rewards and punishments when smuggling prohibited goods. There should be a large increase in mission payouts for the successful smuggling of goods based on the security of the system and their value. The effect on the factions providing those missions should be greater to reflect the risk/reward. Penalties for being caught smuggling should also have more variety based on the value of the contraband and the systems security. Smuggling should not be easy, but it should be challenging, fun and when successful, rewarding.
So here's a table below showing a variety of outcomes for when a player carrying prohibited goods is scanned by system security. A few considerations:
Table of Events for being caught Smuggling.
- Establishing and Developing Black Markets
1. For a black market to form, a non-controlling criminal faction must be in a boom state whilst inhabiting a system that prohibits specified goods.
2. When this occurs players Allied* with the faction will trigger passenger missions to ask players to transport in several 'smuggling logistics teams' as well as a variety of illegal commodities as part of the logistics teams pay-off.
3. If the passenger and commodity missions are successful, players have the opportunity to establish a black market by smuggling in prohibited goods, either by general trade or by taking missions from the appropriate faction(s).
4. When the amount of goods transported into the system reaches a specific value (based on the population of the system) the Black Market will then appear in the station services menu.
5. Once established a black market can then expand to a maximum of three sizes dictated by the size of the population in the system, these being:
Small > Medium > Large
A small black market in a small system will be at its maximum size. A small black market in a large system has the opportunity to expand to a medium and then large black market. Profits in large black markets would be the greatest but are countered by a greater scanning of ships and security presence.
6. The successful formation of a black market will affect the controlling faction by attracting criminals to the system via passenger missions whilst lowering the standard of living, their influence, security levels and cause civil unrest/lock downs. Once a criminal faction takes over a system the black market would disappear.
7. Any illegal goods that are the subject of a scan whilst entering the station/system will result in a negative effect on the formation/existence of a black market.
8. Black markets will shrink and eventually disappear from a system if the faction running the black market goes into bust or fail to receive enough goods to keep them running.
* = I have suggested elsewhere that Frontier should add another level of affiliation with factions which give more high value missions (high value in terms of in game effects, not necessarily credits. I called this rank 'Embedded' (as I couldn't think of anything else!) and it would sit beyond Allied. It might fit in nicely with higher NPC Tier interactions.
- Changes to Smuggling Goods
Players should be given a wider variety of considerations, rewards and punishments when smuggling prohibited goods. There should be a large increase in mission payouts for the successful smuggling of goods based on the security of the system and their value. The effect on the factions providing those missions should be greater to reflect the risk/reward. Penalties for being caught smuggling should also have more variety based on the value of the contraband and the systems security. Smuggling should not be easy, but it should be challenging, fun and when successful, rewarding.
So here's a table below showing a variety of outcomes for when a player carrying prohibited goods is scanned by system security. A few considerations:
- A commander scanned and found to be carrying illegal goods inside the 7.5km exclusion area will be asked to dock and face the relative punishment.
- A commander scanned and found to be carrying illegal goods outside the exclusion done will be asked to leave/attacked on sight depending on the security level of the system.
- A player not docking within the time limit, or choosing to leave the exclusion zone will face being shot down by ATR vessels and/or be sent to a detention centre.
- Any player successfully leaving a system after a scan will be given a bounty suitable to the value of goods being carried but avoid the loss of their ship, fine and application of a bounty.
- Where 'Maybe' is an option the player faces some RNG in determining if an event takes place.
- A player being sent to a detention centre after landing will have to pay a fine to get their ship back but will not be given a bounty.
- I also considered giving the player a chance to offer a financial bribe to a corrupt customs official in order to escape the relative punishment. Failure would see further punishment, success would get you off the charge.
Table of Events for being caught Smuggling.
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