Black Market "risk" is bad game design

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bounty_hunter66
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Black Market "risk" is bad game design

Post by bounty_hunter66 » Tue, 19. Apr 22, 13:39

Hi,

There's no easy way to put this. The black market "Busted by Customs" thing is a lazy/bad implementation of the "risk" aspect of the risk/reward concept.

It literally feels like a variable in the back-end called something like "Busted?" that cycles through the values of True and False every few seconds and it determines if you get fined and suffer a rep loss on your next transaction. It's bad, it's frustrating and it has no counter. The only "counter" is to save scum, which I abuse the **** out of.

I mean no disrespect, I just wanted to make sure the devs are aware of this fact. And yes, I dare say it's a fact because in a game and series where you can scale/automate/think/solve any problem, to have such a heavily RNG reliant gameplay mechanic is just....sad

Heck even boarding has some science behind it.

Here are some of the things which would have made the black market gameplay more logical and enjoyable:
-send police to aggressively scan me, if I travel the sectors with an Illegal ware
-give me an indication of who/what/where is "busting" me, similar to how you can see the success chance for stealing/acquiring blueprints. This way I can get a feel and prepare/respond.
-have me solve some sort of puzzle or equation to pass the Customs inspection. This way, If I fail then I deserve the fine and rep loss.
-have some sort of a "Heat" meter that goes up with each black market transaction. The more heat I have on me, the more the chance the local forces will be on high alert...I leave the consequences of this to your imagination
-send fleets after me or after my assets at high Heat level

Cycrow
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Re: Black Market "risk" is bad game design

Post by Cycrow » Tue, 19. Apr 22, 15:30

Being Busted on the Blackmarket is basically like a sting operation. Its where the black market dealer is actually an undercover cop.

Some of the other things you mention are already in the game.
The police already do travel around and scan you, this also includes increased scans sometimes when visiting the black market.
This is also linked to an internal threat table, that increases in severity depending on your actions.

of course, only a small amount of development time could actually be spent on the BlackMarket, so it had to be pretty simple

bounty_hunter66
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Re: Black Market "risk" is bad game design

Post by bounty_hunter66 » Tue, 19. Apr 22, 16:22

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I had a feeling limited development time might have been the bottleneck. This is because there are other well designed and complex features in FL that could not have possibly be the result of the same minds that came up with this system. The contrast between them is too large.

I did notice some ships(sometimes M2's lol) that turn red on you once you undock from a station after you dealt with the black market. However they seem to despawn once you jump out of the system,

I get the ideea behind the sting operation but.....come on....it''s just a variable that cycles between 2 states every few seconds with increased chance to be True(busted on next transaction) most of the time, the higher the transaction value is(I'm close, aren't I? :D ). I say this because if you sell to a merchant in batches(not everything at once), you sell, you get busted, then you sell, then you get busted some more. The same merchant. So...yeah.

Great game otherwise. I'm having a blast :D

Cycrow
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Re: Black Market "risk" is bad game design

Post by Cycrow » Tue, 19. Apr 22, 18:18

The risk to get busted is based on the total value you buy. So the more valuable the items, the more likely you are to get caught.
Once you get caught, there are a number outcomes. One is that its an undercover cop and you get fined, one is that they are a dodgy dealer and just run away with your money, one is you get reported to the local customs who will then come and scan you, and one will alert the sector patrols that may come in and attack.

The latter 2 get added to the threat response system, so they may not deal with you at all if they have alot of other threats to deal with

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