"Black Market" is a bad name

General discussion about anything related to Transcendence.
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Kourtious
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I think the Black Market naming is pretty bad because it implies illicit actions. Imagine going to a store and the storefront is named "Illegal activities". Doesn't sound so pleasing does it? Also, the Black Market just looks shady and similar. If one place was discovered to be a place of illegal transactions, then it makes no sense to have a similar looking place all over the galaxy possibly doing the exact same thing.

For the Black Market to be more reasonable we should think of ways to hide that it is a popular place for illegal activities.

For example, a Black Market Station could be renamed as "Jasmine's Entertainment" and have a luxury hotel sprite. The player would dock with the space station and see an option called "Lower Floors". Within the station description, there should be a text describing that there is an elevator guarded by two burly men. If the player has an ID, the station is revealed as a Black Market, if not, the player would enter the restaurant and find it oddly empty. The next time the player returns with an ID, all the Black Market options are revealed below the regular luxury hotel options. These Black Markets could be any commercial station. A hint of them would be docked Black Market bounty hunters.

I think this is a cool way to make players discover secret illegal hideouts.

I want to know if other people think the same way or not.
relanat
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IMO the current naming works well. The BM shipyards are just shipyards. But ones where a few "extras" are available if you know the right people. A not uncommon occurrence today. We could give them names but I don't think it adds anything to game.

I love the idea about adding hidden floors to stations. This would work really well for expanding the Black Market. Good one.

You have some great ideas. Have a go at modding to add them to the game. DigaRW had some great ideas too and knew nothing about modding. They ended up being the Semesta mod, a great addition.
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Black Market is a bad name because there are bad guys there. I would expect a bad name at a place run by villains. Much like outlaw base or mine for outlaws we kill and loot.

Black Market name makes perfect sense to me, and makes things clear to the player, which is important.

If people want fancy names, there is already the nightclub at the Startons or the arcology. Maintenance level at corporate enclaves is a bit spartan, but gets the job done of dumping hot stuff discretely for quick cash.
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Kourtious
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The idea of this post is to make the game more realistic. Black Market stations could exist, but most of them should be in disguise as another commercial station. This is how real life illegal money laundering works.

The idea of making it obvious for players to know what and where the Black Market is defeats the whole purpose of it being a hidden mechanic. Players are not suppose to discover it on the first try. Instead, they are to question the existence of shady places and lead them to try to scour the forums or the game for a way to know what they are missing out. This is a great incentive for new players to continue to explore the game because there are hidden content, not the other way around.

Later systems, especially where the Commonwealth lacks authority, it is perfectly fine for the Black Market to be open about its existence.
Tiber
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Several good points here.
Recognition is important.
Additional illicit activity's in random stations could work. That insurance company stations comes to mind, that spawns uselessly at the moment (who buys insurance?? ).

As for realistic, wrong game for that ;-)

Diversity in appearance and naming, sounds ok.

As for dropping appearance in later systems, who says the Ares like slaves and drugs? or Ranx who see there Brethren being sold?,
or the Sung Slavers... those wont like competition, and most definitely look them up to ''recover stolen property'' lol
To me that would be a good reason to cover up some more instead of dropping appearance in the later systems.

Anyway, all things considered, the stations look fine for now, along whit their naming.
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