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So I brought up some ideas on how to rearrange the politics of the various pirate/unlawful factions on the Ideas and Feature Requests thread, and my ideas seemed to have been well received by the other players who responded (though they of course had their own little suggestions to add).

However, Igiss has voiced the concern that making more neutral unlawful factions means killing one group of pirates may have no affect (reputation-wise) on any other pirate faction, while still raising your reputation with many lawful factions. I honestly don't see this as a problem... Assuming they all had no alliance with the Outcasts, why would the Hessians or Lane Hackers care if you shot up Blood Dragons? Even with the Outcast Alliance, they all work in vastly different parts of Sirius. With my suggestions, most unlawful factions will still be linked to at least one other lawful faction, even if they're not really 'allies', just friendly.

I'm going to make my suggestions, and I'd like people to comment. To make things clear, when I say two factions are 'allied', that means just that. 'Friendly' means that they aren't really allied, but are on good terms, and killing one will have an effect (though possibly a small effect) on the other... Think how killing Bounty Hunters or Zoners has an effect on your Freelancer reputation, even though they aren't 'allied. Neutral means they either don't care about each other or have no contact (like they work in different parts of Sirius). Unfriendly is the flip side of Friendly... They're not hostile to each other, but killing one increases your reputation with the other by a small amount... Hostile is just that... Think Corsair vs. Outcast.

Here are my suggestions...

Blood Dragons: Neutral to Outcasts (they aren't fans of cardamine), unfriendly to Corsairs (due to their links to Hogosha), friendly to GC (they would be allied, except their goals for Kusari are entirely different), still hostile to Hogosha. No real 'official' connection to any other unlawful faction.

GC: Allied with Outcasts (still addicts and the main Outcast hand in Kusari), hostile to Corsairs and Hogosha (obvious reasons), friendly to Blood Dragons (different goals, but they both want the downfall of the current Kusari government), friendly with all other Outcast allies (but not allied with them, as they'd have pretty much zero contact except through the Outcasts), unfriendly to other Corsair allies.

Hogosha: Allied with Corsairs (major artifact dealers and fighting against the spread of cardamine through Kusari), hostile to Outcasts, GC, and Blood Dragons (obvious reasons), hostile to Junkers (keep the scum out of Kusari space), friendly with all other Corsair allies (again, not allied with them), unfriendly to other Outcast allies.

Rogues: Allied with Outcasts (still the major Outcast hand in Liberty, plus they're addicts) and Mollys (very close ties to their Bretonian cousins, even use the same ships), hostile to Corsairs (obvious reasons), friendly with Lane Hackers (they work in much the same areas of space), friendly with all other Outcast allies (just friendly), unfriendly to other Corsair allies.

Mollys: Pretty much the same as Rogues, except they're allied to the Outcasts more for monetary reasons and help against the encroaching Corsair threat, rather than cardamine addiction. Only neutral with the Lane Hackers (Mollys are in more direct confrontations with the Corsairs, and the Hackers don't want to be involved).

Lane Hackers: Neutral to the Outcasts (they want cardamine, but can get it from the Rogues easier), neutral to the Corsairs (they want to stay out of the war), friendly with Junkers (the two organizations are somewhat similar), friendly with the Order (both are technologically advanced and have problems with Liberty), friendly with the Rogues (they work in much of the same areas of space, but with different goals), neutral to pretty much all other unlawful factions.

Junkers: Pretty much as they are currently, except friendly with the Lane Hackers. Hostile to Hogosha (because Hogosha doesn't want them in Kusari), neutral to everyone else.

Hessians: Hostile to Corsairs (obvious reasons), friendly to Outcasts (they're fighting against the same enemy, but Hessians don't want to be beholden to anyone). Friendly, possibly allied, to some or all of the other unlawful Rhineland factions (I don't know much about all of them). Unfriendly towards Corsair allies.

Bundys, Gaians, LWB, Farmer's Alliance, Unioners, etc.: I don't know enough about these factions to really make a suggestion. A number of them will still be allied to the Corsairs for the support that they get. Any that are allied with the Corsairs will be an enemy of the Outcasts and friendly (but not allied) with all other Corsair allies. Someone should probably make the suggestions regarding these factions.

The Order: Still allied with Zoners and Corsairs, but neutral towards the Outcasts and most other unlawful factions. Friendly with the Lane Hackers (they have many similar interests). They don't really help the Corsairs in their war against the Outcasts or anyone else, but they share resources and technology.

Okay, that's what I've got. Anyone have anything to add?

sorry deleted, question was not related to unlawful factions

Nevermind.

Unioners and Rogues get on reasonably well, apparently.

I can see the Order being friendly with Blood Dragons. The Blood Dragons wouldn't be happy with their alliance with the Corsairs, but they probably wouldn't care that much.

Some things that don't connect for me:

Lane Hackers neutral to Outcasts - how can they get Cardamine from Rogues? I think the Outcasts just drop enough cardamine that the Rogues(and all other Cardi addicts) have enough for themselves. Don't see how they would not try to control the Hackers using Cardi.
I would say unfriendly with Corsairs and neutral with the Order.


Order neutral to Outcasts - I think Outcasts would seriously mind that Order exchanges their technology with Corsairs.

otherwise I liked it

' Wrote:Some things that don't connect for me:

Lane Hackers neutral to Outcasts - how can they get the cardamine from Rogues?, I think the Outcasts just drop enough cardamine that the Rogues(and all other Cardi addicts) have enough for themselves. Don't see how they would not try to control the Hackers using Cardi.
I would say unfriendly with Corsairs and neutral with the Order.
Order neutral to Outcasts - I think Outcasts would seriously mind that Order exchanges their technology with Corsairs.

otherwise I liked it

I think the Outcasts would be pragmatic enough to see that the Order provide a much needed service to all of Sirius, including themselves.

' Wrote:Some things that don't connect for me:

Lane Hackers neutral to Outcasts - how can they get Cardamine from Rogues? I think the Outcasts just drop enough cardamine that the Rogues(and all other Cardi addicts) have enough for themselves. Don't see how they would not try to control the Hackers using Cardi.
I would say unfriendly with Corsairs and neutral with the Order.
Order neutral to Outcasts - I think Outcasts would seriously mind that Order exchanges their technology with Corsairs.

otherwise I liked it

Actually, if you read the rumors, the Rogues and Junkers are responsible for most of the cardamine distribution around Liberty. Outcasts deliver cardamine to Rogue bases such as Buffalo, then the Rogues distribute it to Junker bases such as Rochester, who then smuggle it onto planets like Manhattan. Easy for the Hackers to get their hit of cardamine without being actually allied to the Outcasts.

As for the Order... I would prefer it if they were neutral to both the Corsairs and the Outcasts, but I think Igiss has said that they're going to continue as Corsair allies, but might go more neutral towards the other unlawfuls.

' Wrote:... hmm.. Nomad war is over... though Nomads are still around...I'm thinking: " You made that battleship that killed my friends....."
They should be at least quite unfriendly - means outcasts are not trying to invade Omicron Minor but when they see Order pilot in say sigma 19 they give him 5s to leave.

I'm imagining that the new Corsair Dread will replace the Osiris in Corsair fleets, which could cool things here.

' Wrote:...I know that yes, distribution is one thing.. that according to me would go like this: "Here you have 1000 units of cardamine we want say 600 credits per unit". I don't think the Hacker would try to pay incredible amounts of money so that both Rogues and Outcast will keep their profits, when they can get it from Outcasts cheaper. I also don't see the Rogue losing their profit by giving it to the Hackers. Outcasts would demand high profits because thats where they get their money from.

Hackers might pay more because they don't want to become beholden to the Outcasts. They aren't just addicted lowlifes like the Rogues. Rogues or Junkers could give the Hackers a discount in exchange for access Lane Hacker intelligence... That's what the Hackers are, intelligence brokers.

Edit: For that matter, the Outcasts could sell directly to the Hackers in exchange for Hacker intelligence. Just because they have business arrangements doesn't mean they're allies, or even particularly friendly.