Shadowmarket

Upd 26.10.17 - "Free-trader Union" stuff

Shadowmarket - an option to interact with illegal galactic organizations, developing and leading their actions against the background of the interaction of large empires.
Access to interaction is opened after studying the "impactless sites" and ... just look at the picture.

And now an explanation.

1)     Visual representation of illegal organizations:

"Slavedrivers" - organization engaged in the seizure, kidnapping and subsequent sale (or renting) of representatives of intelligent civilizations of the world "Endless".

"Scavengers" - organization is engaged in collecting rare forgotten technologies and stealing research data from empire laboratories.

"Mercenaries" - organization uniting all mercenaries, rogues, pirates of the world "Endless". They are engaged in predatory raids and provide for hire pirate fleets and military force for ground operations.

"Independent shipyards" - united management of all independent shipyards that provide services to shadow organizations.

So, "Slavedrivers", "Scavengers", "Mercenaries", "Independent shipyards" is just placeholders. In their place, there should be sonorous names, for example, instead of "mercenaries" - Galactic security agency "Black Dust Orchid", or for the place of "slavedrivers" the banal name "Crimson Raiders".

2) Different interactions with illegal organizations.

   2а) Interaction with "Slavedrivers" - As you can see, you can buy the population forever, hire for a while or sell your own (of course this will reduce the approval rating in the system from which the population was sold). It is also possible to sponsor a raid on the system of another empire or on a system of a minor civilization. Of course, the organization itself raids from time to time.

   2b) Interaction with "Scavengers" - They constantly steal research information from every empire and put it up for sale. Once in several (10?) turns, three banks of information for sale are put up. Information can be obsolete or useless, but still more often give an increase in science points. As information, there may be undiscovered curiosities in any system. You can also sponsor an expedition that with a small chance will be crowned with success and as a reward get a rare module or tactic card. Organization greatly increases its activity during the "Academy" quest.

   2c) Interaction with "Mercenary" - Everything is pretty obvious. Hiring fleets with mercenaries, ordering an attacking raid on another empire. Contract for system security - when paying this option, in the selected system, defence MP replaced by 2000 M(mercenaries)MP for a certain number of turns and for a specified fee in the course.

In the middle, the number indicating the total number of MMPs in the organization.

   2d) Interaction with "Independent shipyards" - organization builds ships for sale on the official market, sells  to mercenaries and minor civilizations. You can see the characteristics of the main ships produced, sponsor the construction (in a few moves 5 ships are being built - 2 for the customer and 3 ships go to the official market), to sponsor the improvement of available designs (as a bonus 1 ship gets the customer and 2 go to the market).

   2e) "Free-Traders Union" - The smugglers' union turned into a powerful organization supporting other illegal organizations. They are engaged in speculation in the official market and are struggling with the imperial trading companies.

Interaction with "Free-Traders Union" - organization deals with barter and economic espionage. The presence of agents in each trading company allows to harm trade after appropriate sponsorship. They also have a large merchant fleet, some of which can be rented.

     2f) "Heritage keepers" - hypocritical organization, whose purpose is to take to hand all the remains of ancient civilizations. Under their banner are gathered mainly religious fanatics but also many different kinds of criminals. In addition to what has already been said, they are engaged in the dissemination of their teachings that cause riots in major empires.

Interaction with "Heritage keepers" - organization deals with relics of eternal and very rare types of luxury. Followers can kindle uprisings in these systems. Attempts are available for an empire with an "academy" in its area of influence or having very good relations with this organization. Organization greatly increases its activity during the "Academy" quest.

It is worth mentioning that all actions have cool down and there is a huge amount of dust or luxury.

Against each organization there are options for countermeasures that interfere with the activities of illegal organizations in the territory of the empire.

3) Relationship with the organization

    Positive attitudes will provide a discount and improved effects from actions (for example, "slavedrivers" will sell at times more population, and "scavengers" additional information about empires in information banks), as well as provide information on interactions with other empires. Relationships increase from the prolonged use of services and special events.

     Negative attitude raises prices for services and leads to a chain of quests leading to the destruction of the organization. Use options to counter, destroy fleets, find the cells of organizations during the quest and during the final quest, destroy the main headquarters of the organization and receive a huge reward depending on the organization (the headquarters can be anywhere, and the quest will have a time limit). The organization can ask for help from the empire which is on good terms with it, which will create a quest from another empire for protection.

So, look at the example of relations with various illegal organization:

Relation with "Slavedrivers"

These are simple quests, as well as an improvement which is given as a reward:

Final quests and awards for them:

"Cravers" for the place of new laws receive faction trait:

Relation with "mercenaries"

Relation with "independent shipyards"

Relation with "Free-traders Union"