X4 needs a proper outlaw faction(s)

[spankahontis]

I think adding new 'Factionless/Independant' ship spawns (that do a bit of absolutely everything, including smuggling/piracy) and then unlocking SCA would work. Player who attack SCA would make an enemy of them and see a lot more red guys on the map (or the opposite, player could join them), and at the same time traditional pirates and smugglers would still be there.

Basically we need Malcom Reynolds' in X4. He would NOT be Argon, HAT, SCA or anything in between - he works for himself and he has a ship.

I'd like to see an independant NPC suddenly start his own Pirate faction. Criminal Families throughout History have always fought against each other, no unified Pirate Faction.
But doesn't mean some work together in order to stop a Pirate Clan more powerful than the both of them?

It feels like your Player seems to be the only one with ambition to build an empire? Maybe there needs to be other Random Factions/NPCs that want to start their own Corporation or Pirate Clan that you can compete against?
The other Lore Factions are always there (Argon Fed, HOP, Teladi Company etc.), but it needs some random Factions that are lore friendly but offer a sense of randomness as well. Never the same Factions after every new playthrough unless they are cannon factions they're always the same.

They could even make every random generated Faction follow their own pattern of behaviour, you have honest business men, ruthless capitalists imagine a Faction that is constantly sending agents to Hack your Stations?
The New Diplomacy Feature could give you amazing oppertuinities to Parlay with agressive factions or make alliances against these more agressive NPCs?

I'd love this!!!!

If there was a way to assign NPC's some sort of earnings that could be built up from piloting faction ships or time spent employed by a station once they reached a certain level of wealth they could start randomly buying ships and building prefab small stations around whatever. Maybe to limit a horde of station builders a dice roll could be made on world creation only allowing a few dozen NPCs to even earn credits. Like station managers, or only mining ship captains or something. Make the earnings between each NPC vary greatly so everyone wasn't earning all at the same rate, then when they reach their goal they call up a transport and head out; next crewman takes their place automatically. These small factions could be named through some sort of RNG that'll draw from a list when the NPC leaves their job to start their life as an empire builder.

Or better still, you could have a 5 Star skill called "Loyalty" The lower the Loyalty the higher the chances that they will mutiny and become their own Faction? Would probably need balancing and capping to stop hundreds of Factions popping up like this?
Chose to take revenge and have them killed? Or sit back and watch that Mutineer grow into it's own Faction with it's own Stations or it ends up flying right into a Xenon K's Flight path?
But would be fun to see a new Faction appear and wonder where it came from?

But we certainly need NPC Factions that are capable of starting with nothing and building an empire to compete with yours.

Just imagine that you Crush the Argon, HOP, the Teladi, Paranid and all the other Factions; your empire spans known space and then all these new factions start popping up.
Some are friendly and are honest traders that don't rock the boat, others are more sneaky and will commit espionage for profit, while there are those who simply hate you, wont trade with you and attack your stations wanting to build their own empire at your expense. The more wealth, Territory and Military Ships you have the more devastating the insurgency!
Something for the Late Game?

This would be perfect for Split Vendetta as you could have allot of fun with this, Split Families are waring tribes anyway.
In the lore they are always fighting others or fighting each other.. Seeing Split families, each with their own Unique personality, you would side with a friendly Split against a more Xenophobic Split Family who will be more agressive towards you.
Not to mention that it opens up an entirely new Playthrough where you can be a Split Warrior and you make your own Family and fight to be the most powerful of all the Split Families.

[csaba]

There's no pirate space between factions so its not like theres anywhere for an outlaw faction to live...

This and the reality that a "good" ware drop from a freighter that fills your Raider's cargo is 100 k credits tops. Nopelios VI is the only place that has enough traffic while being an outlaw territory unless you start to seriously cheese the game and take over sectors in key positions.
The only use I find for bugging trade ships is when I want to build a small station and I steal some claytronics to make it cheaper.

It also doesn't help that most merchant traffic just zips around the highway Ring in high security systems.

Even when stealing directly from the stations you still need to invest 150 k credits into the slicer to earn 400-500k in an M trader.

All the while the average mine clearing mission pays 200 k for 2 minutes of work.

[SirDeathwalker]

If no place for pirates, then terrorist factions, commit acts against one group or another, possibly multiple fringe groups with varying degrees of hostility and aggression. A passenger ship explodes or gets hijacked, a supply depot or station gets bombed, other random acts of terror to the universe. At the very least, it could make station announcements more interesting. Besides, Pirates could live on planet, in the lawless places and backwaters that every planet has, or could be cleverly disguised as a normal station, or merely have agents merely lurking in the background on stations around the universe. (they could even pretend to be legit much of the time)

[EmperorDragon]

What's really wrong with just a traditional pirate/outlaw faction as has been done time an again before? I cannot see how space is a problem, the unclaimed sectors is already like pirate sectors (but inhabited by the pacifist SCA).

As I've said before, there are several sectors, like the Hewa's Twin sectors, that would be pretty dangerous pirate space if they were inhabited by proper pirates instead of the SCA. It will also mean that you will have to fight and clear out pirates if you want to take an unclaimed sector as your own, which would make much more sense than just moving in and setting up shop with no threat to it whatsoever.

...or you could build relations with them and become a pirate (or their leader) yourself.