Yeah I actually thought the whole "hidden plot" about the Hispania, the Corsairs and the Outcasts was really fun. When I finally made it to the Outcasts homeworld and read the info file on them i was fascinated. It was a very interesting thing to mention about the Cardamine, and how they genetically changed to require it as much as water... and how they live longer and have a reduced birth rate (this is the outcasts, who were "now, ironically, truly separated from the rest of society."
I didn't like the way the game made them the bad guy by saying they "developed a plan to expose the entire universe to the poison and make lots of money." I wanted to be their friend.
A trick to become friends with basically everyone is just travel to... colorado I think, find the Xenos base there (in the asteriod field in the bottom left part of map) and blast every Xenos ship there for about 30-45 minutes. You should only be hostile with a few people then (including Xenos of course) then go exploring and take the Outcast bribes (because you will be green with all the liberty people before, and the bribe just brings them down to the middle while making you green with the Outcasts. So you should have basically no enemies while you explore (seeing as how the Border Worlds are mostly Bounty Hunters=green, Outcasts=neutral before bribes, Corsairs=neutral, Zoners=neutral before bribes) other than the occaisonal red hessian patrol, which could be tough before you get some suped up ships, and of course, since this the spoiler forum, the occaisonal Nomad wing (especially around that jumphole in Omicron Alpha, near the 'graveyard', to some weird uncharted system that has some nomads in them... it is breathtaking tho).
Back to the topic at hand, I wonder how the Corsair's managed to become separated from the Outcasts and not become addicted to the Cardamine? Was there a part of the Hispania that broke off or something? They have two very different homeworlds, and yet they are enemies. Odd.
Thanks for reading my bantering