Idea: Land beacon

[Zaroca]

I'm currently involved in the cartography project of Merope 5C and I think that could be handy having the possibility of placing a visible beacon in the sensors (and contact panel) of SRV/Ship from a "long" distance (limited to your current sensors range for example).

With some land beacons you can delimit an area to survey and it's easier than checking every single time your coords and compass direction (it's XXXIV century ).

That beacon could work like a prospector drone: you launch it, it reach the ground and starts to transmit its current position. They would be alive all the time you are in the instance (or if you travel too far from it) and visible for you and your wingmates. The number of alive beacons will be related to the class of the controller module you have fitted on your ship.

So you can use it as reference when you are surveying an area or as reference to get back to a place you want to.

It's only an idea but... what do you think, commanders?


PS: An aditional use for it: Prospect the near area in order to get the % of materials from outcrops in the area (like the prospector drone but for an area instead of an asteroid).

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I like the idea... but not sure about whether it can be implemented, especially...

They would be alive all the time you are in the instance (or if you travel too far from it)

Not sure how far out objects can remain while still remaining spawned for an instance, at least non-persistent thing.

 

[Zaroca]

I like the idea... but not sure about whether it can be implemented, especially...

Not sure how far out objects can remain while still remaining spawned for an instance, at least non-persistent thing.

Maybe I made a mistake with the sentence you have quoted. I mean that if you keep the signal within your sensor range (or a little more, i.e. 1.5 times your sensor rang, just enough to say "Oops, I'm too far", and turn back and re-link to the beacon). Traveling far away from them or jumping to supercruise/hipercruise will, of course, destroy it.

 

[NickDupree]

I'd actually like to see a variant of your idea.

Make prospector limpets have a land based role, from your ship you could fire them into the ground and it prospects to tell you number/type of materials within a certain range of it.
That way rather than driving round for ages in the SRV, you launch some prospectors to find a decent spot to land that has the stuff you want. It could also maybe enhance your SRV scanner as well to make it easier to read.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Maybe I made a mistake with the sentence you have quoted. I mean that if you keep the signal within your sensor range (or a little more, i.e. 1.5 times your sensor rang, just enough to say "Oops, I'm too far", and turn back and re-link to the beacon). Traveling far away from them or jumping to supercruise/hipercruise will, of course, destroy it.

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

 

[Bomba Luigi]

Would be handy thing to have indeed, or just being able to type Coords into the Planetary map and it then targets that place.

 

[Ouranos]

We may as well need this to identify our location:O

Spoiler

 

[Gauntlet]

What we really need is something like this

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/241252-Sneak-Peek-Surface-Navigation

 

[Muetdhiver]

Hell yeah, that would help organizing SRV/Ship surface races.

 

[VR Murgle]

I like the idea but I would like it to stay active for as long as you are in system. Having been involved in a rescue operation far outside inhabited space I've have to refuel my trusty Sidewinder multiple times and each time I had to return to the planetsurface and navigate to the right coordinates. A beacon would have been immensly usefull and would have saved me a lot of fuel.

(No doubt the @^#$*&& P2P networking gets in the way of this ever becoming a reality but I can dream can't I?)

 

[DaggerSnake]

I'd like this with a Geocaching expansion.

 

[Cynaqq]

I voted yes and I will one up if you don't mind.

Land beacons + 3d surface map which we can open up. The surface features of planets are already automatically generated and the sensor screen shows the general area around you when close to the surface. The displayed area depends on your sensor zoom.

The only thing required is to enlarge this map and adjust the zoom level a little further. What I want to do is to be able to have a top down view of the general area around me up to about 50km radius and place a few waypoints or markers on it so searching limited areas will be easier.

Thanks

 

[SMcA]

(it's XXXIV century ).

+ rep

And a good idea. Bookmarks for planet locations. Even better if they could be shared by wings.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Great idea, one I've considered myself.

This would be a boon for planetary attack missions -- having a utility mount module that could drop a beacon on POIs as you do a fly-by on them... allowing you to more easily keep track of targets when they pop up in short distances to each other. And more modules means more customization options, and trade-offs between defense, offense, and utility.

I'm all for it.

 

[Omgzzwtf]

ED needs a lot more ways to map your progress, I've taken to just bookmarking systems that I've gone through while exploring so I don't double back, and rename the ones that were interesting or different that I might want to go back to someday starting with AA1 to keep them at the top of the list. But it would be nice to have a point-by-point waypoint system to plot a course of my own and save it. Or a page that keeps records of where I've been, what I've discovered, etc. Explorers need more support and content.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

ED needs a lot more ways to map your progress, I've taken to just bookmarking systems that I've gone through while exploring so I don't double back

Yeah, I hate clutter and so cleared a bunch of Bookmarks last night. I did notice you can rename them. Not sure if you can subfolder them, but if not, that would be super handy -- to be able to subfolder and hide them when not in use.

 

[Zaroca]

What we really need is something like this

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/241252-Sneak-Peek-Surface-Navigation

Yes, I had viewed that video some time ago. That's would be simply awesome.

Hell yeah, that would help organizing SRV/Ship surface races.

Indeed, ship races is something I really really want to want to have.

+ rep

And a good idea. Bookmarks for planet locations. Even better if they could be shared by wings.

It could be made a side addition to my idea. My idea is about placing something "visible" in order to use as reference while surveying, racing, etc... But your idea maybe is simpier to develop: FD just has to add Lat-Long to the bookmark

And thanks for the rep



Thanks everyone to take time to think about my idea

 

[Sandmann]

I think the only problem I can see wohld be the limited audience for such a beast, and convincing fdev to code it for the few people who'd want it.

Of course I could be wrong. Maybe tbousand of people want a terrestrial beacon. I guess you could always use it as a rallying point for other players or an attack target or something too.

 

[Tarrakis]

Oh hell yes! An in-game way to more easily navigate surfaces is much needed IMO, especially now that Cmdrs are getting missions to land at specific coordinates - it's fine for those of us that know the dark art of planetary navigation, but for a newbie/casual player (or even a veteran not familiar with Horizons) I imagine it would be quite frustrating to get one of these missions, travel all the way there and then spend another hour trying to work out where to go.