A Thought on Checkpoints

[The Mega Doom Bot]

From what I've read, aside from the occasional assassination mission, there isn't much point the Checkpoints that form between various warring factions. I had a thought, to make them more relevant what if checkpoints were changed to function as blockades?

The blockade sites would feature powerful interdiction devices. If a player passes too close the device would not only pull the player from supercruise but toward the blockade itself. The range from which each blockade can successfully interdict a player is marked by a red orbital line and can vary in size. Threading the needle (so to speak) becomes even more difficult as the number of blockades around a given planet increase the chances of successfully making it past them decrease as well. Blockades can also form outside of war time as a criminal enterprise may choose to setup a blockade over a given colony and shake down anyone who gets too close. If pulled into a blockade one of three things may happen:

1. If the player is friendly to the faction, the player will be allowed to pass.
2. If the player is not friendly with the faction and/or is found to be working for the rival faction, the player will be attacked.
3. The NPC's will demand a bribe for safe passage. Especially if the faction is a criminal organization. If the player attempts to run or can't pay the player will be attacked.

New Mission Types:

Blockade Runner: A faction is in desperate need of supplies but the blockade hanging over the planet has a strangle hold on them. They need you to sneak past the blockade and make a much needed delivery. Smaller ships have a better chance of escaping interdiction while larger ships can carry more supplies. More heavily armed ships may also be able to fend off their attackers but don't hang around too long as reinforcements will be arriving shortly. If the player can make it to the relative safety of Orbital Cruise the interdiction device will no longer be able to distinguish them from the planet.

Blockade Breaker: Your mission is to take out the interdiction device and break up the blockade. The player is given the exact coordinates of the interdiction device. Targeting the device and flying straight at it at high enough speed confuses the device allowing the player to drop out of supercruise right on top of it. The speed the player needs to maintain when in range of the device will marked in green. If the player approaches too slowly or misses the target and is forced to loop around they run the risk of being interdicted and pulled into the blockade. Because nearby objects interfere with the device's ability to interdict other vessels, the ships guarding the device are forced to stay a considerable distance away from it. This gives the player a small window to open fire and take the device out. Harder difficulty missions may have more than one device that needs to be taken out for the mission to be successful. Once destroyed players can choose to escape or collect a few bounty heads.

 

[Jenner]

Some cool ideas there.

Back when the game was first released there were a lot more authority ship interdictions of players, and it didn't sit well with a lot of people, though. That's one danger here that I can think of. People just don't want to be hassled a lot when they're trying to get from A to B.

 

[The Mega Doom Bot]

That's part of the reason for the red Orbital Line. It gives the player something relatively easy to avoid. But as the number of blockade sites increase this gets harder and harder to do. This leaves the player with a couple of options.

1.) Make a buck with the new mission types as described above.
2.) Join in the fight. Helping to turn the tide in conflict zones will reduce the number of blockade sites and keep new ones from forming as a faction's ships and resources will have to be diverted to maintain the war effort.
3.) If the blockade is being maintained by a criminal organization an assassination mission will also end the blockade.
4.) Do as you can now and leave the system.

 

[ethelred]

It's been suggested before iirc.

It would add something to supercruise flying certainly.

If it went hand in hand with increased payouts in these systems for guns, drugs and other illegal cargos it would add to the risk reward element.

Lore wise, if I fly into a dictatorship or other repressive state, I imagine they would absolutely want to check peeople coming into the system.

If there was a minigame, so it wasn't automatic (like the current interdiction mechanics) then that would also add to it.