Idea for future content: Hacking Navigation Beacons.

[HunterwithGreenScales]

Like the title says. Pirates (and other nerdowells) need some more gameplay mechanics. And one of the best gameplay additions i can think of adding to Elite would be the ability to tamper with Nav beacons. Simply scanning them already gets you all available data of everything in system. But what if it went further?

How about; Hacking. Hacking them to force any ship (for a period of time) that jumps into that system to drop out of hyperspace, not into supercruise, but instead the instance of that beacon.

Not only would this open up opportunities for great shenanigans. But would also be a great thing for pirate CMDRs. Reminiscent of the gates in EVE, to a limited extent. It could even be used strategically for PowerPlay and faction purposes. If the beacon is in higher security system, there could be harsher and more severe punishments for the hacker if destroyed in that system. Thus, providing more player value for systems to have good security. Doing this would flip a beacon into the "compromised" state.

Not sure how the counterplay would work for this, but this is an opening for ideas. I really think this would be a good idea for implementation if Fdev could make it work.

 

[BDelacroix]

Reminiscent of the gates in EVE,

You are entitled to your wishes but THIS is why I stopped playing eve.
Gate camping and killing people while they loading into the new instance was fun for only one class of players.

 

[metatheurgist]

That was the original idea. Ships would jump to the beacon and have to fly in corridors to locations. That's why you still see ships appearing at beacons for absolutely no good reason whatsoever.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Choke points don't work in this game, if player initiated.

 

[Starshot_Jigawatts]

How about; Hacking. Hacking them to force any ship (for a period of time) that jumps into that system to drop out of hyperspace, not into supercruise, but instead the instance of that beacon.

Nope nah nadda. No Eve Online gate-camping in Elite. NO!

 

[Darrack]

Not only would this open up opportunities for great shenanigans.

You mean Ganking?

O7

 

[SlickPBW]

OP suggests to make either a ganking funnel for cheap fodder or, at best, an unnecessary time sink (delay) with no benefit to the arriving commander. Imagine Deciat with one of these things. New players would quit in droves. Nope.

 

[Hanerib]

It's my beacon, hands off. System security isn't free, somebody needs to build facilities for all that.

 

[IstvaanDCIV]

That was the original idea. Ships would jump to the beacon and have to fly in corridors to locations. That's why you still see ships appearing at beacons for absolutely no good reason whatsoever.

Nav beacons are a quick and easy way of getting the current disposition of signal sources in a star system. That useful enough information to justify the presence of ships IMO.

 

[HunterwithGreenScales]

It's my beacon, hands off. System security isn't free, somebody needs to build facilities for all that.

Well this just means you have extra reason to build those facilities.

 

[rootsrat]

But would also be a great thing for pirate CMDRs

I like the idea per se. The only problem is that there barely any actual pirates left in Elite. 99% it's just gankers.

For your idea to work, a few things would neee to happen:
1) FDEV fixing the economy (credits are pretty meaningless nowadays + piracy is extremely unprofitable)
2) Crime and Punishment would need a full fledged overhaul
3) Other types of criminal gameplay would have to be either introduced or overhauled (smuggling, pirating installations and megaships etc.)

Your idea would fit nicely into number 3 above. But on its own - it would be a gankers paradise.

 

[Stealthie]

Nobody would ever visit Deciat in Open ever again.

 

[Nidoboros]

I can see hacking the Nav Beacon working, but a different way : spoofing. Set up fake signals. Either recon limpet the nav beacon, or a module to send out false signals on a ship itself.

... or something.

 

[Jmanis]

Choke points don't work in this game, if player initiated.

• Player hacks beacon
• I drop out at beacon in solo
• Wonder what's going on
• Jump back into hyperspace and go to my destination

Or better yet

• Player hacks beacon
• I drop out at beacon in open
• I fail to instance with anyone because of my country's tin-can internet
• Wonder what's going on
• Jump back into hyperspace and go to my destination

 

[PilotB]

Gate camps are bad and toxic.

 

[Doctor Dread]

Gate camps are bad and toxic.

Nah, they only seek cool, dynamic and fun encounters with players.

 

[ethelred]

There's a case for some choke points for systems that have specific states - e.g. systems at war or some form of dictatorships (where lorewise you cannot imagine system governments allowing any ships in, willy nilly). BUT as others have mentioned it would require a major overhaul of C&P, piracy, bounty hunting and smuggling.

Not to mention the technical restrictions, so overall I'd file under "very unlikely"

 

[PilotB]

Having open activities within a system where people choose to enter them is fine. Having a mechanic where you kidnap randoms out of space on their travel and shove them into a gank tank they had no way to know existed before hand is bad. Informed action not surprise rebuy. I'd like more of the former and none of the latter.

 

[Jmanis]

Nah, they only seek cool, dynamic and fun encounters with players.

We can have gatecamp style mechanics in ED when there's equivalent style mechanics to evade said gatecamps like T2 cloaks and stealth ships, WCS and point-to-point jumps.

And then FD can punch God in the face, which would be much more likely.

 

[aRJay]

Nah, they only seek cool, dynamic and fun encounters with players.

Toxicity confirmed.