Minijumps. They've been suggested a lot. Here's my suggestion for making them work to cut down on frustratingly long travel times while still keeping people from hopping from place to place in a ridiculous manner. The suggestion is meant to address the concerns people have had in the past, and while I'm sure there will be plenty of haters who see the topic and immediately disagree, I hope you will at least consider where I'm coming from in this and the possible merits of my suggestion. But I'm sure the next post will be something along the lines of "No, supercruise is fine as is. Don't touch it. lrn2plA nub"
First off, Nav Beacons.
It's only possible to jump to stars with a nav beacon. Without a nav beacon, there's no intra-system jump. As such, exploration and travel through much of the frontier becomes as long as it always was. Travel in more settled regions becomes easier. I think only solar systems that have a coriolis or larger starport, or a terraformed world, should have nav beacons, in addition to the usual beacons at the main star of most systems.
Interdictions.
Interdicting someone in an intra-system jump should be not only possible, but impossible to resist. By setting up on a... well, let's call it a checkpoint, you can interdict anyone passing, but only get a second or two to make your decision. Someone interdicted at a checkpoint will have a longer cool-down than usual, making their haste a possibly very costly affair.
The advantages of this system as I see it is that people can go with added haste from point A to point B, but without depriving pirates and bounty hunters of their gameplay. Travel becomes more streamlined, allowing players to avoid long travel times in SOME systems, yet it retains a great deal of risk and uncertainty, as is appropriate in the great void of space.
Because let's face it, supercruise is a long and relatively boring thing, especially when you realize you have to travel for upwards of 10 minutes just to travel to a station at a neighboring star from where you jumped in.
First off, Nav Beacons.
It's only possible to jump to stars with a nav beacon. Without a nav beacon, there's no intra-system jump. As such, exploration and travel through much of the frontier becomes as long as it always was. Travel in more settled regions becomes easier. I think only solar systems that have a coriolis or larger starport, or a terraformed world, should have nav beacons, in addition to the usual beacons at the main star of most systems.
Interdictions.
Interdicting someone in an intra-system jump should be not only possible, but impossible to resist. By setting up on a... well, let's call it a checkpoint, you can interdict anyone passing, but only get a second or two to make your decision. Someone interdicted at a checkpoint will have a longer cool-down than usual, making their haste a possibly very costly affair.
The advantages of this system as I see it is that people can go with added haste from point A to point B, but without depriving pirates and bounty hunters of their gameplay. Travel becomes more streamlined, allowing players to avoid long travel times in SOME systems, yet it retains a great deal of risk and uncertainty, as is appropriate in the great void of space.
Because let's face it, supercruise is a long and relatively boring thing, especially when you realize you have to travel for upwards of 10 minutes just to travel to a station at a neighboring star from where you jumped in.
