Make NavBeacons mean something

[Dash]

In 1984 you'd make a hyperspace jump and if you chose your system poorly (well?) you'd be instantly in the sights of waiting pirates, looking to make a quick buck off traders.

Id ED, you jump to any system you like without thought, the only risk is you get a bit of a bite from a neutron star or surprise binary pair - rarely worth checking for.

I suggest, we make Nav Beacons count: for systems where they exist, you drop in at the nav-beacon, just as the NPCs seem to do and it seems the game was originally geared for.

You've got a chance that the nav-beacon will be on the right side of the star for your next jump, where currently it's almost always at the back. For trips into the system, it's a short switch to super-cruise, for jumps out of the system, the charge time doesn't change. Although potentially removing/adjusting how cooldown works when going from high to low so you can carry your speed through say, quiet nav beacons without having to wait to cool down.

For buckyballing there isn't much change. Systems without nav-beacons you still drop as you do currently, somewhere in SC. This should mean little to no change to exploring, and still allows for quick travelling through the bubble with the right course filters applied.

But when having to get to a station, potentially with cargo, it allows pirates and humans alike to have a focus point to lay in wait. Don't want to risk it? Go through high-security systems where the cops have a high presence in the navbeacons and pirates don't spawn much if at all.

Compromised nav beacons suddenly become a threat, not just an alternative to a HazRES farm.

 

[EWanderer]

Why would it happen though only for NavBeacon Systems? I must admit I used Beacons quite often to get the Mission Target of Salavage or Assassination and even do it now again, you can also make some quick bucks if you start out. So yeah I would leave NavBeacons just the way they are, optional pieces of fluff.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I suggested a while back that everyone gets a bonus to jump range if they chose to land in the nav beacon, in normal space.
This would be a toggle option in both the ship panel, and galaxy map.

You then can speed up your journeys around the bubble, at the cost of added danger.

As for the percentage in jump range, it needs to be enough that it's worth the added risk and the longer charge time from normal space. Somewhere around the 30-50% increase.

Compromised nav beacons could cause an FSD error and a long cooldown, making them extra dangerous.

The only problem is if your nav beacon is on the opposite side of the star to your origin system.

 

[BinakAlgo]

I suggested a while back that everyone gets a bonus to jump range if they chose to land in the nav beacon, in normal space.
This would be a toggle option in both the ship panel, and galaxy map.

You then can speed up your journeys around the bubble, at the cost of added danger.

As for the percentage in jump range, it needs to be enough that it's worth the added risk and the longer charge time from normal space. Somewhere around the 30-50% increase.

Compromised nav beacons could cause an FSD error and a long cooldown, making them extra dangerous.

The only problem is if your nav beacon is on the opposite side of the star to your origin system.

I like the idea but unless it is heavily guarded, it is going to be a nest of gankers and griefers. So, I say no by now.

 

[Micha]

+1 for Op; while NavBeacons have had a little bit more added to them, I think it's a shame they've been relegated to optional content.


OT: Musings on hyperdrive changes to tie in with the NavBeacon suggestion.

Spoiler

While probably not possible to do since there's it would be great if this was coupled to different types of hyperdrive.

Your standard commercial drive fitted to all civilian vessels can -only- jump between NavBeacon systems, and will drop you in normal space at the Beacon. Perhaps have several NavBeacons around a star to accommodate traffic coming from different directions.

You then have the exploration drive which jumps similar to the current one and drops you out in SC. But there'd have to be some other con to make it a valid choice for explorers, but not so convenient for standard Bubble running. Many many different things have been suggested; for example having to manually fly the hyperspace tunnel similar to the interdiction game, the better you fly it the more optimally you arrive at the target system. Fly badly, and perhaps you're many tens/hundreds/thousands of lightseconds away from the Primary. Fly really badly and you mis-jump and crash out somewhere enroute, perhaps doing some minor damage.


But yeah; can't really make large changes like that anymore. Even if you gave everybody the "explorer" version after the upgrade, the changed mechanics would be enough to strand or kill people depending on their ship configuration. And you'd get all the "wahhh, I want easy mode back" cries.

But the Op's suggestion is a small change which would fly.