Please scale station drop zones according to BGS criteria

[Rubbernuke]

Currently station drop zones are tiny - you drop inside them and are instantly protected by the stations guns. This totally negates the 'no mans land' that exists around the station and the gameplay it would generate- for example Powerplay NPCs and players could attack in this space, pirates (both player and NPC).

The idea is that rather than being fixed, this drop zone expands or contracts based on the BGS sliders and state of that system- its a bit like compromised nav beacons that appear and dissapear based on the BGS. So:

In general, the higher the happiness the more lax the zone, and the higher the security status the more police are about.

High civil liberty: large zone, police need space to scan incoming traffic. If the security slider is high there are more police scanning.

Lockdown: small zone (like present size)

Pirate attack: small zone (like present)- station wishes to protect incoming traders from known pirates in system.

Outbreak: large zone, police need time to scan and organise / quarantine ships

Thargoid / terrorist attack: small zone

...and so on.

This would allow more room for Powerplay NPCs to be something (they can hang around and cause problems like gangs), pirates can intercept and have a window of opportunity, and makes smuggling more / less difficult. It would also make engineering more important, with greed being balanced with robustness (i.e. engine speed, thruster integrity, powerplant etc) and that player groups who roleplay as police a place to do it

 

[CMDR X]

Excellent idea! In fact, do away with magical interdictions completely.
Seriously, that would make everything line up much more with reality.
Maybe even level the playing field a bit.
X.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Excellent idea! In fact, do away with magical interdictions completely.
Seriously, that would make everything line up much more with reality.
Maybe even level the playing field a bit.
X.

I envisioned it being a 20/ 80 split- interdictions still happen but the majority focus is around stations. Its one of the 84 Elite things that is better than today really.

 

[Rebel Yell]

+1 yeah! I like this... and pls also apply such "security zone" to the sweep-cleaning ships who are able to steal the canisters we hatchbreach from traders nearby the stations!!!

 

[Bottom Hat]

This idea is absolutely packed to the brim with tripe, to the point that it is scraping around the bowels of the suggestion section. I hate it, get it off my phone now.


I'm joking btw, I think it's a cool idea and wouldn't make for excellent emergent gameplay - do it frontier, it's not worth eating your kids over the argument

 

[GloatingSwine]

Distant drop points with an interception/police scanning zone further out from the station would make stealth builds and clean/low emissions engineering useful sometimes.

And so it will never happen.

 

[CMDR X]

Just the suspense of not knowing what awaits on the other side of supercruise would be game changing.
Everything is too predictable and boring now. The en-route interdictions are also way too predictable.

"Oh, here comes big bad FDL boy and he will now proceed to pull me from SC. Whatever shall I do?"
BOOORING.

Having to run the gauntlet to the station could make use of our speed, shield, tank builds. It would encourage
the bad guys to try out something other then the meta. Making each radius different size and patrolled, as Nuke
suggest, would be awesome.
X.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Also it could be used to help make smuggling a relevant activity ever. Because the size and density of the police cordon could be tied to the multiplier on black market goods.

States that generate a deeper and harder to avoid police cordon could have higher black market prices.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

I like the general idea behind it.

 

[goemon]

what's in it for the traders?

(afaik originally drop points have been at 20km, but traders coplained).

 

[Mr T]

I like the concept. Traders would just have to make sure they have plenty of boost speed to escape those pesky NPC pirates that come after every bit of cargo.

 

[Rebel Yell]

I like the concept. Traders would just have to make sure they have plenty of boost speed to escape those pesky NPC pirates that come after every bit of cargo.

...and plenty of PDs for the hatchbreakers

 

[Bigmaec]

Excellent idea. +1

I just fear that it will somehow strand all explorers out there and therefore will never be implemented.
Also getting shot at is bad

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

Double post, sorrys.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

Excellent idea. +1

I just fear that it will somehow strand all explorers out there and therefore will never be implemented.
Also getting shot at is bad

Well, some use fc's and as long as there are systems with best security and lowest distance then it should be okay. Switching modes can always be used as a precaution if carrying a lot of data.

 

[Bigmaec]

Well, some use fc's and as long as there are systems with best security and lowest distance then it should be okay. Switching modes can always be used as a precaution if carrying a lot of data.

It was a joke

The explorer argument is always used to shot down things, so I figured I can use it here too...

 

[Disemboweled Ego]

This sounds kinda cool at first though, but I'm afraid of how it could be implemented. How large would the zones be in actual numbers? How long would the flying time have to be to get meaningful encounters during that time? How often would those actually happen? Can this area be smaller than what would let you consistently emergency drop closer to a station than you should be able to with the new system?

How often would it just mean more minutes of afk flying full throttle at the station with no other input required?

 

[Achtung-Goomba]

This sounds kinda cool at first though, but I'm afraid of how it could be implemented. How large would the zones be in actual numbers? How long would the flying time have to be to get meaningful encounters during that time? How often would those actually happen? Can this area be smaller than what would let you consistently emergency drop closer to a station than you should be able to with the new system?

How often would it just mean more minutes of afk flying full throttle at the station with no other input required?

I imagine even just extending the drop zone by half (note: number pulled from thin air for illustration purposes) would simply add more time to actually fly our spaceships, while leaving ample opportunities for NPC or player gameplay options; as much as I enjoy long supercruises along the beach, it’s not really flying is it? And the effect of system states would add colour, such as security cordons, player or NPC blockades, heavy trade routes to pirate/convoys to blend in with on your run. It would create chokepoints for BGS, PP or CG events (CG events would be like ‘festivals’ with increased security presence of course, to help alleviate station camping). And as alluded to in other threads about suspected bot activity would help to make such nefarious ‘gameplay’ harder and allow somewhat of a defence against it.

These are all just ideas from an amateur space pilot that could be suitably tweaked and massages by proper game developers, but I like the core idea as a relatively simple proposal to extend our gameplay options; if nothing else, I’d enjoy seeing the living galaxy doing it’s thing and admire the pretty stations and setting while doing a little more than simply dropping out of supercruise and lining up for docking.

 

[Bigmaec]

This sounds kinda cool at first though, but I'm afraid of how it could be implemented. How large would the zones be in actual numbers? How long would the flying time have to be to get meaningful encounters during that time? How often would those actually happen? Can this area be smaller than what would let you consistently emergency drop closer to a station than you should be able to with the new system?

How often would it just mean more minutes of afk flying full throttle at the station with no other input required?

The supercruise could be shortened accordingly, or we could even go with intra system jumps.

 

[Rubbernuke]

This sounds kinda cool at first though, but I'm afraid of how it could be implemented. How large would the zones be in actual numbers? How long would the flying time have to be to get meaningful encounters during that time? How often would those actually happen? Can this area be smaller than what would let you consistently emergency drop closer to a station than you should be able to with the new system?

How often would it just mean more minutes of afk flying full throttle at the station with no other input required?

The distance you have now would be the smallest (7.5 km). The largest I imagine would add 30 seconds to a minute onto the flight time- it does not sound a lot, but its giving that window of opportunity for attack with specialist munitions.

On meaningful encounters, it really depends on the NPCs and engineering:

Police would need to scan more aggressively (based on state) to make smuggling actually make you sweat (i.e. unlike now where you can blast in the slot, you'd have to run cold and be more wary of flight patterns). This would make small, inconspicuous ships actually be materially better.

Powerplay NPCs need to be in large numbers around stations that are involved with Powerplay (and also be more aggressive).

NPC pirates would now have a direct 1:1 space to play in. Drag drives and engine tuning make traversing 20km in a fast ship fast- but, this is not the case with large slow ships which frankly need to be vulnerable somewhere. In this idea that vulnerability comes from anarchy systems and certain states that make the area bigger.

It would also allow Thargoids to come to play at specific time sand states too.