For me, when I think about taking up bounty hunting or pirating, the thought that crosses my mind is how do I make it profitable to stop trading? They are arguably the more fun roles, but are dragged down by a lack of information and in my opinion, lack some tools that might make it a more rewarding experience.
Currently, we have good tools for intra-system player tracking and targeting, being able to search through the targets until we find a desirable target. The problem is that sometimes this style of gameplay involves a lot of waiting around for a suitable target, and luck, hoping that the system you just flew to will have the targets you desire. This makes bounty hunting and pirating much like fishing- picking a location and waiting for the fish to bite before trying to reel one in. I think it might make for a more interesting style of gameplay if players had the tools for these roles to play more like a wolf stalking it's prey, with ways to get better and more specific traffic information, for multiple regions at once.
As we have it now, we can fly to a station and get the traffic report, but what I am suggesting would be a step up from this. I'd like to see modules that allow a commander to deploy a beacon in a system that then relays traffic information up to X light years away, to either the next beacon, or your ship. Unlike the station traffic information this would be very recent information (traffic for last 1/3/5 minutes etc).
By setting up a network of beacons, a player will be able to access current traffic movement accessible through either of the panels. For example, a bounty hunter in a remote system might receive a notification that a wanted ship has entered a system with one of your beacons so you can in turn head there and attempt to claim their bounty.
As you upgrade the system, the number of deployable beacons (maybe to a max of 10), and their broadcast range, while the "traffic in last X" can be reduced to as little as 1 minute ago, allowing for very accurate information to act on. This is as well as higher tier modules being able to track and notify by commander name, and provide last known distance (position relative to you prior to it's new location) so as to make hunting the really big prey a little more tangible for the serious bounty hunter or pirate.
While all of this would definitely improve a pirate or bounty hunter's position in space, a trader or miner could also use this system as well, by using it to get advanced warning of pirate activity and allow them to act accordingly. This could lead to some interesting games of cat and mouse that don't have to come down to who has the most guns and shield banks, but out thinking the hunter/prey. Imagine a trader filled to the brim getting notification of a Viper entering a system two jumps away, and being able to trace it's movements through space as it attempts to close in on the trader. The trader can then attempt to jump away to other systems, double back on it's own movement to hopefully confuse the Viper, or find the safety a station if it's close enough. Combat would then have this extra layer of the "chase" added to proceedings and might make things much more tense.
A simple run down of how it would look would be something like this, sorted by distance, like the nav panel:
Location CMDR Ship Wanted Status Distance LKD (Last Known Distance) Time
Lave Tough_Guy Viper Wanted 11.8ly (19.8ly) 1 min ago
Lave Trader_Dude Hauler Clean 11.8ly (N/A) 3 mins ago
Some System Fett Viper Clean 18.5ly (N/A) 1 min ago
Some Other System Sparrow Cobra Wanted 19.8ly (26.4ly) 2 mins ago
Some Other System Trader_Dude2 Type-6 Clean 19.8ly (11.8ly) 5 mins ago
Like I said, a very basic example here, but already we see that Sparrow guy whose bounty we really want to claim, and we can see 2 minutes ago he has moved further away from our position, but into a system with one of our beacons (since we can see his distance). This would allow me to lock in very quickly on which system he might have moved to, and I can continue my pursuit. Likewise, I can see Tough_Guy has moved closer to me and is wanted. If I'm a trader now might be a good time to think about heading somewhere else or docking.
Anyway, I don't know if this fits Elite for everyone else (or if it even sounds good to anyone), but I could see it making some of the existing professions more involved, while allowing player actions to have more impact on a their survival or success- not necessarily based on combat alone.
Cheers
Currently, we have good tools for intra-system player tracking and targeting, being able to search through the targets until we find a desirable target. The problem is that sometimes this style of gameplay involves a lot of waiting around for a suitable target, and luck, hoping that the system you just flew to will have the targets you desire. This makes bounty hunting and pirating much like fishing- picking a location and waiting for the fish to bite before trying to reel one in. I think it might make for a more interesting style of gameplay if players had the tools for these roles to play more like a wolf stalking it's prey, with ways to get better and more specific traffic information, for multiple regions at once.
As we have it now, we can fly to a station and get the traffic report, but what I am suggesting would be a step up from this. I'd like to see modules that allow a commander to deploy a beacon in a system that then relays traffic information up to X light years away, to either the next beacon, or your ship. Unlike the station traffic information this would be very recent information (traffic for last 1/3/5 minutes etc).
By setting up a network of beacons, a player will be able to access current traffic movement accessible through either of the panels. For example, a bounty hunter in a remote system might receive a notification that a wanted ship has entered a system with one of your beacons so you can in turn head there and attempt to claim their bounty.
As you upgrade the system, the number of deployable beacons (maybe to a max of 10), and their broadcast range, while the "traffic in last X" can be reduced to as little as 1 minute ago, allowing for very accurate information to act on. This is as well as higher tier modules being able to track and notify by commander name, and provide last known distance (position relative to you prior to it's new location) so as to make hunting the really big prey a little more tangible for the serious bounty hunter or pirate.
While all of this would definitely improve a pirate or bounty hunter's position in space, a trader or miner could also use this system as well, by using it to get advanced warning of pirate activity and allow them to act accordingly. This could lead to some interesting games of cat and mouse that don't have to come down to who has the most guns and shield banks, but out thinking the hunter/prey. Imagine a trader filled to the brim getting notification of a Viper entering a system two jumps away, and being able to trace it's movements through space as it attempts to close in on the trader. The trader can then attempt to jump away to other systems, double back on it's own movement to hopefully confuse the Viper, or find the safety a station if it's close enough. Combat would then have this extra layer of the "chase" added to proceedings and might make things much more tense.
A simple run down of how it would look would be something like this, sorted by distance, like the nav panel:
Location CMDR Ship Wanted Status Distance LKD (Last Known Distance) Time
Lave Tough_Guy Viper Wanted 11.8ly (19.8ly) 1 min ago
Lave Trader_Dude Hauler Clean 11.8ly (N/A) 3 mins ago
Some System Fett Viper Clean 18.5ly (N/A) 1 min ago
Some Other System Sparrow Cobra Wanted 19.8ly (26.4ly) 2 mins ago
Some Other System Trader_Dude2 Type-6 Clean 19.8ly (11.8ly) 5 mins ago
Like I said, a very basic example here, but already we see that Sparrow guy whose bounty we really want to claim, and we can see 2 minutes ago he has moved further away from our position, but into a system with one of our beacons (since we can see his distance). This would allow me to lock in very quickly on which system he might have moved to, and I can continue my pursuit. Likewise, I can see Tough_Guy has moved closer to me and is wanted. If I'm a trader now might be a good time to think about heading somewhere else or docking.
Anyway, I don't know if this fits Elite for everyone else (or if it even sounds good to anyone), but I could see it making some of the existing professions more involved, while allowing player actions to have more impact on a their survival or success- not necessarily based on combat alone.
Cheers