What is a NAV Beacon?

[ClaraRulesSpace]

Does anyone happen to know the extent and the purpose of NAV beacons?
Where do these things come from?
Who manufactures them?
Do all stars in the map have them?

 

[Neestar]

Does anyone happen to know the extent and the purpose of NAV beacons?
Where do these things come from?
Who manufactures them?
Do all stars in the map have them?

hi CMDR , i'm sure many other more vet pilots can answer your questions more thoroughly, but in the meantime i found this related link for you--> https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Nav_Beacon

 

[varonica]

Nav beacons in some but not all populated system, no nav beacons in unpopulated systems. I imagine the system owners put them there so that pilots can find information about the system without having to map it with the FSS/DSS, in fact some populated systems can't be mapped with the FSS/DSS so interrogating the nav beacon is the only way to get that data. As to who manufactures them, I imagine there are a number of factories around the place that do that.

 

[IstvaanDCIV]

What kind of populated star systems lack a nav beacon? Ones with just a single megaship or something?

 

[varonica]

What kind of populated star systems lack a nav beacon? Ones with just a single megaship or something?

Never seen an analysis of what kinds, but I imagine they vary.

 

[Kira Goto]

I've never heard of or seen a populated system without a nav beacon... even out in places like Coalsack or California nebula.

To my understanding, the purpose of a navigation beacon is to track ship traffic as well as monitor and provide information to local pilots on signals throughout the system, bodies and stations... perhaps also the state which it currently finds itself in. Maybe it also serves as a navigation aid for hyperspace jumps, but seeing how those can be performed in the furthest reaches of space without issue, only using the light of a star (or the absence thereof when it's a black hole)... not sure.

 

[babelfisch]

Originally there was no Super Cruise in Elite Dangerous. You had in-system jumps to get from POI to POI. So when you jumped to another system you directly arrived at the Nav Beacon. This was changed after feedback from members of the Design Discussion Forums and Frontier introduced SC. The Nav Beacon is a relic.

 

[varonica]

I've never heard of or seen a populated system without a nav beacon... even out in places like Coalsack or California nebula.

So I thought about it long and hard to try and remember an inhabited system I had been to that didn't have nav beacon, Lyncis Sector QJ-Q b5-2, independant system, home of the detention center "The Blood of Atonement" does not have a nav beacon. I imagine there aren't a huge number of inhabited systems without nav beacons, but there are some! Granted the galaxy map actually says "population zero", but when I go aboard the detention center there are definitely people there!

 

[Florenus]

There was a time when not all spaceships had discovery scanner installed, as it was optional module. Nav beacon was a way to get system info without having one. I guess it's kind of relic now, but for some reason plenty of NPC ships visit it (and probably scan it) anyway.

 

[babelfisch]

There was a time when not all spaceships had discovery scanner installed, as it was optional module. Nav beacon was a way to get system info without having one. I guess it's kind of relic now, but for some reason plenty of NPC ships visit it (and probably scan it) anyway.

I am not entirely sure, but I believe it was the other way around. Nav Beacon scanning is relatively new, it was introduced shortly after or with the FSS.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I am not entirely sure, but I believe it was the other way around. Nav Beacon scanning is relatively new, it was introduced shortly after or with the FSS.

Correct - as you say, they started out as a relic of the pre-supercruise travel design, and it took Frontier a couple of years to implement something for them to actually do.

 

[babelfisch]

Correct - as varonica says, they started out as a relic of the pre-supercruise travel design, and it took Frontier a couple of years to implement something for them to actually do.

Yes, but don't call me varonica please.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Yes, but don't call me varonica please.

Oops. Edited. I clearly should spend longer waking up before trying to post.

 

[Florenus]

I am not entirely sure, but I believe it was the other way around. Nav Beacon scanning is relatively new, it was introduced shortly after or with the FSS.

Correct - as you say, they started out as a relic of the pre-supercruise travel design, and it took Frontier a couple of years to implement something for them to actually do.

There must be something very wrong with my memory then.
I'm having hard time finding anything to confirm my version, except that FSS scanner was introduced with Beyond v3.3 in December 2018 and I found a tutorial video from 2017 on how to scan Nav Beacon, so it was much earlier than FSS introduction

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqie5HRn02c

 

[Ian Doncaster]

There must be something very wrong with my memory then.
I'm having hard time finding anything to confirm my version, except that FSS scanner was introduced with Beyond v3.3 in December 2018 and I found a tutorial video from 2017 on how to scan Nav Beacon, so it was much earlier than FSS introduction

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqie5HRn02c

Yes, I think you're right about the timescale - it was pre-FSS, but still about two-three years after the original release.

(Not the longest time that some relic of pre-release design has sat around doing nothing without Frontier updating it, though)

 

[Florenus]

Yes, I think you're right about the timescale - it was pre-FSS, but still about two-three years after the original release.

(Not the longest time that some relic of pre-release design has sat around doing nothing without Frontier updating it, though)

I guess I started to play around the time when nav beacon scanning was introduced then, so it seemed to me as if this always worked like that

 

[babelfisch]

Yes, I think you're right about the timescale - it was pre-FSS, but still about two-three years after the original release.

(Not the longest time that some relic of pre-release design has sat around doing nothing without Frontier updating it, though)

I guess I started to play around the time when nav beacon scanning was introduced then, so it seemed to me as if this always worked like that

I just checked, Nav Beacon scanning was introduced with the Engineers (2.1) / Missions (1.6) update in May 2016.

The Engineers: 1.6 & 2.1

Released: 26th May 2016 | Patch Notes The full release of the Horizons 1.6 & 2.1 update was made on the 26th May 2016. This is the first update following its initial ‘Early Access’ …

elitedangerous2016.wordpress.com

As always, thanks @Barking_Mad

 

[DjVortex]

Does anyone happen to know the extent and the purpose of NAV beacons?

The most practical use of a nav beacon is that scanning it reveals all the signals in the system (in the same way as FSS does, except that with FSS it can take an eternity, while the nav beacon will discover them all at once). Once discovered, you can see all these signals in the left panel under the navigation tab (you can filter it to show only them).

Why would you want to see all the signals in the system? For various reasons but by far the most common one is material farming.

 

[mtfatboy3006]

It's also a good place to look for wanted/enemy NPCs because they spawn there, but it isn't a no-fire zone. At compromised beacons, you can lure NPC pirates into a fight generally a bit less challenging than a hazardous resource extraction site and always a very short flight from the arrival point.

 

[Weps]