I understand from a sort of space efficacy perspective why there should be multiple routes, what you've said reminds me of this demo from limit theory's nav system and how its obviously one of the more unique things about VO that the wormholes make natural chokepoints but they also tend to make space feel kind of small at the same time.

So it's not that I don't get it or that I conceptually disagree with it, trade-offs for certain pathways would be a nice thing if we had the population to man them, I just think its too disconnected from the question of whether or not we have the tools to man a successful blockade.

Also, I don't view our player population that way at all. It's not the case that we have a player population that is more likely to do one role or another, the game isn't designed in such a rigid way as other MMO's where everyone is working for the same goals on one level or another.

The player-base is quite adaptable to the meta-game of the day and groups to arise to deal with whatever threat happens to be trending. Those groups live or die on how well the mechanics of VO support the role or how well the leaders of those groups fare in breathing life into the sandbox.

Look at VPR for instance; they may have a dedicated group of pilots that to this day regularly return to the game, but that's only one side of the equation. Their role has been significantly dampened by a decline in the viability of piracy because of the lack of proper game economics and scarcity. The other side of the equation is fresh blood coming through and seeing an impact that they want to make, those are the kind of players that keep the dedicated ones going, make a contribution and ultimately end up becoming dedicated themselves.

If we're going to have that at all, it means supporting all potential dichotomies (not just the trader/pirate one) through game mechanics that work and letting the community decide what they make of it. I think that means dropping content like this straight in and modifying it if it becomes too problematic, rather than playing it too safe.

"My biggest beef is with navigation. Rin, most navigational routes amount to Right or Left rotations through the universe. That's not having "multiple" routes between systems."

Gah, you keep using that word! "Multiple" is "greater than one", and 2 > 1. Apparently the word you are looking for is "several", now that you clarified how many routes you're wanting. I guess I could have been more clear about what was bugging me.

"We have a situation of 2 events clearly dependent on one another (blockades vs the desire to remove them through player action), but an online population which is more likely to do one and not the other."

I disagree, and I suspect that if you spent a few months playing frequently as a pirate or hardcore nationalist, your perception of people's responsiveness might change. My experience as a pirate says that if I stir up trouble, somebody will show up to oppose me. The only time nobody shows up is when the "trouble" isn't actually troubling anybody.

The most fun I've ever had in VO is when somebody was causing trouble. Sometimes it was me, sometimes it was somebody else, but either way it was a blast. So, even if I'm wrong about the above, I'd still rather have more ways of causing trouble than have more ways of avoiding it.

I'd like to see this idea extended to a full on interdiction field carried by Trident-class ships, one which had an effect similar to an Ion Storm in that it'd pull unwary players from their route.

If you wanted to be a complete bastard about it, you'd say the player needed to approach within 1k of the Trident itself to be able to warp out!

I'm not so sure on the whole "interdiction field" thing, but I definitely would like to see a special trident-class power-cell which could be used to power a drain field generator addon for tridents that more or less does what this drain mine does but it's an addon rather than a mine.