Forums » Suggestions

Shared Group Radar Extender: Add beacons

Nov 14, 2023 abortretryfail link
So, we have this addon that's basically never used because of how heavy and expensive it is for what it does. I propose we add some functionality to the Shared Group Radar Extender:

Group radar beacons. Give it a capacity of these, say 10, and make it work like a mine launcher where it drops a stationary object that persists in the sector. You could make them small white dots or maybe a different unused color (pink?) to differentiate them from ships.

Make it so group members can see this on radar and target it from anywhere in the sector, the same way they can see grouped ships. Non-grouped ships shouldn't see them on radar at all, but if they find one visually, they should still be destroyable by shooting them (similar to mines)

There's countless uses for such a thing in group activities:
- Marking far-away drops for a group member to come collect such as mined ore or capship loot.
- Marking asteroids for coordinated mining in fog, storms, or far away from the sector origin.
- Marking boundaries like the range of NPC turrets or jump locations
- Rally points, etc.
Nov 14, 2023 IonicPaulTheSecond link
To be clear, these beacons don't give any additional radar functionality (as in, they don't extend the group's radar to their own location)? If so, I'm in favor of this idea as is.
Nov 15, 2023 abortretryfail link
Right, what I'm suggesting here is an effectively inert dropped object with a finite life span that shows up on radar for group members and does nothing else.

I guess I could have suggested a lifetime, since mines have those. 1 hour seems reasonable.
Nov 15, 2023 haxmeister link
such an awesome suggestion.. I'm jealous I didn't come up with this one.
Dec 21, 2023 abortretryfail link
You know, something like this would be super handy for events in dead space where large amounts of bots will draw players for away from the center of the sector where new stuff jumps in as part of the event... ;)
Dec 21, 2023 Luxen link
Navigation buoys yes
Dec 21, 2023 Lord~spidey link
Fuck yes!
Jan 02, 2024 mrl1213 link
Beacons, what a unique and great idea! +1
GA
Jan 03, 2024 DeathSpores link
+1 if we have buttered toasts with them!
Jan 15, 2024 Renaar link
+1 for functionality and I get the idea, but I'd hate to burn a large port slot for this.
Jan 19, 2024 incarnate link
This has been added in tonight's release, 1.8.678:

- Shared Group Radar Extender can now be used to drop up to 10 nav beacons that expire after one hour and persist between logins. The nav beacons are shared with all group members.
Jan 19, 2024 abortretryfail link
The game has this thing using 16 grid power... Is that on purpose? The description doesn't say it uses any.

Tbh, non-weapons like this aught to use 1 like the scanners and spoofers do.
Jan 19, 2024 abortretryfail link
Thanks for implementing this by the way. Kind of cool how it shows up as a navroute on the HUD. :)
Jan 19, 2024 incarnate link
I haven't made any changes to the gridpower. I imagine there are probably some historical discussions on here from back when it was implemented, which might shed light on the numbers.