[Wild_Bill]

Using my concept that the Conflux ran us out of our old sectors a long time ago *we've lost our maps*; each faction is surrounded by unreg space *there's a bunch of sectors we've never been to* and regulated space is rather circumscribed *only a couple of stations and a dozen sectors or so*, here is another proposal for Jumpgate Evolution.

Right now, in Jumpgate Classic every sector has a tunable beacon, even in unreg. No back story on how they got there or who built them. What if there had to be a beacon-building-mission to put up a new beacon? It could be a squad mission, a corporation mission or even a faction mission. The mission would require mining/producing etc to get the materials for the Beacon Mission (alternate: buy the Beacon construction kit VERY EXPENSIVE).

Then there would be a Install-the-beacon-mission. The sector would have to be mapped first (another mission?) to locate all the jumpgates within 200kd and the beacon placed in the very middle of the sector. Now I'm thinking any flux or pirates *real or AI* or other AI opposition would be against the idea of the Factional Folks putting up any tattle-tale beacons in their unreg sector and would marshall considerable resistance, thus requiring a significant PvP/Anti-AI force. Later on, as the factions explore and map towards each other, there would be real pilots in factional warfare involved.

Why do all this? OOC it's to promote cooperation and interaction with all the different folks in the game. FIghters couldn't complete the mission, but haulers/miners/producers would need the protection of PvP/Anti-AI folks to complete the mission. Right now there's no real need for a combat ship to run a FM (that I know of, then again I guess you could fly the FM in a MT cargo ship).

IC it would give the pilots/squad involved (see, you have to take the mission to get any credit from it) some kind of advantage, either in lowered taxes, cheaper equipment from their faction or some other benefit. Obviously there would be credit/exp for anyone working any part of the mission (sort of like the hive/infestation/swarms credits/exp currently, except if you took the mission and didn't fail it, you would get continuing benefits once the beacon is in place). In Jumpgate Classic, all you got was the credit/exp for running the individual mission, but only the final pilot got anything for completing the overall mission. Heck, let it be a FM shiney that gives you a 5% discount on your faction equipment or a 5% discount on your launch fees/insurance.

If the beacon kit was bought instead of constructed, it would have to be expensive enough that only wealthy (i.e. productive) squads or corporations could afford to do it and they would expect to makes something back on it.

[vorlon31]

'deploying beacon now'.....

sweet.

[Wild_Bill]

TY. Just thought of something else. As we go back, we'd inevitibly come upon the antique beacons we left behind. I doubt they would be compatable with our newer technology, so we'd have to either destroy the old beacons and build new ones, or convert/update the old ones.

[Algore]

I quite like the idea of having a sector that can be taken and held for several days. There has to imo be another reason other than straight forward pvp and cash rewards to retaking a sector/beacon. Idea off the top of my head would be holding far point(LL lights red/green/blue/pink also on map). While the beacon is a specific factions colour/flipped by a squad member/flipped by a alligned pilot their "group" could benefit. Benefitting obviously in better taxation, but also possibly in production rates, or even possible mission variety. Doesn't take much thought to see how this could all be intertwined.
Thing is though if someone simply flipped the beacon back as easy as it is now the above would not be as viable. Which leads to a whole new discussion as to how the beacon can be flipped/deloyed/controlled in the first place.

Regards
Al