This would help us record locations of our favorite roids, and develop flying and fighting tactics. I'm sure there is a way to make it hack proof. Please do this for us. We love you. Every other RPG in the world has some sort of coordinate scale.

There is NO way to make a coordinate readout hack proof. Personally, I'd usually have enough faith in humanity to hope that people wouldn't exploit it - but it actually was a feature in the game at one point, and my understanding is that it was removed because people were exploiting it.

But there are some alternatives to a coordinate readout that wouldn't be as susceptible to exploitation, that I hope to see. Beacons that appear on radar regardless of distance (like group members) would be what I think would be simplest.

How about miners could buy beacons after they reach a certain trade level? The beacons would be only visible on your HUD and you could target them like you would a group member-from more than 3000m away.
I would also forsee a limit to the total number of personal beacons so the server doesn't have to track 100's of beacons.
I'd think 3 beacons starting around level 3 and additional beacons as you gain higher levels.

just keep beacon info on your local drive and the server never has to referrance it, since beacons are for personal use only and not for everyone to use.

A way beacons would become less prone to abuse is by making 'em highly inaccurate. All coordinates are +- 500m, and the deviation changes with every jump, so you never know what the error actually is.
That's way to inaccurate for a bot to fly on, but a human can use it go get in the general vicinity of that nice roid, and search from there.

that's just dumb, if your going to make a beacon, do it right or not at all. I'd rather have nothing then have an unreliable peice of crap.

On the topic of exploitation of XYZ coords, an alpha player going by the name Romirez managed to create a bot that went from station to station and traded autonomously. Most of us thought it was cool--it didn't fight back, like the current trader NPCs (wee, easy pirating). Of course, there is that fact that it did use the /displayshippos command to get coordinates and check its direction from that--which is the exploitation part. Keep in mind that this was during alpha, when there were many less sectors than we have now.

*cough* there's a way *cough*

inaccurate beacoms sounds like a decent idea though, permanent markers and all, yet hard to exploit. I like it.

it's possible to make that bot if you could have four beacons for each sector you feel like flying in. maybe. iunno if you can select targets from the player list by command.

Frankly, if the beacons are not to be accompanied by coordinate readouts, and can't be locked on to, I see no reason to make them inaccurate.

Just make them work similarly to the white dots that appear on radar to indicate fellow group members, and make sure that the beacons cannot be selected as targets. Then there should be no problem in making them accurate.

Besides, making them inaccurate would detract from the immersiveness of the environment. Even beacons used in the early 21st Century on Planet Earth are fairly accurate. In most of outer space, there is no interference. It simply doesn't make sense that futuristic beacons in outer space would be less accurate than even beacons of the early 21st Century in interference-infested oceans/atmospheres on Planet Earth.

Just make sure that the beacons can't be target-selected, and aren't accompanied by any visible coordinates. However, I don't see any problem with voice-only-announced coordinates, because these would be much harder to exploit.

-- DekuDekuplex Ornitier

Target selectability would not be a problem either. If someone can make adaquate visual recognition software that it can track something targeted on the radar, then they can make "bots" without the need for buoys. I like the idea of a buoys (I posted a very long thread about them a couple of years ago, kudos if you can find it, but I think it got lost in the Archives). Targetable. Sharable with friends. Necessary once the Exploration expansion comes out.

shape is *cough* breaking the eula *cough*

Fnugget: All four of those beacons would have the same deviation, so having more then one wouldn't make your position more accurate.

untrue, multiple observations at a certain deviation can actually give you a more precise answer.

It's why scientists take multiple measurements.

actually, multiple beacons would make it more accurate, since if you place them a set distance apart, you can then measure how far off they are, and in turn get fairly exact coords. If someone wanted to take the time, they could make precise 3d maps already, its just a matter of motivation.