ananzi's right, you know...

"ananzi's right, you know..."

Yeah, wow, it's amazing...

I really like Tosh's idea for a precise relative coordinate system based on a Capship. It would also go one step further toward adding command structures by which a Commander in a HAC can better coordinate the troops.

ananzi's right? *looks at the sky* Nope.. nothing falling yet..

In all seriousness, I would prefer the beacons-system. make them targettable and destroyable by anyone.. And shown on radar from any distance.. also, it would be rather interesting if you hailed them, they'd broadcast a set message by the player that released the beacon.

(I click release beacon, after purchasing some, I get a window with "break19s beacon" and I can change it to "I see you found me", when someone targets the beacon and hails it, the beacon responds "Beacon xyex-1212 says "I see you found me" or some such)

I think having something like a polar coordinate system centered on your ship and oriented to the ecliptic, and the pole pointing at the sun (or suns) would be the best way to go. That way all coordinates are relative to your current positon, and while it'd be (relatively) easy for you to find a fixed location in space to begin mapping from, it'd probably be significantly more difficult for a bot.

So starting from a distinctive part of a station, I turn to 54 degrees left of the sun, 20 degrees up, and head towards the knobby asteroid. From that point, I turn to 193 degrees left of the sun, 40 degrees down, and then I hit an ice roid, and then finally, 53 degrees left of the sun, 70 degrees up, and I hit a roid with 93% helio, or something.

That would be very easy for a bot to use, CP.

*murmers "beacons"*

Since CP no longer playes, of course he wants bots and macroing. The vast majority of us don't, so bring on the beacons or the lo-res GPS, using each system's star(s) as reference so what works in one system won't work on another (unless the star is in the exact same place in both systems).

Can't we at least get a compass? Point it at galactic North, add a galactic elevation indicator (you are pointed +X degrees of the galactic plane), and whamo, instant, no exact coordinates given relative navigation. How would this help? Well for starters, it allows you to navigate back to places of interest you have been before, such as rich roids, without the need for screenshots or any kind of position reporting beacon. You can navigate in exactly the same way a orienteering dude does. It would be incredibly useful, and probably unexploitable. no postions is reported, just direction.

ananzi, you're right. The server could probably handle about 100.000 beacons at once.

However, I know it'd piss me off if I came into a sector, and somebody had spelled "I am the great Cornholio" in nav beacons.

How about clientside beacons with the possibility to transmit the coordinates to other players? I think that's better.

It also allows for more "fuzz". Split all sectors into a 100x100x100 cube grid near sector origo, and each cube is 10x10x10 meters.
Sectors are larger than that, but it could just extend the cube grid until the sector ends. It does, afterall, have theese coordinates allready.

An error margin of 10 meters makes docking with a bot very hard, if not impossible.

Dude! I would so love it if player traders using a bot also exploded their moths on docking! They'll be carrying GREAT stuff!

If we were to do a compass, it would make more sense to have it point to a station; since the systems are supposed to be all over the galaxy (and maybe even in other galaxies) Galactic north maybe not be so easy to detect. Let's say your in Latos and you buy the compass at N-15, Remley Orbital. Its compass points to that sector, and as long as you keep that in mind, you have good orientation. It would be more like a light house, you being able to "see" where Remley lies and from there judge where to go.

And a big thumbs up to people being able to share beacon/GPS/trade route data.