The suggestion is pretty self explanatory.
on this page we have a list of system names which are clickable, upon being interacted with they will show their corresponding grid or "sectors". Also a activity sheet on the right hand corner reading past and current kills. A suggestion from the thread: https://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/35611

I've actually considered this, or versions of it, for in-game usage, to help people get an idea of where the action is.

My problem is that I don't want to overly expose player locations who don't want to be found. This could also include some veteran who is off training a newbie somewhere and doing a lot of PvP instruction, who doesn't want a bunch of aggressive players to roll into their rando-sector.

The furthest I had gotten was the notion of just showing maybe a heat map overlaid on the galaxy map, that gives a notion of activity by system, which was a bit delayed.

The challenge is that it wouldn't be the real-time display that you're asking for, and it might still annoy people who don't really "want" to be found.

Open to further discussion on this..

I really like the heat map overlay, would be a really cool thing to see some activity per system statistics. The map could update every 6-12 hrs

That would still make it so that players who don't want to be found still could be eventually. Or a general idea where their hiding.

Maybe add a button in settings for players to decide whether you can see where they are? Or maybe only let us know how many players leave/enter through a border wormhole. Not names. Just accurate numbers

Maybe we could just make it a bit more realistic but make it almost real time or slightly delayed. Basically it only works in your own nation space, maybe only at Admire. It would also only work in monitored space so you can't see if someone is botting in Azek for example as UIT, only in Dau or other system with monitored roid sectors.

If its system-based instead of sector-based, that should be fine. it'd be general enough that pilots don't run the risk of actually being hunted out, as there still is a 16x16 grid of sectors to search through. As for tracking a pilot's travel path, i'm fairly certain that if it just updated every 15 minutes like the activity chart then such a path wouldnt be very visible; on top of that, VO is arranged like a ring. Travel paths arent that hard to figure out anyways.

No don’t know if a heat map of systems would tell us anything we don’t already know. It would possibly encourage players to move around a bit more if they were in greyspace but I have a feeling it would just show India and Sedona being heavily trafficked and a 15 minute delay would show faint signs of a person or two quickly traveling. The idea of a 3x3 sector scanner and an upgraded 5x5 scanner would be a better addition imo

+1 But only if the heat map only indicates those in monitored sectors.

A live system map showing activity in monitored sectors or systems actually sounds realistic. As long as names are left out of it I believe it would be an interesting game mechanic.

Activity should be detectable. people shouldn’t be able to be unfindable by default, rather they should have to sacrifice something for stealth. protecting the solitary player experience is not appropriate in a MMORPG

Maybe scanner blockers can be used to remove your traces from the mapping?

protecting the solitary player experience is not appropriate in a MMORPG

I am, personally, often a solitary player in MMORPGs. So I'm just fine with protecting this option. The fact that you can choose to "go off" by yourself, or with a small group of other individuals, and not be troubled (while remaining in the same game universe, and not requiring "instancing"), is a design concept that has been in there for as long as "twitch combat" or "no safe place".

But, that being said, I don't have any problem with modulating this with delayed-heatmap stuff, and perhaps making addons that make it easier to hide, like Luxen says. It could also be a factor of regular gameplay, like.. I dunno.. staying under a certain speed, or have certain with "stealth" composite hulls, that result in better concealment?

There are a lot of options, and things are going to change in the Universe Redux as well. If we start getting into things like fogged "reefs", those regions would inherently be concealing.

Here's an alternative to this heat map design. Active scanners and scanner blockers. Basically it would scan in X sectors around you using energy and print player locations to your chat but also to the scanned ship. For example:
Luxen has been found in sector H-12.
And he would see something like:
Your ship's position has been scanned.
A blocker would make your ship invisible to scanners.
There could be a small port, large port and capital class 25 grid large port version
The small port would have the smallest range, followed by the large port and the fapital version should have the biggest range. Ion storms and docking with a station should make you invisible as well.
https://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/35626#411493

But a heat map showing the activity of systems in let's say the past 24 or lees hours would be nice as well.

I think a system-oriented heat map would be more useful for newer pilots in determining where to go if they want more social interaction, and where to avoid if they dont. your scanner suggestion is...okay? But I think we're discussing two VERY different things here, Heinii.