Thanks to everybody for the great replies in the "Pulse RADAR" thread. Very good. the RADAR does need improvement, but to fix the radar properly would take a while for the developers.

However, I see an immediate problem, and an immediate fix that is easier on the devs. The problem is that it's too hard to see guild or group members at the other end of the same sector, because of the low range.

Now, how do we get around this problem without messing with the RADAR and its gameplay necessities? Why, Encrypted IFF, of course.

How does it work? Your ship's navigation system knows where it is in the universe, kinda like GPS (or inertial navigation). You want your friends to know where you are, but you don't want to broadcast your position to enemies and pirates.

So, you take your ship's location, encrypt it, and send it via radio or sub-ether-net or carrier pidgeon or whatever frequency they use in the future - and your guild/group/buddies can decrypt it with their keys, and your location is displayed, without actually using the RADAR.

By default, this could be turned on for your guild and group, but could also be implemented with a console command to allow your decryption key to be given to arbitrary players who aren't a member of your group or guild.

So, whaddya think? This would be fairly easy to implement, I would think, and helps the positioning of frriends, without distorting gameplay or being liable to abuse.

Should be very easy to impliment. As a matter of fact group radar allready shows your groupmates as a white dot at any distance on radar, and you can select them from the sector list at any distance (press 'u' then click on thier name)

Theres a suggestion in the guilds thread at the top of this list for doing the same thing with guildmates, only making the dots a yelloworange color.