Purchasable Navigational Data

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Kourtious
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 187
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:00 pm
Location: Off in the distance

"Are you often annoyed with finding stargates and stations? Commonwealth Navigations has your back! At reasonable prices, we provide data key to your safety." - Your local Commonwealth Settlement. Many free traders and independents protest against such "Commonwealth Tolls" for safe navigational routes, citing "extortionary prices" for what should be free for the common good.

When I play, I am often frustrated with how much time it may take me to find certain stations and even stargates. At times where I have the money to afford buying a million system ROMs, I would exchange that for station data to save me time flying around the entire system.

In my opinion, the player should be able to purchase system data from friendlies. When you dock with a friendly station, there should be a tab for Navigational Data. The types I am thinking of are civilian, military, mining, and faction specific.

Civilian ones are friendly stations and stargates. These are available at most friendly stations.
Military ones are high profile stations (both enemy and friendly) and stargates. These are available to higher profile friendly stations, often military or massive multipurpose stations. Requires Military ID.
Mining ones are regions of high ore. These are available from mining stations or massive multipurpose stations. Some may require Mining ID.
Faction ones are stations from pirates, corporate, ares, and other faction specific stations. These and the type are available depending on the faction specific station. Some may require a certain relationship status or ID.

Some of them are able to be bought from conversations in pubs or gatherings. Let's say the Commonwealth pubs - a retiring pilot offers you navigational data at a discount cause he's strapped for cash.

How do Navigational Data compare to System ROMs?

First, they are more expensive. Navigational Data costs vary but overall increases as the system gets more dangerous. At many Commonwealth stations, they are nicknamed "Commonwealth Tolls" by free merchants and independents. Furthermore, Navigational Data only covers a certain amount of stations. When you try to buy Navigational Data, say Civilian Data, there would be a description saying that there is either most or all; some, or few stations recorded within the station's Navigational Data.

So what do System ROMs offer now? Instead of exposing the Navigational Data of your current system, System ROMs load a type of data of a random system to the player. Portal Analyzers can be used to reveal the System ROM data, and depending on the System ROM, the data could be very valuable more so than the cost of analyzing the data. The higher level the system, the higher level the System ROM. *edit* --> Also, Military System ROMs and other types could require certain devices or IDs to access or analyze.

This mechanic allows the player exchange their money for essentially time and gives new players who are unsure of where stations typically are to discover them more easily.
Last edited by Kourtious on Mon Dec 09, 2019 6:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.
PM
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 2570
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 12:54 am

Do not forget about the TX explorer autons. That said, they are rare.

The only one that is really critical is the stargate. Cannot find the next one, and the game becomes a dead-end (until the gate is found).
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