Player Features and Ideas Discussion

First off, allow me to preface this post by stating that I do not present the following idea as a 'good idea.' In fact, it is in all likelihood a terrible idea. Or, at least a terribly dramatic idea. And, it's one that I thought was interesting enough to present to my fellow internet spaceship pilots to be tossed around and thought about.

So, many of us now know, thanks to the nifty little autopilot map of the stars update in the latest patch, that the stars in the background of the game are actual corresponding stars in our maps of New Eden. This is very cool. Another cool idea I've heard presented recently was the idea of being able to hover over a star, and then your HUD displaying info about that particular star (similar as to when you hover over it on the map).

There's also this thread over in GD where at lead one dev has expressed interest in changing the jump animations from star system to start system.

I was reading that thread, and thinking about the aforementioned stars in the background, when suddenly I was hit with an idea for a new in game item. A type of rig, actually.

What if we could have an 'interstellar warp drive' rig (of the small, medium and large variants, along with various tech and meta levels), that would allow a ship to warp directly to a star within a given light year distance. You could even land at any specific point in the system of your choosing (e.g. Planet IV, Moon 8).

These rigs, like current jump technology, would require fuel. If you don't have the fuel, then you have to use the old gate system.

There are obviously a huge amount of implications from a change like this. I imagine whole fleet doctrines would be made around making sure everyone had an interstellar warp drive, as the mobility they would allow would be invaluable.

Also, if you wanted to shut down an entire system, you would have to be a lot more active than just bubbling a gate or two and waiting for the flashes.

And of course, I'm sure there are a lot of negatives to this to. Could the servers handle so many people people jumping to systems of their choosing, instead of preordained routes?

I imagine you guys can give me plenty of others

So... horrible idea? Brilliant idea? Meh.? Give me your validation (or condemnation).

Yeah, pretty much exactly. Just fit on any ship.

**EDIT: Oh, and also no need for cynos, just any star within your light year limit

You're welcome.

Thanks!

I think the answer to the balance issue would be to allow even more freedom of movement (hence the whole "freespace" thing). Allow caps to do the same thing, jump without cyno (still need the fuel consumption, and being caps they'd obviously use a lot more).

I think the whole not know what's in the next system is part of the balance, too. Unless you've got intel over there (i.e. you're in a corp that has the resources to hold that space), you won't know what's in the next system over. I think this would counter the fact that gate camping wouldn't really be a viable option after something like this is implemented. So, those looking for pvp would no longer be camping for their food, they'd be hunting for it. It also give scouts a whole lot more purpose-- jump to next system (cloaked?) find targets, and provide good warp in.

Sounds kind of fun to me.