Idea: Station to station transmission

[kevinTOC]

This is the scenario:
There are 3 stations: Station A, B, and C. They're quite far apart, and need a network for automated messages like hourly check-ins or various status updates where "meta-comms" like Discord or TeamSpeak cannot be used.

Each station has a receiver with a certain frequency as the station address, and a transmitter to transmit the messages over the network. To extend the range of the signal or network, you have a few relays that are just within the maximum range of the transmitter. The relays are simple, and just send the message onwards. If necessary, you could also have a small junction-node which receives the message, checks the message and frequency, and transmits it onwards to the next relay towards the proper station.

So, let's say station A is at frequency 1, B at frequency 2. Station A needs to send a message "ping" to station B. Station A sends the signal "ping" at frequency 2. The relays relay the message to the junction. The junction looks at the frequency and message, and sends the signal "ping" at frequency 2. The next relays pick it up, and send it on to Station B.

That's the gist of the system. Lemme know what y'all think. I believe that the YOLOL code in this could be very simple, and you may even be able to encrypt it with a formula that changes the contents of the message, and would be decoded at the target station only using a certain formula. This however, would likely require substantially more YOLOL if you want it to be properly secure.

 

[Sven Drunken Heart]

The idea of relays is interesting. It could offer opportunities for players to destroy relays or intercept communications. But I'd think the easiest way to do something like this would be what Space Engineers did with Laser comms. If you know the X,Y,Z of a laser comm in space, then you can aim any laser comm at it. This would allow two way communication between stations or evens ships to stations. Lasers are what we use in real life to send signals vast distances in space, so makes sense in game. Plus, with laser comm systems, the communication distance is only limited by the size of the actual laser system and the power being fed into it.

Plus with individual relays, I see a lot of opportunities for griefing/pvp. Unless those relays were more like full on mini-stations with armament and power. (which I like the idea of). But players are going to be building things like that anyways when we essentially start building our own stations.

I also love the idea of in game chat based on physical entities in the game. Like a corp building it's own comm network spanning planets and stations.

 

[kevinTOC]

The idea of relays is interesting. It could offer opportunities for players to destroy relays or intercept communications. But I'd think the easiest way to do something like this would be what Space Engineers did with Laser comms. If you know the X,Y,Z of a laser comm in space, then you can aim any laser comm at it. This would allow two way communication between stations or evens ships to stations. Lasers are what we use in real life to send signals vast distances in space, so makes sense in game. Plus, with laser comm systems, the communication distance is only limited by the size of the actual laser system and the power being fed into it.

Plus with individual relays, I see a lot of opportunities for griefing/pvp. Unless those relays were more like full on mini-stations with armament and power. (which I like the idea of). But players are going to be building things like that anyways when we essentially start building our own stations.

I also love the idea of in game chat based on physical entities in the game. Like a corp building it's own comm network spanning planets and stations.

Starbase doesn't have anything like lasers, or photoreceptors.

The relays won't have to be that large. It's essentially just a small block with a solar panel or two, a transmitter, and a receiver. It'd be hard to spot in the vastness of space, especially when camouflaged. And since the relays could be so small, it'd be very difficult to hit it in the first place. I get the concern though.

 

[Sven Drunken Heart]

I hear you. And I do really adore the idea of trying to destroy a rival factions communications network in game. It's almost a shame that things like Discord exist because more serious corps almost always have TS or Discord.

Maybe....maybe if there was an automated transportation system that relied on the comms . Something that you need if you want automated transport over long distances from station to station. Sure, you could attack the transports directly, but if you destroyed comm stations then you bring the whole route down.

 

[Dante]

I hear you. And I do really adore the idea of trying to destroy a rival factions communications network in game. It's almost a shame that things like Discord exist because more serious corps almost always have TS or Discord.

Maybe....maybe if there was an automated transportation system that relied on the comms . Something that you need if you want automated transport over long distances from station to station. Sure, you could attack the transports directly, but if you destroyed comm stations then you bring the whole route down.

The transport system makes more sense, so people could strwl stuff. As you said, with Discord and all this stuff, a messaging transmission is unnecessary

 

[Arkam]

Looks interesting. It would be cool if we can read time between pings, even simple os.time function in yolol, connected with neons or any other text displays it could transport text messages via ping system, just beep, beep beep.

 

[kevinTOC]

I hear you. And I do really adore the idea of trying to destroy a rival factions communications network in game. It's almost a shame that things like Discord exist because more serious corps almost always have TS or Discord.

I never said it's to be used to send messages to players. I meant it as a system for automated messages like I said in my OP. Messages like status updates of various systems on other stations, or overall status updates. Messages that need to be sent through YOLOL because YOLOL can't interact with TS or Discord that we know of. It could be for archiving, inventory, messages to say "hey! I'm still here!", or to let a central station know that a ship has landed, so it can log the landing, or perhaps logging of purchases from players, etc. It would be for messages that are automated or sent by YOLOL, because like I said, I don't know of any way that YOLOL can interact with TS or discord, unless you have some sort of bot that monitors it in-game.

And like I said in my OP, it could also potentially be able to be a more secure way of transmitting messages. TS or Discord can be accessed easily by spies. A completely encrypted message would be unreadable to the player unless they have the required algorithm and security key to actually decrypt it. If you have an encrypted message, and someone intercepts it, it'd be difficult for the player to actually read it, because it would be undecipherable garbage.

 

[Sven Drunken Heart]

I'm sorry Kevin, I misunderstood then. Now I get what you're saying. Not so much a communications network for verbal messages, but of status of in game items/ships/stations. I do like that idea, it'd be a good way for empires to keep a status of their stuff!

 

[MrFaul]

Why do I get a feeling that someone will dump a couple of YOLOL chips into a automated shuttle and ferrying them around...
aka IPoAC 🤣
Here are the market prices for XYZ on station OPQ they are 30min old but hey at least you got them...