EzDuzIt

Frequently found near military posts and habitats, the Communications Hub facilitates data exchange and acts as a listening post at interstellar distances. Unique services and single-use equipment can be purchased here. The Communications Hub is a new consumer station that consumes: Coolant Crystal Energy Cell Energy Container Energy Inverter High Capacity Lens Laser Modulator Computation Mainframe Satellites Equipment Docks and traveling equipment salesmen no longer sell utilities related to the galaxy map or faction interaction ("Summoning"). These items can now be found at the Communications Hub. This includes Quadrant maps, Reinforcement Transmitters, Trade Guild Beacons, and Energy Suppression Satellites. The Exodus questline now begins by directing the player to the nearest friendly Communications Hub when they discover the first beacon. After traveling to and talking with the Communications Hub, the player receives coordinates to immediately begin the journey outwards. The Communications Hub offers a unique service at Excellent or higher reputation. Once every few (configurable, five?) minutes, a fee can be paid to receive the coordinates of the faction's nearest station of a specific type. You can locate a nearby Shipyard, Casino, Ice mine, etc.. Communications Hubs occasionally generate a variety of quests: Quest to deliver books to a nearby Habitat. (Big fax?) Quest to repair a nearby communications relay damaged by an asteroid collision (generated upon acceptance). The player must deploy one or more Energy Suppression Satellites at a certain sector or sectors within a given span of time to prepare a temporary transport route. Requires credits equal to the value of the satellites to accept. Pirates sometimes spawn in these sectors. (The player is preparing a subspace route for the quest, after placing the satellites several Trade Guild cargo ships warp in, quest fails if there are pirates still there?) Quest that results in a Fidget Hyperdrive Interruptor (Since Equipment Docks/Traveling Merchants no longer sell Utilities). Rare quest that results in a Spectral Separator? Player-owned Communications Hubs have the ability to scan a sector within a fixed radius (10-15?). Scanning a sector with resources or wreckages gives a spectral reading of the total resource distribution at the time of the scan (i.e. Trinium: Dense, Xanion: Sparse, or.... Instead of text. this could be shown as a cool spectrograph with higher intensity around the relevant color bands!). Scanning a sector also reveals any stations on the galaxy map (May also reveal ships but I don't know how cleanly that could be implemented). In summary: Serves as a consumer station for Energy Inverters and Laser Modulators (Which aren't consumed by any stations currently) Equipment Docks/Traveling Equipment Merchants no longer sell Utilities, sold here instead. Nerfs Fidget legendary farming since Trade Guild beacons need to refresh every 15 minutes, but still possible to farm interruptors later on with multiple hubs discovered. From my experience, starting the Exodus questline can be confusing for players not following a walkthrough. This seems like an opportunity to expand the quest a bit and make the progression clearer -"This Beacon's signal is being interfered with by a nearby communications hub's activity. If we could get them to stop broadcasting for a moment we could scan for similar Beacons nearby.", or even simpler "We can use this Communication Hub's systems to scan for similar signals." The ability to locate stations rewards player knowledge and gives a powerful tool that is currently missing from the game. You find a great quest, 'Military Post needs 100 Body Armor!', so you go to the Communications Hub and it tells you where a Body Armor factory is. It's in a direction you likely would have never otherwise explored, but now you have a reason to go there. Offers new quests that create interesting scenarios and introduce the player to some game features like suppression satellite and repairing. Potentially offers a more integrated process for summoning Fidget, and maybe also a way to farming a specific type of legendary weapon. (The Tech Level of which is based on the Hub's distance to center, of course) In the late game, allows you to check resource density in nearby sectors, a way to mitigate 'Jump -> Cannot find any asteroids!!!' in your planned mining routes. Thank you for reading, I'd love to hear any feedback!