Communications and Spying update

Just a small idea that could be fun; the Coms & Spying update!

There are a few parts to this update:

• Radio channels
• Message interception - Hacking Block
• Another gameplay style

Here's my more detailed explanation;

• Radio Channels: (If Enabled in server), Space engineers would now have no immediately available universal chat. Instead, once you place an antenna on your grid, that grid (And presumably any players in a radius around it) can access the Universal Coms Network. This would be the new universal chat. This means you now need to build an antenna to communicate globally, and those who have elected to tune in to that channel can listen.

- Players can create their own channel assuming they have a large grid antenna to host it. (If Enabled in server).

- Factions can have their own channel network

- These channels are broadcast in the range an antenna can broadcast to, However, when broadcasted by an array of antenna, this range can be boosted.

This range can also be boosted by chaining antenna together in a literal coms network, so planetary networks could be transmitted globally by either;

A) A large array of antenna,

B) A chain of antenna towers across the landscape,

C) (Experimental) One directionally pointed antenna facing a much more powerful relay in space able to broadcast to an entire planet, but making origin of transmission near impossible to locate.

To transmit broadcasts across planets, the large antenna dish is used. It is directional, meaning that if you point it at a planet, it will transmit to that planet and anything within it's broadcasting cone, with a super large range. An interplanetary transmission probe may look like this:

This leads me onto my next, and far more fun feature;

• Message Interception:

Channels can be hacked by first flying your craft in-range of a broadcast, and using the power hungry Hacking Block. This means an enemy you may not want listening in can set up camp and listen in, waiting for crucial information such as waypoints to bases or ore locations.

If this seems overpowered, it's because it is. To combat this, the Hacking Block would be expensive, and as previously mentioned; power hungry, perhaps just as much as a Jump Drive making interceptions more of a periodic action rather than a continual feed.

• New Gameplay Style (Single player):

NPC factions can broadcast messages too, including the locations of bases, expensive but undefended ships, and mining operations. This means you can become a kind of spy in Space Engineers quietly listening in for convoys to steal from.

And of course, for servers with a more casual setting, networking can be turned off.

Thank you!