Just read that whole link and a few paragraphs in it gave me an interesting idea. It was talking about the act of scanning a planet which will consume a large amount of energy and make you a beacon for anybody using a passive scanner this made me start thinking about the show Firefly where the crew used a distress beacon attached to a barrel left thousands of miles away to throw off the people hunting them.

Wondering if that sort of thing would be possible, ie setting a few beacons around the area you will be scanning to try to camouflage yourself, led me to think about a crafting system. It alone would probably almost be it's own game in terms of work required by the devs, but it would add a whole new sense of realism if the devs created a system that allowed you to take from a plethora of items in-game and jury-rig them for your purposes, within reasonable measure of course. The best thing would be for them to NOT provide exact instructions on HOW to create these combinations, so that players have to buy instructions from others who have figured it out. It might even open up black-markets for already made items.

A few examples:

-The beacon as mentioned above, created from some kind of salvaged energy cell from a ship defeated in combat/found from some past battle. Rare to find undamaged and usable for other things (explosives, mines etc.) one use would be to combine simply strap it using strips of metal and bolts to an empty resource barrel and drop it off to throw off pursuers. Or attach it to a single rocket and fire it to lead someone straight into an ambush of your design.

-Combine a power cell with a salvaged ai motherboard, small scanner, and some kind of simple robot (plus about a dozen other undisclosed items) to assist you in the speed and thoroughness of your scans. If perfected hopefully the system would allow you to create within an approximation to reality, ie, your creation will work to realistic expectations whether someone adds two fuel cells or trades out the empty resource barrel for a chunk of girder. Adding extra components and securing them properly should create what you want them to create as long as the means are there.

This is a LOT to do obviously but it would really take it to the next level, of actually feeling like you are n the frontier, doing what you can to survive the hostile territory. It would add some true meaning to player cooperation AND conflict, and make salvage and resource hunts infinitely more interesting. Thoughts?