Starting off with a disclaimer, I realize that this may not have priority at this moment because it's not a requirement for SQ42. I will first try to establish what we already know about the coordinate system with direct quotes and link the sources here. What we already know You can already travel to quantum beacons. @Eschatos it has always been the case that we'll be able to QT anywhere with total freedom. The only caveat was about 'blind' jumps, i.e just jumping in a random direction with no target destination. They said if they allow that there will be drawbacks, like it could be slower, or we might jump into an asteroid. that's if they allow it, they might not On the coordinates system, imo it's almost guaranteed that coordinates will be passed via 'data packets' that only a ship computer or mobiglas can read as a map marker or QT beacon. Reason being, we don't want the coordinates to every POI posted on Reddit. ok first off this link has the internal nav beacon brief, a system that will allow us to place quantum travel beacons and share the coordinates https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/star-citizen-economy-and-employment/223673 Q: Will we see a return of blind quantum jumps? Can we just pick a direction and QT? TP: It’s something we have talked about. The way that CR has always thought about it was that you need to have a final destination before you do this kind of blind quantum. So in the future I think it really depends on what it’s for. If it’s to blind quantum jump to basically get away from somebody — like you’re being interdicted and you just want to get away — or if you’re just trying to go out and explore. But the idea would be, if you’re exploring you’re just not gonna go and blink to some place that you haven’t seen. You would try to investigate it and try to make sure that the path is clear before you actually go. https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/star-citizen-economy-and-employment/962080 and Dan Trufin on the same question: DT: With a blind quantum jump we can play with it in different ways. We can reduce the speed that you would be travelling at, we can make it very risky, as in you might be hitting a huge rock if you blind jump. Because the computer does not have the time to make the calculations for your jump so you might be hitting anything on the way. So we’ll look into this exactly because it’s something we need to figure out for the entire exploring thing. We’ll see. On the Star Engine service info that came out in SCL last friday We’ve made something called a Star Engine service. Star Engine services are game services that are written in a way that’s similar to game code but can be deployed as a cloud service. Then we’ve taken this framework and we’ve built something using it called the Star Hash service. Star Hashes are our version of a coordinate system across the universe, similar to geohashes if anyone’s familiar with that concept. And it gives us a way to partition the universe so that we know what sections of the universe are streaming at any given time, in a very efficient way as far as storing and looking them up efficiently. So we’ve built a service that keeps track of what we call Entity Aggregates in the universe which are kind of the roots of entity trees. The Star Hash service now in addition has been hooked up to what’s called the Streaming Manager. Previously the Streaming Manager was created to govern the binding and client side streaming of object containers. Now we’ve done the work to hook it up to this new Star Hash service to drive streaming events to indicate to it that certain aggregates are streamed out, or to collect certain aggregate groups and stream them in. That work has been done. Questions related to the coordinate system How do you plan to expand on exploration? What exactly can we expect. Is the coordinate system already in place, then why not use it right now? Will the dynamic mission system in 3.9 have procedural generated locations which require the use of a coordinate system? How do you intend to utilize the coordinate system? i.e. make a waypoint system or have the ability to blindjump to set of coordinates. Will we have the ability to blind jump? Will there be trade lanes similar to the game Freelancer or will Star Citizen have open space travel only? "So we're not going to have trade lanes in terms of any mechanical trade lanes, there will be by default areas that are the trade paths because they'll be nav buoyed out and they'll be the main trading routes that various sized ships will take. But you'll also have open space travel so you'll be able to fly anywhere in any direction." Can you give us any indication of when™ we could see such a system coming in place, in terms of when will this be prioritized? My concerns The PU seems very static right all the locations are default and the outposts, the landing zones there are no procedural generated crash sites to explore no road system whatsoever it feels empty and lifeless. There is no reason to go out and explore. There's also not much more than one or two mission givers per location which makes it feel like a korean themepark MMO... Not to be insulting i know it's not a finish product ofcourse. The mission system needs a lot of work that's for sure. There is no gameplay loop is my point, it feels like a very generic game not the living and breathing universe we were promised. Now i know it's alpha and i respect your dedication and promise to make this universe feel alive but i think these are the right questions to ask at this moment and time we need some reassurance on this subject. I can't imagine this game without the ability to set out your own path and without a coordinate system to QT with. Exploration, smuggling, stealth gameplay and dodging blockades depend on this. So my concern is also for safety reasons especially when you're trading and with that fricking minelayer concept ship that just got released hahaha. Alright. Thank you for your response CIG. Regards, StarSnake