The great Guard system cull

[Ironwatsas]

I actually like Humboldt like it is. Off the beaten path, out of the way.

Having a few "back trail" systems which have no NPC bases in them but good mining grounds is nice, even if they are boring. It adds to a sense of isolation and being on the frontier, and the makes pirate encounters more thrilling because there's no easy point of retreat.

While I'm all for cutting out some of the extraneous guard systems, I still feel there are a few which are strategically placed and could be better served as "Empty" systems, in a manner akin to Omega 9 (e.g. astronomical objects and mining fields, but no NPCs).

It wouldn't hurt player interaction THAT much, because players would congregate in habited space, with far-flung systems left as "free space" for players to put up secret POBs, mine things, conduct secret deals, or just explore.

I'm thinking:

• Duesseldorf
  
• Tau 65
  
• Hiroshima
  
• Fukuoka
  
• Possibly Tau-39
  

tay in their respective locations, but all the bases are deleted and the systems are dramatically rearranged. Duesseldorf could be used as a "Bypass" of Hamburg from the independent worlds (big, empty, full of rocks or dust clouds).

Tau-65 I've had various ideas on (which could fill up another thread entirely) but the general idea is to make it an empty planetary system which nobody's bothered to colonize. Alternately, put a landable "Freelancer" planet (a relict of a Hediyoshi-era colonization project that never was completed) which functions similarly to Barrier Gate/Heisenberg as the centerpiece of the system.

Kusari in general seems to have fewer systems then the other houses (Rishiri and Nagano are somewhat insubstantial "fly through" systems, and Okinawa is more of a GMG system at this juncture). So I suggest Hiroshima be opened/rearranged as a not-too-heavily overbuilt frontier system (Akin to Koeln, Ontario, or Poole). It would contain Kure Shipyard and/or Matsue base (possibly as part of the same military base. E.G. parked next door to each other) with some other stations (Kishiro especially needs more stuff) nearby, and accessible via a new Jump Gate from either Honshu or New Tokyo.

Tau-44 and Tau-39 give me warm fuzzy feelings when thinking about them. While I would perfer to see Tau-44 left be, if possible Tau-39 should be emptied out and left as basically a large series of asteroid fields/dust clouds, possibly with a jumphole connection to one of the gallic border worlds.

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All that begins must end.