Topic: New distress beacon mechanic / teleport anomalies
The new distress beacon mechanic is now out on the test server.
Distress beacons are now called Teleport Attractor Ports (TAP), and can only be deployed near the new Teleport anomalies. (within 50 meters to be exact)
A TAP will close the anomaly, meaning 1 anomaly=1 TAP.
The server tries to keep 20 anomalies at all times on all islands, meaning if something happens to one, a new one will almost immediately spawn at a random location. Teleport anomalies normally have a 3 hour lifespan.
Teleport anomalies have 3 levels: Alpha=level 1, Beta=level 2, Gamma=level 3
TAPs have also 3 levels, this equals to the icon stripes that we had so far too, but this is now also indicated in their names.
A teleport anomaly has to be equal or higher level to the TAP you want to deploy. In practice this means Alpha=L1 TAPs, Beta=L1-2 TAPs, Gamma=L1-3 TAPs.
All TAPs can be activated solo and there is no activation time anymore.
Teleport anomalies can also be used (doubleclick or interact). They will teleport you to the nearest other teleport anomaly within the island. This is sometimes useful, sometimes not so much. (Before you ask, unfortunately it's not possible to do this between islands.)
They are also shown on the world map, but only when you're on the terrain and only for the island you're on.
When you finish all NPC waves coming from a TAP, a "Teleport anomaly echo" will spawn. These differ from normal teleport anomalies: they have only a 5 minute lifespan, and can be used by anyone to teleport to another random (NOT nearest!) teleport anomaly. They are useful if you want to keep doing TAP after TAP and don't want to walk around much. Again, they take you to a random anomaly so this can be potentially dangerous on beta/gamma. You cannot use TAPs on anomaly echoes.
Both types of anomalies can be destroyed.
General teleport usage rules and limitations apply to anomalies.
TAP volumes have been reduced from 1U to 0.1U.
Note: not all graphics/descriptions are final yet.
Some Nians are apparently capable of teleporting without the use of fixed infrastructure. However, doing so seems to have the side effect of generating unstable teleport anomalies all over the islands.
Teleport Attractor Ports (TAPs) can be used to interface with these anomalies and basically hijack whatever is being teleported, and force it to exit the channel at the TAP's location. Of course you can't know the exact number and firepower of the incoming forces, so make sure you're ready to "welcome" them.