System Scanning and Safe Spots

With the introduction of the new system scanning in Exodus, it is clear that the word 'safe' in safe spot will be highly questionable. Now to make system scanning really a true gameplay addition, we must make sure that there are no spots which are really safe from scanning, otherwise it would be a worthless feature. Currently on TQ, many have used F11 bookmarks to create safe spots (basically bookmarking a solar system in the constellation view of the F11 map). This is the result of a bug where the xyz variable were not initialized to any value, and thus hold some rubbish xyz value (typically many 1000 of AUs away). This loophole has been plugged in Exodus, but these bookmarks remain in the DB. We are planning to change them to legal solar system bookmarks (with no xyz values) before the Exodus release.

Now the question arises what to do with any stuff that players might have left around those spots. We think that for most of the native F11 bookmarks, there won't be much, because they are too far away for people to have warped all the way there. On the other hand many have used these F11 bookmarks to warp to closer safe spots (warping as far as the capacitor permits) and bookmarked those spots. These might be anywhere from 100 AUs to 1000 AUs distance from the sun. For these bookmarks, we have plans to move them within solar system boundaries along with any stuff around them. This would mean that the bookmark will still work and bring you to your stuff, but the spot as a whole will be vulnerable for scanning, though it wouldn't be casually found.

The moral of this story is that if you have any valuable stuff lying around at some safe spot, it would be wise for you to put it out of Harm's way before system scanning becomes a reality. We will also introduce items that have resistance with respect to scanning, so you will be able to keep stuff relatively safe. It would be nice to hear of any scenario where you think this will result in some catastrophe for you or your corp members.