Decoy beacons are objects launched from a starship that tend to attract other ships in the area. Often, these are ships hostile to humanity. Redirecting these patrols and destroying them is helpful to humanity's war effort.
Decoy beacons and their launcher can be purchased at Accord of Free Worlds Command.
Once you have purchased a launcher, it must be bolted in a ship's control room. Decoy beacons can then be loaded into it.
Next, you must move into uncharted space. This means you simply move off of the edge of any charted sector. Be aware that, for thematic reasons, launching beacons near Mutuality space is heavily discouraged.
Once you are in uncharted space, type BEACON to launch your decoy beacon. You may choose a signal strength for your beacon, which will directly affect the level of response. (OOCly, these are difficulty levels.) The higher strengths are NOT recommended unless you have a veteran crew.
Enemies typically take 2-3 minutes to respond, and will then respond with a force proportionate to the strength and number of ships in the sector.
More friendly ships entering the sector will cause the enemy to call for reinforcements.
The decoy beacon drop is successful when all enemy ships are destroyed, but be warned! Launching the decoy beacon in a sector with RATS or other unfriendlies will negate payout.
A beacon drop of higher difficulty will earn greater rewards. However, if your ship leaves for repairs in the middle of a more difficult beacon drop, its reward will be downgraded to that of a standard beacon drop. For the best reward, stick to a difficulty level you can handle, and stay and fight!
Enemies can only be fooled in this way so many times before they cease responding.
OOC: In other words, you are able to do beacon drops eight times per Conquest period. You can check this with the INFO command.
