If this was used, the dropping out of warp at 0-10km would seem reasonable as you would have to pay attention to avoid being lured into that beacon!

But, the ghost beacon idea, I love. I wonder, could you implement such a thing even under the current stargate system? A module… or deployable device (that does stuff!), which fritzes the nav computer of passing ships dropping them out of warp if they pass it. You could set it 100km from a gate, and mess with passing traffic, allowing the easier engagement of war targets and the like. Make it short duration, or cap intensive or something to stop it being used for griefing, but if you have intel that a target is warping towards you, activate it, and then get your tacklers onto the ship straight away. i think, tho, it might better if it only worked on frigates and larger (save pods and shuttles from instakill).

Also, although taking away the stargates might reduce lag in one form, your creating lag in another form with thousands of ships traveling on their own determined vectors between solar systems. And currently, the system works with hand offs on the client side as gate activates, screen flickers, screen processes new system, ships appear. (or something like that). What I'm understanding your suggesting is fluid handoffs between systems? Changing from one system to the next without any noticeable transfer? If not, how else would you notice the changing of beacon to beacon or when your ship's computer locked onto one of these ghost beacons? Plus, no more 30 second cloak to get your bearings and immediate threats? As for piracy, pirates would HAVE to have the skills to deploy a ghost beacon otherwise they would be forced to congregate in known systems just to have their PVP fun. No more shooting carebears because they'd just pass your system by since you can't deploy a ghost beacon. Unless of course it's a poor newbie who doesn't have the skill to navigate past that dangerous system. And all this is just the beginning of the problems I honestly foresee with trying to make such a change.

Again, the idea really does sound awesome and I think I personally would enjoy playing a game styled after what you've described. However, I just think it's too far out there to be a feasible possibility for Eve.

This would provide for more motivation to train those leadership skills.

I was debating on proposing a specialized ship, but it would make sense. I had also thought about adding a new skill, Beacon Deployement, under the Corporation skills. To use a Ghost Beacon, you would have to have Beacon Deployment trained to level VI and Cyno at level V. Kind of makes sense if you think about it as a Cyno is already a navigational beacon for Jump Drives.

As for protecting 0.0 space, I would disagree. In essence, there would only one way in a system, the beacon. It would create a choke point in each system, however, escape would be a tad easier and you could simply just warp out.

I think too much of the game is based around stargates to remove them even with your additions. Protecting space in 0.0 would become very hard without stargates choke points. And ghost beacons sound like they could be problematic when used in large numbers.

One suggestion might I make is that when you drop out of warp from a ghost beacon, you should be like a bit farther away, anywhere from 50 to 75 kilometers. That would make things require a group effort in low sec as you can't setup bubbles.

Great post man, really think this idea can be refined as it can improve many many parts of gameplay!