Additional thoughts: As the game grows, and I hope it does, a way of attracting enemies to your location is very useful in many ways.
For example, this can tie into the Missions feature from the roadmap. Let's say you have a mission to 'protect a convoy'. In my mind, that might mean you are adding one or more AI controlled ships to your fleet. And you have to jump that fleet to planet A, B, and then C, in that order. If all you do is jump to a system, sit there and recharge jump, that's not a very compelling mission. However if every time you jump into a system, you aggro all enemies... suddenly that mission has incredible urgency. You don't want to linger when you are being overwhelmed.
That idea makes me think of a gauntlet campaign mode, or Battlestar Galactica mode. The goal is to fly from one end of the galaxy to another. Every time you jump to a new system, all enemies immediately rush down on you. The game mode becomes a desperate journey across a hostile galaxy. Sometimes you can get a breather in an easier difficulty zone, but you cannot refuel and resupply significantly in these zones. You may have to risk a more difficult path to explore planets or mine for resources/fuel.
Or another listed idea is a 'pirate raid' mission. Well to me that might say you need to raid/destroy a pirate starbase or asteroid base. Well any good base is going to have ships guarding it, and maybe you aren't strong enough to fight your way through the front door. So you build a second ship for your fleet, a decoy ship. Lots of engines, some armor, and a broadcasting distress beacon. While the guarding pirate ships are lured away, you sneak past, accomplish your raid, and jump out of the system, without having to plow your way through what would have been an impossible battle to win.
This makes me think that perhaps several types of distress beacon are necessary. Short range lure, equal to standard sensor range. Medium range lure, equal to sensor array range. Long range lure that spans the entire planetary system.
