The Drake Herald's position as an information and data encryption ship makes it very interesting. However is this a niche PvE mission ship, or is there something more?How will the information and data aspects affect PvP in the persistent universe?asked by Spaceduck

So we're definitely making one the items of cargo you can carry, if you've got an information runner, is encrypted information.That actually can be pretty valuable in our universe because, in our universe there is no FTL communication.Basically communication happens at the speed the ship can travel or a radio wave can travel in system. So you're sort of limited between the combination of the speed of light when you're in system, and then whatever distance you jump when an information drone goes from one jump point to another jump point.Essentially the way your communication would go across the galaxy is, say I'm on Earth, I want a message to go to Terra. I would beam the message to the closest relay station near a jump point outside of Earth, and that relay station would receive that message at the speed of light. Then it would basically encrypt the data, put it in a drone, and put it in a jump point. On the other side, there would be a relay station that would then get it, beam it to the next relay station at the next jump point, and it would do that until it got to Terra.Obviously you need to encrypt your data as you're sending it through the jump point so other people can't see it. That's where the Drake Herald comes in, because in some cases, you may not want to even be beaming your information because you're afraid someone might actually decrypt it and get the information.So it's like delivering a really valuable hand written note, but in this case it's digital. So maybe even things like deeds to areas of land, or if someone is the first person to discover an area, you have to get the digitally signed document to the records bureau on Earth, and that's something an information runner would do.That's where I would see some of the PvP and organization stuff happening because we'll definitely have some mechanics where--This is the UEE, we're going to have some bureaucracy, you're going to have to have some information and data.And that information and data you won't always want to have blasted over the air waves. So sometimes you'll hire someone to take it. Also there will be cases where there are no relay stations. There are only relay station in the well developed part of space. But in the less developed frontier worlds, there won't be. You'll definitely need a spaceship to take the information.As something like the Drake Herald, that has all the data encrypt banks that will make it much safer when you're sending it. You may not want to send that information say on a Hornet or something because it hasn't got the computer systems and the shielding to save it from someone that's a data snooper.I definitely think there will be some play mechanics for organizations so owning, having title, trade, and all that stuff that will be based on information packets that get sent.So therefore I think the PvP, as well as the PvE, will be something you can do with the Drake Herald.