Redesign how the trade beacon works

[Kerbin Dallas Multipass]

I don't like how the trade beacon works. That's just my personal opinion.

I like to make more specific purpose stockpiles as my colony evolves and they are sometimes all over the place and some are tiny. Having to put a beacon in each of them if I might trade from that stockpile in the future feels like a burden to me. It just feels so micromanagy.

What i would suggest is a complete new concept. Lets call the new concept the "trade antenna" for now.

My suggestion:

"Open for trade" is a switch available for each stockpile.
Kill the beacon.

Enter: The "trade antenna". It has a reception-percentage based on a large circle around the antenna. Any obstructions like walls, trees or even metal objects like the wire supplying power to the antenna have an adverse effect on the antenna's reception performance. In real world terms: that thing needs sort of a clear horizon to contact spaceships.

Let's assume all those trading spaceships that pass our planet pass at random distances and are more or less difficult to make contact with.  The reception performance of the trade antenna is responsible for how many trading spaceships our comms console can make contact with.

in numbers: Spacetraders spawn at random distances between 0 and 1. If my antenna has a 60% (0.6) reception (40% of the circle around it is obstructed). If a Spacetrader rolls a .75 I don't notice he's there. Next Spacetrader might roll a 0.54 and *chaching* we can trade.

I think this would create a nice dilemma for the player. The antenna would be a vulnerable appendage of the base, it would be cheap to buy but require colonist work to make it work. It would be a good reason to get the "cave diggers" out in the open and would probably be an advantage to flat desert players. The amount of work to clear the antenna of obstructions and the resources spent to make it defendable could be difficult to calculate. In other words: A challenge, not a boring resource drain.