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I like your idea of dedicated lanes in stations. I have this sort of already on some planets where there is a traffic grid. I am going to leave some planets and stations this busy because I want it to be like you're in an annoying traffic jam sometimes. I don't think it takes too much time. I've been in them many times myself, it just takes a bit of concentration to navigate them.

I don't know why you got a fine for 50k from security. It sounds like you ignored traffic-control. When you enter a star-system keep an eye on your bulletin board. An orange message might appear there that you can click on. You will then be asked to state your destination planet. Ignoring this message is taken very seriously by most factions. The fines will normally appear in your item panel and you can hover your mouse over them to see what they are. However ignoring traffic-control is like flying a plane into US airspace without clearance and without identifying yourself. Maybe 50k fin is excessive but in the beginning even if the fine is 10k many players won't be able to pay it.

As I'm thinking I might make the traffic-control message blink continuously to alert players more to the fact that this needs their attention.

Ah that makes sense now. What about having a decent size pop up window that appears lower bottom when arriving will appear, since it has to be addressed having it appear so will not be annoying and we can just interact with it and move on. But i have a feeling you intended it to something the player must remember and if you forget you get fined. Just like irl with speed signs if you forget to look at them you take a risk of going too fast, unless you are a local and know where the speed changes are on the roads. So if that is what your intention is, then perhaps in tutorial mode (like when you arrive at a motel for the first time player gets some tips) you could have a window popup as suggested above and telling player about this custom of Stations. I am not sure if you have specific colors of text in bulletin board window? like red for very important messages? perhaps for important ones they could be in red and BOLD, so the player who is a skim reader can quickly check if they do need to read something carefully. Just some thoughts.

That's a good idea. I think I should do something more explicit like a popup the first time you get a traffic-control message. They are in a different color but they are not that different (they're orange). I am going to make 'm flash anyway to make 'm stand out but having a popup or something when it's the first time is a good idea. Or I might do it that the first time you are caught for not following traffic control (or not responding to traffic control) that they let you off with a warning and an explanation of how it works.