Distress Signals

I have been thinking about what could be done to indicate to other players of one's faction that someone is in distress.  So along with the laser pointer idea, I had a thought that distress signals could be sent by pointing their laser pointer directly up.  So long that a player is not under anything (like in a cave) and they are using the pointing function (which is a double use for placement of blocks and structures as well as quick communication), then if frozen the beam automatically shoots directly up and an alarm will be triggered if they are close enough to a communications structure( basically within the same hexfield as one).  The alarm volume will depend on how many distress calls are being sent at any given time and will be relayed back to the main base.  I envision a large map on one of the walls which will indicate distress signals by a radiating hex, the larger the radiation, the more attention grabbing it will be.  So basically it would provide a player controlled mechanism to quickly indicate incoming attacks.