Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I'm proposing a change to how structures are attacked or defended.

I'd like to see reinforcement timers done away with entirely, and the owner/holder forced to upgrade the defensive capabilities of their station/POS/I-Hub/customs office by investing in, and then MAINTAINING, various upgrades that would increase resistances (upgraded materials), increase buffer (more materials), or both. The mods would not be observable, but would each take time to install (a week each, for example - say, six weeks total, if you did all three defensive belts). (Picture something like a Damage Control for the structure bonus). Each of these upgrades would have an initial cost of 5% of the cost of the (station, I-Hub, POS/customs office) (I understand that markets fluctuate, pick a day, set the prices, and adjust quarterly, semi-annually, or annually). Upgrades must be brought in, similar to system upgrades at this time, allowing for the risk of transit - but they're only available in lowsec (similar to combat capitals not being able to be built in hisec), they're shown on the market, so alert pirates can be on the lookout for movement of these items, and will, for customs offices, stations, and I-Hubs, require a freighter to transport. POS upgrades will require either a T-1 Industrial, a DST, or an Orca (too large for a Blockade Runner, possibly 15,000 m3).

Doubling the buffer and removing the resistance holes (50% across the board, shields, armor, and structure!) would ensure that the attacker was committed to the task, and give the defender time to respond, but would force an immediate response - no sitting back and waiting for the final timer, you have to respond within several hours, maybe less, if the attacker is truly serious about killing your station (on a side note, attacked stations taken through structure are destroyed, damaged stations can be repaired, and all structures can also be self-destructed - I just got the support of the AWOX crowd with that one).

Destroyed stations become the mother lode of all loot piñatas!!!

Due to increased defensive capabilities, maintenance costs must also rise. I'm honestly unsure how to factor this, if it would be straight ISK payments to an NPC maintenance entity, increased fuel costs (or creating the need for fuel), or some combination.

I'd also like to see hisec-style station guns available, just to make the attacker have to work a bit harder (Maybe a mix of stationary Capital hard points and Battleship hard points, but no auto-fire - they require active target selection, but the targeting is passive).

Failure to maintain upgrades results in their deactivation for one week, and destruction/removal at the end of that week (no absentee landlords). Re-starting maintenance re-activates upgrades after one week (gotta penalize those absentee landlords).

This allows the defender some measure of determining what they would like to defend, how far they want to expand their empire, if they want to go slow and steady, 'bricking' every structure, or quickly, but less secure, or somewhere in-between, reinforcing important systems/structures, but reducing costs by not upgrading others. It also allows for a nasty surprise for the attacker who thinks they've brought enough force to take down a structure within a given timeframe, only to find that they've seriously mis-calculated. Conversely, they may come ready to crush anything underfoot, and find that the defender has let things lapse, and overrun several systems in the time they only thought to take one or two.

Thoughts, suggestions, comments, flames?

structure timers exist for a reason, that being to make it actually possible to defend stuff. This is especially true for poses and POCOs. Increasing the HP to grind through doesn't really address that problem, and introduces quite a few more. Especially in pos warfare that involves less than 100 people, reinforcement timers are much preferable to increasing EHP by an order of magnitude.