Jita Park Speakers Corner

Starbase rework

Present: CCP Greyscale, CCP Masterplan, CCP Ytterbium, CCP Soundwave, CCP Explorer, CCP Unifex, Alekseyev Karrde (Lync), Hans Jagerblitzen (Lync)

Editor's note: CCP calls player owned starbases (POSes) "starbases" internally, both terms are used during this session.

Foreword
The current state of the starbase redesign is “in concepting”
- It has not had its initial direction pinned down
- It’s not had any kind of formal design assessment
- It’s not had any kind of formal technical assessment
- It’s not had any kind of formal art assessment
- It’s not had any kind of formal QA assessment
- Nothing has been signed off by anybody at any stage of the decision-making process, beyond the initial instruction to begin concept work

CCP Greyscale started out by laying out their goals for a starbase rework (remember, dear reader, goals are one thing and the realities coming out can be something completely different):

1) A sense of ownership. New POSes should be "space housing", with players feeling that, "a starbase is their starbase, not a generic starbase." This includes some form of customization

2) Scalability. They need to scale from individual to alliance sized.

3) Get rid of the force field bubble, partly for technical reasons.

4) A single structure. This doesn't preclude some sort of modular system, but they want a single actual object in space, partly for technical reasons, partly for usability.

5) They want a path to retire the current starbase system. This may not happen in the first release, but eventually a new starbase system should completely replace the current starbase system. This means that everything that current starbases can do either needs to be replicated in the new system or removed from the game.

6) (added later on by CCP Masterplan) The current starbase system code is not the best, full of lots of edge cases, and the new one is a chance to greatly simplify things, similar to what CCP is currently doing with Crimewatch.

CCP Greyscale then moved onto a list of stuff they want to do in a new starbase system:

1) Modular. CCP's initial thoughts are that modules would be cubical and fit into a simple grid. Some modules might be much larger than others, such as the docking module. CCP is thinking about some sort of gameplay with the arrangement of the modules, such as having power generation modules that generate heat that needs to be dissipated. Players might then be able to reduce cooling costs by better arranging their modules.

CCP Greyscale said about the layout, "We want to have it yours, we want players to say, 'I want to make it look like the ISS', or 'I want to make it look like a spider', or whatever." Two step suggested many players might make penis shapes instead.

Regardless of shape, to encourage this, the cooling cost reduction would probably not be extreme, to allow players to trade looks for functionality.

UAxDEATH asked about if POSes would be restricted to one per moon, and CCP Greyscale said that they wanted to allow them to be anchored just about anywhere. He would have an exclusion zone around gates and stations, but would allow them anywhere else.

Two step asked if there would be a one starbase per grid limit, and CCP said no. They want to allow people to build little "cities" of starbases. Greyscale said, "I want to make a major industrial outpost in nullsec a little constellation of small structures and ships flying between them. This makes CCP Ytterbium unhappy because they would be untidy."

UAxDEATH and Greene Lee asked about players connecting starbases to each other, and CCP Greyscale said they were thinking about allowing players to transmit power and CPU between starbases.

Kelduum asked about ownership, and if it would be transferrable between individuals, corps and alliances, and CCP said that they would probably allow something like that.

2) Defenses. CCP is looking into defensive modules that would have firing arcs, so they wouldn't shoot through the structure itself.

3) Force fields (or lack thereof). CCP wants to have docking modules, but they don't want them to be cheap, and they may want to limit the number of ships that can be docked. CCP has been exploring adding mooring modules that would protect a ship that was able to physically get near the module with a small force field around just the ship. This system might replace ship maintenance arrays.

I live in high sec. Sometimes I do exploring in low sec and ratting in null sec. I've been doing this for years. How do POSes affect me? I'm being sincere--I really don't know how they do so I'm looking to learn.