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[Proposal] Player-owned stations, problem and solution
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Abulurd Boniface
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2013-01-26 23:48:49 UTC  |  Edited by: Abulurd Boniface
I am reading a lot of thoughts about the problems with player-owned stations and why it should be the topic of an entire expansion.

Because I see this angst and misery I feel the time is overdue to post a solution to this vexing problem, because that is after all what we do here: solve problems.

Therefore consider the following:

- At fanfest 2012 [a blessing on my soul] I mentioned the fact that as the New Eden elite, we do not have an address. We have an office in a station, but that is not our home. Who knows who stays there when we're not there, right?

So, how do I solve the problem of a personal home for the capsuleer and the player-owned station and keep EVE's character, which has to be protected at any and all cost, intact?

Here is what I propose:

A POS will become a new class of ship.

- it can be anchored

- it can be equipped with all the traditional defences and features we know and love [but this time with an interface that doesn't look like it was designed in a 1950s Kolchoz].

- It will be able to carry [part of] a capsuleer's fleet in a massive secured hangar [it does -not- serve the role of a carrier], this hangar will the equivalent of a station hangar.

- Several POS's will be able to combine in space, so that they become a lattice of POS's, they will be able to disengage from the lattice at any time, if the situation requires it.

- This POS will serve as a base of operations, if the capsuleer so desires.

The reward of having this POS will be that the capsuleer has access to it without being penalised for having bad standing with local factions.

The risk will be that it will be a very challenging asset to own.

A group of POS's should not have the same resilience of a station, but it should also not require sovereignty. A capsuleer should be able to [fairly] quickly fold the POS and move it.

Several different versions could be designed, depending on the role they are required to play in a coporation's/alliance's strategy.

1. This gives CCP a reason to make a theme around POS's
2. This creates new content for players to explore
3. POS's will become an asset worth having and fighting for
4. Tear-extraction from the destruction of these structures will be a natural by-product of owning one
5. A capsuleer will have an address, a place of their own, with the associated responsibility of maintaining and operating this asset

And that's how you solve the POS problem.
Katran Luftschreck
Royal Ammatar Engineering Corps
#2 - 2013-01-28 03:45:27 UTC
So kind of like an Orca that you can anchor to prevent people from stealing it?

http://youtu.be/t0q2F8NsYQ0
Serina Tsukaya
Dropbears Anonymous
Brave Collective
#3 - 2013-01-28 13:13:59 UTC
I'm fine with changing poses in a way that allows us to use them as stations, and replace station functionality. Allowing it to be a ship however, can be considered a troll. the amount of rights managements to do this sort of thing would be mind boggling, not to mention moving an object whilst a certain amount of players are already in it and doing their thing.

Station size poses should never be able to move about, or else, it will be abused to the ends of the earth.
Abulurd Boniface
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2013-01-28 18:33:19 UTC  |  Edited by: Abulurd Boniface
Serina Tsukaya wrote:
Allowing it to be a ship however, can be considered a troll.


I assure you I am quite serious about the idea. This is a problem that many people struggle with, it is part of the game play that CCP thinks is not important because they do not recognise that they are underserving the people who would use this feature if it was properly implemented.

My intention is to contribute meaningfully to the discussion. You can like or dislike, as is your preference, but I'm not trying to be a smart ass. I do plenty of that in coms, I don't need to assert myself here.

It should be a ship, because that is the metaphor we use all the time. There is nothing new to the idea of flying a ship. But, the POS features would -only- become available when the device was deployed in POS-mode.

Think of it as a mobile oil rig. It kinda sorta sails across the sea, but it's not really intended to do that. The thing it's supposed to be doing, it only does when it's anchored and deployed. All the features are on board, you just don't start using them [unless and when the feature is required for the basic needs of navigation] until it's fully deployed.

So it would be with this device. It's a ship, it will fly, but you won't use the POS features because these only become available when the ship is anchored and the POS is deployed. Then, all the features become available and it is now a POS.

Ownership is a great issue, but that is why the corp interface would need to be updated to allow for the private ownership and deployment of a POS in the corp/alliance constellation. You would be allowed to own your own POS/s, that would not automatically translate into rights to other POSes. Obviously this is a non-trivial problem to solve, but I have confidence in the demi-gods in fair Reykjavik [and their subsidiaries] to solve that problem. That's what would make this a full-featured, theme-based expansion. It would be real work, with a real pay-off. And pilots would respond to this becoming available.

I have not touched on where it can be deployed, how it needs to be deployed, that is work to be done.

After deployment, features as now commonly used, can be added to the POS. The oil rig idea again. You can add modules and start production, harvesting, protection, as you do with a current POS.

You would then have to disassemble all the parts that are not part of the flying vessel to bundle the craft up and enable the warp drive.

You would have different sizes, they would fold Swiss army-knife-style. You pack your kit up, you store it into the POS, you fold the POS, you secure the ship for flight-mode and off you go. You've got all you need in one smart package, all parts of which can be built / purchased on the market. The geometry would change when you change the configuration, it would look awesome [like everything in EVE looks awesome] and it would be a feature that people would look for and use. Like wormholes have proven to be a very successful feature. This too would be something to look out for.

Would it be a challenge to build it? Of course, but this is EVE. The hard stuff is the most fun.

I believe in this as a workable idea. Specifically because it touches on the basics: there's great reward and great risk AND it's a FIS feature. This idea is an all-EVE all the time idea. Get the balance right, implement a new POS-management interface, like we have seen awesome interface improvements in the last release, and this will be a sought-after asset.

You can sell this idea. I can see the fantastic video the marketing geniuses [not a hint of sarcasm!] would produce to make us salivate over this release. EVE ONLINE - FOOTHOLD.

It's a serious proposition that I truly believe has potential.

If you think it's nonsense, please tell me why I'm wrong. I'd love to hear your ideas.
Lykouleon
Noble Sentiments
Second Empire.
#5 - 2013-01-28 18:44:37 UTC
A lot (if not everything here) has been discussed and beaten to death by the modular POS discussions.

Lykouleon > CYNO ME CLOSER so I can hit them with my sword
Abulurd Boniface
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#6 - 2013-01-28 18:57:33 UTC
I have not read the modular POS discussion. If there are no new ideas here, and I'm certainly not claiming originality, why haven't CCP implemented them yet?