Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Recently I have been somewhat frustrated by the potential a ship like the ORCA has for being a mobile 'base' and the way that this ship can only operate as such if you have a dedicated Orca ALT. Basically what I mean is that as long as you have an alt, you can use the Orca for over 100k total storage, as well as a 400k ship maintenance hangar, fitting tool, etc.

This is a great option for the solo wormhole pilot, and even just a low or nullsec PI player who operates in an out of the way system where they cannot dock. Similarly, if you fly FW in enemy controlled space, this can be used to good effect as a kind of 'mini-pos' which you can cloak and requires no upkeep like a full-fledged POS does.

So, all well and good, but still -- it annoys me that you need an alt to do this. What I'd really like is an ORCA type structure that basically does the same things that an ORCA does, but which can be accessed remotely by a single account. In exchange for this, you pay the price of immobility -- the 'ship' is only usable in one place -- it permanently sits in a safe spot somewhere. Another downside from the ORCA is that you won't receive any command boosts, etc. It's really just a spot to swap a small number of ships and change fittings in out of the way or hostile systems.

And, to simulate the full effect of 'ORCA' style gameplay, the structure can be cloaked (or perhaps automatically cloaks) as soon as you warp away from it.

As I think about this, I realize that you can even do some of the 'ORCA base' gameplay with just a single account already -- But it's a huge pain, and not in a fun 'gameplay' sense either. It's a huge pain in a meta-game sense and this idea is just a way to eliminate that.

For example. I could just have a second orca alt on the same account in a safe-spot. My main loses ship, or wants to swap ships -- I fly to safe spot where orca is located (logged off on same account alt). Once there I wait, or possibly eject from current ship. Then I log off.

Log onto Orca. Pull abandoned ship into maintence hangar. Drop new ship in space. Log off

Relog with main. Board new ship.

So again. Why all this trouble? Why not just a cool 'mini POS' that has this same functionality with a few drawbacks to go along with it.

And, if you've ever looked at a lot of the cool outposts that are already in the game, we have a LOT of really great mini-station models already that CCP could use. Really they'd just need to implement the functionality.

So, in concrete terms, it would look something like this:

SMALL OUTPOST GANTRY
probably 5000m3 or so. Needs to be anchored at a safe spot. Probably limitations on how close these can be to other objects like asteroid belts, stations, etc

SMALL OUTPOST (updated since original post)
Once anchored, outpost has the following services:

Cargohold: 200,000m3
Ore hold: 250,000m3
Ship Maintenance Hangar: 1,000,000m3
Fitting Tool
Ore Compression?!

Shield HP: 10,000
Armor HP: 50,000
Structure HP: 250,000

outpost is destructible, but is cloaked whenever player-owner is off grid (unless of course, player warps off with hostiles present)

Just a few possible graphics:

http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/graphics/ids/1024/1708.jpg
http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/graphics/ids/256/1711.jpg
http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/graphics/ids/256/2612.jpg

Small outpost will remain accessible for up to 30 days if not accessed. Timer resets to 30 days each time accessed.

Proposed materials cost for gantry should be around 300-500 million

---

Final note: Remember -- nothing that I am proposing here is not already possible with an ORCA (or especially a Rorqual) -- All that I am suggesting is an alternative for players who would like to operate from a single character or single account, and in fact, it's actually a lot less functional since you won't get command boosts, rep drones, salvage, mobility, etc.

Still, it's something that I, and I'm sure a lot of other casual players would love. I want a 'space home' but I am far too casual a player to run a POS.

Thoughts?

I feel like this is a tad overpowered. Maybe if it required some sort of fuel or payment to concord every so often it might work.

I have to give you props for the hypothetical statistics, overall idea, and included graphics though

what you're looking for is called a POS. A small gallente tower can house a corp hanger which holds 1.4 million m^3, and a ship hanger array with tons of capacity and its also quite a bit cheaper than you were asking for.

Its perfect for the player in a remote low sec chain where he cannot dock.

If I recall correctly CCP stated that 50% of the player base play solo, maybe the reason you can't consider Eve being played solo is because you are a player who has to be told how to play, when to play and while you are playing which buttons to push

Sounds cool but then if everyone sets one up all over the place could be a hazard. I think it would be cool if when warped a rorq to a belt it could anchor and set a up a shield around the whole belt so no one can interfer with mining ops. So when the indy core is turned on a 10, 000, 000hp shield opens up. But it would burn lots of heavy water as well as the compression.

Well, invulnerability and ZERO maintenance is a big part of what I am looking for. This may seem overpowered (as mentioned by another response) but as I've said -- it's still less effective than an orca alt that can do all this PLUS remote rep, move around, provide command boosts, etc.

The more I think about it... an orca alt permanently sitting at a safespot seems amazing. I just wish I didn't have to dual box.

In fact, the ORCA is so amazing, I think I'd need to tweak this idea a little just so it wasn't laughably underpowered by comparison.

Maybe:

Ship maintenance bay: 1,000,000m3 (after all, I should at least be able to store few cruisers and an industrial. Rorqual/carriers already have at least this)
cargo: 200,000m3 (since the ORCA can get to a combined 130k already)

ore hold: 250,000 (Maybe give it ore compression capability)

All of this would serve well as a little staging point, and with ore compression, it would even be pretty useful for industrialists.

Again, seems super amazing right? overpowered? Not really considering it's still not nearly as good as a rorqual and barely better than an orca

I would say this instead...

... instead of designing a completely new "Orca-POS" structure, how about basically taking the towers we have now, tweaking the graphics designs like they did when they did the massive redesign on the stealth bombers, reducing the stats and size of the thing to something more single person friendly (like cutting ALL the stats, good bad or indifferent, in half for instance), and then making it so you can anchor it anywhere you want, and it can fit station guns BUT they must be fit actually TO THE "MICRO-POS" like guns and missiles on your Cruiser or Frigate or Battleship, and their Bubble Shield is just as tough as a POS shield but maybe reinforce would be like half of what a real POS is. Then they would only be roughly the size of an NPC Housing Module or something, and the entire thing would be self contained in a single "box". The look and shape would change as you add different components to them... just like the way those Tech 3 Strategic Cruisers do... that way the whole thing would not be some giant monstrosity that is strewed all over the side of some moon somewhere.

You could mount it in a belt, off a planet, near a moon, in a WH, heck... out in the middle of nothing and just let it drift so that the only way to find it is to probe it (if you are paranoid and don't mind losing everything you own inside once in a while).

Make it so that it only can mount three POS mods max though... say, a hangar, an items bay, and an ore processor thingy... or whatever three mods you wanted to slap on it. (this would not count in the guns, armor, power, CPU, CAP, and Shield slots) You would fit it like a Strategic Cruiser...

... you fit a certain subsystem and you get that many high, low, mid and rigs slots. It fits Capital Class fittings and has a finite amount of fuel and Stronts just like a Cap/SuperCap or a POS.

OK, if this happens CCP would not get your extra $15 a month. Won't happen.







[quote=Baron Altin]Recently I have been somewhat frustrated by the potential a ship like the ORCA has for being a mobile 'base' and the way that this ship can only operate as such if you have a dedicated Orca ALT. Basically what I mean is that as long as you have an alt, you can use the Orca for over 100k total storage, as well as a 400k ship maintenance hangar, fitting tool, etc.

This is a great option for the solo wormhole pilot, and even just a low or nullsec PI player who operates in an out of the way system where they cannot dock. Similarly, if you fly FW in enemy controlled space, this can be used to good effect as a kind of 'mini-pos' which you can cloak and requires no upkeep like a full-fledged POS does.

So, all well and good, but still -- it annoys me that you need an alt to do this. What I'd really like is an ORCA type structure that basically does the same things that an ORCA does, but which can be accessed remotely by a single account. In exchange for this, you pay the price of immobility -- the 'ship' is only usable in one place -- it permanently sits in a safe spot somewhere. Another downside from the ORCA is that you won't receive any command boosts, etc. It's really just a spot to swap a small number of ships and change fittings in out of the way or hostile systems.

And, to simulate the full effect of 'ORCA' style gameplay, the structure can be cloaked (or perhaps automatically cloaks) as soon as you warp away from it.

As I think about this, I realize that you can even do some of the 'ORCA base' gameplay with just a single account already -- But it's a huge pain, and not in a fun 'gameplay' sense either. It's a huge pain in a meta-game sense and this idea is just a way to eliminate that.

For example. I could just have a second orca alt on the same account in a safe-spot. My main loses ship, or wants to swap ships -- I fly to safe spot where orca is located (logged off on same account alt). Once there I wait, or possibly eject from current ship. Then I log off.

Log onto Orca. Pull abandoned ship into maintence hangar. Drop new ship in space. Log off

Relog with main. Board new ship.

So again. Why all this trouble? Why not just a cool 'mini POS' that has this same functionality with a few drawbacks to go along with it.

And, if you've ever looked at a lot of the cool outposts that are already in the game, we have a LOT of really great mini-station models already that CCP could use. Really they'd just need to implement the functionality.

So, in concrete terms, it would look something like this:

SMALL OUTPOST GANTRY
probably 5000m3 or so. Needs to be anchored at a safe spot. Probably limitations on how close these can be to other objects like asteroid belts, stations, etc

lol @ cloaked structure

skip all the crap about it being its own small outpost, and instead turn it into a another POS module, "Personal Habitat Array" that integrates the basic services into one array, and is easy enough on the demands for a small pos to operate, to make a small quick to setup home away from home for short duration living.

and lose the ore compression, if you want to compress ore get a rorq.