Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I agree that an unfueled structure in empire or nullsec should be penalized. I would like it to behave identically to wormhole structures - two 24 hour timers and no asset safety. It would give people incentive to cleanup abandoned structures. They could burn a bit of fuel to "keep the lights on" if no service modules are online. An unfueled structure should be obvious - no lights!

Part of the issue CCP will have with "no asset safety" is how it's always been a marketing point for them that if you came back after you had left for however long, you always had a way to get your stuff back by jumping through arbitrary number of hoops unless it was in a WH. Removing asset safety kills this.

If the structure isn't manned, there are no weapons anyway.
If it's not manned it's almost certainly not defended, damage cap is irrelevant.
Tether applies to everyone using the structure, not just the owner, so now you are penalising people who have no say in it's fueling, ditto shield timer.

Basically, if the owners aren't maintaining a structure, it's not a big deal to blow it up anyway. And they are not meant to be POS 2.0. They are meant to fill the same basic roles but differently.
You seem to be off searching for a problem for this solution.

A few problems with this.

First, the cost of structures and modules is based around them not requiring fuel. With a POS you pay for fuel over time, with a Citadel you pay a lot more up front but get the basics without using fuel.

Second, adding any significant kind of fuel consumption to the economy has the potential to spike fuel prices which are already fairly high, by historical standards.

Third, this mostly hurts smaller entities rather than medium and large ones. Citadels don't have any sort of cargo restriction so the problem of logistics basically doesn't exist, you can stock enough fuel to run the Citadel for months at a time easily. This means that this mostly only inconveniences smaller groups and makes a few people feel good about Citadels costing money over time.

For reference for half the cost of an Astrahus you could, under this proposed cost scheme, keep one running for a little over 2 and a half years. So if CCP added something like this in exchange for taking some off the build costs it would basically do nothing except spike fuel prices.

If the goal is to make Citadels easier to kill when not in use there are better ways. It's not like they're particularly hard to kill now compared to a POS, they just have annoyingly long reinforce times.

No one is talking about removing asset safety



The biggest problem, in my mind anyway, is that the medium structures especially are too easy to throw around, even for smaller entities. A Raitaru costs only 600m and provides all the comforts of a present day station, including tethering. And ask anyone who's been involved in this, even taking down a Raitaru is annoying to do because of the timer bullshit. Another 'problem' is that cheap structures make movement of capitals way too easy, though admittedly this already being looked into by CCP in the form of tether restrictions after using a jump drive.

In any case it is my personal belief that there should be some commitment to owning a structure. It shouldn't be something you just throw down and forget about until you happen to need it as a safe spot one day. And again, this is especially true for the medium structures. Large and up are pretty much commitments for their price alone. But a 600m structure is nothing, even for small corps. Hell, even most solo players can sneeze and have enough money for one.

Point is, the basic functions of any structure (docking, asset safety, tether, fitting, insurance) are incredibly powerful in terms of gameplay for a one-off investment of only 600m. To me it doesn't make sense that such powerful tools come essentially for free for unlimited time without any serious responsibility or further commitment on the owner's part.



If you want to get technical, the mediums replace POS' and the large replace Outposts. So apply this plan only to mediums, problem solved.

I'm fine with it being easier to kill, but tethering and asset safety should stay.

What about a lack of fuel making citadels vulnerable 24/7 rather than working on timer and no repair timers.

If you could capture vulnerable a structure would good too. Maybe a modified entosis Link or delpoyable.