Player Features and Ideas Discussion

If it never comes online, it can be hacked/stolen as soon as current anchoring timers allow. If it is fueled but unused, it stays like today.

No war dec to hack. By that time it has waited a month!
Both of these are largely up to the game designers. In my mind this is no different than can hacking - a matter of minutes. You get the tower, you get everything would be my preference. Based on some anecdotal research (see Cherenadine's post link in the OP) I don't think there will often be much to take.

My original thought? No. But I could live with a standard 15-minute suspect timer.
Highly improbable (given the short timer I stipulate above) but possible. My gut check says that when the hacking starts it locks the tower so it can't be fueled, then unlocks if the hack fails.

As mentioned above, I could live with a 15-minute suspect timer like stealing from a can. It could add entertainment value to highsec attempts and would be mostly irrelevant everywhere else.

If as you say it's a large investment for a group, then an unforeseen even that effects one or more of the members shouldn't preclude the others from being able to refuel the POS…


We're in agreement on the placeholder mechanic (provided it's fueled), because this is effectively paying "rent" for in the form of fuel blocks and charters. I'm not ok with these single-player corporations that have become EVE's new slumlords by simply anchoring a cheap POS in the hopes of receiving a bloated ISK payout for the location later. I suspect most of those who would object to any reform probably fall into this category.

Yeah, blockades could be a lot of fun. The defenders have to try and run the gauntlet with the sole purpose of successfully resupplying their POS while the attackers have to try and deduce which ship(s) may be carrying the vital fuel supplies. I can imagine scenarios where decoy transports are used in conjunction with heavily-tanked ships - each of which may be carrying some or none of the precious cargo.

Hey Rhavas,

Other than what Ali pointed out about the 24 hour Standby to Online mode, I think this idea has a ton of merit and would definitely help to solve the issue of POS litter all over New Eden. I'll take some time to read the blogs and other discussions, but this is a good idea overall.

+1

If a player doesn't care enough to fuel their POS, it should be removed. Making it profitable for other players scoop and sell it is one option. So I support this suggestion.


High sec offline placeholder POS's are the biggest problem caused by an inactive POS. They take up the limited number of moons, even when the POS owner does not have a current subscription*. Forcing anyone who wants a high sec POS to wardec them and then spend hours shooting the POS. Often being AFK except, if they aren't using lasers, to press the button to resume shooting after a reload.

*I've got a corpmate who removed a POS owned by a corp with 1 member. That member did not have a portrait, meaning he has not logged onto that character since Incarna was released.

If players want to run a placeholder POS, they should online it.

Timers are no fun, especially a 28-day timer when they've already let their POS run down to empty.

I would be fine with the POS kicking over to Reinforced mode, then going into a salvageable state after if it is still at 0 fuel/0 stront - or even dropping its resistances and having lower HP.

But giving people an extra month for an emergency fuel run seems excessive - unless it's a month without the force field up. In that case, sure. :)

Think about giving someone the length of a reinforce timer before they lose everything simply because X, Y, or Z happens. I get that if my guys evict someone, that the cards fall that way and they lose their stuff. Imagine that I'm not on anyone's hit list, which would be miraculous, but just imagine. Now the way you are describing is going to allow for a ton more accidents of people forgetting to refuel, people having real life take them away and not preparing, and so on. Now, some may argue "oh well, they should harden up or should have prepared", but I think quite a few players would think a reasonable buffer should be inplace for a standby timer.

I like the idea of the standby timer being a week. The Stront for the Standby timer lasts a week, then you can have your way with the POS. Hack the thing, shoot it, whatever.

Now my opinion of highsec and how that should work... Some context: Obstergo did a stint where we found offline POS's in highsec that players would let go offline with all their stuff on them, then when we wardec'd them, nearly every time, they received their notification and turned it back on. Now that is a poor way to manage your POS, and I'd hope that we can ensure that the wardec notification doesn't simply allow players to bypass this idea.

Well. Now I feel slightly guilty.

It's an interesting discussion and I've been won over to the side advocating protection for players who just miss the refuel timer window. There might be a lot of dead sticks around the summer holidays...

I'm interested in the comment about the economy



I hadn't thought of that, but then again the market isn't that big, it's the size of the available moons, demand might take care of it. Also hopefully we'll be getting new space soon and there might be a sudden demand for POS (though I'm also thinking they might not be usable in the new space)

My main concern is selling any solution to CCP that involves touching the POS code. Any solution that remotely touches an existing mechanic is going to stop the idea dead in the water. So we may be in the situation of "interesting mechanic" vs "simplicity". At it's most simple

1. Fuel/charters runs out. invisible 7 day timer starts. Tower is unanchored normally after this (15 minute timer)
2. Fuel goes in at any point, Timer vanishes and POS is normal

Not as fun but gets the job done with less scary implications for the code. One new timer called from the fuel exhaustion point (for which the hook already exists). Timer does one thing.


Here's some other things to think about:

Taking towers down is annoying. It leaves you vulnerable for 15 minutes while the tower unanchors. I presume the unachoring timer is visible across the system? Not sure about that but I guess that timer should be preserved somehow lest it be gamed for "stealth" unanchoring.

There isn't a way to warp to a tower you own in a system. Ok. There may be but I couldn't find it. You can find the system of the tower in Corp assets but you can't warp to it from there. If you lose, or don't have, a bookmark there is the potentially large job of flying to half the moons in the system before you find yours. You are disincentivised from cleaning up those old small towers. Hey, its only 60 million.

Nice thread. Thanks Rhavas.

Aprils fools?

Nice idea tho, i support.

As a few people have said, as soon as you talk about changing the core mechanics of PoS Code CCP will just run away with their fingers in their ears going la la la.

Any fundamental change to the pos is simply not going to happen otherwise it would of been done years ago.

I would love to see something as simple as once a pos goes offline you do not need a war dec to shoot, you will simply get GC