EVE General Discussion

I'm quite certain I'm not. Were you capable of addressing anything, you'd likely do that instead of this... frankly, kind of bizarre posturing.

You began this thread by strapping on your very shiniest tinfoil hat and regaling everyone with a tale of "nullsec shadow entities" and their conspiracy to control highsec through POCOs.

Pages later, you've abandoned that, but devised a completely different, bordering on diametrically-opposed, rationale for why this is all terribly unfair.

The only consistent feature is that you're really salty about POCOs, want the rules changed to compensate for your many inadequacies, and are perfectly willing to pivot from one fabrication to the next in an effort to justify it.

This is false.
There are two components to import/export duty on PI. One is player set, the other is NPC.
The skill still affects the NPC part the same way it always did.

Analysis and proposal for consideration:

I think we have established and tabled that POCO spam would be a bad thing.
-Yes it provides competition on rates, but since everyone could setup their own POCO, there is infact no competition.
-Yes more POCOs could involve more violent conflict to destroy them, but since anyone can set them up, it becomes an exercise in futility where it simply would not be worth the time/effort to destroy them.
-Numerous POCOs on a planet is hardly much of an incentive for a non-POCO owning PI characters to warp to them all to find out rates. Invariably there will be 1 or more POCOs with 0-1% tax, and the competition flatlines there.

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However, there remains the proposition of somekind of active upkeep/maintenance of the single POCO per planet.
Especially so that unattended POCOs default back to Interbus, rather than constantly passively sending isk to a potentially inactive corp in perpetuity.

-Its just wrong, in EVE, that a POCO requires no maintenance/upkeep, as weighed against passive income in perpetuity.
-The PI operators on any given planet, have to run maintenance/upkeep. Its irrational that the POCO owner does not have to do any.
-The defaulting to Interbus will encourage POCO ownership turnover/changes, as "use em or lose em".
-Although it is possible to reasonably ascertain whether a POCO is run by a corp that is active or actively interested in its defense, its complicated, uncertain, and largely dissuades POCO aggression.
-Default to Interbus makes POCO destruction much more streamlined, as well as opening up a market for communicating disowned POCOs to interested parties.

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Im not saying that POCO upkeep/maintenance should be expensive, or even require bringing materials to the POCO for its maintenance, especially as this would disrupt tax rate homeostasis and the PI market.

1) I propose that inorder to maintain ownership of a POCO, as against it defaulting to Interbus:
-It must be physically visited and accessed by a member of the owning Corp.
-Each visit/access by a member of the owning corp extends the POCO ownership contract by 30 days from the moment of that interaction.

2) I furthermore, tentatively, suggest that the funds accumulated by the POCO are only delivered to the corp wallet, when/if it is visited/accessed by a member of the owning corp.

3) Even more tentatively, I propose the accumulated profit stored in a player owned POCO, which has not been offloaded by a visiting/accessing owning corp member to the corp wallet, is distributed among the characters involved in the POCOs destruction.
If the POCO in question has defaulted to Interbus, due to lack of interaction/lapse of contract, the accumulated isk is lost, as appropriated by Interbus and NPC planetary authorities.

So no more eternal ownership with no interaction. No more automatic and immediate profit without interaction.
POCO profits and the PI market are unaffected. Mechanic of POCO destruction/replacement/sale remains as it was.
POCO destruction is encouraged by the latent, unknown potential accumulated isk profits in the player owned POCO as distributed among attackers after its destruction. Unattended POCOs default to NPC Interbus as aggressable without complications.

All you have to do, is physically visit and access your corps POCO, with a corp member, once every 30 days.
This will extend the POCO license by 30 days, as opposed to defaulting to Interbus, and deliver the POCOs accumulated profits to the corp wallet.

I think this is a fair, reasonable, equitable solution that follows the underlying ethos of EVE.

Visiting the POCO once a month opens up a window for PvP to aggress the visiting ship (and en route), whereas atm, the owner NEVER needs to visit the POCO.

Im not saying its a substantial PvP opportunity, but its more than zero as now.
Its not just the window of interacting with the POCO, its also flying to get there and back.

In my proposal, it has to be done with a CORP MEMBER of the owning corp, meaning no neutrals or non-corp alts.
I hope you can see the significant implications of that for yourself.

I dont like that POCOs require zero interaction/upkeep by owners.
I find it offends against the underlying principles of EVE.
I would be surprised if you dont agree with that sentiment.
All player structures are destructible in EVE. Defending them is always a choice for the owner. This is universal.
Nothing in my proposal changes that.

But I am against FREE perpetual ownership of such a player asset, with no interactivity/upkeep required, just for having placed it.
It stinks. Use it or lose it. If people cant be bothered to maintain POCOs by visiting them ONCE a month, or cant be bothered to attack them, then let them default to Interbus.

Im also against the free perpetual, safe ownership of planet based PI structures, but that is an issue for another thread, and presumably a result of the failure of DUST complicating mechanics for subjecting them to PvP by pure EVE entities.

My proposal doesnt change POCO destruction/replacement mechanics.
If a corp cant be bothered to visit it once a month to renew the license and wallet the isk stored there, that is their own problem. Such a corp that cant bother to visit it a measly once a month (compared to the PI operators on the planet visiting it frequently and using the POCO which results in revenue to the owner) is unlikely to defend it if attacked anyways. (cos they dont care, are lazy, afraid of interception, or are inactive)

When the POCO defaults to Interbus, it has to be destroyed anyways to replace it with your own, just like the player owned one.
The fleet attacking the now Interbus POCO, can be attacked itself, just like before.

My proposal in no way reduces PvP, it only increases it.
Especially in that the stored isk in a player owned POCO is divided among the POCO destroying players, as added incentive.
That may not be much in crap space, but it could potentially be quite a bit on valuable POCOs.

In my proposal, it makes no difference if its a player POCO or an Interbus POCO, interms of destroying it and replacing it.
(Except for the small incentive, that player POCOs would distribute the stored isk to its destroyers, which I included tentatively) It takes the same effort and expense.

If the POCO owning corps members cant be bothered to visit it even once a month to renew the license (especially + so as to empty its accumalated isk to the corp wallet), I honestly dont have any sympathy for that kind of laziness. Costs nothing, you dont need to ship maintenance materials to it, all you need to is tap it with a corp member.

I dont think I am proposing too much, or for the unreasonable.

One visit by a corp member, once a month.
Thats all. Very simple.

If a POCO owner cant be bothered to do even that, when the PI operators on the planet below run frequent interactions with the POCO that earns money to the POCO owner, I see no problem with the POCO defaulting to Interbus.

I agree there are other options regarding degradation of the POCOs defences etc as you indicated, but I think my suggestion is far simpler, effective and involves less complications. Primary among them being that a neglected player POCO would be even easier to destroy than an NPC POCO in your suggestions, which I find problematic.

Visit it once a month to renew license and cash out stored isk revenue, or lose it to Interbus.
It cant get simpler, easier or cheaper than this.

The "hidden" barbs in my proposal, cos Im an honest direct guy, are the following:
1) The tap must be done by a CORP MEMBER of the owning corp. No one else. The repercussions of this are very significant.
2) POCOs no longer deliver immediate and automatic profit. You have to go there, physically, on a corp member to cash in the stored isk.
3) If you do not tap it with a corp member atleast once every 30 days, you will lose the POCO and stored isk revenue to Interbus.

From a lore perspective this can be explained as the planetary authorities deciding the capsuleer POCO owner is no longer interested in or attentive of their worlds exports, and due to lapse of contract for renewal of the POCO ownership, impound the POCOs stored profits and sell the service to Interbus instead.