Player Features and Ideas Discussion

What on earth do you mean by streamlining production trees? Surely you don't want to remove PI products, right?

The PI interface is horrible, but the type and variety of products is fine.

Moved to Player Features and Ideas Discussion

We are definitely due a major PI update. I think most players would like a fun way to develop the planets.

Just my humble opinion...

1. Streamline the existing manufacturing/production trees.

No. Absolutely not. No way. Operating a planetary manufacturing operation should be hard. It's advanced Eve. Some might refer to it as "end game" stuff. It takes planning, study and real work to setup and maintain a successful operation. Some planets even have the resources to manufacture P2 goods from that planet's resources alone. I would argue for making it even more complex, allowing for goods to be manufactured from two or three components out of a larger list of planetary resources, the choices of which would produce different levels of quality for that product. If nothing else, maybe just allow for varying grades of planetary resources. As an example, maybe my planet has "Superior" Suspended Plasma while my competitor only has "Average" Suspended Plasma, thus my Rocket fuel has more power and is then worth more on the market. Just one of many examples that come immediately to mind.

2. Return some form of planetary bombardment to the game as new means of letting you disrupt a hostile player/corp/alliance's PI assets and infrastructure. Just like with belt mining, when you attack your enemy's planetary resource gathering operations, you can deny them access to vital resources.

I could get on board with something along these lines, were it implemented properly. Keep in mind, though, that with all reward comes risk. If you want to shoot at my planetary operations, I get to have automated weapons to repel. I'd point out as well that you already have a way of disrupting another player's planetary operations. Just build a competing operation on the planet. Pretty sure the game mechanics allow for this, though I certainly could be in error. Done right, you could create the opportunity for massive engagements as well. Imagine, two competing industrial alliances bringing hundreds of ships, fighting in a true interplanetary war over resources. Not just trying to blow up the other guy's Citadels. Now that's some content right there.

3. If you can scan and hack orbital relic and data sites then why not access the countless ruins that surely litter the surface of planets. Of course this can only be done with the aid of appropriate (new) specialized planetary buildings/equipment.

Yeah, this one's a keeper, though it needs to be fleshed out more. You'd have to imagine that these sites would actually be few and hard to find, given that most planets in the universe, like our own real world, have never spawned life on a scale that would leave such remnants. This could potentially make true exploration a viable and desirable career path in New Eden.

So that's my two and a half cents worth. I do, however, request unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks.

Respectfully submitted.

My view on streamlining this would be to reuse the current citadel code. Replace the current PI interface with a 'planetside' citadel structure instead.

This would not be a spaceborn platform so not direct attack from ships (that's what POCO's are for).

Slot's would be used for factory, extraction and storage services (though in this case services would not required fuel as power is supplied from planetary sources. Rigs would be used to enhance PG, CPU, yield, link efficiency (i.e. how much material can be shipped around internally.

If orbital weaponry can be used against such sites then they should be able to fit orbital weaponry in response which opens up shield upgrades, jams, webs, scrams etc too. Unlike citadels a planetary citadel should reply with automated defenses much like old POS did.

I agree with the citadel-like structure.
The command center remains the base and have a limited number of slots for buildings. I wouldn't use different type of modules and rigs though, just simple buildings with varying costs. A fusion reactor could make more power, a server hub could make more CPU and so on. Storage facilities in my design would only increase the total amount instead of being separate boxes. The command center would have it's own storage to launch things, and the launch pads would also make their own after you build them.
A citadel structure would also remove links and paths, as everything is connected.
You would still need to scan for resources as you do it now. The extractor control buildings would spawn a single "master extractor head" that you can place anywhere on the planet, and this would create more heads connected to it. If you move the master head, you move all of them. As much as I can tell, this last mechanic was mentioned and requested several times.

As the whole colony is a single object now, it would be easy to involve them in combat. I wouldn't give them weapons though, only shield generators. And a lockdown mode, that makes them invulnerable for a balanced time, so the owner will have time to gather a few people and defend it - again, similar to how citadels work.
Attacking these shouldn't be a problem, I think the orbital strike weapons are still in the game, we could use those.

The reach of the master head could be limited by skills or power capacity, but it should be relatively easy to work around it and extract on the opposite side of the planet.

My problem with the service module system is that I think it would limit the options and/or flexibility of the colonies. Currently you can have planets that only extract and refine materials to P1, and have another colony dedicated to assembly only. I would like to keep this structure. Fueling can be a problem because you would need to manufacture or buy/transport something to make the colony work at all, but we can simply say that in case of colonies the fuel cost is reduced by 100%.
Rigs can be used to increase some attributes, but both rigs and service modules have one additional question: how to make them? If you need to manufacture them separately and then transport them to the planet makes modifying them much harder than it should, aside from their cost. If you can just build them on the planet then there is no reason to not make them simple buildings. Maybe limit the number of some special buildings to 1.

Personally I wouldn't have a PI citadel need fuel at all but it's an option if required.

Master heads should have the same range as now and a modest increase in range from services and/or rigs. The placement of you PI hub should still be an important consideration.

As far as I understand it citadels are just glorified ships internally so slot layout can be whatever is necessary. Between slots, PG and CPU it should be possible to replicate the outputs of any current config of PI setup, with maybe a modest increase for the increased outlay in PI hub purchase.

I also thought a bit more about weapons/shooting and the POI hub should be limited to frigate or lower for docking to allow gunners to land planetside to defend the PI hub in exactly the same way that citadels work now.. If they are to have a vulnerability window they must be able to defend it.