Science & Industry

Consider a small tower a temporary structure and disposable. They cannot be effectively defended, so they don't really need any defenses. They are a force field to hide in, and a 41 hour reinforcement timer. Expect to lose it.

What use is a small tower? They are great bases for a few hours to setup a medium or large control tower, or for a rally point for a weekend excursion.

You can start with a medium control tower for a short-term residence. With just a ship maintenance array and a component array for storage (better than a corporate hangar), EWAR, and turrets, they will defend against a small unorganized gang.

For a permanent residence, I strongly recommend a large control tower. Nobody attacks a large POS for laughs.

EDIT: FYI, POS batteries take a long time to lock, and cycle targets every 30 seconds (7.5 seconds for ECM on Caldari towers, and standard ECM has about a 60% chance to jam a battleship without ECCM). POS batteries spend more time locking targets than doing anything, unless controlled by a gunner (Starbase Defense skill). You cannot rely on automated defenses to protect the POS! Automated defenses are a discouragement only.

Don't anchor what you cannot afford to lose.

I see, so I would need a large tower for a permanent residence, I'm playing alone so I wont be getting any help from corp, so I thought small POS would be less ISK to lose = better.

Could I still use the modules in reinforcement timer? that might make small tower "worth" it, it *might* not be attacked for a while, and if it was, I could still use it for almost 2days...

Even medium tower is twice the ISK of a small one, and large probably way more than that, I would just like to hang around in WH space longer than the 1day window the WH is open, until I have to scan around for a new one ;(

-Thank you for your answers :)

If you are just testing the waters here is what I'd do.

Put up a small tower. Put a hangar up and whatever you want.

Don't put up any defences. Irrespective of what you put up they are not going to save your tower anyhow if someone wants to take it down and it's just more logistics hassle.

Stay in there for a few days see how you like it.

If you like it - then you decide what to do - I'd go for a medium tower at that point at least (I've always used large towers in WHs though, but again I've never done all the logistics, scanning and hauling solo either - that IS going to get old fast)

There is a good chance that if you stay there for just a few days, nothing will happen to your tower (no guarantees though) and if something does happen to the tower, defences are not going to help.


And remember: EVE Rule #1

Don't fly anything you cannot afford to lose.

Corollary - Don't anchor anything you cannot afford to lose.


Oh and during reinforcement you cannot use anything which requires CPU - a bit of a nuisance that.

Why would some 1 attack a Small POS in a Class 2 WH ? What would be the isk limit for an attack. Like If I have 300 Mil worth of stuff stored. Would anyone go attack a small POS for that ?

Isk limit? I knew wormhoke griefing corps who would attack it for the luls and tears. Seriously, a small pos.... No defenses... A fleet of bombers or a few laser based battleships would take it out. Plus since wormholes could be controlled easier than say nul sec, it's nor a hard task. People would do it for the killmail, to grief, or even assume the wormhole is worth something, kill the small pos and take over to sell the wormhole back or off. So really, there is no isk limit, it just takes someone deciding they want the pos gone and it will happen.

And their DPS sucks. POS missile batteries have a damage modifier less than 3, and a very slow rate of fire, so even 12 cruise missile batteries is less DPS than a single Raven, making them very easy for attackers to tank and just ignore them.

Compare to a turret with damage multiplier of around 50 or more using ammo that is one size larger than normal, and firing at a respectable rate of fire.

Then add in the fact that only turrets will keep firing when reinforced.

POS weapons are not balanced, and they've not been updated ever. Use lasers on Amarr towers and projectiles on everything else.

Caldari towers should be setup as EWAR-stars not deathstars, at least until the tower is reinforced , then the full grid of the tower can be filled with turrets to help defend logis and POSprey reppers. They are similar to Falcons, which still require a small gang to do DPS to defend, but potentially against a much larger gang.

Most people use Amarr towers in w-space, as they have the most grid and can fit a ton of turrets, and also require very little ammo to be hauled in.

A POS that is annoying to attack is as effective of a deterrent as a POS that is dangerous to attack.

Never been in a wormhole myself but this is an interesting read, might help you succsesfully launch your exploration ventures

make a pos harder to take down then it looks to be worth it. thats the key to keep it alive.

a small tower is, as far as im concerned, a no-go. no matter what set-up you bring, a tiny fleet can reinforce it in an hour and stick around a bit to finish it off 41 hours later. basically, its a deathtrap for everything that is in it.

however, the key part is, what is in it. if you are muddling in wormholes for the first time and want a small pos, just make sure "whats in it" is as little as possible. bring the minimum amount of ships, store them into an orca, and log off in them at a safespot. keep sleeper loot in an orca, or a hauler logged off. make a few extra toons on your account and train them to frigate 3, and use that to store spare frigates. the less thats in the pos, the better.

for long term residence in a C2, use a dickstar. i would choose amarr since every tower has to do some damage and the PG on those towers is excellent. And with dickstar i dont mean 5 of each sort, more like 20 or 25 of each sort. ofcourse you cant online them, but that doesnt matter. if someone looks at your pos and sees 100 ecm modules around it, they wont attack it. unless they can build a dreadnaught in there, something that is easy to spot (new tower and x-l assembly). to complete your dickstar, get some nice scrams (2-3 is plenty!) and a few guns (5 medium pulse 5 small pulse is enough) and youre all set. If you want to be a total jerk, add 17 shield hardeners. again, they dont have to be online, but if someone onlines them while youre still taking down defenses on a pos, you know its gonna be very very late. Also, pos gunners are deadly. extremely. if you consider a long stay, get pos gunnery level 4 and hope an overconfident fleet will attack you.

also, if youre new to wormhole space, dont go alone. find some like minded individuals and learn how to live there, or join an established training corporation and learn the ropes. it can be done, since substantia nigra is still alive, but its easier (and more fun imo...) to bring some friends

A large POS is currently 400mil isk / month to fuel. One player is probably not even going to earn that in a C2. ie if you cannot commit to reacting with a large pos (which is probably a 1bil investment with risks), then a solo player is going to be out farming for fuel every day, and will probably have a net zero income after 15 hours in the hole a month. Not fun.


My preferred solution to this, for a single player, fit the combat main to a preferred dps ship.

train 1 alt to fly a hauler (3 - 4 days) to bring ammo and stash loot

the other to fly a vexor, and level 1 armor rr, level 1 hull rr, level 4 salvaging, and probing (probably 2 weeks to be useful, or buy a starter gallente combat char for the slot). The vexor can replenish a considerable number of light drones to the combat main, and fix damaged drones. Just use a shared safe to abandon stuff. Alternatively you can train the alt to just hold a drone boat, if the main can operate it - which can conserve training to the main more (at the risk of temporarily leaving unnattended boats at safe spots).

That should allow you to stay in a hole until you've farmed down all the combat sigs and then move on easily, with low asset count, and assets mostly safely logged out, and the most pressing reasons for a maint array avoided (hold salvage boat, convert cargo drones to dronebay drones and switch to probing setup ship).

This is very not true. I solo owneoccupied C2, 3, & 4 systems and they all produce way more of everything than is needed for bare survival .... Way more!

Of course, it's w-space and there are a variety of resources available to you. If you only access one of the many then you also not going to access all available. Even then I suspect that if all you could do is the shooter up stuff, you would still make more than enough to get by ... Even in c2.

What tauranon describes is just another method of approaching w-space, and is Absolutely not necessary to get by in c2-3-4 systems. I cannot speak for c1 tho.