In a Discord chat I'm in, some concerns came up about lawfuls being less willing to engage with unlawfuls for events because the unlawfuls don't ever really risk anything in events. And it makes sense - they have far fewer docking points, and often their few bases have significant importance, so it can be pretty hard to find something to explode on their end. But this does result in event risk being a bit lopsided, only lawful infrastructure ever seems to be threatened.
So I thought it might be a good idea to pop out some, for lack of a better word, disposable bases. If not for the other issues with POBs, they'd work well, but as it stands I think these should be actual NPC bases. A Unioner supply depot in Stuttgart's Westnebel, a Dragon raiding base in Kyushu, that sort of thing. The same could be done for lawfuls as well, to be clear - an Interspace-sponsored trading post in Magellan, or a BHG outpost in Tau-31, for example.
When I say "disposable", I should clarify - the intent isn't that these bases will absolutely be lost, but rather that if they're lost, it shouldn't fundamentally break gameplay, thus making it possible for an event to have a tangible impact on the losing side, whichever side that is, while not having the current mismatch of risk between lawfuls and unlawfuls. Making these bases not a part of core functionality would allow for more dynamic events involving pirates and police rather than just focusing destruction events predominantly on hot house-on-house action.
I dunno, just a thought that got stuck in my head.
The way I've seen it, the (typically) increased freedom of being an unlawful is supposed to be balanced out by the fact that your bases are fewer in quantity, in rather inconvenient locations, and nigh-universally have to be accessed in the middle of an asteroid field, or in places without House infrastructure like trade lanes or jump gates. (See, the Omicrons, deeper Omegas)
Hence, while I definitely see what you're playing at, and why you're going for it, there's a few other reasons I could see as to why not to do it as well. Economic balance, if you want the base to function as a buy/sell point for pirated or smuggled goods, There's also the fact you'd need to crank out an additional infocard, justifying the base's placement in the first place, as well as (likely) adjusting NPC patrol routes to coincide with the new base. These are, of course, assuming you're talking about an honest-to-god NPC base, and not just a POB relegated to an NPC faction without a particular owner. The distinction isn't exactly clear here, so here's to playing safe and assuming you mean actual NPC bases.
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