I like the idea of PoBs being requested rather than simply being built where ever. It struck me as odd that even EVE limited their bases to moons yet Disco allowed folks carte blanche with their own.
If you'll indulge me, I'd like to propose a reworking of the POB system.
1. Make bases hard to get but easier to maintain i.e. SRP style requests that explain what purpose the base would serve and it's position. Must be built on the plane.
2. Remove the grind by reducing the demands to run bases. Max run time per supply, 1 month.
3. Make bases invulnerable and remove their weapons. No I haven't gone insane but I do have flashbacks of PoS sieges on EVE and they are, without question, the most boring activity known to mankind.
4. Remove jumpdrives and give the cloaks to Intel factions, nomads and infested factions (Wilde/Iseijin)
5. Give bases a specific role and give them designs fitting with that role.
A bit of a rundown of my reasoning for those still with me:
An SRP style request for bases means that a base must serve a purpose within the RP world and adds accountablity. Stupid things like blocking wormholes, securing mining fields and shooting people who try to dock on a planet wouldn't happen.
Removing the grind. No more tunnel visioned suppliers. Less dull resupply work. The 1 month max run time? That's serves two purposes, less grind being the first, the second is an inbuilt expiration date. If a group stops playing, or a faction dies off the base automatically removes itself.
Making bases invulnerable and removing their guns. Why? Because shooting a base for hours isn't fun and the firepower required lags or crashes the server. Not to mention all the hell it causes. Coupled with the difficulty in actually getting a base means that hard work won't disappear to a few clowns in battleships.
Removing the jumpdrives and giving cloaks out to the various factions? Just seems like a good idea. It puts more people on the lanes, gives hard pressed factions a new toy and a new lease of life. Plus it cuts down the supply grind which is nice.
Finally giving bases an actual role and the looks to go with it. I'll be honest, bases look like boring chunks of metal with crap taped on. No offense to the modders and texture artists who made them but they do. Right now you can't tell a warehouse from a pirate den.
If we want bases to become part of the server and not an addon they need to look the part and more importantly, to serve a purpose. Here's my ideas on a few kinds of bases.
Smelter: Lots of smoke stacks, dirty and grimy. It buys ore and sells metal, Buy prices must be low so that miners must decide to take the quick cash or the big money. The sell price of metal must equal to the ratio of ore converted into metal, such as taking two ore to make 1 metal would mean the metal would be twice the price of ore.
Warehouse: Large containers, bare bones and lots of mooring points. Does nothing but store items. Cannot be built within a mining system or near a jump gate/hole.
Black Market: Medium sized, rusty and with a few small docking bays. A wretched hive of scum and villiany, you must be cautious. Acts as a halfway point for smugglers not wanting to do endure another half an hour of cruising while alt tabbed. Prices must be set slightly lower than half that of the highest sell point. Again must make people choose the quick money or the big score. Cannot be placed within four jumps of a high sell point.
I can't think of any more at this point but I'm sure someone can think of a few.
