Alright, I'm going to be honest. Don't get me wrong! Generally, I read all posts before I comment/ask something. I really appreciate the developers work as well and I realize that these new rules regarding PoB's are meant to improve the balance of the gameplay. But (and everytime I use the word "BUT" in this forum, I hate myself a little bit more)... there are several aspects that I still do not understand and I'm a little confused. I will give you a real example.
In RP, I'm the leader of a small group of traders. Consider that we don't have BS's. We builded so far a PoB and we know what we have to do! But with these new rules, I wonder if we would have a real chance to do this again! I will try to explain myself as best as I can, showing a scenario, with the purpose to figure out a solution and to understand how and IF it really can be done successfully. So... let's say that we decide to build a new PoB, somewhere in Liberty space. Being a lawful group of traders, our toy will not be hidden in a random... remote location. Although is not mandatory, if we wish as our facility to survive, then we are forced to make some deals with other players/factions, in order to be defended, right? It's not a bad thing. In fact, it involves some RP activity in forum (like approval from the Liberty authorities or contracts with groups specialised in security and all stuff) and could be also a good step before to proceed forward and begin core level two. The rule say: "Before a player/faction attacks a Core 2 base (or higher), they must role play either in game or on the forums and provide the link to this RP in the Declaration thread.". Perfect so far.
But preparing a base for core level two requires time. And here is the dilemma we face. With core level one, our base could be destroyed very easily in less than an hour (and we cannot discuss about weapons platforms at this level), right? Like all players from this server, some of us have families, childrens etc. which involve attention as well. So... no matter how dedicated we are, 1 hour is enough to lose our PoB, without to even know WHO or WHY did this, because "Players are not required to role play prior to destroying a Core 1 base". Kirill said "So, any group of ... lolwuts (corsairs, as example) can come to any base and destroy it. Then they will lose their ships if anyone report it, and base won't be respawned by admins. Right?" but this is the case when we know who they are. That's why I find these rules confusing because, in these conditions, will be discouraged any attempt to build a new PoB, whether it is supported or not by the owners background RP activity. In my opinion, the rule "Before a player/faction attacks a base, they must role play either in game or on the forums and provide the link to this RP in the Declaration thread." should be kept for all core levels. Besides, there should be also a grace period (I don't know... let's say... 24 hours) between the time of the announcement and the moment of the siege. In this way, the PoB owners could have time to do something instead "to wake up in the morning/come back from work and find their Base has just vanished?" as St.Denis wrote.
So... I would agree with attitude "Let's give the new tweaks a chance and go from there" as Highland said in this post (and probably we'll do it anyway because this was a decision made clearly not overnight, by several members of the administration and development teams working together, trying to arrive at a workable solution) if it wouldn't so obvious that this measure will drastically affect chances for any group of players (especially when they are NOT members of an official faction) to build a new base, upgrade and reach a highest core level.
Also, I agree with Tel-Aviv when he mentioned (maybe a little sarcastic) that "...not only making pobs weak, the good ones are only for the official factions...". Sorry but this is the reality and I'm not convinced that it is a good thing. Again, Karst's idea could be a solution for giving a real chance to all new PoB's.
