Cleaning up bases on the server

[Zed26]

Perhaps I should have started out by noting that I assist in the management of three bases and have personally worked on the construction of more than I can remember. Some have worked, some haven't, some have been blown up - I know that feel. We regularly produce cloaks, jump drives, surveyors, and docking modules, and it's something myself and friends use for fun.

This is not a call to remove all bases, it is not a request to advertise the exact location and defenses of a base, nor is it a call for a particular base to be blown up because it annoys me. On infocards, many just give a basic purpose or a secondary title - at least they demonstrate that the individuals have enough RP in mind to take the time and type "/base info 1 a <text>" and give it a simple description. Furthermore, if the base isn't trying to "drag attention" to itself or interact with anyone else, what are they doing?

For now, I'm just suggesting a simple gesture to check in and demonstrate you're at least aware of the forums and that it's an RP server. I think the new POB rules were implemented with that in mind, and now I'm pointing out that bases existing beforehand should be held to a similar standard. Frankly, with this system, even if you are the last player if your group left to maintain the base, you have the chance to justify it. If secrecy concerns are such a big issue, have all requests in the core upgrade request subforum made invisible like sanction reports (if they aren't already).

While I'll have to defer to the admins and devs on whether or not bases contribute to performance issues (yes, the majority is from the host itself), I would think that 80+ entities have some impact, especially considering the old issues they used to have with players lagging out when on a base with a massive number of items to buy/sell.

I will gladly hear out a case for why bases shouldn't be involved in RP or have their owners interact with the rest of the community in some way, though if one has the time for that, you'd automatically get a pass under this system if the same amount of effort were put toward a brief check-in to the admins. If anything, this should boost the case for bases in general, as it demonstrates that they're actually making some contribution. Having private, secret clubhouses with no desire to interact with the rest of the community are some of the reasons why people think they're pointless and should be removed altogether.