POB Change Suggestions

[LuckyOne]

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Suggestion
Type: POB Plugin / FL Hook / Other
Title: Attackers need to have supplied siege ships to destroy a POB

Specifics

• Similar to my first suggestion, but more technical than rule based. Also builds off some ideas from other suggestions.
  
• Before the siege the attackers need to use /scout command on the target POB to generate an "intelligence report". The report states how many Siege supplies (Munitions, Marines, Fuel ?) will be needed for participating siege ships
  
• A siege is started through the /siege start command already proposed by jammi
  
• The /siege command can only be used on a ship that has enough Military intelligence commodity (to start a siege) or enough Siege supplies (to join a siege)
  
• The amount of required Military intelligence depends on the base Core level (the higher the level the more Military intelligence is needed)
  
• The amount of required Siege supplies depends on the "intelligence report" generated in the first step and / or the participating char's ship class. It stays unchanged for the duration of the siege
  
• Attackers need to "register" through the /siege start or /siege join n command to be able to damage a POB
  
• The amount of needed commodities can be found out either by /siege join (printed on error) or /siege intel n commands
  
• Start/join commands should only work when the targeted POB is selected (the ships need to actually haul the commodities to the target system)
  
• If the ship is destroyed / sold / there are not enough commodities on the ship the character is unregistered from the siege
  
• The character can still participate but not damage the POB, unless he re-registers again
  

Potential Problems

• Seems like a ton of coding, and the gains from such a system might not be proportional to the work required or the system might end up being too complicated
  
• The attackers could use a POB or parked transport / cloaked carrier of their own to make their ships ready for the siege again faster (not that big of a problem I suppose, hello strategy!)
  
• I foresee getting the balance right would be hard. Perhaps one type of commodity (just Demolition Charges) would be enough to keep things simpler
  
• Would perhaps spread out the siege activity too much instead of centralizing it in one place (the actual POB being sieged)
  
• Might be a bit too easy to min/max with multiple accounts / characters and a friendly dockable base... Then again the defenders can do the same (and they can be docked on the POB itself) so it's only fair

Example of Effect

The planned effect is as follows: adds a cooldown that can be bypassed by good organization to the sieging ships, similar to the one defenders have (the need to supply to keep damaging the POB). All without hard-coding a specific (time) limit. It would basically act as variable-time variable-cost "spawn ticket".

Adds a strategic target for the defenders (identify the source of attacker's supplies to reduce siege ships respawn rate or the actual siege ships to reduce the DPS and you might be able to put off the damaging of the POB, but perhaps not the actual siege).

Other ship classes become more viable siege tools (freighters for faster resupply of the re-spawned battleships, fighters/bombers for scouting / interception, cloaked transports / carriers as Forward Operating Bases).

Siege ships will generally have less CAU upgrades (if the numbers are balanced right), because they will need it for the Siege supplies, making them both easier to identify as the priority targets and destroy by the defenders (unless defended by other, non sieging vessels that should not be AFK if they want to be effective!).

Further Discussion
Would make sieges more interesting and dynamic instead of the current meta of "the side with the most ships always wins". A tactical counterattack or strategic Jump Hole / Jump Gate / NPC base blockade at the right time and place might just be enough to give defenders a better chance to organize a proper defense and fend off the siege.