I am not an owner nor am I involved in a construction of Player Owned Bases (POB) but I will put my two cents worth in anyway.
I think changing the look of the POB is great idea!!! One question which comes to mind right away though, is how would a new player or a player who is not familiar with a particular system know at a glance which base is an NPC base and which one is a POB. Do not know if it is important but I think it is something worth mentioning.
Replacing the traditional looking bases with better looking designs and more of a selection is a smart way to spur some extra activity on the server. Unfortunately, as has already been pointed out by someone on this thread, the limiting factor to expanding on the idea of this thread is the relatively low number of players that are involved in POB activity. If we can increase the number of players involved in owning or building the bases it would benefit not only the those players who are directly involved in the POB construction but the server community as a whole.
To address the issue stated above I would like to make several suggestions which might help to increase the number of base owners and the number of players involved in the POB activity. It is my belief that one of the main reasons that more people do not get involved in building POB is because it is a full time job to maintain them. It is one thing to put in the effort to build a base but it is something completely different to maintain it constantly over a period of many months. The maintenance of the POB is what is causing a lot of people to stay away from this activity. Addressing this issue will allow to gradually increase the number of POB and as result of it the number of people involved it the activity surrounding them.
I think the solution to this is pretty straight forward and can be easily incorporated in the existing infrastructure. Here is what I propose, the Server Administrators will function as a management / maintenance company just as it is done in real life. Base owners can choose to make monthly payments to the Server Administrators (or some other entity) to maintain the base at 100% level. This will allow players to build bases, make their payments and go on vacation without having to worry that the base will fade away.
Also, I would introduce an insurance policy in the event that the base has been destroyed (no different than in real life). As long as the owner is current on their payments the base will be restored at no cost to the owner in the event that it had been destroyed. The core IV base is just too large of an investment to be destroyed. Players who have invested a lot of their time and effort to build a core IV base just to see it destroyed will loose interest in this type of activity or worse.
I would also recommend that all payments for maintenance and destruction insurance be made only in Scientific Data (the amount to be determined). I think the introduction of the SD was a great idea and making payments in SD will help to maintain its usefulness. Lets face it, there are only so many players and there only so many special weapons that are needed on the server. Monthly payments in SD will breathe new life in SD concept.
