an interesting take, however with an emphasis on team work being bought forward almost all solo game play content is now even smaller than before, personally I’ve always primarily been a miner / industrialist and over the years my capabilities by having one account have gotten smaller and smaller, the introduction of internal assets for ships are great as they need to be produced in bulk so there is a level to that being available, however, with multiboxers still being present in the game they are able to effectively over power this demographic and remove this content from solo players.
now as an alpha this is very important because a huge aspect of the game which is already reduced has been reduced further, alpha’s being allowed to fly warbarges would be a truly fantastic feature. for myself personally i could go out, mine, produce stuff for ground ops and then based off my warbarge post, sell it to the deployed warclones
(see here for warbarge post: Warbarge Ideas )
this means that you still get the aspect of team work and personally i love the idea of being a capsuleer which supports warclones and chauffeuring them around the universe, however i can still on a solo level do my thing without requiring other players, not that i have any kind of issue with other players but i just feel that this approach to game play would be best suited, if warbarges are categorized as battleships then alphas should fly them for sure in keeping with alpha requirements.
keeping with the PI aspect of being able to put things on planets but not bring them up, opens up alpha players to be an integral part of the community without having to spend much, naturally larger groups will have someone with an alt in their ranks and i’m sure will work for their needs, but the game should also have the ability to support the lone player trying to scrape by, you operate as a solo player in terms of you own industry but that industry is for the warclones in your group and you can provide whatever they need.
I do think my ideas for the warbarge acting as a sort of troop transport, mobile market & orbital support for the warclones has merit, running planet raids / industrial raids (or whatever maybe) is kind of like your ratting, except your income is a variable based on how well the fight’s going for your troops, if you know your boots on the ground are going to buy something, you’re more likely to be there in orbit not only for the sales but for the extraction too.