This has been brought up before here but the time to act on this change is now. The Quantum Core update is going to significantly increase the isk invested in structures and the reward for knocking them down. The new “ante” as CCP put it, is calibrated to be a significant consideration for small groups. A major contrary consideration for groups to keep their structures online, is access to clonebays.
Currently only one clonebay is allowed per upwell structure, necessitating even small corps to anchor multiple structures to meet the needs of their members. Almost any player needs a clean clone and a training clone and many also prefer a few flavors of clones for pvp or pve. To use an example, if you had a desire for a total of six clones, currently you would need 5 structures to accommodate that. There are three service slots in an Astrahus, you should at least have the capability to place three clonebays there. If you don’t have a need for other modules this change would bring the number of structures you need to maintain down to 2.
I can think of three compelling reasons to implement this change:
- QoL improvement. Switching clones involves several timers and having multiple clonebays in a single structure would streamline that. Currently there is a small but present possibility that a pod could be interdicted between structures. In my opinion this content opportunity is small enough to be outweighed by the quality of life improvement.
- Reduction in structure spam. One of the stated goals of the Quantum Core update is to reduce structure spam. In the example I outlined, the number of structures required drops from 5 to 2, a greater than 50% reduction.
- Mitigation of collateral damage to small groups. CCP, I appreciate that you have to balance conflicting needs of groups that operate at vastly different scales. The Quantum Core update’s purpose is to reduce the use of “throwaway” citadels by large groups. It achieves this design at the expense of smaller, less experienced groups which are both less able to afford the increased cost and are more likely to have their primary structures attacked by a hostile force. If multiple clonebays are allowed in a single structure this would go a long way to reduce the need for multiple structures and mitigate the harm to small group playstyles.