Put the citadel in a popular place in high sec, make it public
Keep it it attractive for a while
Restrict the access, put the citadel in to low power mode, then offline
Kill the offline citadel by your alt
Get dropped assets
Recently I’ve found the next situation:
I have some assets(not much) at some citadel(especially Raitaru). Recently I’ve got a message “Your assets located in a structure are at risk” which means the structure went into low power mode and soon will go offline.
I had a quick check of the holder corporation and found the following: https://zkillboard.com/corporation/98720002/
It seems this corporation specializes in the “citadel scam”. It places the citadel in a popular place in high sec. Keep it open for a while.
Then does the trick: closes it, puts it into low power mode → abandoned state. Then kills the citadel from their alts and loot drop.
I understand it’s valid in game mechanics and have no complaints about it. Also the value of assets was not so large. But it’s interesting how the new mechanics can be abused.
1: Players can move the items as they’re given a lot of warning. They can go there physically and move it or just move it remotely if it’s inconvenient.
2: For it to be worth killing the station you’d need maybe 5+B to drop, and you have no idea if you’re just going to get 5 shuttles or 1000 AT ships.
3: Other players can and WILL “steal” the loot. If your station is in such a lucrative spot that you got 50+B in a week or so, there will be 50-200 players picking at it whilst you try and get your money back.
These kind of things typically only happen when a very old station is bought out, this way you are guaranteed many inactive accounts. I knew of one that was (if I recall correctly) about 20j from Jita in a system no one uses in a highsec island, it still had over 30 of us picking at it. I didn’t get anything but I heard of expensive BPOs, blingy ratting ships, several Orcas etc. The guy who bought the station had a public meltdown about how that was “his ISK” and how everyone there was a “dirty thief”, he lost many billions trying to steal from others. But if you think it’s so risk free, feel free to prove me wrong. I think you’d need a good and big team of loot collectors and someone will leak that information long before it happens
This is the nature of all online games. The developer makes a new mechanic for the game. The players figure out the workaround how to abuse it to their advantage. The YouTubers and other streamers show off the new abuse of the mechanic. At that point, the company has one of 3 choices;
Ignore it, because it won’t affect their cash income.
Nerf it, mostly to please the whiners threatening to quit over it.
Call it an exploit, because it is causing a minor financial loss.
Ignore it…because any sensible capsuleer knows that player owned stations are never 100% safe. I never store my goodies long term in any player owned corp station…even a corp I am actually in. Corp stations are for short term stuff, and even then one should keep an eye out. To go away and leave stuff in a player owned corp hangar for any length of time is just asking for trouble.
