My “Fix Citadels and Capitals” idea was pretty similar to yours. I think there needs to be a limit on the number of capital and supercapital ships they can dock and tether. Keepstars have three massive bays, so maybe they should only be able to dock three supercapital ships at once? I also thought that it might be a good idea to limit the number of active capital and supercapital ships a corporation or alliance can have at any one time, and the rest have to either be docked up, tethered, or mothballed.
Mothballing a capital or supercapital ship would involve bringing the ship to a chosen location in space, then stripping it of all modules before deactivating the major systems and locking it down. The ship would sit where you left it, unable to be stolen by other players but also unable to defend itself beyond tanking hits to their armor and hull. The owners would have to defend those ships with a fleet and supporting fire from nearby structures.
Bringing a ship out of mothballs would require a short period to get everything running again, I’m thinking 24 hours for a capital ship and 72 hours for a supercapital.
Additionally, I think that there needs to be a limit on how many citadels are allowed per corporation, alliance, or system/constellation/region. Citadels were supposed to be fortified structures where players and alliances could have a relatively larger amount of safety than the old POS system, as evidenced by CCP’s description of them as well as their names (Astrahus = space house, Fortizar = fortress, Keepstar = keep). Kingdoms, empires, and nation-states didn’t coat the land with fortresses in real life, so player-run empires shouldn’t be doing that in EvE!
I wasn’t around to see the old strontium timers in action, but they sound like a much better idea for Upwell structures than the current invulnerability timer mechanic. The only exception I would make for this would be an alliance/corporation’s “capital” citadel, which they would designate upon building it and would use the current invulnerability mechanic so it’s harder to completely destroy everything they have.
Also, if the limits placed on Citadels is low enough that alliances and corporations in null wouldn’t be able to put one in every system, then maybe CCP should let us build capturable versions of the various empires’ stations that we need to use boarding teams against instead of Entosis modules. The Amarr already have a special variant of the Abbaddon-class battleship meant for planetary assaults, maybe there could be a special ship (or module) meant for boarding actions? It would even make the various infantry and marine units we find in missions useful for something!
Please, tell me what you think is right/wrong with this and give me constructive criticism! I want to learn more about the game’s mechanics and why my ideas would be good or bad for the game! My only request is that you be polite, thank you.