I was thinking we’re going to miss soon the rapidity and inexpensiveness of deploying out of a small tower and I was thinking maybe it would be nice to have its equivalent somehow, after the POses are rolled out.
My thinking -
Ship form (Orca size or even smaller sizes)
Can switch to station form in 15 minutes or so
When stationed :
It uses whatever offensive modules it has but with some benefits
Players can use clone bay/refit services
Has tethering + repair
Uses Fuel Blocks to maintain the state
Pilot must be ejected to start/end this form
Can be reinforced for a duration based on available stront (like the POS does now)
Once deployed it remains in space (like a citadel/Pos)
Can be switched back to ship mode in 15 minutes or if the fuel runs out (it will remain in space)
Default stats
Large Ore/Mineral bay (may fit a compression module?)
Fuel/Stront bay
SMB
Fleet bay that can hold 2 fitted battleships at most (so the owner can carry some ships for himself)
Can use command modules
The use I see it is for adhoc mining ops, daytripping in jspace, nomadic lifestyle etc.
CCP were pretty explicit that if something was missing from Citadels like the instant anchor/unanchor (relatively instant) it was a deliberate design choice in the Citadel threads. You might have to hunt the archived forums for the details of their posts on the matter, but it got discussed loads there.
Just to state - I’m talking about a more elaborate Mobile Depot than about a simplified citadel here. But I get it - if they don’t want “ninja-deployments” with citadels well eh - that’s that I guess.
Yes, what I was aiming for was a solution that doesn’t need to employ an alt or abandon a ship in the middle of nowhere
I’m sure you’re aware of the benefits and possibilities of a small pos - so something along those lines - a small shelter that you can quickly setup, offers limited protection and misses the more important features of a POS - extremely limited FMB, some reffiting/repairing etc. Something you can prop up and know won’t be destroyed by any passer by, but fragile enough for a slightly determined opponent to pop.
Maybe decrease the RF timer to a few hours?
It could be use much like a mobile depot - prop it up, use it as a mobile base for ratting/mining etc. Then dock your ship, take it down, jump into it in “ship-form” and fly away/logoff
Take a friend? Or just use the orca etc?
I’m well aware of the benefits of the small POS, immunity to stuff for hours. It was too good, and now is going appropriately.
Heck Rorquals even have a reinforced state.
hehe, sure man - I’m not complaining about the lack of alternatives - I’m just trying to propose a new idea which might help -as it’s better than an orca or a friend with an orca, in the sense that it allows your alt/friend to do something useful instead of doing project discovery while you do the fun stuff
The reasons i’ve put in up here is to get some feedback as to why it’s a bad idea and if it’s not such a bad idea (as i see it) maybe it can get some ccp love, hehe.
Thanks for your answers tho, o7
LE: but I can see some issues with them being deployed in large numbers on fights and generally messing things up when abused. That’s what I was concerned about and that’s what I’m trying to get a relevant answer for.
I may be misremembering but I think the Ast/Fort/Keep are classified as medium/large/extra-large citadels not as small/medium/large citadels. That implies that CCP does have a small citadel in mind somewhere down the line. Whether or not it will allow reshipping in space like a POS or a fleetbay (which I think is what you want and which I would find useful too) is worth finding out about. Maybe send in a query, hope for a miracle, and get a reply back about it? Cubic meters for two battleships would be almost perfectly right.
If that’s so then it’s truly weak beer compared to what might have been. Thanks for the reference. I want to go find that DevBlog and refamiliarize myself with it.
@Horza_Tareem
The current citadels are best thought of as corporate assets. You are looking for your “cabin in the woods”; something best thought of as a character’s asset. I think the clone bay line item in your list is not in keeping with that low profile kind of characterization.
It would have to be appallingly slow in ship form and anywhere outside of HighSec would most likely never survive it’s first encounter with pretty much anyone who would view it as a mobile punching bag; be it on a gate, at a station(of whatever sort), or deployed at whatever safespot.
Inside HighSec it begs the asking, could it be deployed by an NPC corporation player? If so only the professional gankers would have any desire to explode them in station form and would that even be possible in a reasonable time/at a reasonable cost? If not, would that amount to a virtual form of absolute safety, a definite no-no? If only player corp players could deploy them, would they retain any utility at all under a wardec?
damn near everything that you have requested is provided by a rorqual.
It uses whatever offensive modules it has but with some benefits
Can use combat drones quite effectively
Players can use clone bay/refit servicesHas tethering + repair
No Teather, but gets considerable remote shield transfer bonuses, has refitting services. and can fit a clone bay.
Uses Fuel Blocks to maintain the state
Uses heavy water instead of fuel blocks, still an ice product.
Pilot must be ejected to start/end this form
don’t see why you would need this for something temporary and portable. just have a pilot sit in it.
Can be reinforced for a duration based on available stront (like the POS does now)
no reinforcement, but for mobile assets this shouldn’t be necessary.
Once deployed it remains in space (like a citadel/Pos)
why? this is an advantage to the rorqual in fact, you can warp it to a safe and logout, zero risk while you are not online.
Can be switched back to ship mode in 15 minutes or if the fuel runs out (it will remain in space)
5 minute cycle time to leave industrial mode.
Default stats
Large Ore/Mineral bay (may fit a compression module?)
Check on all counts.
Fuel/Stront bay
Large enough cargo hold for any practical amount of fuel.
SMB
Fleet bay that can hold 2 fitted battleships at most (so the owner can carry some ships for himself)
Check on this count as well, 1000000m3 ship maintenance bay is plenty for 2 battleships, even the larger ones.
Can use command modules
Yup, and gets some pretty good bonuses for shield boosts at that.
Rorqual has the added bonus of a jump drive for easier and faster travel.
it can’t fit in lower class wormholes, but the orca fulfills the majority of those tasks just fine, and is capable of carrying a battlecruiser.
why should they create a new structure, when ships already exist that fulfill 90% of the criteria, and the handful that they don’t, are counter balanced by other advantages.
You’re thinking like a player who always plays as part of a group. He’s talking about going at it solo, so that the same character can put down a temporary base to live out of for a few hours or days while he explores the area.
The weakness of using a current ship is that it has to be inhabited by a player to be useful, which also locks that char into a ship that isn’t suitable to the content he is there for.
There would need to be some rules on when and where you could transform, but I like the idea. It lets people explore on their own terms and gets people out there.
Mobile depot is perfectly sufficient for a solo player to day trip with. And there are plenty of ships that are flexible enough to be used for multiple purposes with a simple refit… in fact that is the ENTIRE point of t3c’s. Notice how they require wormhole junk to make. And they are designed to allow a solo player maximum flexibility… like say in a wormhole… that wasn’t an accident.
Thank you for your input here - it’s the kind of feedback I was hoping for
The issue is much simpler, though, as it was stated in the title, I believe : Think of all the uses of a small POS, without the 1/moon restriction. Yes, some of them might be found in a rorq/orca but not all.
I noticed in the blog that they thought of the mobile depot as a personal-level citadel but the features are lackluster - basically some extra cargo space (that you can’t make use of once you pack it in) and a means to refit - whereas a small pos offers the same benefits and some storage space, compression etc. and is not doomed to lose everything once tackled - like a rorq/orca would.
I don’t know if I’m making sense anymore tho It might be that all these issues can be solved with t3c + mobile depot, It might be that we need to invest in a nestor/orca alt for wh purporses - I’ll consider it a bit more.
Thanks a lot for your time and also for keeping it civil <3
Getting all those functions on a POS require a LOT of cargo space to haul it there, meaning you aren’t talking just a tiny amount of cargo space and day tripping in a single ship, you are talking a full blown deployment of a fleet.
I miss my small POS. It was economical and efficient for a small industrialist. The world changed and I adapted.
I like the concept of a ship that can be anchored and provide functionality similar to a small POS when anchored. I would like it to be as adaptable as the POS where the functionality is determined by the fit rather than built into the hull so small industrialists would also have an option other than renting space in someone elses structure.
This doesn’t seem to be the direction CCP is going - Upwell structures are aimed at groups of players.
I also was thinking about a ship that can switch to a structure mode, but I wouldn’t make it Orca sized. I would make it a supercapital logistics ship. For that cost you can justify a lot of it’s functions it can have.
There are a few differences in my idea:
it would have no fuel cost (this is probably broken, but whatever)
can’t fit clone bay
no reinforcement timers
while in station mode it has a POS shield
it has the tether and ship refitting ability can set to personal/corp/alliance/everyone
docking is only allowed to the owner so it can’t be stolen (however it can be stolen if you leave it in ship mode)
uses drones as weapons
while in station mode it can deploy 4 weapon platforms that will only react to attackers
in station mode the cargo hold doubles
the ship can move through the largest wormholes
can be deployed anywhere a citadel can, plus in wormholes
switching between modes takes the same time as for the Rorqual
