Player stations need a bit of tweeking
Why, job failures;
So I’ve experienced these issues,
Having asset safety drop stuff off I was researching, while understandably war decs happen and stations go boom the worst being an orca copy job, just a few days from completion and the station obviously ran out of fuel, the job was stopped and weeks of the job running ruined.
I am currently wringing my hands while I wait for a cap ship to complete, the cost to insert the job was a nice chunk, however I felt confident enough because of the corporation that owns the station has a long track record of being around but nevertheless it is a risk to use player stations if we can lose valuable time and materials because of bad station owners, this will be a killer for other station owners when people don’t trust that jobs will complete.
I feel for you, but also think there is value in keeping the personal responsibility.
It offers gameplay around negotiation, diplomacy and the risk of an unfinished job, but the gain of the bonuses that Upwell structures offer over NPC stations.
So sorry for your situation (I had a similar one researching structure component BPOs), but I hope this isn’t changed.
Risk because you undock or buy something in a scam is a feature, to me jobs not done because of oversight on a mechanism that was overlooked, really, what does it add to the game except lack of confidence in use of player stations.
Maybe the player using the facility can “fuel” a standby tank that will keep the modules running and if no emergency fuel is needed you get your fuel back, I don’t know, seems like something that shouldn’t be a thing, a cap ship depending on skills and bonus can be more then 10 days and lower skills can see it much longer, to lose your projects that can easily exceed a month, at that point why would people use player stations that they can’t trust.
This is the beauty of player run structures. It needs trust/faith.
An established and reliable service provider should benefit over a crappy owner. Learn who the good ones are, make deals, join alliances, help protect… interact!
Or use an npc station. The most reliable service provider there can be…at a price.
Well it either is working ‘as intended’ or it was an oversight.
And why should anyone need to have a “relationship” with the station owner when the station is OPEN to the public, you only need permission from those who have restrictions on docking.
If they have open docking and service modules for industry then no permission nor relationship is needed, it is open to the public, the problem is unreliable owners, but for myself I don’t know the owners but I buy, do jobs, and sell at MOGUL stations now, they seem legit enough for me, I visit Jita only if I have to.
Is there authority to only add fuel? If so just ask the structure owner to give you that in return for taxes. They should leap at it.
If there isn’t a role that can only add fuel there should be
If you run jobs in citadels only owned by one corp, that just makes it easier to interact with the owners
Your lack of trust is a choice you make. In EvE, choices have consequences. The consequence of your choice is your not knowing whether or not the station will still be running for the full duration of your job.
If someone can only add fuel all they can do is help you out. Ok they can time a war Dec mildly better by declaring 24 hours before you run out of fuel but low power shows anyway now so that’s about it.
In order to see what is in the fuel hangar, you need to be able to take control of the structure. I just tried and that hasn’t changed. So if you can’t take control of the structure, you can’t see the fuel left.
System of citadels was work out very bad. As result this is just another trash in space.
OP problem is just one little result of it.
Citadels intent to be a symbol of space opened to players and freedom. So all that happens should be players driven. But they didn’t reach this aim. Due to CCP company deep and systematic problems it failed to work out solution good enough.
So now citadels are like fetters, like parasite to the community.
After Engineering Complexes were introduced in Ascension, I retired my small POS and rented offices in a public EC run by a well known corporation that had (and still has) facilities throughout New Eden. For a couple of months everything was great, then the structure ran out of fuel. The third time this happened I built my own Raitaru. A year later, I have no regrets.
I believe the system is working as intended. CCP would like to encourage small solo industrialists to team up - either join existing corporations or form new ones. Such a group could have several structures rigged for different activities.
While it’s a great idea, it would also be an attractive war target - in the current meta small and inconspicuous seems to be the best choice.
So, on the one hand if I am using player run facilities for important jobs I lack trust…but diametrically I get told also NOT to use player facilities for anything important, 2 views of opposite advice, so who’s right???
See the problem isn’t trust or idiocy, the problem is because they are player run and subject to the whims of human fallacy.
So
Which is why I thought and dismissed this ideal as problematic because hey that’s too much information, however not being able to insert a job because it lacks enough fuel, well if the job is a day, a week, a month, it only tells you at some point this facility doesn’t have the fuel for the job time but no specific information, that’s all, as it is now the player stations announce their vulnerability time openly, so what does my suggestion change, nothing.
I am left with one choice, to not use player run facilities for anything of significance because of an oversight, or a mechanism that does only one thing, insure that we can’t trust another player, what this does is insure that the ISK flows into the black hole of NPC pockets instead of players, working as intended huh, great.
