Ahoy Jim, appreciate the question. Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, I hope this makes up for it!
I want to break this down into two sections, which I think will address both of your concerns. The first is the issue of citadels and their relative inability to be in any way “damaged” outside of actual shield/armor/hull damage. I’ve mentioned elsewhere that I don’t think this is an optimal mechanic - in my mind, any in-game mechanic that is without counterplay should be reviewed, and the fact that citadels are relative safe zones up until the moment they tick over to 0 hull HP is problematic. Bubbles can be PDS’d off, or just shot with structure guns, and you can’t truly asset dominance over a fort grid until the fort no longer exists.
In truth - I don’t have an expanded plan for how to deal with this. I’ve heard it discussed a few times in passing, but the general feeling always ends up being “citadels are designed with null mechanics in mind and you’re not likely to see any realistic changes to them in order to better adjust to the wormhole meta.” I don’t like this as a response because I think it’s missing the point - the issue applies in both wormholes and in null. A fortizar by itself has plenty of DPS and the neuts can absolutely slap (especially XL neuts) but I cannot say I’ve been in any fight large than small gang shenanigans where the fort guns themselves have been the determining factor in its outcome. I don’t feel like losing those guns after a certain period of time would at all diminish the most important aspects of a fort.
I’ve heard the idea fielded that citadels should lose access to their guns after the armor timer, the thinking here being that at that point the weapons would be “damaged” and no longer operational. I’d be interested in seeing how this would change the meta, especially as it relates to the attackers ability to control the grid for the final “get out” timer. Being able to run down the armor HP of a citadel, and then set up your bubbles on grid to prepare for any kind of exodus before the hull timer, would be a fairly balanced compromise, in my eyes. You’re only losing one timer’s worth of guns, and in return you’re getting the ability for an attacking force to lay claim to a grid - but only after they’ve done the work of burning down two timers in the first place.
As for your second issue, I don’t really know what else to say here other than filaments (especially Poch filaments, my god) are absolutely broken. Case in point - a few weeks ago we went to an eviction and I brought some stupid blinged out paint golem. After things went poorly for us, all I had to do was dock up at the staging structure, grab a filament, warp to a safe, land and filament immediately, and then cloak up in Pochven and filament again after the timer expired. Nobody should be able to escape that easily. You should not be able to go into someone’s spot, cause a ruckus, and then when things don’t go your way say “welp, time to go” and then just scoot out of there unharmed.
It is an absolutely ludicrous mechanic and I would voice my disapproval of it as a mechanic in wormholes immediately. If you want to extract instead of fight, that’s fine - but you should have to do the work to actually extract, instead of yeeting yourself away from any real danger. Null filaments are slightly better, but only because you’re still have a chance of landing in occupied hostile territory, while with Poch filaments all you need is an exit filament and a cloak and there’s legitimately no counterplay to it - you’re just gone.
I’ve got a lot of concerns about wormholes - especially the state of PVP in high class, issues with PVE, and a lack of diversity in just about every area, but that doesn’t mean broken mechanics should just be ignored. Poch filaments are a problem for wormholers - give them a spool timer just like safelogging does, or remove them from use in wormholes altogether. There’s really no other way about it.
Anyway, I hope that answers your questions about where I’m at on these. I don’t know for certain what the best path forward is with regards to limiting a citadel’s ability to singlehandedly control its own grid until the moment it dies (though I like the idea of removing guns on hull timer), but I do feel very strongly about the filament issue. That stuff has just straight up got to go.
Thanks again!