Micro-citadels

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
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I am proposing drastically nerfing the mobile depot while offering somewhat of a replacement as well as something to fit in the lineup between the mobile depot and the Astrahus citadel.

Outposts, or Micro-citadels:
These would come in three sizes and would function similarly to citadels but would be much cheaper and easier to set up, much cheaper to run, but also much less powerful overall. They would have a docking capacity limit so in addition to having a low size limit for docking, you could only fit so many of that ship size inside one of these. The rest could be tethered outside, however these would also have tether size limits. Their defense would be weak.

Small:
This is the largest outpost size, and it allows docking up through battlecruiser size, and tethering up through battleship size. Unlike an Astrahus citadel, this structure is unable to fit station service modules. It has a full fitting and packaging service as well as inventory access, and it can repair ships that can dock or tether. This outpost has a built-in defense system which will automatically target and return fire upon anyone who fires at it. The defense system has the power of a few battleships.

This outpost could be carried whole inside a freighter and deployed into or retrieved from space directly. It would take a few hours to online, and its reinforce timer would work like the mobile depot and mobile tractor unit.

Very small:
This is the mid-size outpost, which allows frigates and destroyers to dock, and allows cruisers to tether. Docked ships have full fitting and packaging access, but no repair service, however capacitor is regenerated for any ships docked or tethered to the outpost. It has a built-in defense system which will automatically return fire, and has power similar to a single battlecruiser.

This outpost could be carried whole inside a deep space transport or Orca. It would take several minutes to online, and its reinforce timer would work like the mobile depot and mobile tractor unit.

Depot:
This is the smallest outpost. It has no docking capacity but enables ships to do in-space refitting which does not include subsystem swapping. It has no capacitor service and no packaging service. It also has no defenses. It has a decent amount of storage space along with being able to tether frigates and destroyers.

This outpost can be carried whole inside any regular industrial. It would take a few minutes to online and its reinforce timer would work like the mobile depot and mobile tractor unit.

Mobile Depot and Mobile Tractor Unit:
I feel it’s too strong to be able to have such a small and cheap fitting service. I suggest making it cost more resources to make, and take up a lot more cargohold space. 500m3 seems reasonable, as it can still be fit into battleships but suddenly takes up most of their excess space. I would also increase the size of the mobile tractor unit, perhaps to 250m3. That will leave battleships with plenty of extra space, but at least having the thing will substantially reduce the space you have. I know I’d still use an MTU even if it cost 250m3 cargohold space.

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Already exists and you would be buffing it.

https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Mobile_structures

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False. The Mobile Depot takes up only 50m3 cargohold space. Multiplying that by ten is not a buff, and the Depot I suggested is much larger still and can only be carried by an industrial.

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Giving a depot a teather is a buff, and they won’t change the current depots to add that. Current Depots and MTU’s do not give as much as you think they do.

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New (smaller) structues are in the works for 2019.
Soon.

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I am quite aware of what they give. I did not suggest giving Mobile Depots a tether. It is only available on the much larger Depot-size Outpost which you cannot carry in your cargohold on your PVE ship.

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You underestimate people’s insanity.

I underestimated people’s insanity…
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/1nu4ak/orca_for_missioning/

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Depot is designed to be disposable the new smaller structures to yet come would allow you some small semblance of a temporary base

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I often overestimate people’s insanity. One Orca pilot isn’t much basis for argument. If you want to look at what one pilot does, then I can throw all of your plans out of whack because I fit things I can’t convince others to copy on my life.

No, nobody is going to fit a multi-thousands of m3 item in their cargohold for missioning, not because it uses most of the cargohold, but because it uses more than all of it.

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Well there’s also the megathon which someone fit to be able to keep up with a fleet of tiny ships… Anyone got that link again?

Found it:

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I know there’s already talk of making mini-Citadels. When those come out, I expect they very well may replace the Mobile Depot with the smallest of those instead.

Even if they didn’t, I wouldn’t mind seeing the Depot gain a short range weak RR beam like the Citadels use. I wouldn’t give them the full Tether immunity trick. But so long as you have no Flags, and you get very close (like refitting range), then it could slowly patch you up about as fast as a Small RR would.

But really, we just need to wait and see what they do with the mini-Citadels they recently announced were in the works.

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This. I love this story.

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Gems like this are one of the major reasons EVE is so great.

No. The currently existing Mobile Depot is too strong already. It should have not one feature added and if anything should have features removed. Its costs are far too low, they should be drastically increased.

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How are they “too strong”? They allow refitting modules, and they have a tiny little pocket of cargo space. That’s it.

Shooting them down is easy as beans. And all is does is Suspect the person doing the shooting. So they don’t even count as a Personal or Corp asset b/c if they did you’d need to be at War to shoot them. And they’ve got about as much HP as a Rookie boat, so they’re laughably easy to kill.

I guess we have different ideas what a “Depot” means. And what a “Citadel” means. If you’re saying that only a Citadel should be able to provide refits, then someone should tell the Orcas and Carriers, b/c they’ve been stepping on toes for a long time! =)

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They allow refitting modules. It costs what a couple million ISK for a tiny thing you carry in your cargohold to refit in space. THAT is too strong.

Irrelevant.

I don’t care what words you use. At 50m3 it’s too small for what it does.

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If we forget that it needs to be anchored, and is easily popped before it anchors at which point it becomes useless in battle anyway. But the problem then comes down to plugging your ears and demanding we listen.

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This idea, more or less, was already announced by CCP at EDU.

I don’t think we need a replacement for mobile depots though, they are fine. If someone drops one you have 60 seconds to kill it before it anchors, without a reinforcement timer. It also holds very little cargo and allows refitting, but nothing more. There’s nothing OP about a mobile depot, they are FINE how they are.

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I mentioned replacement because of the heavy nerf I proposed. But then in the end I never actually suggested a replacement. Oh well. I wish the dang things had just never been released in the first place!

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Fair enough but many people use and benefit from them.

People tend to forget there are 1000 uses to mobile depots and I always see suggestions because somebody has a problem with 1 of those uses.

For wormholers. for example, you always keep one in cargo on your rolling ship so that if you get rolled into a hostile system you can refit to scan probes at a safe and get out. Getting rid of mobile depots would â– â– â– â–  that up entirely for all wormholers everywhere.

EDIT: And who would use an MTU exactly if it was 250 m3?

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If there were micro-citadels, you could bring one into any system you actually care to put some effort into, and you’ll benefit a lot from the refitting capacity. If you’re truly alone, it should cost a lot of cargo space to have advantages like that, or you can pre-fit for it and accept that you’re not decked out in quite as many weapons as you were hoping for. In fact that’s sort of why you have up to eight weapon slots, instead of just one. If you have 5 weapon hardpoints and you fit 4 weapons and a utility item, you have 80% weapon power.

I would use an MTU if it was 250m3, but I wouldn’t always use it. I would especially use it in a marauder and save more utility highs for salvagers, because they can easily front the extra space.