NPC Stations Overhaul

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
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I’ve made a previous post to Bring a proper overhaul to how mining works - #7 by Druthlen, but I do realize now that having mobile ore compression everywhere would take too much away from player owned structures, and thus remove the factor of “valuable space” which CCP wants to expand on.

Thus, systems with structures which have ore compression will be more “valuable” and attractive for miners to garther.

With the upcoming changes to quantum cores however, and some very interesting recent events of some certain players, tugging off some certain modules, from some certain structures, and causing some trillions of isk to be completely voided, I feel like player owned structures are more unreliable than ever before, always finding an NPC structure more favorable whenever possible.

Thus my suggestion.

NPC mining corporations allow ore compression in their mining outpost stations

Not only this, but it would be great to have every specific station focus on a specific job

  • Assembly/Production Plants and Factories focus on industry
  • Mercantile and Trade stations focus on market
  • Mineral Reserves focus on reprocessing
  • Testing Facilities/Research Center focus on blueprint research

I’m not going to suggest a focus for every station, as I’m not sure myself which some stations woud be about, like Logistic Support or Unlimited Depository, however here’s some controversial suggestions:

  • Logistic Support allows for up to 100 ships to be docked(other stations limited to 10 docked ships, non-assembled ships don’t count towards this number)
  • Unlimited Depository allows for unlimited inventory space(other stations limited to 100 stacks of items)

For stations like Jita and the other trade hubs, they can have their own special quirks due to being Trade Hubs and allow for everything as they do currently, according to player feedback.

Finally, standing requirements similar to the Triglavian ones regarding the basic station services would go side-by-side with these changes.

  • Standing Requirements with Corporation/Faction
    Docking, Inventory, “Focus Service” 0.00
    LP Store 1.00
    Fitting, Insurance, Repair 2.00
    Jump clone, Set Home Station 3.00
    Corporation office 4.00

With this, logistics should matter much more going forwards, as a player won’t simply reprocess, manufacture, and put their items for sale all in one single NPC station.

Stations which offer these “focus services”, that is, industry, reprocessing, market, and etc, would make the space more valuable to the players, and help create more focused hotspots for local trade hubs and player engagement.

As for basic services like Fitting, Insurance, Repair and Clones, every player gets some free standing with their initial corporation when making a new character, and it should be at the very least 3.00+ after completing the career agent missions.

So, if a player wishes for the convenience and reliability of other NPC corps besides their original one, they require to do some standing grinding, or simply gain enough faction standing, giving it a proper reason as for why to side withone of the empires.

If the player simply doesn’t want to bother with the standing grind, then they can always rely on player owned structures for the various services and storage, of course while keeping the risks involved with placing their eggs in someone else’s basket.

P.S.: as the idea originally came to mind due to ore compression, just some more things

  • make ore compression require a fee in NPC stations, decreasing alongside positive standings, similar to reprocessing
  • make compression a separate thing from reprocessing, and have it show in the Structure Browser window as it’s own icon/service
2

Yeah, but grinding standings sucks. Moreover, the proposal is no giveth, and all taketh away. I mean, it basically just creates a bunch of inconveniences for players, which they’ll likely not respond well to. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do feel like a lot of the NPC stations are redundant (with the biggest difference between a lot of them just being the owning NPC corp). And station specialization would likely force more players to move more ■■■■ through space, thus creating more opportunity for hunters. But for most players, it’s just going to be a new PITA for them to deal with.

1 Like
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Yup. Standings grinding does suck, so it could, and should, be improved on as well. :slight_smile:

I have been grinding standings with Caldary Navy, and managed to get it up to 2 by grinding lvl1 missions alone, and it took me pretty much an entire day(10h+) of blitzing on my low SP character.

Currently my standings are as follows:

  • Caldary Navy, 2.65ish
  • Caldary State, 1.07ish

Empire standings definitely should be harder to grind out, as they pretty much open access to every corporation under it’s umbrella, however, corporation standings shouldn’t take such a slow grind in order to get on their good side.

Many missions require some reworks, as some lvl1 missions that require 5+ mins to complete give out less standing than ones that can be completed in under 1min.

I’m not even going to mention lvl2 missions that take upwards of 10mins+ giving out worse rewards than lvl1s. Really absurd stuff.

Now, returning to the main topic, my proposal, like you mentioned, is supposed to improve logistics a lot.

Taking mining as an exemple, a system with an NPC mining outpost and many asteroid belts would be a haven for miners, but at the same time, would be a hotspot for gankers to gather too.

On the other hand, a system which has an Industry/Manufacturing Station and Market/Trade Station, preferably from the same corporation, will be favored by indy players, and thus should also attract some thieves trying to get some easy targets.

Thus, the idea of “valuable space” and spread of local trade hubs, which CCP seems to be really interested into, should slowly flourish.

With all this, once again, just keep in mind that this system will only apply to NPC Stations, and not to player owned structures.

Players can just set up their own market and indy stations in whichever system they want, and make it public or not.

Players which don’t wish to bother with the standing grind don’t have to, and can simply make use of the public player stations spread about.

Player stations of course have the risk of being taken down by players as well, but that is the risk for the convenience factor that EVE is all about.

4

There is a better way to raise your corp standings. And this option has been in game for 11+ years. Let someone else do the work of raising your standings.

5

This works too.

I was doing missions myself because I had nothing better to do really, and I was interested in checking mission reward differences between lvl1 and lvl2, which people probabyl don’t do very often.

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We require pilots to do L3 or L4 to be effective mission runners. Http://unitedstandings.org for more info on hiring us if you want standings faster.

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