Its been many years now since the Upwell structures were introduced (2016) with the understanding at the time that POS’s would be phased out as the Upwell structures became established. A timeline of mid 2020 was hinted at by CCP
However, here we are now 6 years later with POS’s still in game with no ‘phasing out’ appearing to be implemented or even planned.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Is this another example of a half completed job by CCP or does it indicate a complete u-turn on their removal?
Personally, as I see them as a relic, clutter and unnecessary dual mechanic, I would like to see their BPO’s removed from game so they start to naturally phase out over time. However, I’m just one guy so would welcome other players thoughts on the subject
I un understand the coding around POS’s is ancient and much tweaked, but not asking them to change the coding but either remove them (just like they did with SBU’s) or at the very least withdraw the BPO’s so they die a natural death. removing and flipping existing BPO’s wont involve any messing with their original coding.
That said, the real question is should they stay or should they go
POSes are a nice way to stage forward fleets and carry out ops in hostile space. When I see someone asking for their removal, my mind immediately turns to the notion that that person is part of some null/wormhole farming bloc, and wants to make it more difficult for non-members to be able to interfere with their money grind.
“Wouldn’t it be just absolutely great and convenient if nobody could plop up a force field in 15 minutes and be relatively immune to being dunked on by our super fleet? They should use Upwells like the rest of us so that we can kill them nearly instantly without them being able to do anything about it!”
I just intuitively like them for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on. I like that they take a fair bit of setup and that you can configure them in a lot of different ways. I like the “feel” of them where you’re out in space the whole time. Kind of feels more like being on a frontier or something. It’s like the difference between camping and getting a hotel room. I would not mind if they stick around.
That said, if they’re to be removed, they probably need to be replaced with small citadels that are very quick to set up and take down. That role of POS’s, as a structure you can pop up quickly in a system for a bit, then take down and bring with you to the next site, is a niche that needs to be filled. My understanding was that that was at one point in time CCP’s plan: introduce small citadels, then phase out POSs. So, I think there is a bit more to it than just removing them.
POS features/functions have been phased out. A lot of jobs they did they can’t do anymore and Upwell structures took them over. As for the stick, forcefield, and guns themselves, yeah, as others have pointed out, they are great forward deploy structures, or even non-standard movement structures in this day and age. There’s supposed to be an upwell structure to replace them, but that’s been a soon*TM for years.
Personally, I’ve had far better fights, far more reliably, on a POS than an Upwell structure. I’d kinda like POS mining to come back.
I think they should stay until they come up with something that fits the role people are using them for now .
We need a FOB type thing that’s both entertaining to defend and attack , I remember going on many pos take downs and it was fun compared to what I see today when they attack player stations .