Thanks for pointing that out. I should probably have said “non-sov null” to be clear - that’s indeed what I mean there. Will remember that in the future.
Getting rid of POSes is still a goal, but its a long term one
Getting rid of POSes was only the smallest part of the vision for upwells. People bitching about structure spam need to remember that as originally articulated, CCP Ytterbium and Foxfour wanted coming into an inhabited system to look like coming into a city.
And somehow, I don’t think they meant Des Moines.
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This is a really great point. We previously had shields, which don’t involve any fight since only the attacker is present and the upwells don’t shoot back; then armor, when you staged a defense attempt; then hull, when there is no fight because you’re already evaced. Now we just have shields and hull, so no fighting rounds. And it becomes trivial to evict somebody, since you don’t have to fight anybody.
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If CCP believes it needs to do this to fight structure spam, but does not want to force small corps out of WHs and Pochven, then it needs to pair the change with something to enable small corps to exist in those types of space. It doesn’t necessarily need to be medium upwells, but they need some way to exist there. If CCP doesn’t want them to set up semi-permanent homes in hostile space, maybe it should give them the ability to live a more nomadic lifestyle there?
One thing I’ve long hoped for that might help is a mobile operating base ship. Perhaps something like an Orca that is optimized for that role, with a larger ship hangar and the ability to deploy into a mode where it has a weak shield bubble with a shortish reinforce timer. Maybe you can even exit the ship or log off and it remains deployed with the shield bubble up. Maybe also with buffs for remote repairers and the ability to target ships for repair even when they’re inside the shield bubble. Perhaps the ability to fit a combat scan probe launcher and buffs for that would be useful too, depending how it is envisioned, so that if the pilot has to sit in space online, they at least have something to do while the others are out doing sites or whatever.
Another option might be to optimize the long-promised forward operating base small upwell for that purpose. E.g., have it not require a core, or have a very cheap core, hence making it less likely to be bashed, but give it a maximum deployment time of a month or something.
Personally, I’d do both those things, and exclude WHs and Pochven from the removal of the timer… But, we at least need one of the three, or something similar, or it will no longer be viable for small corps to be in those types of space.
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If that was still the dream, we should not see structures floating around all over the place on a grid. We should see connected structure forming a huge complex that can be expanded like the ISS or how CCP said they’d expand Jita 4-4 over time. Those were nice visions back then… 
Hell, at this point, remove the core requirement from medium structures. I mean, let’s think about this. Medium structure w/no core… ok, so the shields damage cap is… oh, nevermind.
Ok, so now on the armor timer, an abandoned Astra can have its armor and hull sho-… oh, right, already happening.
Right, right, tethering! Very useful for defense… except that, you know, nobody’s going to defend because on the one timer, it’ll blow up, and you’ll be stuck at the mercy of the guys you didn’t have the strength to fight anyway.
Ok, but services! That thing that… there’s no longer a ‘turned it off by damage’ window other than blowing up the whole structure. Hmmmm.
Seriously, what’s the point of a medium core now? To give people an incentive to shoot these things that have just become ‘look at it too sharply and it explodes’?
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Like I said: almost none of it survived their departures.
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A structure that you expand with plug-in modules “would be nice” - but loading all that stuff when warping on-grid would affect performance, compared to the single-object structure system we have now.
No way. The null hive-mind makes a ton of money off of the Perimeter keepstar.
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It’s nothing of the sort. There are massive differences of opinion, personal animosities, and long-standing grudges that will never be resolved, and constantly flare up into violence. It is not a hive-mind.
It’s a cartel.
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Have you been in 1DQ or Perimeter or any other system with more than 1 structure on a grid? 
yah. There’s lag already. Just saying any lag would be worse, if we had a customizable system with more physical parts in it. Players would have a lot of fun setting up space castles and megafortresses, with a snap-together modular system that was dreamed about many years ago, but, we can’t have nice things 
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If these changes go through, medium structures will more of a liability than an actual asset to smaller corps.
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Small group is asleep.
I ref their structures with 2 Kikis.
Small group doesn’t evac since it was just 2 Kikis.
Me and my 30 Leshak buddies are happy about their decision.
If small group decides to put up a Fort instead, me and my 30 Leshak buddies are extra happy about the 10b killmail and 5b guaranteed loot.
Small groups are out of WH space completely 1 month after this change hits.
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What if it was more difficult to find their medium structures to begin with? Here’s an idea for medium structures as a means to be more clandestine/nomadic. If you do find them, their ticket can be punched with the same ease as the current CCP proposal.
Add 2 things:
Change the anchoring times on medium structures to sub one hour (like a large POS), and give mediums an exclusive fuel hungry service module that provides dscan immunity when online (it does not cloak the structure). This hides the medium recon base from dscan and makes the structure itself difficult to combat probe (the transport ships that keep it fueled and anyone idling on tether can be combat probed or intercepted to determine the location of the structure with greater ease).
This offers reasons to continue using medium structures as fast deployment beachheads for raiding or servicing logistics/manufacturing whilst attempting to keep a low profile as long as your corp members and buddies observe travel discretion with their bookmark folders. The Gucci life of paranoia and trust-building with spacefriends.
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They should do this and remove the requirement to have a core while they are at it. I always thought that a stealthy structure would help smaller groups and when structures were first proposed I asked for something like this.
I like Brisc, and he takes a lot of crap from people who get at him because of what he is rather than what he says. I always think that he does try to listen and take other viewpoints, but I have seen a change in that he is aggressively dismissive and no longer tries to understand others viewpoint. This is not a personal attack, because I liked how he was before.
The issue is that he is part of the biggest blob in the game and if they come at you with any CTA for a sig or a main fleet operation and you are a small group then he is right.
However we have PH and Test on our door, and we had them poking at moons, not at the CTA level, but at the corp level with friends, when of course they are able to coincide with CTA’s then yes there is no fight from our side, however outside of that the fight was them running away leaving the odd wreck or two.
Brisc is oblivious of this type of event, and as such is missing a hell of a lot of content that happens and by definition CCP are too. With the removal of the armour timer this content will be gone, and it is a tragedy for this game. I know that this change will be implemented no matter what we say here, CCP just do it once it is in testing phase so this is a done deal.
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This. People aren’t just making things up when they say ‘Change X royally F’s my playstyle.’ I’ve had my playstyle nerfed out of the game like 3 separate times now.
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Dear CCP,
If you remove the second timer from medium citadels, then you should at least also remove the +/-3 hours variance from the first timer too. If I have only one chance to defend, then it should be at least during my preferred prime time without variance.
Thank you for your attention and best regards,
Meditril
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You and me both, I have had at least 3 playstyle nerfs too, the one that got me was gun mining, I was happy out in Stain blowing stuff up in belts, salvaging it and the like to build ships, I even built a Moros. And then reprocessing was nerfed to hell and back and it was no longer viable. But I was out in space being hunted, playing cat and mouse games with decent solo players that enjoyed that content, not the lazy AFK cloaky types.
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