With the planned deployment of small Upwell structures aimed at replacing jump bridges, cyno beacons, and jammers, POS towers will be nearly useless aside from shielded staging points and grinding fodder.
My suggestion is simple. Add a new line of small player owned structures designated as forward operating bases (PFOB) to replace all remaining POS towers.
These would be an improved, basic option for independent players who do not want large and cumbersome citadels, but need an improvement over mobile depots.
Mechanically, PFOBs would behave similarly to medium+ structures but with major limitations in strength and functionality, for example:
limited capacity hanger & storage bays
one re-enforcement timer only
very limited (if any) fitting slots. Like 0R / 1H / 1M / 1L
no service modules
could have tethering ability
PERHAPS no docking, or limited to only personal docking of sub-caps
structure services limited to Ship Fitting, Repairs, Reprocessing, and Insurance
smaller volume than citadels when packaged to open up more transportation options
build cost around 250-500m price range, depending on meta
tower size and faction during reimbursement will influence the meta level FOB you receive.
I am sure most of you will hate this idea, but reimbursement of POS towers will have to occur somehow. I’d rather see new and functional equipment over cash. Personally, I could see these working great in WHs, but what do I know.
These are smaller, cheaper to operate, easier to produce, deploy, and kill. It replaces space junk (aka towers) after their decommissioning with something new and more functional rather than CCP saying to every POS owner: “you get a new citadel, you get a citadel, and you get a citadel.”
That’s often through giving a 100% reprocessing rate to them.
But yes, what you’re asking for is no different than astras, raitarus, or athanors. You wonder why CCP put in the low power mode stuff for structures? Because medium structures would get spammed all over the place as roach motels.
Hell maybe there could even be a shelf life on them. After 30 days of no use or occupation they shut off to conserve power and have 0 timers, no defense?
Yea, a structure that offers no defensive capabilities? Sure. That makes sense to be the replacement of a POS that offers protection to assets within it’s influence. /s
The request for structures that are “scaled” for small/individual use is relatively common, and ends up with the same arguments and counter-arguments frequently.
At the end of the day, 100% reprocessing is the best way to clean these up - a direct in-space replacement would be an exceptionally complicated matter.
There’s really no reason why you can’t use an astra or a rait. They’re cheap and easy to deploy.
That’ll probably never happen… if you want your stuff you’ll have to build it (hence the 100% reprocessing). No reason to cripple the market by flooding it.
The ease of dropping a POS as a staging post was over powered.
The reduction in this ability is almost certainly an intended feature, especially judging by Dev comments in the various structure threads over the last few years.
i certainly thought the POS, being as strong on the defensive end as it was (i’d seen first hand how hard you have to work to kill even a defunct one) could be reused as defensive platforms. i understand they have to take them out since they had so much code that connected to everything else, i don’t see why you couldn’t have one half it’s size, be deployed like a mobile depot, and being used as a forward operating base.