Perhaps incorporate it in a skill, so if you do not have the skill it is way more expensive to upgrade, but if you max out the skill it will be cheaper to upgrade.
+1
I like the idea of upgrading space stations very much. In fact it makes far more sense for stations to grow from smaller versions into larger versions over time anyway. That’s how real space stations usually would evolve.
2 Likes
soooo
it would always be cheaper to upgrade?
i mean it do you play eve?
3 Likes
It would only be cheaper to upgrade if you upped your skill in that line of training.
Sooooo
It would always be cheaper
I mean it do you even play eve?
Are you are implying that every person that plays EVE has been playing for over 3-5 years at least and could train the skill to make it cheaper in a month or so?
Or i mean has an alt
I mean it do you play this game?
With this alt? no.
Speaking of which, my corp finally drove off a bunch of cloaky campers by using triangulation and probes right at server restart, after 81 days of hot drops and constant fleeting up and vigilance… They gave up and left. 
1 Like
bump.
Bad OP. Contribute something worth bumping your topic, or let it die a deserved death.
There is literally one and only one way to justify this idea:
- It costs more than just deploying the original structure (I’d be expecting a 25% increase in total cost, minimum, perhaps 50%)
- Each upgrade causes a vulnerability window identical to anchoring. For example, if you anchor a fort and upgrade it to a keep, you’ve got your 24h invuln + 15 min vuln for the fort, plus a 24h invuln + 15 min vuln for the keep
- Structure must not be fitted prior to upgrade (this will end up being a technical requirement regardless)
Considering the structure is vulnerable 24h anyway once anchored this is kinda a pointless part to it.
The way I read what you wrote (please correct if wrong):
The originally deployed structure has 24h invuln and thus upgrades don’t need 24h invuln
To which I would vehemently disagree; the 24h invuln isn’t for the defenders, it’s for attackers to notice and mobilize to attack the structure at it’s weakest point.
@Lugh_Crow-Slave very correctly pointed out that keepstar anchoring would otherwise become risk free. Anchor astras wherever you might want, upgrade them to keepstars later. Few will bother to mobilize to attack every astra, so whichever ones stick you then upgrade risk-free otherwise.
But why does it need an invuln period, Why not just leave it vulnerable and attacking it pauses the upgrade till it’s back to full shield (So however many timers that runs it through).
If you read up I’m in favour of the upgrade taking 1-2 weeks, rather than a 1 day anchor. To reflect how upgrading a structure that is in use is actually more time consuming since you have to work around existing things. So that gives plenty of time for someone to attack it.
I don’t think it would need technically to be unfitted, or potentially wouldn’t anyway. Since you will always have more slots after an upgrade than before, so other than rigs not being applicable the rest of the services would be consistent with an upgrade. In terms of DB technicalities, well maybe.
And yeah, it would be a slightly different dynamic. Hence my point about it taking weeks at least to upgrade a structure. If people ignore an upgrading structure for a couple of weeks, it’s kinda on them since they clearly don’t have control over that system. And making it take weeks means you aren’t going to be doing it if you actually want said keepstar now. More if your corp has grown over the last two years and you now need better services.
Ah, okay. Yes, that I could get behind as well. In fact, I like the 1-2 week vulnerability a lot more… means that if you try to upgrade it, 99% chance it’s gonna go pop. In fact I can promise that groups would lose pretty much every upgraded-to-keepstar they ever try to deploy. No shortage of groups interested in killing those 
As for tech requirements, yea, I was thinking about how many hamsters in the DB would self-immolate in protest.
Well, if it can remain fitted it does present a different picture.
I’m imagining it doesn’t revert to hull with this. So it’s harder to attack but on the other hand gives attackers a much larger window to attack it in. Especially since in my head you would have to go through 1 step at a time. So 4 weeks from Ast to Keepstar (as example in my head).
But yeah, if you couldn’t defend a normal keepstar anchoring you wouldn’t be able to defend one upgrading either is my imagination. It just means if you grow to the point where you think you can, you can give it a go without needing to move everything once it’s done. Which also means more is at stake if someone does attack it since the whole reason to upgrade it is because it has so much stuff in it.
Whereas my logic is you should not be able to benefit from incrementally stronger defenses. Defending a freshly anchored keep for example, WAY harder than defending what is effectively a fortizar (upgrading to a keep).
Much as anchoring the original structure, I feel it should go straight to hull timer during upgrade, and have no benefit of fitted modules.
Ah infinite the arguments over balance.
I wouldn’t mind a hull timer & no fitted modules really. But if it’s going to drop to hull & be unfitted then it should be the 24h timer just like anchoring. Since you aren’t actually ‘using’ the structure during that time.
The longer timer was imagining you would be able to keep modules. And yeah, having the Fortizar defences would be a significant advantage, but certainly not an unbeatable advantage given you have weeks to gather your forces instead of 24h.
So, basically one way or the other is my thoughts. Rather than the worst of both worlds.
This is true, but remember the defenders know that it’s happening well in advance. They can marshal their forces just as well.
Being able to tether on their fort (and that carriers faxes and dreads can all dock) all but ensures that the defender advantage would be entirely too valuable to ever pass up.
Imagine a fort being upgraded to a keep (astra to fort, not many will care about). Now you just stage 300 dreads, cap pilots set their death clone to the citadel, and you undock wave after wave of dread bomb until you’ve depleted the attacking force. If dread bombs aren’t your thing, stage 300 faxes. Super fleet jumps in, every fax pilot that dies simply reships and undocks in a new fax.
The defenders know they are anchoring a keepstar in advance as well, so that’s not exactly any different in either scenario.
Yea but they can’t do this: