POS
Hi All,
There was a time where I used to run a POS. It wasn’t just any old POS for any old reason, though I will admit there was a fair amount of vanity attached to it. It was a Dread Guristas Large for a research alliance.
The mechanics back in the day meant that all a corporation in the alliance needed to do was hire an office in system where we had one and provided they had a character with the scientific network skill to 1, they could research to their hearts content from their own corp hangars.
The POS owner could manage the set up and hourly costs of a job, thereby offsetting or even making money off one though the lines pretty much had to be all in use to do so. I’d ice mine using a fully skilled Orca alt to assist with this as well as do invention jobs for others.
Over time CCP nerfed the various mechanics, but the main one was the removal of the remote install. The BPOs had to be in the relevant lab in the POS, and few if any owners were going to risk their jobs being cancelled and the disappearance of their shiny blue isk printers.
It essentially killed the alliance overnight. The business reason that held it together was gone. If I’m being totally honest about it, the cost and management of fuel was becoming prohibitive in both time and isk. It was a bittersweet moment pulling it down and selling off the kit.
I fought against that decision, off-lining it for extended periods, though that attracted the odd wardec (these went away when people found it fully repped up and all defenses on-lined).
Between the 4×4 racial dread gurista jammers, the warp scrams, web, neuts, missiles and guns (not to mention the shield hardeners) and the ridiculously high amount of shield HP, it would have been a gigantic pain to try and take down when active. No one tried.
So, between alts with the starbase management skills, the raft of research skills and the ability between PI and ice mining to assist with fueling, I could run a top of the line POS. By myself. And defend it if needs be.
It was anchored at a moon that was almost an insta-undock, 7000km off a station with a L4 mission agent and refining/manufacturing slots, and in a system with an ice belt. In all honesty, it was about as good as you could ask for.
So, citadels. Yes, you can now anchor them anywhere. But without a serious number of people to be able to support them during deployment and then afterwards, you’re putting an awful lot of isk into (so far) what appears to be a giant space pinata.
Looking forward to seeing what the additional functionalities (arrays and platforms) are, but from the rumblings out in the blogosphere are anything to go by, its just not worth doing for the solo or small corporation.
I would still like to own a small slice of space, but can’t see that happening any time soon.
Bugger.
H
Aggressive Logistics 
I’m hoping the industrial arrays offer more of the old POS like function – but frankly I assume they will not. Bugger is about what I think of Citadels for solo use so far.
Hoping they might surprise us. Hoping. There are the odd refining ones popping up by the opportunists out there. Saw one briefly in my old stomping ground last night, though admittedly I didn’t check to see the size of the corp that deployed it.
I ran a High Sec research POS for nearly 7 years but the changes to industry saw me off-line it and finally, this year, pull it down. I fear that the days of the six man corp are numbered – CCP seem to be catering to group effort at the expense of the individual ?
In my response to Neville Smit’s 85% post, I mentioned that I suspected CCP had looked at the social metric and had gone a little too far with it. This is case in point.
Hope you guys have managed to find something else to do, or another way to compensate for it (and can still remain competitive on the indy side).