DEV Zoom wrote:The basic issue here is (and always has been) the number of attackers, which we have no control over. We have to find a reasonable value for building armor HPs, the cycle time of repairers, how much energy they consume, how hard the turrets hit, and so on.
This is the issue. and I think you can solve it using the same way the EP system works, with exponential diminishing returns.
Since you can't build a PBS system that works well now and still works with 10* or 50* the server population, you will have to leave that balancing to the players themselves.
If you are allowed to add an unlimited number of armour plates to a structure, but each one adds a diminishing number of hitpoints then each corp will work on a balance between the armour of each building, the redundancy in their network, the risk of being attacked and their ability to defend.
If you have a large corp with a big 'off time' then you can pump more resources into defending it during your off time, if your corp is smaller but has 24/7 activity you could defend with less.
There will be corps/alliances that are too small or with too little coverage to be able to defend, but that is the way it goes.
I think the walls show a way of doing it: The 'proper' way to break through is to use a bomb, but this is expensive and requires cargo capacity so requires some logistics and planning. The 'cheap' way of doing it is to hit it with a mech, this requires an error on the defenders part of leaving something targetable on the other side, and will be totally countered by a compiler bot or repair drone on the part of the defenders. The 'fail' way is to spend a few weeks shooting it with a light bot and hopefully you can get through eventually.
So for PBS the 'proper' way to take a base is to build your own control structures and slowly invade their network, cutting ties and converting buildings. This requires a lot of planning, coordination and investment.
The cheap way is to turn up with a bunch of mechs and blow up all their reactors, and who cares what the fail way is. The important thing is that the cheap way should not be too cheap (c.f. the wall resistance change) to be able to circumvent the defences, and that people with off time zone vulnerabilities are given the opportunity to compensate for them with additional (excessive?) expenditure.