I like this idea -- and i don't think the biggest blob would win because the biggest blob couldn't keep the biggest blob numbers on at all times. And if they sustain heavy losses while defending they wont be able to continue holding the structure. It's a good mechanic to bring objective based, reliable pvp, outside of intrusions.

Of course that's the reason... herp derp

I disagree...I think this should be easily captured and provide full benefits for as long as you hold it. The idea is to give people in off peak hours around the timezones something to fight over. The income shouldn't be ridiculous but should be equivalent to a 5-10 man group farming a spawn.

If unprotected it should take no longer then 10 minutes to capture regardless of the capturing groups size.

I tried thinking about this for a few hours and came up with some nice concepts to balance it but they all kinda had some form of issue, here are some anyways:

* zulu base is quite easy to capture 10-15 mins with a small - med group

* zulu base is only capturable on a corporation basis, similar mechanic to destruction SAPs

* once captured, the corporation gets NIC/EC every 30mins in increasing amounts e.g. n, 2n, 3n, 4n, .... xn

* however, the corporation also receives debuffs each hour, this could be -5% armor then -5% acc, then -10% HP etc etc. This makes it increasingly harder to hold for the corporation as they get gradually more and more debuffed - this is only on zulu base island - These debuffs could also have a multiplier based on # of holding corps members on the island as an anti-blob mechanic, however this has to be balanced by some form of balancing against a non holding corps turning up with 4x as many bots and wiping the holding corps.

* other corporations can attack at any time HOWEVER you can only attack the current base owner corporation members, not other corps on the zulu island. This is to prevent you holding the zulu base with an alt corps then defending with no debuffs using another corps.

* once you lose control of zulu base, you cannot attack it or the current base owners for 3 hours.

Hopefully this adds some balance and being honest i frankly stole the idea from some old FPS mods i used to play. It should add some spice, there's a competitive element in terms of who can hold the zulu base the longest (maybe another list to add to most dangerous agents??) and also the ability for smaller corps to run in and steal some time in off peak or between other groups attacking...

Discuss

I agree with GnB about the reward, the game doesn't need another form of NIC fountain. The other aspect is that the value of the NIC payed out would difficult to balance.

How long would a corp need to hold the outpost to recover the cost of losing a handful of bots? If it takes 20 players to defend the outpost for a few hours, what is the equivalent amount of NIC they could have gotten farming NPC's or running missions?

If the NIC value is too low, then it just becomes a 'contested for fun' spot, and PVP Griefer Corp X either just takes it or continues to blockade and battle any other corps simply for the PVP enjoyment. This lasts until other corps just stop attacking due to losses, and Corp X just gets a free X nic/hour.

If the NIC value is too High, then it becomes a MUST have item, and the Corp with the largest fighting force will take and hold it repeatedly, limited only by any mechanics put in place as Kalsisus suggested.

If its just about right, its still just NIC and strong PVP corps will contest it just to deny it to the enemy or ignore it other then a sure thing place to roam; and to 'gank' small corp Y that happens to be holding it off hours; probably resulting in more NIC bot loss cost then income generated.

The reward needs to be something like energy credits, and possibly just a one-time reward instead of an ongoing per/time reward that requires boring defense teams.