It would make more sense to use market or political PVP for Alpha ownership instead of combat PVP.

Possibly some mixture of relations, NIC, and market activity.

Taking the carebear route for ownership could be could be left for alpha terminals . Your idea would mean a whole new mechanic though. How would you create/prove a presence on the outposts, seems market activity, NIC and relations would be a log in/ log out kinda thing.

I was thinking more of a stepping stone for new and small corps in alpha to experience PVP and OP ownership, and to stimulate the market 2 fold: By owner corp incentives and more pvp losses would mean more market activity.

PVP is a major part of the game, there's no reason to change that, however there are already plenty of PVP opportunities in the game.

Opening up Alpha outposts for ownership thru force is just more of the same.

Take Tellesis as an example. As a major Alpha hub, even a small % of business represents a large amount of NIC. No 'little' corp is going have the resources to take and hold this type of outpost with the same rules as on beta. The concept is that corps have to occupy an outpost to keep ownership, this is a trivial matter to accomplish on alpha, since your not in any danger unless you acutally flag up for the SAP.

There's nothing stopping a beta outpost owner with a large player base from owning Tellesis, for the NIC, as well as a beta outpost. They can just have alts stationed at Tellesis, and log into them if anyone flags for the SAP. A few solo or small group attempts may be made on the SAP, and the owning corp can even let a few of them go as needed, or even let ownership transfer for a few days, and then just take it back.

tl;dr - If ownership is based on combat power, then powerful combat corps will own it. Small and solo players would just be throwing away bots on SAPs, which they could do on Beta, but with a chance to acutally get a loot drop.

PVP has to be the centre of attention to create a big player base in a sandbox with a realistic economy, the other game proves it. Here there is little to no reason to flag PVP on alpha. Intrusions on alpha gives enough reason to flag up.

Powerful corps can take ownership even easier by using a 'passive' system as you suggest Arga. Where presence/defence of OP is not needed. If intrusion 2.0 works as intended, beta corps won't waste time and resources defending an alpha OP, specially when more time and presence is needed on beta now. That's where a larger game world is needed to create a distance between alpha/beta which can help a lot.

There is also the issue of 'Combat power' that may not be a deciding factor in ownership even if it is by force. What about economical power or industrial power and longer location presence? Even if you don't know how to defend well, you can still wear down a PVP corp with small capacity to replace bots. Mercenaries comes to mind with economical power too.

Specialized alpha corps may form up and take the helm of ownership, rewards should be balanced accordingly so that beta corps won't even bother.

Imagine the big impression new players will get, from seeing player bots blowing up from day one!. Not just on a youtube video.

be outpost owner on beta - lose permanent syndicate protection on alpha...

advantage of beta outpost onwership with loss of free gathering at alpha teleport for intrusion blob.

Albfa outposts should give something really different than beta ones - to not give any advantage in the same way - no taxes, no docking rights, etc. Just maybe that aura stuff. Also, gaining an ownership should be really different - no pvp, but maybe an ability to rent it from Syndicate - says, x NIC for one week and then 2-3 weeks of cooldown for the same corp - to give a chance for everyone.

The aura stuff reward only could work too, was thinking more in the lines of kick starting a healthy market on alpha.

I really wouldn't mind a way for a non-pvp style of outpost ownership in alpha, though I just can't find a way around the problem of just investing NIC for ownership log off and get a return on investment seem to easy and passive. Ownership should be worked at and intrusion 2.0, in theory for now, can prove that. Once it does a similar system could be implemented in alpha.

Did you read mine?

There are 15 Beta outposts in-game that are available for corporations interested in territory control. Lets be generous and say maybe 7 are actually owned by individual player corporations (taking into account living there etc). That is below 50%.

What would be the point of Alpha outpost control? To give free aura-upgrades on Alpha? There's plenty of empty outposts available out there. Hell, CIR has had 1-2 outposts we're not interested in owning on give-away-no-charge offer for the last 6 months.

Pointless unless player population radically changes. Only thing it would serve atm is to give free auras (yay for mining & harvesting aura on Alpha!) and make safe mining in protection zone even more lucrative then it already is.

While I'm not actually protecting this idea, I think it may be interesting anyway. Alpha ownership is possible only and when the whole system of ownership and rewards will be different than beta one. Such system may be useful for those who want to prepare for beta faster, or not interested in it at all.

It's a sandbox, not just PvP game, don't forget it. Not every newbie corp is interested/ready to live/conquer/compete on betas - atm it's almost impossible unless you're not a part of alliance - I'm pretty sure every corp who will even try will be immediately sieged/ganked/wtfpwned by any enemy force outcoming them in numbers/ep/experience/bots/fits. So anyone who decide to try should prepare well first, and thats where they may need a place for it.

Also, alpha-terminals (same as beta ones) can't be conquered in any way or another - so this system will touch only old alpha outposts like Radholme, Bellicha or Matsu.

Good balancing would be (considering its a no-risk-whatsoever-zone) to leave the outposts as a "prestige-only reward", meaning no upgrades, no auras, no lockouts, no nothing. You put your name on it and get some $$$ back from production and thats it.

I was thinking more as a benefit, the ability to remotely buy/sell to the main terminal. No NIC payback, maybe reduced industrial cost. Meaning you get a benefit if your're actually using the features, but not gaining any passive income.

How to get ownership though is still in question and would need to be balanced with that level of benefit.