Defense modes are settings that tell your base how to treat those who approach it.
There are currently only three settings. You set these modes with the following command.
You have three types of Defense Arrays that you can build.
These arrays target certain ships, depending on the type built, and deal incredible amounts of Shield and Energy Damage.
Once upon a time, base owners rushed to construct a Shield Generator module to protect their base from sieges. Now, such shields are included automatically in the core of your base as soon as it's deployed - and they render you totally immune from all forms of damage, except during a specific set of vulnerability window(s) that you, the base owner, define.
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Currently, a new base created will have one vulnerability window, set at 1000 - 1200 server time.
This window can be changed ONCE PER MONTH using the following command:
Where <starting hour> is the hour digits in 24 hour time for your first vulnerability window,
and <starting hour 2> is the hour digits for your second vulnerability window, et cetera.
Currently, we are only requiring one vulnerability window, but this may change in the future.
If it does, the timer on setting vulnerability windows will likely be reset.
An example of a command to set the vulnerability window for my base at 2100 - 2300 SMT is:
Which results in a vulnerability window of 2100 - 2300 SMT.
And in a hypothetical future where two vulnerability windows are required,
which must be at least eight hours apart - that same command would be:
Sieging a POB is now performed exclusively by attacking it during its vulnerability timer,
which can be seen by using the command below with a POB targeted in space:
This base has a vulnerability window starting at 10:00
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Even during a vulnerability window, player owned bases only take damage from special, ammo-fed siege weapons mountable to gunboats, cruisers, battlecruisers, and battleships.
These weapons are available anywhere their non-siege equivalents are sold, with the following names:
These weapons are fully capable combat weapons, albeit with an ammo restriction, which are specifically tuned to be the only weapons capable of damaging POBs.
The ammunition is quite expensive, which imposes something of a cost to the sieging party. In return, however, sieges are now typically much faster across the board if uncontested.
As a POB takes damage, the internal shield will react accordingly and begin to harden against outside fire.
This will manifest in the shield resistance to damage massively increasing over time, until such a point where no more damage can be done to the base until the next vulnerability window.
Short, combative siege windows which can be performed by a larger variety of ships and factions spread out over a longer campaign are the ultimate objective of this new system.
The 'reinforcement' threshold, or point at which a POB can take no further damage in that window, is noted below:
Core 1: 6 000 000 damage
Core 2: 6 000 000 damage
Core 3: 7 300 000 damage
Core 4: 9 200 000 damage
Core 5: 11 000 000 damage
Note that a POB's repairs are NOT paused either during a siege nor between windows while reinforced, which results in higher-core bases taking more vulnerability periods to kill.
The effective repair rate of a fully stocked base (minus wear & tear damage) is listed below: