Now people taking refuge under friendly guns, would lead to following situation.
Lets say Player A gets engaged by 2 hostiles B & C near a base/planet friendly to player A. Now what if A thrusts closer to the defenses, B & C would eventually have to stop following A. Sounds good till now. Now if hostiles(B & C) are outside the range of defenses A can continuously use thrusters to come near them fire a few shots and retreat back using thrusters.
What this will result in people whining over forums against those people who use this tactic just as they are doing the same for planet campers. I fully agree planet camping is bad when done in PvP mode, but there are some RP planet camping opportunities that would be missed.
Then we also have the issue of CDs and mines used by friendly players upsetting the locals and causing the planetary defense to target them.
Regarding the "gloat over the comms" thing, if the hostiles do the same while staying out of range of defenses then we will start having these gloating wars. Anytime a superior force goes hunting into a hostile territories the folks over there would simple sit beside planetary defenses while saying how uber they are, and the hostile force can do nothing more than taunt them to fight outside the defenses. If thats the style of gameplay you want on disco then uber planetary defenses are a good idea.
Instead of having these Uber planetary defense how about having more heavy patrolling of bases and planets by heavy firepower forces. Then a hostile force can still try to camp a planet but it will be tough as even a small friendly force can tilt the balance against the hostiles.
In the first bit I've got no qualms about player A going back and forth. It's then completely upto B and C if they are stupid enough to stick around and let that happen. If they force a player to flee it should be enough.
What I've been seeing too much in Disco is the jumping the gun with little or no time to heat up the upcoming confrontation with good lines in RP. While I approve of kill messages being shown again, the people are too much geared on to seeing that appear. I have to tip my hat to some of the old official faction's here that drop the chase when the other one flees. And some of their pilots are not too quick to jump the gun either. They offer some delicious RP appetizers before entering combat. Basically this is a standoff situation that could and would happen with planetary defenses.
I chose my wording badly what comes to gloat over the comms. I apologize for that. It gives the whole thing a bad association. If someone is not able to RP a victory or defeat then his/her RP skills need to be improved. It's pretty hard to RP when you are supposed to be dead. If it sting's so much of someone's ego to hear the word "There he goes, coward!" then he should make a stand by all means.
What you describe "the gloat wars" I see a great opportunity to RP! I know with that with people like now on the server a heated flamewar can happen over comms, but at least this stalemate situation would give a chance to learn and develop their own RP. Too many times you get about 1.5 seconds to write out your RP before someone has closed the distance and starts shooting at you. With this little or no communication pvp they are in fact trying to show how uber they are anyway. With planetary defenses in place they would have to resort to shouting. Which must really hurt them badly inside if they were looking for a pvp rush to begin with. How humiliating to them... People will show what they are made of anyway, but this would really bring that to the surface.
The only truly problematic aspect I see with planetary defenses is the one that mwerte described: accidental CD to a speeding trader. Mines are everyone's own problem anyway. It can happen in a fight anywhere.
Patrol's are very nice, but they are directly proportional to server load, so sometimes they are not just around the corner.
What I've seen during my rather brief stay here the valid planet sieges have been far and between. The only real and plausible one that OPG staged to Cambridge ended up in flames as well. Just because it was in-game decision and in-game RP to make it happen. So to make a successful and acceptable to most people planet siege it has to be announced beforehand, making it effectively an event, which requires A LOT of work.
For the record: I'm not suggesting that ALL the stations should get these uber guns. Just dockable planets and military/police faction HQ's. I'd hate the idea enter Leeds and get "insta-killed" by Glasgow. And I'm not talking about real insta-killers either. Battleship damage levels usually make me steer clear of those no matter what I'm flying. And I think 3k -4k range would be enough. Maybe just up the docking rings guns.
@lolpenguin: I see what you mean since I've taken part to that also. The point is that those Raid do not linger in the system. With a sturdy planetary defenses those bombing raids would get a boost. No more playing around.