Another potential benefit to setting up static NPC cap ship bases as solars to be 'destroyed', and attacked in real time, is the potential for cross faction conflict.
In the examples of the Outcasts civil war and the Kusari civil war, it could have added another factor to allow factions to keep the ball rolling against the other, and give them more things to keep the situation active.
So the recent 'almost' civil conflict in Rheinland was a perfect situation. Liberty is also, if you count Rogues, Separatists and HF, also in a near defacto state of civil war for years.
If the capship fleet (static ones) were 'mortal', anyone could attack them whenever. Rules wise it could simply be allowed that any ID can attack those ships. That's right, any ID. That way there's a lot more activity around them, and it opens the potential for a rise in navy/military faction membership. If there was actually something to defend in real time, it might create a situation that recruits players to the 'cause'.
But that means Separatists could actually launch raids into Liberty, attack a battleship or carrier, knock some damage off, and withdraw to RP about it. If they had their stuff together, they could still try to siege those ships without any need to have or move NPC bases around themselves, since you can still go on the offensive with player ships. In fact it would always be better to launch a surprise attack on an enemy battleship before making your own NPC warshi bases move into that system/area, so no one might see it coming until after you begin hostilities. The same goes for Rogues, Hackers (as participants), even the Unioners.
In Rheinland, under that rule situation, another player faction, even unofficial, could form under the RM ID and also begin attacking their own warships, starting a civil war. If all the rules first mentioned were in effect, they could also build a shipyard out of core 5 to earn the right to their own separate ID/IFF and their own capital ship NPC stations (or achieve officladom and the GM's could split a fleet based on RP done). I'm sure it would be reasonably slow, and possibly best done in secret. But, under the system, even a group of unofficial MND or RM players could form up, and begin attacking official controlled RM warship bases. In theory, we could make it so if they knock out any nearby defending RM battleships/cruisers close to a shipyard, they could take that shipyard.
Unioners would be in the same boat. If they could churn out some NPC battleships, and make the moves to move them into Hamburg, and up to Alster Shipyard, that would qualify to make a siege attempt on the station. (if people think the ore points for warship construction is too much, the other option is to let a faction like this with a shipyard simply get 1 capship base per month granted to them, up to their max,, so in 3 months they could save 3 battleship up, or if under attack regularly, get 1 ship a month to replace whats being lost).
That would mean that RM would have to move (order the moves via GM) their own NPC fleet, or some of thier static warships, over to the shipyard to 'cover' it form the Unioner advance. Whoever keeps their ships alive has advantage. If the Unioners took out the RM ship, GM's would then be the ones to clear a siege attempt on the station. Devs would be needed to replace the shipyard with the same model, except its a solar with huge HP like a Core 5, if they can't just give it an HP of a billion or so. Then the game comes down to if the Unioners could stop the RM and allies from taking out their npc base ships. All the while, players are the ones that fill the void on both sides attempting to knock out each other's stations first. Heck, RM could have spies watching Bering, and try to attack a Unioner battleship right out of the shipyard (first place they should be put is next to the shipyard obviously). The game would be on! This is how alliances are born inrp! Houses might actually want to make pacts with others to help each other out eventually.
How many ships Unioners might want to save up for an attack is up to them! They also have to keep in mind, that if they leave their own shipyard un-covered by at least 1 warship, LN or RM could be siegeing them while they attack somewhere else! So really, these attack scenarios come after factions get to really think about their situation. Once they have themselves sorted out and all their loose ends covered, they could try such an 'offensive'. REALLY, in many cases they will be stalemates, but at least there would be big battles formed eventually if allowed to unfold in such a way. Liberty also has other enemies, so like chess, once everyone has their ships sorted out, where they are, etc, it will be a while before any side makes a 'first move'. And of course, there's all the wicked RP in between that comes with it. RP with more depth!
People want the server to have lots of life, well that does it indeed, but yes it would take some work from everyone. The only thing to go with such a change is to advertise to players and potential players that there is a new avenue of time/RP investment going on here. Really it will probably take 3-6 months before anything serious materializes. At least for a while though factions have some reasons to get working on something which usually motivates players to get involved. First there will be a build up for some factions, then some naturally forming attacks.
Now there are some obvious possible problems like factions building up many ships in secret before attacking, and I like that idea but we should probably establish limits on factions based on lore and realistic capabilities. Unioners have a shipyard but where do they get the resources to build? I'm sure there's an answer, but one might infer Unioners could only deploy 5 battleships (static NPC ones) at a time because of their size (not including player ships though, they can still show up with as many player battleships as they like). That way they don't take over the server, as they have enough to cover their current territory, and potentially go on the offensive with some reasonable risk. And, that doesn't stop their players from still going on the offensive against the RM on their own. Maybe they'd want to try to eliminate any RM battleship in Hamburg or neaby systems before moving 2 of their own in. RM might see what they're planning, but if they are plagued by problems elsewhere, they may lose the shipyard for a while! They will also want to build up to their max, and for a House, I think I suggested 10 NPC battleships.
Really I think we're better off allowing these situations to develop and if things get too out of hand, a hard veto by devs can easily stop any unrealistic advances. Hopefully though, if worked out well, and the one I put down does reasonably well I think, it will balance itself out. Factions would for the first while have the jobs of keeping watch over their 'fleet' from random attacks. There's also no reason that once they get pumped out of the shipyard, they can't order them to a secret location a week later to stay safe until they are needed. Or we could add a 'double move' earnable by 500 units of Scidata, which would let you bypass a week sitting near a shipyard, and could just move it to a secret spot right away. Then factions actually would have secrets again! To protect, or be investigated by other factions. Intelligence factions would have things to do again! Navies would have to routinely check their ships for damage and either ship stuff in to repair, or if an effort could be made on making repair ships repair those solars, we'd have yet another sub-industry, like repair companies, able to sprout up. LN could just contact out repairs to a corporation or FL group.
So I'm not saying I like or support civil wars but I still support the idea that adding this new dynamic will give us a lot more to do, and should generate some activity by declare a whole new field of possibilities. No engine changes necessary, just the use of solars, and moving around NPC battleships/cruisers at regular intervals (turns). Normally I hate turn based anything but for these big moves it still works just fine, like it would take X amount of time for the ship to move around anyways. Everything that goes on otherwise is still all real time battling as its always been here.
Everyone should take this system and apply it to YOUR faction of choice, and think about how it might work for/against. What would your chances be? Personally, I think if people hear we've gone more in depth with the sandbox and player driven scenarios, people will feel that drive to get invovled again!