Out of curiosity of someone who never had one what was the appeal of PoBs in the first place for you?
This is a thoughtful question. Worthy of a respectful answer. So lets keep this thread respectful and no flaming, trolling, of personal snipes. Don't muddy the waters with your negativity, but maybe reflecting on things said and what makes PoB owners tick.
For me I loved the exotic nature and mystery behind PoB's and how they could be so much fun! I am not a PvP player, and would never be good enough. Exploring is a little boring for me. And due to the time zone, planned events I rarely could get to. I was, however notorious as a solo Junker in smuggling Alien Artifacts through Liberty space!
But I loved making PoB's and developed RP characters according to where I would want to see them built. Yes I did things wrong, made my mistakes and owned my stuff-ups. St Denis was ever so patient!
But whether is is a ratbag with a scrapyard, a drama-queen entrepreneurial publican, or a businessman running a big corporation, PoB's became an anchor for being in the game, the most important reason or purpose for my characters raison d'etre - their existence.
Way to make a profit, as intermediate commodity holder, or as module manufacturing
Personal item transfer/chest, this is not always comfortable to ask conn transfer 10 times per day, with PoB I can transfer items as much as I wish
Considering how much time it is involved in them, I'm interested in making analyses and finding ways to minimize, making shortcuts to build it easier than normally it is done.
Motivation. Considering their requirements for investment in credits, time, and roleplay. They make a ladder of roleplay activity, diplomacy (if the person wishes to go beyond core 2 of course), which I keep going to reach the highest core.
Or just they are useful tools, to 'turn' odds in some cases to my favor. temporal Core 1 PObs are a good way for defense against player campers ;b And sometimes for NPC dealing they are needed also.
P.S. Temporal Core 1 PoBs there's no any meaning to upgrade, considering they would be destroyed anyway, and they are toooooo far from being supplied in any reasonable time. I prefer upgrading only PoBs near industrial centers.
I use a pob as another layer of pvp. A hidden base holding contraband is a base around which I can mindgame players hunting me. And make no mistake, if people smell blood in the water, you can be sure they’ll be toasting s’mores over Manhattan. Having a hidden, or if you feel really ballsy, legal POB on the smuggling route means you can completely shut down the low-effort campers, leaving only people greedy enough to actively search for you. (Busting smugglers is a zero-sum game, the lawful wants his contraband and fine, and if he gets you first, jackpot, otherwise he walks away with nothing because another lawful caught you.)
A temp POB near a Lane or npc base out of which one bases a transport of piratical intent is also a nice toy because I can switch to another transport to fence the goods. Not that particularly high-profit, but sometimes you are in a good mission zone but too many people are docked, so you can still shoot things for spoils, or know you are on a well-traveled route and want an even quicker fence for high-value cargo (that, again, your more legal transport can haul)
A mission loot POB is now pretty much worthless, except in one specific circumstance: Group mission running and the base is closer to the mission zones than the npc base the group is taking the missions from.
Note that in most of the examples, I am treating a pob as a utility that is easily replaced. Manufacturing POB owners, bless their souls, have far more free time than I, or presumably most players, and I want to spend my free time playing Disco playing a 3D space shooter or a few rounds of cat and mouse, so I have neither the time nor the patience to manufacture anything.
(I have no idea what this “RP” business is all about.)
I was owning a POB in Omicron Tau, Estremadura Base, for a while was an administrator of Iskra Outpost and currently own another POB I use for RP+ooRP purposes. With two years of experience around Discovery, I want to say that POB mechanics are outdated and should be somehow reviewed.
Perhaps it was normal when 255/255 was a thing and transports could abuse JD4 carrier but now it is not and, shall we say, POBs takes too much of time with giving less effort. It's not just money sink if you want people to supply it, it's also cancerous Tamagotchi that is gonna eat 2/3 of your free time, on not all 100%, if you dare to make one and do things required for making it live.
POBs have reason to exist as at least RP projects but most of the pobs around have no Infocard. It's literally a bunch of boxes in space that will never go above core-1 or core-2 and that is a problem.
I believe, that POBs should not be the only reason to play this mod as if you are interested in such things you may pay your attention to games like Factorio or Space Engineers, because Disco's POBs, as I said, outdated, takes too much time and giving minimal effort as well as having no impact to the story (I believe that core-3+ pobs should become part of the story but this is additional bureaucracy while we are already living in the system of extremely overdone bureaucracy)
Thank you for the answers and starting the thread
I think we have enough threads about balance and what the issues are with PoBs
As a newer player I feel actively discouraged from going anywhere near even trying to build one or help running one - it's nice to have a place to see the view of people that actually like PoBs without the back and forth drama
Build one in Liberty, register it, have fun.
Build one in Gallia, register it, have fun.
If you want to own a PoB, build it somewhere where you have enough active lawful players (Indies and officials) who could protect your PoB if someone is trying to siege it. (Bonus: Pay them cash for every kill they get while defending your PoB)
(06-18-2020, 08:11 AM)Relation-Ship Wrote: Thank you for the answers and starting the thread
I think we have enough threads about balance and what the issues are with PoBs
As a newer player I feel actively discouraged from going anywhere near even trying to build one or help running one - it's nice to have a place to see the view of people that actually like PoBs without the back and forth drama
As a new player, you shouldn’t be even touching POBs. A POB is a group effort, and a group effort that will eat up literal weeks of people’s time. POB feeding as an introduction to discovery is a vast disservice to a new player, who should instead be spreading their wings and seeing what there is.
As a new player, you shouldn’t be even touching POBs. A POB is a group effort, and a group effort that will eat up literal weeks of people’s time. POB feeding as an introduction to discovery is a vast disservice to a new player, who should instead be spreading their wings and seeing what there is.
Temporal Core 1 PoBs which aren't going to be upgraded can be actually made by new players.
There's also some nice.... way/spot where they can be upgraded super fast to serve as just Core1 Personal Chests.
But serious PoBs from Core2+ and higher should be touched only by players having at least 2-4 billion credits under their hand indeed.
(06-18-2020, 08:15 AM)Paul S. Wrote: Build one in Liberty, register it, have fun.
Build one in Gallia, register it, have fun.
If you want to own a PoB, build it somewhere where you have enough active lawful players (Indies and officials) who could protect your PoB if someone is trying to siege it. (Bonus: Pay them cash for every kill they get while defending your PoB)
#EzPoBGuide
There are lawful players to defend it in Gallia? Huh. Anyway, Gallia has too uncomfortable taxing ways. Liberty is better in money taxing and lawful defense than Gallia.
To me, POB is an opportunity for expansion into deeper space,
A possibility of infinite possibilities ... It can be a shop, a headquarters, a hideout, a stronghold, a diplomatic embassy or an industrial complex
It can be more .. it can be a research institute.. a mining depot ...
It is an activity enhancer, a chance for creativity ... It is endless possibilities called "ROLE PLAY".