We have news from CCP that will be affecting how our corp does business in the future. It involves the defense and viability of all player owned structures, especially medium sized structures. 

These changes can be found here, but we will break down the basics for you. 

When these changes take place all structures will lose their shield cap and all medium structures (Astrahus, Raitaru, Athanor) will lose an extra layer of protection as the final reinforcement phase between armor and hull will be eliminated. And, to add injury to insult, all medium structures will lose 75% of their hull points. Medium structures will have 100% more shield points added, but with the removal of the shield cap that should not be much of a deterrent for most fleets.

So what does that all mean for our corp? Well, let's break down what these changes do to our structures. 

First off, shield cap. As of now, when anyone attacks a structure, there is a cap in place on how much damage can be applied to a shield in a given period of time. Currently, medium structures have a max of loss of 5,000 hp per second. This means that a huge fleet with high dps weapons cannot knock down a shield in a matter of a few minutes. With this cap eliminated, a massive fleet of capital ships can knock even the largest structures' shields down quickly, leaving the defender little time to mount a defense. While being in a C2 we do not have to worry about capital ships, it could still be an issue if a large enough fleet concentrated power on our structure. But that is the least of our problems when it comes to these changes. 

The elimination of the last reinforcement phase affects us far worse. 

Our structures have been attacked in the past and we have been able to successfully defend them for the most part. Other times when we knew we could not defend our structures we have been able to get out most of our materials before they were destroyed. This was due mainly to the three tier defenses they had built into them.
Here is how that played out before the changes about to occur;

First, a successful attack would eliminate the shields, setting up a timer to reinforce the shield which would render the structure invulnerable to attack until the timer ran down. This tier went from 1.5 to 2 days, give or take a few hours, giving us a chance to mount a defense and/or evacuate what we could from the structure. 

The second attack worked the same as the first, except it would focus on taking down the structure's armor. At any time that the structure was not targeted a timer would begin and after about 10 minutes of not being targeted the structure would repair and be at full defensive strength again. But if the attack was successful, the structure would go into invulnerability mode again and the next timer would coincide with the time selected by the owner to start the next attack phase. This could be anywhere from 2-3 days and within just a few hours of the player's choice. 

The third phase would be the same as the first two, except the focus was on the hull. If the attack was successful this time the structure would be destroyed, dropping contents and core. In all, the attack and destruction of any structure could take from 4-6 days, with 5 days the norm. This gave the defending player plenty of time to mount a defense, negotiate with the attacker, or evacuate the structure. 

Now CCP has proposed to eliminate the third phase in all medium structures. Instead the shield and armor will be just one phase, with no reinforcement cycle between the two. Add to that the reduction of hull points by 75% and medium structures will collapse quickly once attacked by even a small, well armed fleet.

With the 3rd cycle eliminated all medium structures in wormhole space will have 1.5+ days to be destroyed, give or take a few hours. This means very little time to mount a defense, especially for smaller corps such as ourselves. It also means that the attacker will not have to tie up resources and pilots for an extended siege, but instead just log off and back on later to finish the job. 

One reason our corp, and so many other smaller corps have been able to survive in wh space, is the fact that most corps would not waste time or resources destroying structures just to destroy them. If the changes CCP has proposed go through, we are afraid this will no longer be the case. Even a lone pilot could log on when the structure is unmanned, knock down the shield, then call in his friends in a day or two to finish it off. It might even become a business, knocking down a shield then selling the location to the highest bidder to come finish it off. In any case medium structures in the wh will become a liability and not an asset to any small corp living in wh space. 

So how does that affect us? Well, as one of these small corps who have several medium structures in wh space it could mean our days are numbered as a wh corporation. Most of our players are part time pilots, which is what this corp was really designed for. Getting a defense up in a  matter of hours to defend our structures would be a daunting, if not an impossible task. While we can replace the structures relatively easily, it would be a waste of resources and money to put up something that will just be destroyed sooner than later. Some pilots have even begun to remove materials from our structures in case these changes take place in the near future. While we can’t recommend these moves, we do see the logic behind it.

So what are our options should these changes take place? At this time there are no plans to remove any structures from our wh. But be aware that if these changes do occur there will be no plans to replace these structures should they be destroyed. As a wh corp we still plan on making wh space our home, but it may look a little different in the future.

We have just a few viable options open to us at this point. 

First Option; Placing a POS in the wh instead of a citadel. While a POS does not offer all of the options that a citadel does, it can be equipped to do basic industry, science and discovery. It can provide docking and refitting for most ships and offer protection against attack. A POS’ defenses can attack even when no one is online, making them stronger than citadels in defensive power. What it cannot offer are clone bays, refinery or ore compression. The fuel cost is also much higher than a citadel, and remains the same no matter how many modules are online. The POS is a viable option and many old POS’ that have been built up and fortified are still in existence today due to the defensive firepower it provides and difficulty in bringing one down. POS’ have a invulnerability timer as well when the shields are knocked down, but will only last 24 hours if it is properly fueled. Since a POS has an active defense grid at all times you do not have to worry about the lone pilot knocking down the shields when no one is looking. 

Second Option; Placing a larger structure to replace our medium structures. We toyed with the idea of putting a larger structure in the wh since they are not affected by the removal of the third defensive layer. But at 80,000 m3 we could not figure out a way to get one into the wh. Even if we built one in the wh, we would still need a big enough ship to carry it out to anchor it. We would waste money building a ship big enough to carry the structure that could never leave the wh. 

Then one of our pilots, Drew, came up with the idea of a “cargo” Orca. With enough cargo extenders an Orca can carry 100,000 m3 of cargo. This would bring in any large structure into our wh, allowing it to be set up with no issues. The idea of a larger structure was back on the table.  The Fortizar is a large structure that has an impressive defense array. It has 5 hangers capable of carrying light and heavy fighters, three launcher hard points and five service modules slots. At a price of 14 billion, core included, it is a bit pricey for a small corp such as ours. Losing the Fortizar, especially during the anchoring phase, would bankrupt the corp and take weeks, if not months, to recover. 

The Azbel is the larger version of the Raitaru, With five service slots it could meet all the needs of our corp in just one package. The Azbel runs at around 4 billion, cheaper than the Fortizar, but its defensive capabilities are the same, if not lower, than the Astrahus. While it carries more armor and shields than any medium structure, with only 2 hard points and three hangers it would not be able to defend itself against a concentrated attack. Add to the the price of its core, which is 3 billion, the Azbel is a pricey replacement for the Astrahus and a juicy target for any corp wishing to add a few billion to their coffers.

The refinery Tatara is between the Azbel and Fortizar when it comes to defense. While it has the same defensive array as the Azbel,  it has 3 hard points, 4 fighter bays, and 5 service slots. With a total cost of 9 billion, core included, it is slightly higher in cost than the Azbel, but at least 5 billion less than the Fortizar. 

 

Final option; Leave wh space and seek our fortunes elsewhere. This has very lttle appeal to any of us. Since the corp was founded we strived to cut out a piece of EVE we could call our own. Wormhole space has afforded us such an opportunity. We have been a wormhole corp for years and we have strived to make it our home, with varied success. Our latest endevour has faired very well and we are comfortable in our new surroundings. Leaving this would be a blow to our corp and would mean we would have to start all over in the EVE universe. Being run out of wh space would be a blow to the corp and we would lose years of experience and dedication to making wh space our home.

While no decision has been made at this time, these are the options we are looking at. If none of these work out then we, as a corp, will have to seek other opportunities in EVE or disband and go our separate ways. No matter what we decide we plan on being a part of EVE for a long time yet to come.