The concept behind Citadels and other Upwell structures is fantastic. In the sandbox, giving players a whole wealth of new toys they can assemble and defend – it’s quintessential Eve Online.
Something almost all players can agree on is that the execution leaves a lot to be desired – most complaints are about the structures timer systems and defences.
One aspect often neglected for discussion is Citadel positioning – not mere alignment when deploying, but exactly where in a solar system a Citadel can be anchored.
As is my habit, I like to look back at what used to be and how it compares.
In the past, the biggest player structures – Outposts (nullsec conquerable player deployed stations) and POS (Player owned structures) had very strict limitations when it came to geography. Outposts could only be deployed at planet warp-in (and was limited to one per system) and POS were anchorable only at the rough warp-in point of moons.
What did this mean for combat?
For a start, the severe limitation on numbers gave fixed limited real estate. It wasn’t possible to, in some systems, set up your own sandcastle unless you knocked one over beforehand and took the plot it rested on. This, in my mind, was a very positive aspect to the game – it limited the potential grind of sheer numbers of structures for an attacker, and for a defender, it limited the options an attacker had to establish a foothold.
In today’s Upwell world, real estate means nothing – no limit to squabble over, and no limit to the size of an inhabitant’s base.
Another geographical aspect has been affected as well – without the limit of location, players can have a giant amount of control over gates in solar systems by anchoring a base directly ahead of a stargate – allowing the owner to deploy forces in seconds to one of most important combat locations in New Eden – greatly limiting field control options of the attacker. This was another loss of depth and options for PvP in Eve today.