Starbase Defense Management

Starbase Defense Management

How do I set up and manage my starbase's defenses?

Setting up and maintaining a starbase is a serious responsibility and knowing how to defend a starbase from attacks is a very valuable asset. Starbases form the backbone of alliance claims on solar systems and offer many lucrative options for production and research for anyone willing to invest the time and ISK necessary. A poorly managed and defended starbase is a serious liability to an alliance's defense grid and can mean hours of time and hundreds of millions of wasted ISK.

Basic Concepts
All defensive structures at a control tower are either passive or active.

Passive structures only affect the starbase itself and do not make any direct impact on pilots that may be attacking the starbase. This includes but is not limited to Shield Hardening Arrays, Tracking Arrays and other similar structures. Passive structures can not be controlled by a pilot and will continue giving their bonus until they are disabled. Passive structures are anchored inside the control tower force field.

Active structures can affect attacking forces in some direct way and many of them can be directly controlled by a pilot with the prerequisite skills. Active structures must be anchored outside of the control tower force field. If not under direct control of a pilot, active structures will revert back to the defensive parameters set on the control tower they are anchored at. This includes but is not limited to all weapon batteries, all electronic warfare batteries, cynosural field jammers, energy neutralizer arrays and other similar structures that can have a direct impact on other pilots.

Configuring The Control Tower's Force Field Parameters
When you first set up your control tower you must configure the force field settings of the tower. Once you have configured the force field settings to your satisfaction you must click on the Apply button in the lower right corner of the window to activate the force field. Not doing so may leave your starbase force field wide open to hostiles, thieves, squatters and worse. Once the settings have been applied the status should change to "This Force Field Is Active".

When active, the force field is a safe haven for anyone within its boundaries. If you are within a starbase force field you can not be targetted and hostile area of effect weapons can not affect you. Note that this includes the tower itself, in effect the tower can not attack someone within its own force field even if the pilot fulfills any of the tower's defensive parameters.
(Note that the field will only protect your ships from damage and keep hostiles from entering. It will not protect against anyone that can enter the field normally that might have long fingers and take a fancy to your ship.)

You access the options for the force field configuration by right clicking on the control tower and selecting the Manage option. In the control tower window you need to open up the Force Field tab. The following options and information is available in the Force Field tab.

• Status
  This line will tell if the control tower's force field is active or inactive.
• Password
  You can set a password to the force field by typing into the fields. This can be helpful when use of the starbase should be restricted to only a few members of a corporation or if people from other corporations need to be given access to the starbase. Note that the passwords are case sensitive.
• Restriction Masks
  Options checked here can allow or restrict access to the force field to whole groups. Currently you can allow or restrict access to the entire corp that owns the control tower or the entire alliance the corporation is a member of.

Configuring The Control Tower's Defensive Parameters
You can configure how your control tower will react to pilots that may appear near it. All active and automated defenses of the tower will follow these instructions to the absolute letter. These parameters do not apply to active structures that are under the direct control of a pilot. The structure will have to be anchored and online in order to be able to react to hostiles.

NOTE: If a pilot in range of the tower fulfills ANY of the criteria for the tower to attack the tower will open fire regardless of other parameters. In effect the tower is constantly looking for any excuse to open fire on you, keep this in mind when configuring it.

You access the options for the defense parameters of the tower by right clicking on the tower and then selecting the Manage option. In the control tower window you need to open up the Defense tab. The following options and information is available in the Defense tab.

• Attack If Standing Lower Than
  If this option is enabled, the control tower's defense algorithm will consider anyone, with standings lower than the value entered to the tower's owners, a hostile. This option is not available to starbases in high security space (0.5+). This is counted from the corporation owning the Control Tower to the highest corporation or alliance standings of the foreign entity warping near the tower. Please note that personal standings from the corporation to an individual pilot do not count for this purpose.
• Attack If Security Status Below
  If this option is enabled, the control tower's defense algorithm will consider anyone, with a security status lower than the value entered, a hostile. This option is not available to starbases in high security space (0.5+)
• Attack If Our Standing Is Dropping
  If this option is enabled, the control tower's defense algorithm will consider anyone, whose standing with the tower's owner is currently dropping, a hostile. Note that this will only work directly from corporation to a pilot. Not from corporation to corporation. This is counted from the corporation owning the Control Tower to the highest personal/corporation/alliance standings of the foreign entity warping near the tower.
• Attack If Other Security Status Is Dropping
  If this option is enabled, the control tower's defense algorithm will consider anyone whose, security status is currently dropping, a hostile. Warning: this does not mean the security status itself has to be negative. As long as there is a decrease, you will be a valid target for the batteries.
• Attack If Aggression
  If this option is enabled, the control tower's defense algorithm will consider anyone who has performed any act of aggression within the last 15 minutes a hostile. Warning: this includes all form of aggression, from NPC attacks or engaging corporation members. This is thus a very dangerous setting.
• Attack If At War
  If this option is enabled, the control tower's defense algorithm will consider anyone who has an active war with the owners of the control tower a hostile.

Further Note!
Remember that the tower's defenses can not target and attack anything that is within the starbase force field. As an example, you could have it set to open fire on anyone with aggression. Then you would engage in combat somewhere in the system. If you warp to the tower and land inside the force field you will be alright, if you warp to the tower and land outside the force field the tower will consider you a hostile and open fire as per its defensive protocol. This means a tower can and will attack its own owners if its settings are configured to and they are outside of the force field. You have been warned.

Taking Control: Operating Active Defenses
To be able to take direct control over starbase defenses you need the skill Starbase Defense Management at level 1 minimum. Each level of this skill will let you take control of one additional structure to a maximum of five structures. You will need to be within 15000 meters of the control tower in order to be able to utilize this option.

• How do I take control of a structure?
  To take control of a defensive structure you can right click on the structure in question and select take control. You can also take control of a structure by selecting it in the Control tab in the control tower management window and then clicking on the Assume Control button. It is accessible by right clicking on the control tower and then selecting the Manage option. In the control tower window you need to open up the Structures tab and then you can select the Control tab.
• How do I stop controlling a structure?
  To relinquish control of a defensive structure you can right click on the structure icon at the bottom of your screen, then go to the source menu and from there select the Relinquish Control option. You can also do this by clicking on the structure in the Control tab in the control tower window and then click on the Relinquish Control button.
• What will happen to my ship while I am in control of a structure?
  Note that once you take control of a structure your ship will no longer be able to move until you have relinquished control of all structures. Your ship's modules, shield, armor and structure status will also be unavailable to you and replaced by information regarding the structures you are controlling.
• How do I start directing the structures to do their job once I am in control?
  Once you have taken control of a structure you can start using it against ships outside of the starbase force field. In order to be able to activate a structure on a target you will need to command the structure to lock the target first. To do so you left click on the structure at the bottom of your screen, which should give you a targeting recticle. Then you simply have to left click on any target outside of the starbase force field and the structure will start locking the target. Note that you can use your overview to do this.
  
  Important note: Structures take time to lock a target depending on their Scan Resolution value, just like normal ships do. A small weapon battery might lock a battleship in a few seconds while a large weapon battery might require a couple of minutes to do the same thing. You can view the structure's Scan Resolution value in the attributes tab in their information windows.
  
  When the structure has locked the target you will see the target's hit points and distance from the structure right above the structure's information at the bottom of your screen. To activate the structure simply left click on the structure at the bottom of your screen.
  

Surviving The Siege: Reinforced Mode!
Starbases that are taking massive amounts of damage have the ability to shut down all but the most important features of the control tower and surrounding structures to massively reinforce its shields.

• What happens during reinforced mode?
  The starbase force field becomes invulnerable to all damage but will no longer recharge itself to repair damage done to it.
  The starbase control tower starts to burn fuel, strontium clathrates.
  All structures requiring CPU will go offline and they can not be brought back online until the force field integrity is 50% or above again.
• How does a starbase enter reinforced mode?
  If the force field drops down to 25% shield integrity it will automatically enter reinforced mode if there are enough strontium clathrates in the control tower for at least 1 hour of reinforced mode.
• What can we do during reinforced mode?
  Structures that require no CPU to operate will still function. Additionally you can still target and remote repair defensive structures that are not inside the force field of the control tower and attempt to bring them online. Additionally, you may anchor structures at the control tower during reinforced mode.
• What happens when the starbase comes out or reinforced mode?
  The control tower will go online again. Any structures that went offline will have to be onlined again manually once the force field integrity is back at 50% or higher. The tower can be targetted normally and shields will start to recharge again.

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