A starbase, or POS (player-owned starbase), is a collection of semi-permanent structures that can be anchored to a moon. As of Crius expansion starbases can be deployed in any system with only several specific exceptions (eg. Jita system). At most one starbase may be anchored to any moon at a time.
Why Have a Starbase
Starbases give corporations a way to set up a staging point, or even a kind of "mini-space station" in remote or strategically important areas. A starbase is always anchored on behalf of a player-run corporation by an individual member of that corporation.
The first thing a corporation should do when considering putting up a starbase is to figure out what need that starbase will fill.
POS Provide multiple Benefits to players, such as:
You can see all the options starbase structures can offer in the market tool, under Structures > Starbase section. Make sure to uncheck “Show Only Available” to get a full listing of all the items.
All Starbases centre around a Control tower. Control Towers provide:
To provide above Control Tower consume fuel.
There are both Empire and Faction versions of each tower, along with three difference sizes, Small, Medium and Large, totaling 42 towers. The main differences between each tower are:
Large Towers provide the largest Force Shield Size and the most Power/CPU to operate the most structures at once, but also consume the most fuel. Faction towers have more shield hit points and use less fuel. Each faction version also has special bonuses:
To Anchor a Control tower, a member of your corporation must be at the desired Moon with the control tower located in their Cargo hold. This character will need to have the Anchoring skill to at least level 1 and have the Corporation Role Config Starbase Equipment. If you are anchoring your tower in high sec system, the pilot will also need to have one of the correct Starbase Charters in their cargohold before being allowed to anchor the tower.
When you Anchor the tower, it will 'jump' to a pre-defined location, sometimes this will be extremely close to your current location, but this can also sometimes be over 50km Away. Make sure to Bookmark your tower after you begin the anchoring process. The anchoring process takes a different amount of time depending on the tower size and type (A small pirate Faction tower will anchor very quickly, where as a Large Standard tower will take a lot longer)
Different Starbase structures take different amounts of times to Anchor, Unanchor and Online. All modules (including the tower) can be offlined instantly so be very careful not to turn off your control tower!
Starbases require a supply of Fuel in order to keep the tower, structures and Force Shield online. If at any time your Control Tower runs out of fuel, all of its structures including defensive weapons and the shield protecting interior structures such as Mobile Laboratories will shut down.
There are four different types of Fuel Blocks, one representing each of the main EVE Factions. Every hour your Starbase will Cycle and consume fuel (and any Moon Harvesters/Reactions will also take place at this same time). The amount of fuel required per hour varies depending on the type and size of tower. You also receive an additional reduced fuel bonus when your tower is in space owned by your Alliance.
As of Inferno 1.3, Calendars will now show the correct fuel values remaining for POS towers in empire space.
Starbase Fuel Blocks  are created using Blueprints, either a Space Station or an Ammo Assembly Array. The Materials needed for these come from Ice Harvesting and Planetary Interaction, thus it is possible for a player to create the fuel for their Starbase from scratch themselves in theory. A single production run takes approximately ten minutes and will produce 40 blocks (enough to operation one large empire tower for 1 hour) and takes up 5m3 Each. Each manufacturing job requires:
Finally, if you want to set up your POS in highsec you need the correct Starbase Charter.
Faction POS receive a 10% and 20% reduction for tier1 and tier2 respectively.
Sovereignty holders receive a 25% fuel bonus.
Components of a Starbase
Besides the Control Tower itself, the structures you can anchor can be split into six main categories for ease of understanding:
Only Offensive structures are placed outside of the protective Force Shield, while Shield Hardeners, Assembly arrays and such remain safely within. For more detailed information on specific structures, see Starbase Structures
Turrets are one of the most widely used offensive starbase modules available. These turrets behave in exactly the same way that the turrets on a starship would, except that they are not dependent upon a player for targeting or the command to fire. Part of their popularity is their lack of need for CPU, which means that they continue to remain active even if the POS they're anchored to is reinforced.
Weapon turrets can be manually controlled by players as well. To assume control of an offensive battery (weapon or EW), one needs to be a member of the corporation that owns the starbase, have the Starbase Defense Operator role, have the Starbase Defense Management skill to at least level 1 and be within 15000km of the control tower itself.
Missile Batteries are less used as their requirement of CPU to operate means they will deactive when a tower is reinforced.
Other Defensive StructuresECM, Warp Disruption, Statis Webification and Energy Neutralizers.
Mobile LaboratoriesMobile Laboratories function in exactly the same way as lab slots found in space stations, but have a smaller number of slots. Laboratories allow players to move research to a remote location where it may be more useful to their needs, or when public research slots are scarce to come by. To use a lab, you can either store the blueprint in the lab itself, or store it in an NPC station within the same solar system. You'll need the skill Scientific Networking to run the research remotely from the station, but it keeps the blueprints safe.
There are many more modules such as those used for moon mining, general support (Such as |Ship Maintenance Arrays], and those used by Alliances as part of their infrastructure.
Players can assume control of offensive starbase structures and use them on specific targets. In order to be able to control a starbase structure the player needs to meet the following prerequisites (assuming he or she is already a member of the corporation that owns the starbase):
Structures that can be controlled by players include weapon batteries (both turret and missile), EW batteries, and energy neutralizing batteries. All batteries must be anchored outside the shield.
While the player controls one or more starbase structure he loses control over his own ship and cannot move or warp away. He has to relinquish control of all the structures before he can regain control over his ship and be able to move.
In order to assume control of one or more structures, the player can either select the structure(s) and use the right-click menu option “Assume control” or select the structure(s) from the management panel of the control tower, under Structures. To give up control of one or more controlled structure, select “Relinquish control” from the right-click menu.
Each starbase will require a certain amount of setup and management, the exact amount of each will depend entirely upon what you want the starbase to do. The management of a starbase is always handled at the control tower. You can access the management options for the starbase by right clicking the control tower and selecting manage.
Force Field Settings
A starbase force field is only active if there has been a password set. What this means is that if you just deploy the control tower and set no password, there will be no force field to keep other players from entering your starbase and taking any ships or unanchored objects that you have left within the range of the force field, or even attacking the ships and structures.
Force field range will vary by the size of the tower, growing larger as the size of the tower grows, up to a 30km radius.
Once you have selected the Management option you will, by default, be at this tab.
Listed you will find the following options and information:
The defense setting tab will determine the criteria by which the tower will attack people nearby.
You will find the following options:
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