Anchoring structures

This article covers the basics of anchoring large player owned structures, such as Citadels and Engineering Complexes.

Anchoring a structure

In order to anchor a structure, such as a citadel, you'll need a ship with an appropriately sized cargo hold or fleet hangar, the right roles and a suitable spot to anchor your citadel.

Ship restrictions

You'll need to ensure that your ship has enough cargo hold or room in its fleet hangar to carry the packaged structure.

Citadels:

• The medium Astrahus is 8k m3 packaged and fits in Blockade Runners).
• The large Fortizar is 80k m3 packaged and fits in cargo-fitted Orcas).
• The extra-large Keepstar is 800k m3 packaged and fits in Freighters).

Role restrictions

In order to anchor a structure you'll need the role of Station Manager, alternatively be a Director or CEO of your corporation. Additionally the role of Config Starbase Equipment is needed to manage these structures in the Structure Browser.

Placement restrictions

While you can anchor these structures mostly anywhere, there are a few restrictions both to which systems can have them and where (in space) you can place them.

• Citadels cannot be anchored in shattered wormhole systems (including Thera).
• Citadels cannot be anchored in starter systems.
• Citadels cannot be anchored in trade hubs (Jita, Amarr etc.).
• Citadels cannot be anchored in deadspace pocket.
• Citadels must be placed between 50-75km away from the anchoring ship dependent on citadel size.
• Citadels must be anchored at least 1000km away from an existing station, citadel or asteroid belts.
• You can move the anchoring position on the x and z axis. To move the position on the Y-axis, move the anchoring ship.
• Anchoring a citadel at a moon is possible but there is only a small area where it is considered valid placement (this is due to the old POS-anchoring mechanics as shown here).

Placing the structure

Once a location is selected you can begin by right-click the packaged structure and selecting Launch for Corporation from the structure's context menu.

From the Deployment menu you can now move the outline of the structure around and rotate it. As structures such as citadels cannot be unanchored or repositioned care should be taken to ensure the citadel is in an optimal position, once finished proceed by pressing the Position button.

This is an example of a bad position for a citadel, where the Position-button is greyed out.

Once you've found the right spot, simply click the Position-button.

Setting up the profile and vulnerability timer

In the final menu you are now asked to set the Structure Name, Profile and Vulnerability Hours. Profiles define the permissions allowed to different groups or individuals such as docking permissions however these are configured in the Structure Browser and new profiles can be assigned at anytime with the appropriate roles/permissions.

Vulnerability Hours are the periods that the structure can be attacked with each slot representing one hour, each size of citadel has a different amount of vulnerability slots that must be selected before it can be anchored this is also indicated in the bottom right corner of the menu.

• The Astrahus requires you to pick 3 slots.
• The Fortizar requires you to pick 6 slots
• The Keepstar requires you to pick 21 slots

Anchoring timer (a.k.a. time to build)

With that complete your citadel will begin a 24 hour anchor timer that it is invulnerable throughout with the citadel slowly being constructed, while anchoring the citadel will appear on the overview and directional scan.

Anchoring in Sov Null

If a citadel is anchored in a Sov Null system which isn't owned by your alliance the anchoring will take an extra 24 hours per level of Strategic Index (not to be confused with Activity Defense Multiplier which is linked to the Strategic Index but not the same thing) for that system. So for a system with zero Strategic Index the anchoring would take the standard 24 hours; but a system with a Strategic Index of 3 would take 94 hours (24 hours + 3x(24 hours)).

Initial repair of armour and shields

Once anchoring completes the structure will enter a 15 minute repair window where the citadel has no shields or armour. During this period the citadel is vulnerable and can be destroyed. Until this initial repair window finishes it is not possible to fit any modules or rigs to the structure. Once completed the citadel will now be fully operational and begin to follow the vulnerability times that have been set at the time of deployment.