I'll start this off with a wild idea...
Make Geira Rutilus and Deneb "contested" Serco space, make Eo Gray space with a Corvus presence and make Cantus and Metana "contested" Itani space.
Make the monitoring of Betheshee and Setalli Shinas automatic (as monitored space is now), make the monitoring of the "contested" systems dependent on NPC monitoring-ship presence as suggested by Toshiro.

This would equal out Itani and Serco space and make it very dangerous for Serco to get Itani favor and vice-versa.

Wild ideas but plausible i guess:
1. Make Geira Rutilus, Deneb and Jallick Grey space.
2. Take away the UIT and itani (especially the one at Edras L2) stations in grey.
3. Give Helios to the serco.

Another wild idea....

Betheshee and Geira Rutilus become Itani space again.

Ok from the previous thread, here is my idea:

I think Edras B-11 being unmonitored would be cool, both would be even cooler, that would make traders that have to go from Uit-land to Itani-land have to cross a dangerous area, similar to Uit that want to go to Serco land :) Along that train of thought poofing the Uit station in Ukari back inside would accomplish the same thing, give a bit of danger while still keeping nation space relatively safe for the new players. Easy to do and goes along with what Inc suggested :)

Place the WH's in Latos that lead to Ukari and Azek in the same *sector, and let that be an unmonitored hub for criminal activity.

ok. this is not sweet.
i log in after quite a while of being away, only to realize that verasi has been stolenz from me!!!

please remove all UIT and Itani station from greyspace, plz, k, thx.

i needs me some meat!

YARRRRR

Ok, let's not go too far afield on converting whole systems to new factions. The original issue was having grayspace "choke points" to allow piracy of factional convoys in unmonitored space. Let's stick to the for the moment.

Changing whole systems and making more "conflict" oriented regions is coming, but I'd rather keep this discussion narrow, as these monitored/unmonitored changes I will probably do this week.

I think Edras I2 and B11 are really the only things that need to be unmonitored.

However, as an idea, what if instead Divina O11 and Jallik C2 were guarded by stations, similar to the openness of Deneb. Jallik would still be Itani occupied, but not necessarily guarded on the grey space wormhole.

-Nautargos

I think Edras I2 and B11 are really the only things that need to be unmonitored.

i agree.
give us edras plz :P

maybe a lil' ukari too

Well, Katrina summed it all up, and I can only support her:

Move "Edras Crossroads" (Edras B11) to Verasi O7 (and change its name).

Remove "Eo's Welcome" (Edras I2).

Eventually, move a Verasi corp station in the Edras rodifields, to rebalance station population a bit.

Remove "Helios Outpost" (Helios B7).

Remove "Caelestis Watch" (Ukari L2). Or move it to Azek I16.

This way, no greyspace wormhole will be monitored, while all nationspace border wormholes will be monitored.

I'd like such a setup. Would make sense. Gray = unmonitored, colored = monitored.

Removing Helios B7 and Ukari L2 is a bad idea. There needs to be two stations guarding the wormholes into the newbie capitols. Both are right next to grey space.

-Nautargos

There needs to be two stations guarding the wormholes into the newbie capitols.

Why?

AXIA ANNOUNCES GRAY SPACE EXPANSION

Axia Technology Corp (Dau stock exchange: ATC) has acquired Eo's Welcome station and its surroundings in Edras from the Itani Government. "This is a giant step in our expansion program" declared Bron Modarolis, CEO of Axia, "Eo's Welcome facilities allow us to substantially increase our production capabilities and its location is key to serve the Itani market where we are facing fierce competition on the market segment of light weapon systems".

The Itani withdrawal from Gray space does not come as a surprise for most geopolitics experts. According to the recent works of the UIT intergalactic strategic analysis agency, the costs of the redeployment of the Itani defence network deep into their nation space severely impacted their budget for other military operations and the Serco threats on the xithricite routes have been dramatically lowered over the last months, reducing the need for an outpost in Edras.

Well, replacing a nation station with a corp one will undoubtedly make the wh sectors MUCH more friendly/troublesome (depending on the viewpoint).

Losing standing with Itani, Serco or UIT is a mild annoyance.

Losing standing with Axia, etc. is like sitting naked on a cactus.

Uh, I severely disagree with having a subfaction station in I2. I thought the whole idea right now was to try and provide an alternative to Metana and Verasi.

And Syylk, without two stations, just about anyone can enter from grey space and slaughter all the newbs. There has to be some sort of defense for them.

-Nautargos

While now, with two stations in Helios/Pyronis and Ukari/Arta NOBODY enters nationspace from gray and slaughters newbies, right?

Or goes Latos H2 (unmonitored), Azek I16 (unmonitored), Azek J1 (unmonitored), Dau E15 (unmonitored) straight into the core of UIT without crossing a single wh station...

Double stations are no protection against newbie killing. Anyone who can get rid of a sf can get rid of two. The second sf, after the wh is utterly innocuous anyway.

Conversely, getting rid of any station in Edras I2 will provide a convenient blockade point for any guy wanting to make cheap kills out of blue newbs and traders, who have no alternative route to Gray. If that's the idea of "choke points", fine but that will be nasty.

I'd like to see a more hostile hive presence in the universe. Mostly they keep to themselves; you usually only see hive if you're deliberately looking for some. Adding some engagements between nation space could make the distance seem longer, and more interesting besides. Perhaps the hive should spontaneously assault certain unmonitored WH's at times, particularly between the Itani/Serco warfront, as to make the area seem that much more rugged and untamed, so to speak.

The Hive just needs to be more realistic, and then we will see it at WH.

Currently levis don't actually produce queens, queens don't actually produce bots/collect ores. Bots just appear from nowhere and warp away to nowhere. If bots were actually cruising to their queen and back, if queens were actually spawning new bots, then "hive expanding" would actually mean that a large group of bots are crossing WH sectors, but not appearing from vacuum in adjactent system

That is complete offtopic though :)

Oh, and I want to remind you, that Katrina's suggestion ownz. I am just too lazy to explain why

Right, remove Edras I-2, thus getting rid of a twin, but oh noes, not Helios B-7! Newbs need protection...

I agree fully with Katrina's suggestion.