Using star system adjacency to provide base protection

Here's my take on how to address factions turtling in a single homebase in a single star system. Faction Points do not apply here at all. (This concept ties in with what I anticipate Schine's "Imperialist" role to be.)

I will be taking the current concept of faction homebase protection and extending it to star systems instead of individual space stations. If a system is protected, all of the faction's stations (and allied stations) within become protected and invulnerable, just like our current homebase protection. Ships in the area only gain protection if they are docked with a station, and are otherwise vulnerable.

First off, the faction's home system (whatever system contains their homebase) is always protected. The only way this system can become vulnerable is for the faction to relocate their homebase.

Next, here's how extra systems can gain protection. Star systems are cubes with 6 faces. Other star systems gain protection if all 6 of their cube faces are in contact with faction territory, or with allied faction territory. If any of the faces connects with uncontrolled, neutral, or enemy territory, that system is NOT protected and its stations are vulnerable.

This encourages factions to conquer territory in large, contiguous blobs. All of the stations in the interior are fully protected. Only the outer edges can be taken out. This also focuses the need for defense along the faction borders. The interior does not need much protection, only enough to protect starships before they can dock to a protected station if that's an issue.

This also encourages factions to ally together for protection, since you can gain system protection by being surrounded by ally systems! However, if that ally status goes away...both sides could suddenly be very vulnerable!

Combat will be more predictable (and defensible) since this focuses where you must assault your enemies during a faction war. You will have to "carve" a path into enemy territory to cut them down. You can't just jump into the middle of their territory and be able to take it. (You could, however, take a fleet deep into enemy territory and damage their shipping and fleets. Just not their stations.)

This also encourages players to band into factions. It might be feasible for a resourceful single-man faction to have enough NPC fleets to protect a very large cluster of systems...but obviously it's far easier if you have other players to help you.

Finally, there are two settings which should be server-configurable.

• Number of system faces for protection: Defaults to 6. But if it's set to a lower value, it becomes possible to have "strings" or "fingers" of connected systems instead of one large blob. Drop this to 1 and basically all your systems can be protected, for a more "peaceful" server. Or set it to 7 which is unattainable and the system pretty much becomes what we have now.
  
• System Protection Timer: Defaults to 0. This means if a protected system loses a connected face, it immediately loses protection. But this can be adjusted so that, for example, it takes 5 minutes before the system loses protection. This could be used to give players a chance to counter-attack, scramble defenses, or just make faction wars take longer.

Anyway, the idea behind this is to add some more strategy to the way factions war with each other, while simultaneously allowing factions to expand beyond a single invulnerable homebase in relative safety.

I specifically said that your home star system is ALWAYS fully protected. You do not need to establish adjacent territory for that one.