Paying The Piper

Good evening fellow exiles. This is George Stuckey for ISN with some sad news to report about some privately owned settlements.

Today saw the closure of two settlements due to staff refusing to continue operations. Located at Germantova in the Hexham system, Tyrions Tavern BH as well as Mull of Kintyre on Quettin in the Elmquae system officially closed up shop as of today. Per standard procedure, the contents of the settlements were confiscated by local authorities. When contacted regarding the issue, staff from both settlements cited excessively low morale due to unsafe working conditions as the reason for leaving and subsequent closure.

For a bit of perspective on this, starting from the date settlement ownership was opened to private captains, 55 settlements including the two from today have been closed for varying reasons. According to public records, that currently leaves 181 settlements still in operation out of a total of 236 that have opened their doors to the public.

The largest threat to public and staff safety at settlements has been combat against the various roaming pirate fleets with 17,653 combats having been recorded to date.

While this news is seen as loss for the time being due to the closure of additional ports of call and loss of the promenade shops normally found there, it also represents an opportunity for other enterprising captains to open up their own settlement and reap the hefty financial rewards associated with ownership of such an installation. To the future owners, we here at ISN wish the best of luck.