This comes up from time to time - I've even brought it up myself on occasion.
I do love the idea of being able to stake out a small plot on some ball of rock somewhere.
I'm pretty sure I recall hearing that David Braben fellow comment before that this could be interesting as well... but....
One of the things that has always been stressed is that we, as characters, are not meant to become station administrators or landlords. We are not to make any sort of residual income from any non-activity, like owning a bit of property. And I support this position very much.
A player-owned "base", be it a plot on a planet or a hollowed out rock in an asteroid field, should not produce income.
It should not be usable by anyone but the owner.
It should not be subject to attack.
And I also concur, this would be something far more useful when we are able to stand up and walk around. These would easily become a veritable gold-mine for selling Cosmetics - furnishings, decorations, even architectural objects, as well as a personal display of achievements - decorations and trophies for completing various tasks, missions and CG participation.
People often sight a lack of permanence or persistence as an issue - and I counter this by saying "There are planetary installations that are permanent" and spawning POI's can be found by multiple players. The solution lies is clever coding. Let's consider:
I have a mission, to scan a planetary installation for data. I travel to that location, play tag with a Search Area marker. Eventually I find what I'm looking for and land there. Now I send a message to someone else "Hey, come see what I've found." They fly out to where I am, locate me, and land nearby. We both see the same structure that spawned for me, at the same location. Player facilities could be handled in a very similar method - once "established", they could fake their persistence simply by spawning when someone is in their vicinity.
Another viable option comes from another game - Entropia Universe. In that place, there are facilities available, from time to time, and I'll skip over all the how's and when's and why's. These locations simply exist, and you either own a deed for one and can use it, or you don't and you can simply visit. Player facilities could be handled in a similar manner - by placing a number of units available on any given location. If you want a place on Achenar 3, here's a listing of available property. This requires less clever coding to pull off, but does address the issue of persistence easier.
Personally, I like the clever coding method - and even if it were to take an entire server cycle (thursday - thursday) for these to become persistent sites, I'm sure we could all live with that. Give the team time to make sure the selected location does not confirm to a johnson formation or tata formation, or other undesirable figure when viewed from above, and make it happen. Ensure one player's "claim" does not overlap another, with first-claimed, first-priority handling, and we'd have a viable system.
I just don't expect to see anything done with this until very near the end of the development road.
