(this reffers to a game with mostly "stock" settings, as in few or no gold edits etc.)
Has anyone ever tried removing the ISS completely in a game that actually got played much? How did it affect the overall balance of the game?
If it's never been tried in a game that was actually played, how about some speculation on what it might do to the balance of power.
It seems to me it could create a longer, more drawn out game, and could increase the number of evils, and hence total amount of credits and figs in the universe, as there's one less reason to be a goodie, but at the same time being able to twarp to fedspace is still a huge advantage, though lessened somewhat as only a corp CEO or someone in a Havoc Gunstar would be able to twarp to fedspace, and the havoc doesn't have very many holds, lessening its use for twarp colonization... though the corp flagship doesn't have many holds either really... but it does have more

I could see this being quite viable if you modified and/or added ships to help offset the loss of the ISS in the universe, while at the same time balancing the game a bit more finely.