Force Domes Dead

[Hamma]

http://www.planetside-universe.com/index.php?newsid=747

Full Quote:
Thanks, folks, for all the amazing feedback on this concept over the past week.

We heard you all. We've considered all the thoughts and ideas, worked on incorporating them into the design. We've even completely redone the design (even a couple times that you didn't see) based on your thoughts and feedback.

The end result? We all agreed that this was "A Feature Too Far".

We may want to add Defensive Force Domes to non-Capitol Buildings sometime in the future, but during the meantime, we're going to implement all the other items discussed in our "Foundation Gameflow" proposal. As designers, we're going to concentrate on making OBO the replacement for Force Domes. OBO bases will have many defensive upgrades that can make a base far more powerful. These OBO bases are likely to be the "hardpoints" in your Empire's continental lattice (along with Capitol Buildings) and those are probably more than enough to aid in defense. More importantly, the OBO upgrades are different from base-to-base (assuming that not all Outfits buy all upgrades). That makes for a more interesting and varied challenge for both attackers AND defenders, as each base can be a bit different than the others in the area.

More on that soon. (It'll get posted here in "In Concept".)

Suffice it to say that we got a lot of great ideas from this discussion, and much of what we discussed will end up in the game in one way or another (like some method of Defensive BEP/CEP), but the "cons" for this feature were pretty even with the "pros"...and we don't like that to be true with new features. So we're tabling this (for now) and moving on.

Defensive Force Domes may show up one day...but not right away.

Thanks again for all your thoughtful feedback.

FYI I deleted like 3 dupe posts that were up after mine :p

[Hamma]

.....

[Laeritides]

I was first

[TheRagingGerbil]

Damnit, tried to beat ya to it...

Anyways...

It was a good idea, but on paper it was looking like crap. Initially I was for the implementation of the dome, but sitting back and looking at my playstyle...it didn't fit. I've been having to much fun with my sniper lately, which would have become completely worthless. Personally, I'm glad to see the idea get dropped for now.

[EarlyDawn]

If we see OBO sooner, so the better.

[Hamma]

Naw mine was here first both of yours were above mine :p

[Laeritides]

dose it move up if you edit? I bet it does. No matter

If they give us some cool defenses to go along with OBO then it maybe a nice addtion.

[Hamma]

Editing does not bump the post no.

As for force domes, I am kind of torn on this one. I think they would have been interesting however I also feel the same way Gerbil posted :p

[Queensidecastle]

I didnt like how it totally threw infiltration out the window. I was fairly sure they could overcome those limitations but it seems they want to spend energy on OBO which is a good thing

[Cyanide]

I'm glad they scrapped it. Initially I was for it, but the more I thought about it the more problems I saw with it. I definately think that we need more incentive to defend and it would be nice to have a way for defenders to "win" the battle, but I don't think defensive force domes is the answer.

[Laeritides]

I am glad they took the time to think it out and didn't just rush it in. Like they did with the AMS fix, I am tired of spawning in trees!!!! LOL

[Doppler]

I said it before and ill say it agian, defense domes are not the answer, more utility for the defenders are the answers.

[Cryptica]

Well can someone clear something up for me about OBO? How exactly will it work and what if their are more outfits than bases?

[Laeritides]

if there are more outfits wanting bases than bases to be had, then someone is getting left out in the cold.

[Jagd]

W00tage! That idea was nothing but gameplay destroying stupidity!

[SkullOmania]

When I heard this I thought I'd be pissed off, but I wasn't. I guess I didn't like the idea that much after all.

[Hamma]

Yea I agree, the idea was kind of like using a chainsaw to cut a turkey. Too much to solve the problem, I suspect they will come out with some more ideas soon.

[Biohazzard56]

I can get CR5 now :D

[HavocGeneral]

I'm sort of glad they scraped it for now, my outfit is a special operations outfit and we do a lot of spec ops. Saying that it did seem a reasonably good idea, but it did have a lot of problems that needed resolving. You guys bought up a lot of the ideas in the AGN chat, and anyone who listened to is will see that there were quite a few issues to overcome.

RE: OBO - it's not like all the bases are going to be owned by the same empire all the time, you will get a chance to buy a base by capturing it off the enemy.

[Jagd]

Yeah, there will probably be a lot of buying and then losing bases so there should be plenty of chances for every outfit to sign a lease. What will be interesting to see though, is if any of the uber outfits can buy and hold Gunuku, Caer or any of the other "lynchpin" facilities for any length of time.

[I Hate Pants]

Meh... I was 50/50 on the idea. Yet I somewhat feel releived they dropped the idea. Maybe they should focus more on improving bunkers.

[EarlyDawn]

Meh... I was 50/50 on the idea. Yet I somewhat feel releived they dropped the idea. Maybe they should focus more on improving bunkers.Indeed. Bunkers need priority relatively soon. I think one of the devs mentioned that one way teleporter system was going to be a OBO purchasable.

[I Hate Pants]

A one way teleport to your death. The bunkers are a death wish for anyone who enters them.

[ghost018]

Stupid idea. I'm glad it was shot down.

ghost

[Jagn]

A nice idea that was too much for us to fully use. I'm kinda glad it's gone.

They still need to make some kind of thing to help defenders some way.

[TheN00b]

We Want Trenches!!! We Want Trenches!!!

[1024]

they need to focus on fixing the bugs already in-game a bit more.

I'm not saying completly ignore the idea of new stuff, just focus a bit on the problems at hand more.

[Hamma]

Never post that.

http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/planetside/Forum16/HTML/001071.html

Its obvious they are doing both, also the team is currently in flux as they are all moving from St. Louis out to San Diego (spork posted that today) Also keep in mind that the designers, are not the programmers. The designers design things ie force domes, the programmers fix things and then, only when the design is done they program the design.

[MuNsTeR]

im glad cause im inf, lol i have ALL the equipment certs and all inf stuff bsides med assault

[DSSurge]

somehow i'm glad their dead but the onyl flaw was their functionality, not their existance. Tweaking and testing with them would have created interesting situations withing the base moreso than outside the SOI where they're trying to force battles.

If they made something worth fighting for outside of bases, they would be fought for.

[Veteran]

I hope they have an answer to the subject of CEP.

When the bases you need to cap for cr5 are all protected by zealous people who can appear at that base nearly instantly, I don't see sweeping a continent as an option.

[RogueGenesis]

personally, the idea was sound, but it should ONLY be used as an upgrade to an outfit base.

[Otherick]

IMO I always thougha the domes should be atcivated according to the enemy presence on the cont, but all in all I was sort of a neutralist on this one, but in the end iam glad they posponed it for the future

[BadAsh]

I was neutral to the idea as well. I think giving the defenders more incentive to defend would be more effective than force domes.

Base defense is weak because of how the BEP and CEP are awarded... why spend all night defending a base that is getting zerged when you can just go zerg another base and get CEP and more BEP?

Now I know what you are thinking "But defenders get a 25% bonus on kills"... yeah and when zergs clash and HA is firing all over the place the front line troops have a LOW life expectancy... so woohoo I got a 25% bonus on that 8 bep Rexo/HA/Deci trooper I just waxed... that bumps me 2 bep to a whopping 10 bep!

Meanwhile our Zerg attackers get a nice 1,500 to 3,000 bep reward and a CEP reward for SLs all in addition to regular kill bep.

So bases crumble and fall over and over...

Now let's say during heavy fighting when "massive enemy force" indication is on the map defenders got a bonus for holding the base say every 30 or 45 min of action roughly equal to half a base capture paid in BEP for fighters and CEP for SLs... then you'd see more than 10 defenders at a base... then you'd see zergs fail.