Does anyone here actually like the bases? I dont.

[Ritual]

Title says it all. Does anyone here actually like the bases?

Can you see yourself fighting over them for the next few years?

Have you had any memorable fights so far within them that were directly attributed to the design of the base itself?

Etc.

Me, I want them removed from the game and totally redone. No small tweak here or there are going to give these base's any long term redeeming qualities.

[PoisonTaco]

I like them.

[maradine]

I do, but I feel like the most recent "fortification" pass has genericized them somewhat. For instance, almost every base has multiples of those squat, two story circular battlements now. Drop-in replacing some of them with more varied designs might spice things up a bit.

[Beerbeer]

I kind of agree, although at this point it's water under the bridge and any major redesign is probably not feasible. But I think they can make minor tweaks that can improve things greatly.

I've said it before, the mechanics seem like an afterthought, with fluff taking precedence. They didn't seem to design them from the ground up thinking about the myriad of encounters that might take place, instead designing these things from a heavy but shallow aesthetic perspective, then quickly throwing in things like jump pads, tubes and fluff buildings as band aid add ins in regards to the actual nuts and bolts perspective.

[Babyfark McGeez]

Best time i had was assaulting a biolab as light infantry with "pitcher" and "grenade banderole" fully certed.
Port in, turn right, throw grenades, die / run back and resupply, repeat. It was completely insane fun. :p

[WiteBeam]

I can't stand the tech plant.
I wish that they would have done the bases similar the the PS1 bases layout. Or at least one like them.

[xuur]

wouldnt mind seeing some of them end up looking more like tech'd up stone ruins of old bases rather than all of them dropped from the sky in one piece brand spanking new.

other than that, yeah, Ive had some fantastic skirmishes both inside and outside the bases as they exist. is there room for improvement? sure. do we need to scrap it all and start over? hardly.

YMMV

[Qwan]

I dont have any problem with any of the bases exept the Terror DOME, OMG, when the shields are up there are two ways in. Take the teleport which puts you in the dome but I guarentee you there is a Engi with a turret set up at the door. Or you can take the elevator and get shot out of the sky like a damn duck :eek: But here is the funny part, when we storm the Terror DOME, half of idiots sit there shooting the shields :doh: I mean do they expect them to just drop, :huh: example the other day tanks, sundy, and lightning just sitting at the bottom of the dome shooting at guys who were at the bottom of the dome behind the shield, a small group was trying to take out the gen but we were just out numbered and out gunned. I kept yellling over shout we need more guys to port in, but guess what they just stayed in there vehicles and kept shooting at the shield :huh: And even if the shield fell, they still couldnt port up to the top. I hope they fix this, or look into a better design, but I will admit the Terror DOME is pretty awesome.

[Tooterfish]

I agree, I miss the planetside 1 base layout a alot. Most of all, I miss the rotating caution beacons when the power went out.

[Crator]

I don't really like them compared to how they worked in PS1. I do feel that they should have went more with the forumual of PS1 base design and made tweaks here and there to fix the issues that were present in PS1 though.

However, haven't the DEVs stated that they HAD to make bases like this due to frames limitation. They literally had to design the game to force players to spread out so the game would crash or be so slow you couldn't play it. That's puts so many limits on what you can do with this imo.

[NewSith]

I only like AMPs

[Rago]

I like Amerish.

Bation and surrounding areas, this long bases are also very nice, the Crown and the new Shields , some are Boring but things can change, my worries about the Game are in another Direction.

[ringring]

They're pretty complicated compared to PS1's bases, more akin the the bases in the caves and a lot of people hated those and refused to go down.

However, I think it's mainly a done deal now. We may get tweaks similar to those being applied on Indar and we'll have to be content with that.

I remember my first days (if not weeks) in Tech Test when I could not find my way around, I fear that will still be the new persons problem going forward.

I'd suggest a VR how how to find your way around bases and what to do where.

[Fear The Amish]

I like the bases for the most part especially amerish. I like how they aren't cookie cutter like PS1 and i actually have to use my brain when leading an assault on them.

[MrBloodworth]

You can still make defensible and not have them "cookie cutter". Please stop saying this.

[EVILoHOMER]

They're massive to look at but really small to navigate, 90% of the structure is useless and there is no indoor area to fight in.

That is why I hate them, the Planetside bases were even better :\

[maradine]

Having a reason to be in some of the ancillary buildings would be nice, but be fair - most of a PS1 base was useless, too.

[Bags]

I like that now instead of being able to camp 5 - 10 door ways, vehicles can camp everything now.

[Shogun]

i mostly agree with homer here.

the bases look great, but too little of the base is actual usable for a fight. (if you are no bailer or light assault).
and they don´t offer any of the basefight feeling from ps1. yes ps1 wasn´t perfect regarding the flow of battles, but some of the basebattles were epic and real fun! having at least some bases that are more like ps1 would be fine! people who don´t like entrenchment in corridor/hall situations can choose to fight somewhere else, while ps1 vets have the option to do it oldschool. you know, diversity!

would it be possible to give us one planetside next base to test gameflow in there? i saw a nice one in a banned video some time ago, that wasn´t official soe material i think. was rumoured to be some soe sponsored collage project, but the ps1 bases in modern look were interesting!

[Ruffdog]

In future patches it has been confirmed we are getting Interlinks and Dropship Centers so here's hoping for some variety. Personally I would like my Interlinks to have spawn rooms underground with corridors or tunnels. Make them a real jewel to capture.

[Raymac]

I honestly canot understand how people can say that the PS1 bases were better. They were small, with tight clausterphobic hallways that made large scale fights an absolute nightmare. It was a perfect example of a meat grinder because you just throw bodies at each other. There was no room to maneuver at all.

As for the area around the bases, PS2 is by far and away better than PS1 in terms of the terrain. The level of detail and the thought behind the design is not even close to comparison. The Planetside maps looked like randomly generated areas with some fine tuning done by hand. PS2 feels handcrafted on every square inch.

[Ritual]

Having a reason to be in some of the ancillary buildings would be nice, but be fair - most of a PS1 base was useless, too.

Have you ever played Planetside?

Obviously not.

What part of a PS1 base was not used?

Answer: Not a single thing. :rofl::rolleyes:

I await your enlightenment, I must of hallucinated my entire Planetside 1 play experience. :confused:

[sylphaen]

Have you ever played Planetside?

Obviously not.

What part of a PS1 base was not used?

Answer: Not a single thing. :rofl::rolleyes:

I await your enlightenment, I must of hallucinated my entire Planetside 1 play experience. :confused:

I actually have to agree with Ritual on this one. A ton of potential is wasted in bases whereas most of a base was used in PS1. Optionally, battles in a base also lasted long enough to fight over every inch of the base.

Concerning the map, they said PS2 maps were made they way they are to maximize their use (ie. spread our gameplay all over them) but they have dead areas, just like PS1.

[blbeta]

I like the bases just fine. What I like more is that I believe they will add more layouts in the future.

[Saintlycow]

They've grown on me, and some of them are quite unique. I like that

[maradine]

Have you ever played Planetside?

Obviously not.

What part of a PS1 base was not used?

Answer: Not a single thing. :rofl::rolleyes:

I await your enlightenment, I must of hallucinated my entire Planetside 1 play experience. :confused:

Only since May '03, but you already knew that, obviously. Is this where I'd add the eyeroll smiley? Am I using that right?

Everything that wasn't a two body wide tube between an entrance way and the spawn/gen was ancillary. Rooms in basements. Large portions of the upper decks of dropship centers. Walls that weren't overlooking the back door or the courtyard entrances.

I'm sorry you had a different experience. I'm sure it was vivid and valid. Is this where I dare you to post back sarcastically?

[Ghoest9]

I miss towers - with doors.

[psijaka]

My main dislike up to now has been the inevitable spawn camping that seems to be the deciding factor in most takeovers.

Also, just the sheer difficulty in defending some of the bases; far too open. I like prolonged gunfights, and would like to see bases designed with this in mind.

[RobUK]

would it be possible to give us one planetside next base to test gameflow in there?

Something along these lines would be great. My favourite base in PS2 is the Biolab, but I'd really like to see one old PS1 style base on each continent, maybe as refurbished artifacts of a bygone era on Auraxis, brought back to life so that they could be used by the current inhabitants.

It would be interesting to get the feedback from people that had never played PS1 before to see if they thought the old bases were better than the new ones.

[Levente]

I honestly canot understand how people can say that the PS1 bases were better. They were small, with tight clausterphobic hallways that made large scale fights an absolute nightmare. It was a perfect example of a meat grinder because you just throw bodies at each other. There was no room to maneuver at all.

As for the area around the bases, PS2 is by far and away better than PS1 in terms of the terrain. The level of detail and the thought behind the design is not even close to comparison. The Planetside maps looked like randomly generated areas with some fine tuning done by hand. PS2 feels handcrafted on every square inch.

+100

Seriously you have to be fully retarded to say ps1 bases are better. ps2 bases are miles better

[TurngleHat]

+100

Seriously you have to be fully retarded to say ps1 bases are better. ps2 bases are miles better

hudurrdaDURRRRRRRR
Really though, I do not care for how porous PS2 bases are. It seems difficult to mount a successful defense in PS2 when both ground and air assaults are viable from all angles.

On a separate note, I wish there were more discrete base structures and spawn points, like the simple towers dotting the landscape of PS1. They gave small units opportunities to effect change, and made for fun little CQC skirmishes.

[MrBloodworth]

Having a reason to be in some of the ancillary buildings would be nice, but be fair - most of a PS1 base was useless, too.

Except they were routs and areas of contention to get to sub-objectives. Sure! Useless.

[Mauser101]

I honestly think people need to take a solid moment and really think about what they did and didn't like about PS1 bases and what they do and do not like about PS2 bases without going all knee jerk if we're going to see any useful changes to PS2 bases. I'll try and lay out some of the pluses and minuses I see for both games.

------
PS1 bases were small. This is both a positive and a negative for PS1. Defenders had a centralized and well defended spawn room (by virtue of it being deep inside the base). That spawn room spit you out at the center of the base. It took very little time to get from the spawn room onto a base wall so you could defend. It also took a relatively small amount of time to reposition from one side of the base to the other if you needed to defend from another assault on the other gate.

The negative aspect came when the attackers had broken through the main gate. Once they were in it took them very little time to get to your spawn room and control console.

In PS2 the bases are HUGE! At first I thought it was going to be great, and I think the devs thought so too...but it just takes so long to get to a position to defend and then to reposition. I dunno what to do about this except move the spawn room inside the base at all major facilities....like the players have already figured out. Why else do you see a friendly sunderer parked inside the shield at most bases? It still doesn't solve the problem of how to get clear over to the other side of the base to defend some objective (beyond jump pads which have their own problems).

------
You knew where the attackers were coming from in PS1. There were only 3 traditional routes of attack. Through one of the two main gates or the back door. A fourth, non-traditional route was by air drop from galaxy or other aircraft but it was normally going to come at an easily identifiable target, the back door or a centralized on top of the main building.

In PS2 you really don't seem to get much of an idea where the attackers are going to come from. Not only do you get the gates (and you can get sunderers that ignore them) but you've got light assault bounding over the walls, attackers leaping all about the base via jump pads and you've usually got 2-3 outlying enemy spawn bases that spawn vehicles.

That last bit kind of gets me. Part of what, to me, worked so well about the tower and base mechanics of PS1 was that the towers did not spawn vehicles. It slowed down the attackers and forced them to decide whether they wanted to zerg the wall on foot or drive back from another base with a more potent weapon. I haven't seen any PS2 battle take as long as most PS1 battles yet excpet at the Impact Site on Indar...and I think it's got a lot to do which how easy it is to grab a vehicle right next to the base you're attacking.

------
To the folks who hated PS1 bases I'm sure you're mostly thinking about all those tiny corridors with connecting rooms, and I'd agree with you. It was frustrating and mind numbing. There was no strategy and no tactics. You were just firing down tunnels trying not not too get too much grief. It was all about getting more attackers through the choke points through to the spawn room and CC than the defenders could get out of the spawn room. I have no idea what to do about that. I'm sure the devs thought that moving it all outside and then later cluttering it all up would help. I'll admit it's more interesting but some of the other design mistakes make it just as frustrating and annoying.

There was one tiny bright spot in the PS1 interior fight. The vehicle bay a the tech plant. Man that place was fun to fight in.

------
Honestly, I think that the two biggest mistakes in this game were decentralizing the spawn point and adding the Light Assault class. I know LA isn't going anywhere and at this point it shouldn't go away, but it added an element to the attackers (and in biolabs to the defenders) that makes the flow of the fight that much more difficult to figure out.

And dear Smed, please lock down the jump pads and elevators to the defending empire for a week or two (well, cept for at Bio Labs...kindof have to be open to everybody there). I'd really like to see what that does to defense as a test.

Have at it, pick apart what I've got to say. I'm here for the long haul and just want to see the game made better.

[SsapS]

When you have multiple large facilities that are almost completely identical, I think the man has a right to say 'cookie cutter'. It would push the new players even farther out of reach, but if every single base was different and unique (no small task), it wouldn't be so simple to guide your swarm to outside vehicle shields, then inside gen, then to SCU.

3 simple tasks to capturing any facility wowweee

What about some lore orientation.

BIO FACILITY
-Disarm biological defense component
-"Control Points" would be referenced to as Experimental Weapons Lab A/B secured or something similar.

Some really interesting shit could go down. The Amp stations when they cap set out a large emp looking pulse. or maybe AMP pulse haha....

What if that destroyed all enemy vehicles within the surrounding influence. Or what if this was a defensive strategy that took preparation time. So in context you are defending your AMP station, your barely holding out, so you designate a squad of 12 that has to be within the vicinity of the trigger device for ~5 minutes. This would be a objective located in a building on the courtyard for instance, so once the event starts, the opposing factions know they seriously need to get in there and stop that fast.

Just examples really. Why the 3-step capture any base layout. Get creative damnit.
You get the idear.

[maradine]

I know LA isn't going anywhere and at this point it shouldn't go away, but it added an element to the attackers (and in biolabs to the defenders) that makes the flow of the fight that much more difficult to figure out.

I dunno, it's an interesting thought exercise. What would eliminating the LA and returning jumpjets to the MAX as a module do?

[DDSHADE]

I like them, they look great and function right now. I would REALLY like to see more underground spawn points that can get the defenders to the capture point without going outside where vehicles reign.

I think a different type of base or facility would be a good addition. It'd be nice to see an old Dropship Facility from PS1 revamped, and I mean the inside too. It'd be neat to see the same base layout in PS2 somewhere.

[EVILoHOMER]

It is simple, get rid of the capture points and have one single point inside the base with more indoor area so you can protect without having to go outside to be slaughtered by vehicles.

[Sunrock]

Title says it all. Does anyone here actually like the bases?

Can you see yourself fighting over them for the next few years?

Have you had any memorable fights so far within them that were directly attributed to the design of the base itself?

Etc.

Me, I want them removed from the game and totally redone. No small tweak here or there are going to give these base's any long term redeeming qualities.

Well personally I have never played any game for more then 2 years. I usually only stick around for 6-12 month before I pick up something else and never returns to play no matter how good the game is. "New is always better" as Barny Stinson used to say.

But having that sad I like the bases. And I would probably not quit playing the game because of there design.

[Mavvvy]

IMO there is nothing wrong with the building and defense locations. However as I have stated in other posts the issue is more in the finer details, walls between turrets are rarely manned and only act as something for light assaults to jet pack over. Reason being, because of the location of the jump pads and the steps up to the walls are one and the same. We need easier access to the walls with either steps or hover pads located midway on the walls inside bases.

Jump pads also annoy me, in fact the whole thing is silly, I'm not sure if they are there to help the defenders or the attackers. Get rid of em and give those multitudes of sunderers (on both the defender's and attackers something else to do) ie. Think of all the sides you never get attacked from in a base purely because they can attack from one side and have ease of access to the whole facility. Let players spread out the fight we are not that dumb.

As for tech plants the majority need an overhaul on how they are perimeter wise. But I'm guessing that will come with time.

[Figment]

I honestly think people need to take a solid moment and really think about what they did and didn't like about PS1 bases and what they do and do not like about PS2 bases without going all knee jerk if we're going to see any useful changes to PS2 bases. I'll try and lay out some of the pluses and minuses I see for both games.

Okay, let's see...

PS1 bases:
+ Effective CY walls
+ Effective CY shield, but passable
+ Availability of Combat Engineering
+ Clear function of rooms
+ Multi-level combat flow
+ Completely separate infantry fight
+ Good CY maneuvrability (save Interlink bridge near BFR terminal w.r.t. Sunderers)
+ Good turret angles
+ Decent cover for crouched infantry on walls (also when repairing turrets)
+ Good fire lines
+ Decent merlon size
+ Protected stairwells
+ Doors protecting from explosive spam
+ IFF doors
+ Keep with high ground
+ Choke points in several rings / levels
+ All vitals in base accessible from the inside
+ NTU drain (winning by neutralising through extended siege)
+ Resecure is instant
+ Resecure can be done by strike forces (concentrated push on defensive weak point)
+ Base paralisation can be done by strike forces (one wave attack (and hold))
+ Central spawn
+ Destructible spawn
+ Destructible generator (sabotage)
+ High ground with doors in a location where tanks can't fire easily (not everywhere though)
+ Good cover for CY AMSes for both defenders and attackers
+ Bridges from keep to walls without going through pure ground vehicle terrain
+ Linear order of defense and clear objectives to fall back to in steps (outpost approach -> wall siege -> courtyard fight, keep defense (lobby / stairs / BD) -> internal defense (gen / spawns / CC), which can be done in reverse direction as well
+ Clear advantage from Gal Drop
+ Infiltrator has a role
+ 3-5 exits on completely different sides of the base
+ SOI preventing HART drops, clear influence area for CE and communications (/b broadcast)
+ 'Epic' defense and siege combat
+ Fights you could really make a difference in
+ Pain fields in spawns and generator
+ Incentives to kill spawns over camping them or killing the generator (risk to losing base hack, loss of vehicle acquisition)
+ Availability of equipment and other terminals
+ Base benefits
+ Lattice sharing of benefits: can cut them off with tactical strike: generator hold
+ Multiple Airpads
+ Vehicle resupply station
+ Base defenses and systems can be deactivated by subtle sabotage
+ Some automated defense turrets (indicate threat size and direction)

- Poor Anti-Air cover (roofs, not the turrets)
- Lack of merlon numbers
- Bio Lab generator position (least liked base feature in PS1 because fight would be over too soon)
- Narrow corridors and lack of cover in said corridors.
- Relatively narrow doors in combination with AoE weapons (was fixed by toning down AoE damage and stacking)
- Lack of cover at vehicle pads
- Small number of vehicle pads resulting in queue
- Poor transition zone between outdoor and indoor combat (lacking some cover)
- Lacking quantity of CY cover
- Slightly cramped CY (aside from DSC, especially noticable around vpad and BFR term)
- No effective indoor-outdoor AA (AoE) weapons to fire at hovering aircraft camping with AoE spam weapons (rocket pods) or massive armour (Galaxy Gunship)
- Cave lock providing all module benefits
- Capital shields: reduced lattice options and forcing unnatural flow to the point of making any attack impossible (Ceryshen bridge + Galaxy Gunship), too easy Flail camp sites and retreat locations, removing the siege part of a fight or even the entire fight because there'd not be defenders in the capital, too safe area for storing modules, shield killed people who were holding it if owners of capital regained sub-capitals
- Distance between bases at times too large to sustain a vehicle assault

PS1 outposts (towers):
+ High ground
+ easily reached walkways, turrets, CC directly from spawns through interior and short outdoor exposure time
+ IFF Doors
+ Clear advantage from Gal Drop
+ Can be taken and resecured in a single, concerted effort
+ Choke points to use for defense (to keep attackers away from CC)
+ Choke points to use for attack (ground level in particular, but also to keep defenders away from CC)
+ Infiltrator has a role
+ Relatively cramped, unsuited for large groups
+ Good turret angles
+ Multi-level design
+ 4-6 exits to tower
+ SOI preventing HART Drops + clear influence radius for CE

- Relatively cramped, unsuited for large groups
- No transition zone to the outside
- Third person wall humping
- Exits all face the same sides and are in the same vertical line.
- Prone to AoE spam prior to AoE nerf
- No effective indoor-outdoor AA (AoE) weapons to fire at hovering aircraft camping with AoE spam weapons (rocket pods) or massive armour (Galaxy Gunship)
- No SOI broadcast chat
- No repair and resupply facility for ground vehicles at any tower (otoh, made Lodestar useful - though Lodestar suffered from lack of acquisition sites)

PS2 bases:
+ Good roof cover against aircraft over walls
+ Door shields to prevent tube-camping
+ Cover around and over most vehicle terminals
+ Lots of cover for infantry in the courtyard
+ Multiple vehicle terminals
+ Multiple airpads
+ Windows can't be fired through if present
+ Generator overload process provides time to react
+ Spawn room close to some sections of the wall
+ Bases closer together

- Can't reach walls from keep by means of bridges or walkways
- Many holes in walls and can be ignored by Jet Pack infantry and are often used against the defenders.
- Not enough door shields and no diagonal firing lines from door shields (bubble design would be better)
- Courtyard too large to man the walls
- Courtyard extremely hard to navigate with vehicles and even closed off to vehicles in some areas
- Many buildings don't seem to have a clear function
- Buildings with multi-level and high ground are rendered semi-useless because most of the time, important features aren't found in these larger buildings, but in little inconspicuous and indefensible shacks
- Spawn room far away from remainder of walls.
- Direct line of sight for vehicles on spawn room exits
- Only intermittent battlements
- Attacker places self between spawns and vital sections of base by just entering the base.
- Covered area behind merlons is taken up by support structures
- Gate Shield can't always be passed through by attackers on foot
- Some gate shields have tiny corridors for infantry to the side of it
- Turrets are situational
- Turrets can only fire at specific targets
- Turrets often have extremely restricted horizontal and vertical angles
- Engineers trying to repair turrets have no cover at all
- Poor, simple multi-level design, if present at all, when present
- Any choke points useful for normal infantry is rendered useless due to presence and nigh exclusive use of Light Assault in these areas, due to the lack of ceilings in these "maze" areas (like tech plant control console area)
- Lack of real choke points
- Even narrower doors than in PS1
- No single strike and hold/resecure targets
- Distance between SCU and spawns
- Lack of clear map correlation between random generator and what they keep up.
- Can't use sabotage to paralyse a base
- No proper outdoor-indoor flow
- Frequently disconnected battle flow (flow is disconnected and interrupted by means of teleporter tubes, jump pads)
- Too easy to acquire (heavy) tanks nearby and lots of them as all players have access to them. Little if any logistical advantage for defenders.
- Little reason to use Galaxy Drops as there are no "single wave" objectives (meat grind required) and high ground is faster to reach with Light Assault while there's little TTK difference between rexo and light assault

PS2 Outposts:
+ Painfields to clear spawns after flipping of base
+ Decent AA available
+ In some cases, decent use of terrain in terms of high ground

- Extremely cramped spawn rooms despite 6x the populace per empire
- In some cases 1 or 2 exits, 4 at max
- Many outposts surrounded by high ground. One does not build an outpost that is to be defended in a valley.
- Sometimes turrets are situated on ground level in the middle of a confined space and have no firing lines or use at all.
- Control point holders (both defenders and attackers) have to sit exposed in very open areas around a Control Console as the CC is usualy situated in the middle of a large, open room, if not outside
- Lots of windows without protection can easily be spammed in to by vehicles
- No single strike targets
- Spawns are located at the edge of a facility and directly lead outside of the facility, leaving only one viable exit in case of a siege
- Next to no defense against jetpacks
- Walls can't be manned
- Walls funnel defenders to a few openings, rather than attackers, instead, the walls provide cover for attackers to approach the base, especially jet pack infantry can just approach and then hop over them to surprise defenders
- Lack of high ground accessible directly from spawns
- High ground lost to attackers swiftly and used against defenders often at the first attack wave due to jetpacks
- Turrets are hard to reach
- Engineers trying to repair turrets have no cover at all
- Can't get back into spawn rooms that have vertical exits
- No coherency between separate buildings
- Too many entrances into buildings (up to 8 or 9 into a single room, counting windows)
- Usualy no reason to use Galaxy Drops, at all
- Even narrower doors than in PS1





List isn't complete, but I think you can see where it is going. The funny thing is, PS2 outposts share a lot of things with PS1 cave buildings, PS1 cave buildings have a few more redeeming qualities and a few more bad points though.

[Mavvvy]

Great post figment,

Changed my perspective, the bases need more then cursory tweeks.

[Ritual]

Some more negatives of PS2 bases for Figment's list.

-Alot of the main base buildings are unused (hollow in many cases) or don't offer anything for the fight. As Trammell Issaac once said "We want everything we put into the game, to fit into the game. It needs to be there for a reason. To fit into the lore. To be useable.". Yeah well nice FAIL Trammel.

-If you are going to have 3-5 different objectives to capture you should probably make them have to be captured in a specific sequence or order. That way I at least can know where the enemies are going to try and attack down to one or two spots. I should have to resecure those objectives in the same sequence, and push the enemies back where they came from.

-Fighting in PS2 bases feels like going up against Velociraptor's in Jurassic Park. You are walking through a field with your squad and then all of a sudden a guy gets picked off standing in the back but you never even hear it. Then BOOM you get hit from an entirely different direction and two more guys are down. Now you are in dissaray and are running through a field with velociraptors chasing you. You know you can't defend yourself because you cant see them, you know you are never going to know which direction they are coming from. You just have to keep moving and don't stop. But then your dead, you got clawed from behind. Oh and btw another pack of Raptors already has your spawn room surrounded so dont bother trying to enter the field again.

-Light Assault should only be able to enter the base from very specific locations. If they can breach walls, there should only be one or two locations on that wall they can reach with jetpacks (unless they glide off a cliff or something). You should at least be able to say "Go defend this and this location in case Light Assault tries to get in". Right now it's hard to figure out a direction of battle.

-Spawnrooms should be like in the movie Aliens Versus Predators. Humans find a base hidden under the ice. They enter this pyramid underground and find out its a fortress. They go to its center deep underground and find its an alien spawn room. To direct the combat and serve its purpose, the base is built to protect that quenn laying the eggs so that combat can ensue with the Predators. The walls move and the base shift's to lead them towards one another, but gives them enough catwalks and holes to pop out of to make the fight exciting. This whole base is designed as hunting grounds to see who the better hunter is. If you are an alien you want to make it to the exit so you can breed and take over the planet. If you are a Predator you want to kill the Queen. Either way you are going to face each other, its very hard to hide from or circumvent the enemy. Its not going to be easy there will be many rooms, many traps to go through. But if you get down into the spawn room for example and take out the Queen, you get the mark of the hunter because you deserved it, especially if the spawn room has lots of Aliens coming out of it.

(Ok I just woke up, thats all of my morning rant for now)

[Tapman]

Okay, let's see...
pimp:


This guy! Please listen to this guy!

All of the memories that stand out to me from Planetside were in situations like successfully defending the walls of a base from an onslaught or gal dropping with a strike force on what we thought might be a weak point and ending a 3-4 hour stalemate by killing and holding the basement gen from wave after wave of defenders. Hell, resecuring the control console with seconds remaining on the hack while coordinating with other outfits after the zerg failed for 14 minutes. Maybe I haven't played the Beta long enough but the bases do not seem to support that addictive feeling.

[Ghoest9]

1000s of years in the future.

All other sudden in a short span of less than 10 years - humanity completely forgets how to build doors.

Odd

[MrBloodworth]

Okay, let's see...

PS1 bases:
+ Effective CY walls
+ Effective CY shield, but passable
+ Availability of Combat Engineering
+ Clear function of rooms
+ Multi-level combat flow
+ Completely separate infantry fight
+ Good CY maneuvrability (save Interlink bridge near BFR terminal w.r.t. Sunderers)
+ Good turret angles
+ Decent cover for crouched infantry on walls (also when repairing turrets)
+ Good fire lines
+ Decent merlon size
+ Protected stairwells
+ Doors protecting from explosive spam
+ IFF doors
+ Keep with high ground
+ Choke points in several rings / levels
+ All vitals in base accessible from the inside
+ NTU drain (winning by neutralising through extended siege)
+ Resecure is instant
+ Resecure can be done by strike forces (concentrated push on defensive weak point)
+ Base paralisation can be done by strike forces (one wave attack (and hold))
+ Central spawn
+ Destructible spawn
+ Destructible generator (sabotage)
+ High ground with doors in a location where tanks can't fire easily (not everywhere though)
+ Good cover for CY AMSes for both defenders and attackers
+ Bridges from keep to walls without going through pure ground vehicle terrain
+ Linear order of defense and clear objectives to fall back to in steps (outpost approach -> wall siege -> courtyard fight, keep defense (lobby / stairs / BD) -> internal defense (gen / spawns / CC), which can be done in reverse direction as well
+ Clear advantage from Gal Drop
+ Infiltrator has a role
+ 3-5 exits on completely different sides of the base
+ SOI preventing HART drops, clear influence area for CE and communications (/b broadcast)
+ 'Epic' defense and siege combat
+ Fights you could really make a difference in
+ Pain fields in spawns and generator
+ Incentives to kill spawns over camping them or killing the generator (risk to losing base hack, loss of vehicle acquisition)
+ Availability of equipment and other terminals
+ Base benefits
+ Lattice sharing of benefits: can cut them off with tactical strike: generator hold
+ Multiple Airpads
+ Vehicle resupply station
+ Base defenses and systems can be deactivated by subtle sabotage
+ Some automated defense turrets (indicate threat size and direction)

- Poor Anti-Air cover (roofs, not the turrets)
- Lack of merlon numbers
- Bio Lab generator position (least liked base feature in PS1 because fight would be over too soon)
- Narrow corridors and lack of cover in said corridors.
- Relatively narrow doors in combination with AoE weapons (was fixed by toning down AoE damage and stacking)
- Lack of cover at vehicle pads
- Small number of vehicle pads resulting in queue
- Poor transition zone between outdoor and indoor combat (lacking some cover)
- Lacking quantity of CY cover
- Slightly cramped CY (aside from DSC, especially noticable around vpad and BFR term)
- No effective indoor-outdoor AA (AoE) weapons to fire at hovering aircraft camping with AoE spam weapons (rocket pods) or massive armour (Galaxy Gunship)
- Cave lock providing all module benefits
- Capital shields: reduced lattice options and forcing unnatural flow to the point of making any attack impossible (Ceryshen bridge + Galaxy Gunship), too easy Flail camp sites and retreat locations, removing the siege part of a fight or even the entire fight because there'd not be defenders in the capital, too safe area for storing modules, shield killed people who were holding it if owners of capital regained sub-capitals
- Distance between bases at times too large to sustain a vehicle assault

PS1 outposts (towers):
+ High ground
+ easily reached walkways, turrets, CC directly from spawns through interior and short outdoor exposure time
+ IFF Doors
+ Clear advantage from Gal Drop
+ Can be taken and resecured in a single, concerted effort
+ Choke points to use for defense (to keep attackers away from CC)
+ Choke points to use for attack (ground level in particular, but also to keep defenders away from CC)
+ Infiltrator has a role
+ Relatively cramped, unsuited for large groups
+ Good turret angles
+ Multi-level design
+ 4-6 exits to tower
+ SOI preventing HART Drops + clear influence radius for CE

- Relatively cramped, unsuited for large groups
- No transition zone to the outside
- Third person wall humping
- Exits all face the same sides and are in the same vertical line.
- Prone to AoE spam prior to AoE nerf
- No effective indoor-outdoor AA (AoE) weapons to fire at hovering aircraft camping with AoE spam weapons (rocket pods) or massive armour (Galaxy Gunship)
- No SOI broadcast chat
- No repair and resupply facility for ground vehicles at any tower (otoh, made Lodestar useful - though Lodestar suffered from lack of acquisition sites)

PS2 bases:
+ Good roof cover against aircraft over walls
+ Door shields to prevent tube-camping
+ Cover around and over most vehicle terminals
+ Lots of cover for infantry in the courtyard
+ Multiple vehicle terminals
+ Multiple airpads
+ Windows can't be fired through if present
+ Generator overload process provides time to react
+ Spawn room close to some sections of the wall
+ Bases closer together

- Can't reach walls from keep by means of bridges or walkways
- Many holes in walls and can be ignored by Jet Pack infantry and are often used against the defenders.
- Not enough door shields and no diagonal firing lines from door shields (bubble design would be better)
- Courtyard too large to man the walls
- Courtyard extremely hard to navigate with vehicles and even closed off to vehicles in some areas
- Many buildings don't seem to have a clear function
- Buildings with multi-level and high ground are rendered semi-useless because most of the time, important features aren't found in these larger buildings, but in little inconspicuous and indefensible shacks
- Spawn room far away from remainder of walls.
- Direct line of sight for vehicles on spawn room exits
- Only intermittent battlements
- Attacker places self between spawns and vital sections of base by just entering the base.
- Covered area behind merlons is taken up by support structures
- Gate Shield can't always be passed through by attackers on foot
- Some gate shields have tiny corridors for infantry to the side of it
- Turrets are situational
- Turrets can only fire at specific targets
- Turrets often have extremely restricted horizontal and vertical angles
- Engineers trying to repair turrets have no cover at all
- Poor, simple multi-level design, if present at all, when present
- Any choke points useful for normal infantry is rendered useless due to presence and nigh exclusive use of Light Assault in these areas, due to the lack of ceilings in these "maze" areas (like tech plant control console area)
- Lack of real choke points
- Even narrower doors than in PS1
- No single strike and hold/resecure targets
- Distance between SCU and spawns
- Lack of clear map correlation between random generator and what they keep up.
- Can't use sabotage to paralyse a base
- No proper outdoor-indoor flow
- Frequently disconnected battle flow (flow is disconnected and interrupted by means of teleporter tubes, jump pads)
- Too easy to acquire (heavy) tanks nearby and lots of them as all players have access to them. Little if any logistical advantage for defenders.
- Little reason to use Galaxy Drops as there are no "single wave" objectives (meat grind required) and high ground is faster to reach with Light Assault while there's little TTK difference between rexo and light assault

PS2 Outposts:
+ Painfields to clear spawns after flipping of base
+ Decent AA available
+ In some cases, decent use of terrain in terms of high ground

- Extremely cramped spawn rooms despite 6x the populace per empire
- In some cases 1 or 2 exits, 4 at max
- Many outposts surrounded by high ground. One does not build an outpost that is to be defended in a valley.
- Sometimes turrets are situated on ground level in the middle of a confined space and have no firing lines or use at all.
- Control point holders (both defenders and attackers) have to sit exposed in very open areas around a Control Console as the CC is usualy situated in the middle of a large, open room, if not outside
- Lots of windows without protection can easily be spammed in to by vehicles
- No single strike targets
- Spawns are located at the edge of a facility and directly lead outside of the facility, leaving only one viable exit in case of a siege
- Next to no defense against jetpacks
- Walls can't be manned
- Walls funnel defenders to a few openings, rather than attackers, instead, the walls provide cover for attackers to approach the base, especially jet pack infantry can just approach and then hop over them to surprise defenders
- Lack of high ground accessible directly from spawns
- High ground lost to attackers swiftly and used against defenders often at the first attack wave due to jetpacks
- Turrets are hard to reach
- Engineers trying to repair turrets have no cover at all
- Can't get back into spawn rooms that have vertical exits
- No coherency between separate buildings
- Too many entrances into buildings (up to 8 or 9 into a single room, counting windows)
- Usualy no reason to use Galaxy Drops, at all
- Even narrower doors than in PS1





List isn't complete, but I think you can see where it is going. The funny thing is, PS2 outposts share a lot of things with PS1 cave buildings, PS1 cave buildings have a few more redeeming qualities and a few more bad points though.

Great list. Post it on the Official forums.

[Babyfark McGeez]

Well if i would live on such a peaceful planet as auraxis i wouldn't see the need for doors either. :P

[Qwan]

I really have to agree with Mauser and Figment on alot of the issues with defending a base. You just dont have the mobility you had in PS1, getting across a base to help defend the walls or getting to a gen to stop it from blowing just isnt practicle. Also the suggestion to turn off elevators and jump pads at the Bio Lab, is crazy, it would never be taken.

Here is a suggestion, I think that we should put an old school base on searhus, Im sure the Dev's could put it in. Of course modify it a little, I mean put up your standard walls, put the spawn room inside the base as well as the hack terminal, and lets see what happens. Me I see a lot of good fights there, and maybe throw in an old school tower next to that. I mean what would it hurt to drop a standard base, because if you look at it. Your a designer of bases on a planet thats always at war, You want to put a base over a resource sight, I would have walls with turrets, and alot of antivehicle barriers. I mean most of these bases arent practicle when it comes to defending them from attack. I JUST SAYING

[Sunrock]

Some more negatives of PS2 bases for Figment's list.

-Alot of the main base buildings are unused (hollow in many cases) or don't offer anything for the fight. As Trammell Issaac once said "We want everything we put into the game, to fit into the game. It needs to be there for a reason. To fit into the lore. To be useable.". Yeah well nice FAIL Trammel.

Well I make use of them all the time... Makes exelent cover while moving around.


-If you are going to have 3-5 different objectives to capture you should probably make them have to be captured in a specific sequence or order. That way I at least can know where the enemies are going to try and attack down to one or two spots. I should have to resecure those objectives in the same sequence, and push the enemies back where they came from.

Way is that needed? Only thing that would make is that you need less men to efficiently defend a base and make the game dumbed down I would say.


-Fighting in PS2 bases feels like going up against Velociraptor's in Jurassic Park. You are walking through a field with your squad and then all of a sudden a guy gets picked off standing in the back but you never even hear it. Then BOOM you get hit from an entirely different direction and two more guys are down. Now you are in dissaray and are running through a field with velociraptors chasing you. You know you can't defend yourself because you cant see them, you know you are never going to know which direction they are coming from. You just have to keep moving and don't stop. But then your dead, you got clawed from behind. Oh and btw another pack of Raptors already has your spawn room surrounded so dont bother trying to enter the field again.

All I can say to this is "learn to play". Seriously though you need better understanding of squad tactics and also your squad might need allot of training regarding comunication.

Here are some TV shows you maybe want to watch to give you a hint of what you can do to prevent the above scenario. "The Unit", "Surviving the Cut", "The history of WW II" to mention a few.

[MrBloodworth]

Sunrock, did you play PS1?

[Sunrock]

Sunrock, did you play PS1?

No. But I guess you already figured that out by your self. :p

[MrBloodworth]

No. But I guess you already figured that out by your self. :p

Just trying to understand where you are coming from. I think if you ask any one who did play PS1, the long battles are the most memorable, and created the most opportunity for fun game play. They were also, not necessarily easier to know whats going on, but had enough time to respond and try different attempts as an individual and team. The short battles of Ps2 are not as epic, dynamic, or full of possibility. Nor do they give enough time to respond WITH A PLAN, other than mass on point. Its just wham-bam over. This is directly related to base design and certain design choices.

IMO, longer battles with more push pull and teams able to effect things allow for users who have less time to participate with more opportunity. Right now you are lucky if you spend 10 minutes in any given base or outpost.

Not a lot of time for a low time user to have a good, filling, experience. That all leads to complaints about travel times.

In this regard , I feel they have the entire philosophy backwards. The philosophy that high churn leads to good gameplay.

[Qwan]

As of right now would have to say the crown is the hottest spot in the game. I mean the base is defendable, and it can also be taken, I mean this is were I spend most of my time. Most of the time its a three way battle, owning the base to the east and the hydroponics to the north keep the fight going. I have to say that the crown is the best spot for xp and if you have a good outfit of guys and a good battle plan it can be taken. So I have to add there are bases that can make memorible fights, and the crown is one of them.

[MrBloodworth]

The crown being nearly the only one, and its sister bases on each continent. Is a flaw.

One out of how many bases give good fights? That's not a feature, its a flaw.

[Sunrock]

Just trying to understand where you are coming from. I think if you ask any one who did play PS1, the long battles are the most memorable, and created the most opportunity for fun game play. They were also, not necessarily easier to know whats going on, but had enough time to respond and try different attempts as an individual and team. The short battles of Ps2 are not as epic, dynamic, or full of possibility. Nor do they give enough time to respond WITH A PLAN, other than mass on point. Its just wham-bam over. This is directly related to base design and certain design choices.

IMO, longer battles with more push pull and teams able to effect things allow for users who have less time to participate with more opportunity. Right now you are lucky if you spend 10 minutes in any given base or outpost.

Not a lot of time for a low time user to have a good, filling, experience. That all leads to complaints about travel times.

In this regard , I feel they have the entire philosophy backwards. The philosophy that high churn leads to good gameplay.

Well my player background is long.. Just say I been a gamer nerd sens the 1980's.

But I have experience non stop battles in PS2 that have lasted 3-4 hours over one base. I would not call that short... Sure they are rare but they do occur from time to time.

[MrBloodworth]

Not questioning your background, but PS1 is a unique beast.

They ( Epic battles ) should not be rare.

[Crator]

The best part of a game should not be rare.

[Figment]

I wish I could just take Arclegger along on a tour of PS2 bases. Base by base, outpost by outpost, sketch some upgrades and suggest alterations.

I could probably go at that for months...

Btw, some of the outpost bases I saw added to Esamir are probably already an improvement. Just that damn shed... Didn't have time for proper flying about, but Jaeger's Fist looks decent as long as the enemy attacks from the front (south). Just that the enemy circles you and you can't protect the rear or sides... And the rear is where the shack is, without even a palissade wall around its northern edge, the shack somewhat isolated from the base. You still get immediately camped as soon as an enemy places an ams behind the ridge north of the base, which is very easy.

The sides have walls you can't fire over as usual, so it isn't really useful for defenders. Very easy to pull up an ams to that wall and then use it as cover for attackers too.

[Sunrock]

The best part of a game should not be rare.

Hmm I can sometimes feel it quite frustrating to be locked down into a stalemate for several hours without progressing the war effort. Just because you can take a base in 30-40 minutes does not mean the fight stop there.

But regarding what is best part of the game, or any PvP game, I have to agree with Conan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PQ6335puOc

[Piper]

I do. Vast improvement over Ps1's to actually FPS in. Narrow spam filled corridors, warp inducing stair wells (see sig' :p) only two or three ways actually into them promoting more....guess what, spam. Each is unique, each offers a different (to a degree) experience to fight in/over.

That said, would I like to see other features in them like say....locks (silly future architects) on shield doors, more subterranean aspects, or entire underground infantry only facilities (but no caves from the 1970's please).

The engine looks waaaaaay more adaptable than Ps1's, especially after they lost the notes (staff) to fiddle with it, which is good news for us. Lots of possibilities for us in the future, mines, underground bases proper, orbital platforms....tons of potential. :)

[Piper]

Not questioning your background, but PS1 is a unique beast.

They ( Epic battles ) should not be rare.

Er....are you positive about that? If they aren't rare don't they just become quickly mundane and anything but epic?

I'm sorry but I sure as heck wouldn't want every single fight to be a Sunday afternoon six-hour-long Gunuku slug'a'thon.

More variety in cap' mechanics would help of course, CTF, timered tick down and others..but that's another topic.

[Crator]

Hmm I can sometimes feel it quite frustrating to be locked down into a stalemate for several hours without progressing the war effort. Just because you can take a base in 30-40 minutes does not mean the fight stop there.

But regarding what is best part of the game, or any PvP game, I have to agree with Conan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PQ6335puOc

I can see how you might think that. And yes, long battles can get monotonous. You fail to see though that there are options for empires to think strategically against what they can accomplish on the map they are playing. What's forcing you to stay in that stalemate battle? If you don't like it because it's been going on for too long then do something about it. Attack the enemy at another location. This will cause that stalemate to break up. Also, another thing that helps break up those stalemates is the fact that we have 3 empires in the game. 2 empires could be going at it for a long time and then all of a sudden the 3rd empire starts taking territory that one of the other empires need to resecure. They must break away from the stalemate at this point.

So what I'm talking about is allowing the players to control/determine what is the best course of action to progress the fight, not bad base layout design.

EDIT: But there's also more to it then just that. They need to make the bases so there are tactical means to taking a capture point. What I mean by this is that, yes, bases/outposts do have better thought out layouts when it comes to where the spawn tubes and capture points are located, with a bit better defense for the defenders. Doesn't mean it's impossible for the attackers to take it though.

[Tamas]

Base interior - ok.

Actual walls/defenses - pointless... Too easy to attack in my opinion.

[ChipMHazard]

I like the bases just fine... Well I've never been that keen on the Amp station. I would like to see some more diversity in the future, which I'm sure we will be getting when they put in the interlinked facilities. I would also like to see some underground bases, perhaps on a volcanic world.

[TheStigma]

TL/DR warning

I find the bases a bit lacking and I think there are some design elements that are simply lacking in them to produce good fights (and perhaps most importantly to produce a feeling that this is actually a friendly base rather than just a combat arena).

The most major point I think is that the bases are just too open and unrestricted. Yes there are walls, but LA's swarm over them without a second thought. Yes there are gate-shields but they don't even stop infantry from passing through (why? ... this makes no sense to me). Unless a base is super-heavily defended and most of the turrets are manned and scouting for enemies you can simply walk right into a base as you wish and start heading to the nearest generator or similar target to do mischief - and in 90% of the cases you simply aren't challanged while approaching the base. Maybe a lone sniper will take some pot-shots at you, or a single turret. Thats about it.

In short there are not enough movement restrictions for enemies in a friendly base. This goes along with my second point:

Movement inside the base is as inconvenient for friendlies as it is for enemies. Pretty much anywhere friendlies can go, enemies can go just as easy. Towers - rather than being tough defensive structures are more like death-traps as enemies will simply jet up onto the walls (or walk through the gate-shield with impunity) and get easy kills on any defenders that are up there focusing on the outside. Anyone who has ever sniped from a tower knows what I'm talking about - and you probably eventually learned that you shouldn't do that anymore...

What we need are impedements for enemies that friendlies can bypass. Yes there are a few shields around, but they only protect the very core of the facility and are only helpful in delaying enemy capture once they are solidly inside the base anyway. We need some goddamn doors - like on the towers for example, and in a few strategic places along the walls so that friendlies don't have to run around half the facility to get inside. These should be hackable by infiltrators with suitable specs of course. We also need the goddamn jumppads to not work in the enemys favor. Right now they probably do more harm than good as they allow enemies to clear out unsuspecting defenders from the rear, sabotage or hack all the turrets, and conveniently get close to all the generators from any infiltration-point in/near the base (ie. usually their AMS). Only an idiot would design this as part of a base defence. Simply make them work only for the empire that controls the base. This would greatly slow down enemies and make their spread throughout the base a little more predictable at least.

I also think that walls should not be SO easily traversable by LAs. Currently they can get across anywhere they damn well please. Perhaps walls should be raised a bit so they can't be just jumped over - and either add 2-3 places where they are low enough to allow LA infiltration, or a shield (with generator) that adds extra effective height to the wall until it gets taken down.

The bottom line is that currently you just don't feel any more safe inside a base than you do anywhere else - because it is trivially easy for an enemy to just walk (or jump) right into one. If that gets fixed then perhaps basefights will feel a little more meaningful - and also give a sorely needed defenders advantage to this game where it currently feels like the game is only about attacking one target after another (perhaps the only exception so far is the crown which is genuinely hard to attack properly due to its natural defences).

Finally it would be nice to see a little more "proper" interior. It feels like this game is all outdoors with just some small mostly single-room shacks. Even the big bases like techplants are basically just a collection of single-room empty fluff-houses, and the massive structure in the middle is mostly just a solid statue with one big room for vehicle spawning and another smaller room for the SCU. I'm not saying that I necessarily want a ton of hallways-fights, but we really could use a little more interior and at least a few hallways here and there to make it feel like base we are defending isn't just some storage-yard. The only base that feels anything close to a proper defensible base is the biolab, but weirdly due to its design theme its almost like another smaller outdoor courtyard with buildings inside a dome and just elevated up from the ground =P

So in summary:
- Need (hackable) doors
- Need friendly-only jumppads (except when they are specifically designed for entering the base like on biolabs, vanu archives ect.)
- Need more or improved shields that restrict or slows down invading enemies
- Need overall more defensible bases
- Need a little more interior rooms that are meaningful or important in some sense

I don't think we need to drag PS1 bases into the discussion. That was a very different game in a very different time. It would be cool just for shits and giggles to have a few of them for nostalgias sake (ie. the ultimate fanservice) but let's not get hung up on them too much. They were in no way the ultimate base-design.

Holy shit that turned into a long rant. Sorry :/

-Stigma

[Dkamanus]

I think it really should depend on the importance of the facility to that continent. Eisa Tech Plant in Esamir is the single most important facility in esamir, for having the MBT spawned everywhere does make a difference. That base should have extra walls, around the main facility, in order to help defend it better.

In that case having extra generators for shield barriers. Some sort of SCU that makes the respawn times longer, before reaching the real SCU and taking it out. A generator for the single purpouse of turning the lights off a place, in order to facilitate those sneaky players in to try to get other objectives.

Generators for the Tubes to work. generators for the elevators. Generators for the TURRETS. for the rearm towers. There are LOADs of things that could be broken in order to render a base less defenseable. They just need to do them.

[EZero]

Honestly if I was the person designing the bases. I would make the facilities gigantic, as in the entire hex.

The current base walls would be where the outer edges of the hex is, with 4 ways to enter (north east south west) with 1 outpost right behind the door of each entrance. It would have a vehicle pad that can spawn MBTs so defenders can roll out with them or attackers can roll in.

The entire area (including the courtyards) where the current facilities are would be a huge multi story building. (maybe just keep to 2 floors with a roof to avoid player confusion)

Outside of the building would be another outpost with a vehicle pad that can spawn MBTs so you can have some tank showdowns / epic fights between the outpost behind the wall and the outpost outside of the building.

Then simply as you fight deeper into the facility, you'll encounter A, B, C and somewhere behind C would be the spawn room. This makes it so it's feasible for attackers to capture A easily, make B a point with alot of fights, and if you manage to get C would be where you would win.

The SCU would probably be placed between B and C in a basement with hallways leading down to it from both point B and point C. That way, attackers have a real chance of attacking the SCU a little past the midway point but also make it far enough for defenders to not have it camped 24/7 with reinforcements.

Thanks to whoever actually reads my entire post :)

[PredatorFour]

Honestly if I was the person designing the bases. I would make the facilities gigantic, as in the entire hex.

The current base walls would be where the outer edges of the hex is, with 4 ways to enter (north east south west) with 1 outpost right behind the door of each entrance. It would have a vehicle pad that can spawn MBTs so defenders can roll out with them or attackers can roll in.

The entire area (including the courtyards) where the current facilities are would be a huge multi story building. (maybe just keep to 2 floors with a roof to avoid player confusion)

Outside of the building would be another outpost with a vehicle pad that can spawn MBTs so you can have some tank showdowns / epic fights between the outpost behind the wall and the outpost outside of the building.

Then simply as you fight deeper into the facility, you'll encounter A, B, C and somewhere behind C would be the spawn room. This makes it so it's feasible for attackers to capture A easily, make B a point with alot of fights, and if you manage to get C would be where you would win.

The SCU would probably be placed between B and C in a basement with hallways leading down to it from both point B and point C. That way, attackers have a real chance of attacking the SCU a little past the midway point but also make it far enough for defenders to not have it camped 24/7 with reinforcements.

Thanks to whoever actually reads my entire post :)

Unfortunately i read your entire post ........ j/k lol;) I think your point about a base being a hex, making them massive is a great idea.

[Kitsune]

I dunno, the bases seem, unrealistic. Like, on Indar, the outpost called "Vanu Archives" You'd imagine some alien library, some large awe inspiring relic at least. Buuut no, just a bunch of generic outpost huts on a cliff.
Too late to fix that honestly.
Just give me pretty rivers and lakes in and around the bases/outposts and I'll be happy :)

[MrDawkins]

I like biolabs because they are the only bases where tanks and planes can't spawn camp you.

[Buggsy]

Bases are swiss cheese, vehicles can camp within 5 meters of the spawn tubes, we don't have effective CE to defend with, we don't have an AMS that can cloak; we are given no tools to defend with therefore nobody defends.

[EZero]

All you're going to do by adding even more generators and points to control is making it harder for small outfits to defend against large derpfits. You just can't be in all places at the same time.


If this was a reply to my post, then read below, if not please ignore.

Facilities already have outposts around it, tech labs for instance already have outposts surrounding them. At least the way I did my layout, you would be able to push infantry out of the base and back outside, where at that point you can go back to vehicle fighting / skirmish. (and no tank camping the last spawn, outposts are still fair game)

Another reason why I think a bigger layout benefits is because right now, if you look into a tech lab, you'll have HUD icon overflow on your screen.

2 separate icons for the outer gate generators
2 inner gate generators (the vertical and the horizontal stripe force field)
the generator for the SCU
the scu itself
the capture point

It will also reduce confusion new players will have when they look at it. I remember when I started I was like, holy crap there are so many icons on my hud, what do they all do? Versus if there's only 1-2 icons and they blow it up and they see the immediate effect and they learn.