Gameplay: Outposts

[DviddLeff]

This concept is based around the observation of landing struts on the communication outpost in the trailer. Higby has said that outfits may be able to construct things in the field, but probably not at game release. Here is my take on what may happen:

Outposts

Outfits or successful squad leaders can use resources to call in from orbit structures that will aid the war effort. These structures can act as strong points in a defencive line, information relays or increase resource output from a sector. Only one outpost would be able to deployed in a single territory, and only if there is not a pre existing structure in the territory (eg permenant facility, urban centre, etc). The outposts would be called in by outfit officers or squad leaders and would take a minute from the purchase to when they are active. Anything underneath the area they land in would be destroyed.

Any outpost in a territory would have to be captured or destroyed in order to claim the territory in the name of an empire.

Outposts could be set to self destruct by the owning outfits officers or the squad leader, which would have a 5 minute countdown. In this time the enemy could hack the outpost and stop the countdown to allow them to capture it. Owners could alternatively dismantle the outpost to regain 50% of the resources from building it.

Outposts all provide their empire with a respawn point and act as a place to aquire equipment and all would have some fixed turrets for defenders to use. They come in the following types:

• Bunker (1): strongpoint for infantry.
• Communications outpost (2): detects and immediatly alerts friendly forces to enemy incursion in the territory.
• Gun Platform (2): AI/AV/AA heavy turret options
• Electronic warfare tower (2): Enemy lock on times increased, enemy unable to deploy drop pods for squad spawning and cannot access orbital strike in that territory.
• Air pad (2): air vehicles able to be aquired, reparied and rearmed.
• Vehicle bay (2): ground vehicles able to be aquired, reparied and rearmed.
• Resource extractor (3): increases resource output from the territory by 100%
• Outfit barracks (1 + upgrades): can be customised to have up to three of the standard outpost benifits. For example the outfit could choose to have a resource extractor, gun platform and air pad to allow them to both gain more resources, use it as a staging area for their aircraft and defend it. Outfit barracks would take twice as long to capture as other outposts.

Empire specific outpost (2): Each empire would have their own version of an outpost, which would be differentiated according to the specialisation of the empire. Here are some quick ideas:

• TR: Ammo dump: all TR forces in the territory carry double the ammunition
• NC: Artillery piece: large artillery piece which can fire up to a territory away.
• VS: Energy distributor: all vehicle afterburners and infantry stamina bars last twice as long.

In brackets you can see a comparison of the relative resource cost.

This system would allow empires to fortify their territory as they see fit, with outfits being responsible for sections of the battle line as they invest their resources and time into defending it. You would naturally get resource extractors behind the lines where they are safe, or on rarer resources, while the gun towers on the front lines. Potentially each empire could have their own style of outpost.

[Tool]

Very good ideas, not so sure about the airpad however. I really felt that airpads at towers in PS1 harmed gameplay. The disposable nature of aircraft is something I think many players would rather not see return in PS2. Anything to help prevent that is good in my eyes.

I think it would be fun if deployable structures were modular in some sense, allowing the ability to build more complex facilities or bases in a way; rather than one large, upgradeable structure. If that's possible, I don't know but it may appeal to the arm-chair commanders of strategy games and more players is usually a good thing.

[krnasaur]

As long as they are true to the outpost name and small, I'm thinking like a 1 story tower of the current game with a roof. maybe an upgrade-able outer wall.

[Tikuto]

lolspam

[p0intman]

i was thinking something like this, except more for specialisations in outfits being included.

ie, an air outfit can have their own flying titanic fortress
an armor outfit could have their own tank/armor facility specifically designed for tanks
an infantry outfit could have their own dropship center (different/similar to the ones in ps2) from which to deploy/train in
a seaborne outfit could have their own aircraft carrier/submersible base from which to launch strikes out from.

(i personally think that if flying takes real skill in planetside, aircraft carrier landings could be extremely fun. As would be landing/taking off while already technically airborne)

[Malorn]

I like the idea of different types of smaller structures, like the ewar tower, the vehicle pad, etc. I think bunkers will need to be built into the terrain to really look and operate good, but the idea of a large pillbox with some guns on it as a static defensive structure is good.

A few key things I think that must be present for oufit-owned structures to function.

1) Upkeep
Outfits have resources and these things should have a periodic maintenance cost. First this helps keep them from littering the continents. It needs to be a high enough cost to warrant that an outfit wouldn't want to keep more than 1 up 24/7, and even then they'd want to tear down ones not in immediate or near-future use. I'd also recommend that upkeep costs scale non-linearly to prevent one large outfit from putting down tons of these things indefinitely.

Another way to do upkeep is to have an intial purchase cost, and then have upkeep gradually increase over time the longer the structure is in existence. At some point the structure will not be worth its cost and it will be abandoned. This keeps the landscape from becoming too stale.

The sweet spot here is that you want to have a structure that enhances or secures a resource such that the cost of placing the structure is worthwhile and you reap the rewards before the upkeep cost gets too high.



2) Ownership
Ownership is important such that every one of these structures must always have an owner. I would propose that any structure that does not have an owner automatically de-constructs after a certain period of time (1-2 minutes, could vary by structure). During that time another outfit on that empire could opt to take control of the abandoned structure.

Capturing one of these structures requires the capturer to make a choice - they either take ownership on behalf of their outfit or their empire owns it and it will be automatically de-construct in a short time. would want some basic precautions here to prevent abuse by juggling ownership between a few outfits and avoiding the cost.

The-deconstruct time is the time which another outfit has the opportunity to take ownership or an opposing empire has to secure it before it is destroyed.


This is a good way to put a nice steady resource sink into the game that can also enhance gameplay. The important parts are doing it in such a way that it is limited and not literring the landscape, and in such a way that the mechanical transitions of ownership between empires and outfits is smooth and resistant to abuse.


I haven't thought too much about this but I'll think more on it. Good discussion.

[NewSith]

I like this idea, my only point of concern is NC's arty. Official PS forums were set on fire the moment somebody started a thread about indirect fire.

PS [Sorry for HJ] And if you mix it up with my outfit spec idea (infantry idea in particular), then it'll a very VERY sexy thing.

[Malorn]

Oh regarding the benefits. I dislike the NC benefit proposed because it is fundamentally different from the other two.

Above the TR and VS have benefits which are passive improvements to all soldiers and vehicles, while the NC benefit is a tactical strike. Seems NC are getting the shaft in that one. I'd like to see something along the NC theme that benefits many in the empire as the other two benefits do. Namely something that either gives them more defensive power, more offensive power, or more guerrilla-style. Adaptive camoflage for infantry (sort of like a weak infiltration suit, meant to mask numbers and helps only when stationary), or some sort of light personal shield or something like that which fits with the rest of the theme.

[Bravix]

Originally Posted by Malorn

Oh regarding the benefits. I dislike the NC benefit proposed because it is fundamentally different from the other two.

Above the TR and VS have benefits which are passive improvements to all soldiers and vehicles, while the NC benefit is a tactical strike. Seems NC are getting the shaft in that one. I'd like to see something along the NC theme that benefits many in the empire as the other two benefits do. Namely something that either gives them more defensive power, more offensive power, or more guerrilla-style. Adaptive camoflage for infantry (sort of like a weak infiltration suit, meant to mask numbers and helps only when stationary), or some sort of light personal shield or something like that which fits with the rest of the theme.

Oh yes, because cloaking rexo's would be fair

NC with the arty would be the best bonus in my opinion. You don't live long enough half the time to use all your ammo, and staminia really doesn't do a whole lot. You can surge/darklight 2x longer, big deal. You'd see a lot more PShield MAX's tho lol.

If I'm building an outpost, I want it to be able to directly assist my outfits efforts, I (in most situations) could care less if the zerg gets double stamina.

[animagic]

Therein lies the exact opposite of what an Outpost should be. A super cool cannon that pew pews random stuff isnt very helpful nor is it in the spirit of actually helping those around you. Remember, that PS2 is going the way of much more teamwork then PS1. The variable "super soldier" is no more, (tho I'm sure I could find a way to make one =D) and Specialties that complement each other are the dominating thought process.

Creating an Outpost will likely be done only near a base/area you actually intend to capture as they will likely have a limited time frame that they can be around. Even if it is required of the other Empire to "destroy" the tower/outpost or simply hack it for it to be lost. It would be most beneficial if in the time that the Outpost was alive that it benefited as many people as possible with passive buffs than simply being another gun on the field. Think of the Turrets on towers in PS1. Quite frankly, they were useless. A Reaver could do missle runs on the things, or spam at max range and take it out regardless if there was someone in it or not. Hell, having someone in it actually made the turrets less effective simply because of human error/aim.

Personally, I'd love to see something along the lines of Outposts giving small upgrades to Stamina or HP or even damage/RoF. Remembering back on tower battles in PS1, it would definately have helped keeping the towers that I hacked with a small group in an effort to help push the zerg along. Giving the owning Empire an actual personal bonus to every friendly within its SOI and actually making the attacking Empire work for a tower instead of the usual steamroll of 50 people.