Guide To Fixing Amp Stations-Defensibility

[thegreekboy]

A note to any devs reading this:


Please, please, PLEASE hear me out devs. This suggestion is a good one. Why? Because I made it with 3 thinfs in mind. First, that a major structural redesign is unrealistic. Second, that predictable base flow, NOT overall defender power, is what makes a well defesnsible base. Third, that the zerg will always find a way. You give them an inch, they will most assuredly take a mile.
---------------------


The Amp Station. Notoriously the hardest large base to defend. Before we take a look at how to fix this problem, we need to first look at why attackers love it so much.


1. Easily breached walls
- Attacking zergers can easily run through the vehicle shields upon arrival and blow tge generators so fast the defense has precious little time to react.
- It takes a large amount of time for defenders to man the walls due to the distance of the spawn room to the gates. Furthermore, defensive sundies have less cover than attacking ones, which can be placed pretty much anywhere.


2. Hard to Defend Generators
-Once armor gets through the shields, defenders have to run across tank firing squads to get into a position to defend the generators
- Takes a long time to run to generators
-Defending Sundies almost always get destroyed by enemy armor


3. Easily Camped Spawn
- Pretty self explanatory


All of these factors make it easy for the attackers to divide up the defenders and harder for the defenders to create an organised defense. A proper amp station defense should flow smoothly from one stage to another, and, during even the most vicous attack, give time between stages for defenders to organise. Keep in mind im taking into account just 2 zergs fighting, NOT organised outfits.


The stages should be as follows:


Wall Battle


Defenders should be manning turrets, firing rockets, and preventing infantry from getting inside. Defense buckles when enemies kill the defenders on the walls and/or blow the generators.


Inner Defense


Should consist of a unified defense fighting to defend a generator. Defense buckles when they all are killed and/or the generator is blown


Last Stand


Should consist of every defender desperately defending the SCU. Buckles when defense is killed and spawn gen is destroyed.
----------------
Now we get down to the fix. My plan consists of implementing defensive teleporters to add to defensive cohesiveness, no entry to all vehicle shields,and the implementation of a main and secondary shield generator. Devs and fellow Auraxians alike should take note of the lack of major change in my plan. With a few tweaks this base can be easily fixed.
This suggestion buffs the defense by making the flow of battle more predictable, it does NOT buff the defenders themselves.
Now, to look at the effects of my fix, we need to take a quick look of the flow of battle beforehand:



The blue arrows indicate enemy advance routes. The dotted is infantry, the solid, armor. The Red filters indicate the zones that get the most fighting (from my own experience). Notice how the main genreators don't get too much of a fight.


My Plan:


- Modify the Vehicle Shields to be exactly like the Tech Plant shields. No entry for Vehicles OR infantry.
-Modify the Vehicle Shield Generators. They should, when blown, deactivate the infantry-denying capability of the Shields and blink completely off for 4 seconds. After 4 seconds, the vehicle-denying shield goes up, and every 10 minutes after that it blinks off again for another 4 seconds.


-Add a system of defensive teleporters. It should work like this:
Teleporter in Spawn room - Central Building. There should be a teleporter hub in the central building which links to 2 teleporters near the vehicle shields and 2 near either generator (but not too close, mind).
-All of the teleporters should be destructible. They should have a decent-sized health. 3 blocks of c4 would be an instagib to them.


-Put a Shield over the elevators to the air pads. [See next for Reason]
-Add some more cover on the defender's side of the gens. At the moment it looks like the attackers have more, it should be equal.
-Add a shield over the main gen room that is linked to the vehicle shields. One both go down it is turned off. Prevents backcapping. Keeps battle in one place.
-Modify Inner Generators:
-The left one should now be a generator that controls both the "Inner Sanctum" Shields AND the SCU shield. If it is blown, both shields go down. It should take 1.5 to twice as long to overload, on account for it being so important
-The right Generator should control the air pad shield. If taken down, attackers can now gal drop onto the pads and into the inner sanctum. [Keep in mind SCU shields are still up].
-Now the attackers can potentially destroy the defender's teleport hub. It would be a major blow to the defense.


Defenders that are not LA can still get in the back way before wall gens go down.


The base flow and teleporter placement should look like this now: (Obvously not as ugly but you guys get the point:


Key: Star=Main gen. Circles=Air pad gen and corresponding shield. Black Squares with red: Teleporters that are linked to the Main Hub. Black Squares with Yellow: Spawn Room teleporter and corresponding destination.
[The "old" SCU shield generator spot has been replaced with the new Teleporter Hub]



Oh, and once the SCU gets blown the spawn room shields should too.
---------------------
The Ramifications:
Amp Station now has more tactical opportunities for attackers, while not being impossible to win. Gal drops, Diffuser Runs, Teleporter Rushes, etc.
Amp Station is now easier/more fun to defend for defenders. Also more tactical approaches to defense are possible.[Obvious]
Armor Zergs are now barely a problem.
Attacking is rewarding and layered.
Defending is rewarding and layered, with a sense of progress.

[Bags]

You had me up until you anted to remove spawn room farming.

[thegreekboy]

Originally Posted by Bags

You had me up until you anted to remove spawn room farming.

I know, I know, it was a bit of a stretch, I think that's why I only have 1 reply

[Timealude]

I absolutely love this, it would make defending alot less pointless with their current system.

[thegreekboy]

Originally Posted by Timealude

I absolutely love this, it would make defending alot less pointless with their current system.

Thanks, it took my a while to type it up. Too bad is got buried immediately on the mains

[Aaron]

Anything giving bases defenses is a win for me.

[bpostal]

Originally Posted by Aaron

Anything giving bases defenses is a win for me.

Not to mention anything that improves (creates, because there is none atm) flow of the assault/defense is a plus.

[thegreekboy]

Originally Posted by bpostal

Not to mention anything that improves (creates, because there is none atm) flow of the assault/defense is a plus.

That is honestly what I believe is the main problem with current bases. No predictable flow. Predictable flow= good defense.

[EVILoHOMER]

This is easy to fix, get rid of jet packs from light assault and make them MAX only like in Planetside with the Vanu MAX as they cannot take down gens and stuff.

Light Assault basically makes the walls pointless.

[thegreekboy]

Disagree. Vehicle shields that allow infantry in also is the thing that makes walls pointless.