Gameplay: Base Focused or All Terrain?

[Jaegen]

One of the things I'm hoping for is that PS2 will have battles in more locations than just the main bases. Being able to have battles in forests and canyons offers a myriad of tactical opportunities and variety to the game. With the new hex system I'm hoping that this style of fighting in many environments will be the norm and not the exception. Do other people see this happening or will the focus be on the large bases like in PS1?

[Bags]

Why does it have to be one or the other I don't understand.

Why not both?

[Furber]

I too would like for both to be important. We'll have to see just how important bases are in beta

[ChookWantan]

I can't wait to take the smaller outposts, to be honest.

[QuantumMechanic]

All hexes will provide the owning faction with resources. Some more than others. So owning an Amp Station will probably be more valuable than owning the Vehicle Repair Shack On Top of That Hill Over There. But they both will be fought over.

[Otleaz]

The way I understand it, the "playing field" for each battle will pretty much be the facility on your side of the front line, the facility on their side of the front line, and all of the area in-between.

Ideally, after the enemy lets up a bit, you will need to push them back to their base. Hopefully they incorporate it in a way that makes it so it takes time to push an enemy back, rather than just having the players hoof it all the way over to the enemy base with no real resistance.

[mintyc]

something to keep in mind is that the capture time of hexes is impacted by the owner of adjacent hexes. so a base will take longer to hack if the hexes around the base are owned by the empier that is in controll of the base.

this will probably have the effect of keeping the zerg focued on the boaders of your territory with strike squads/platoons attempting to capture/defend important hexs just behind the lines or to the sides of the main fights.

i am expecting encircling and corralling to play a major role in PS2, although that will depend on what restrictions are placed on spawing. another thing i expect is for the population to be far more spread out as leaveing sections of your lines undefended could quickly lead to large parts of your teretory geting taken.

[Aberdash]

Most fighting will probably be around bases. But from what we have seen bases are bigger and more open than in ps1.

[Zebasiz]

I've heard the devs say in a few interviews that they are trying to design the continents to support and encourage fighting in the field between bases as well as in the base itself. Let's hope they were sucessful in that.

[Vreki]

I have to admit, fighting over virtually identical bases in PS1 gets old, not to mention the towers.

I am hoping we will se some more variation in PS2.

[InfraRed]

The Devs have stated frequently that we will be fighting over a lot more ground between facilities than in PS1. The best battles I remember from PS1 have been held between bases, some over bridges, but it's rare to find these in a game where everyone is a veteran and jumps from base to base without taking the time to clear the ground between the facilities.

At the same time, when these battles do happen in open ground, typically it's taken over by vehicles, which isn't a good thing because some people prefer a play style of infantry only (hence the bending of Oshur the creation of the battle islands, which had to be done to counter the creation of BFRs).

[Littleman]

The lay of land is divided up by hexes, and these hexes are controlled by either a base, a tower (which as of late last year, had landing struts...) and I hear bunkers, which I imagine will be modeled similar to the forward barracks we saw in the E3 videos - just a crummy little shack for infantry to spawn from. I imagine they don't want it to be too inconvenient for the defending forces to get to and protect their land, hence spawn bunkers in essentially the middle of no where.

Bases are special however in that they are the only hexes that carry auraxium, which is actually a fairly important resource in Planetside 2. The biggest prize in PS2 will be the bases, but the incentives and capabilities should be in place to encourage empires to make their enemies fight for every inch of land getting to that base.