Tower implications

[NapalmEnima]

It just occured to me that these various towers are a great asset to people attacking an enemy-held continent.

The squad/platoon comes in near a tower, and cap it. They now have a place to spawn on this continent.

Ditto for "lone wolf" types.


Though it does sound like towers need nano-fuel too... though I can't imagine a tower would use it up too fast.

Doing something as obvious as making an ANT run doesn't sound like a good way to stay under the radar.

[Mazelmavin]

Also,

Towers will give 10 man squads more options. You don't need a whole platoon to cap a tower, but a squad will do.

[ABRAXAAS]

Personaly this ANT idea is great ,It adds a whole new element to the strategy , it adds even more realizm to the game ,you'd have to have cover fire and escorts for these things

[Warborn]

It depends, with the towers. In a densely forested terrain, a soldier in a watchtower would not be able to see a group of enemies approaching if said enemies were moving from tree to tree. However, in a more barren landscape, you'd be spotted by someone in a tower extremely quickly, and if they're a sniper and you're an infantryman, you're likely going to die.

On the other side of the coin, with snipers in watchtowers, Infiltrators now have a way to get some free kills when they're in the neighbourhood...

[Sputty]

Snipers seem to work really well against unplanned attacks. II think in a tower Snipers could be a major part of tower defense along with some AV weapons and couple assault soldiers.

[FearTheAtlas]

My personal opinion is, that whoever controlls the towers, controlls the continent. Then again, this all depends on the drive of opposing force, and what soldiers are fortifying the tower. And for the ANT thing...I think that's a nice gameply add-on but it could get annoying after a while, just the repeditve aspect. I don't know why they'd have the "ANT" system for towers (other than MAYBE Turret towers). Oh well, just another abosticle

[Ludio]

SmokeJumper said that no nanites were required for towers.

Thats the same idea I had NapalmEnima. Before I thought they would be neat, but ultimately not very usefull. With the continent lockdowns though they are damn near essential for retaking a continent, or at least a foothold.

[PrivateMonkey]

Continents serve a number of very important roles. It's funny, because it almost seems as though many of the issues in this letter are direct responses to problems that have been recently raised (on the forums and in some of the previews). One of those problems was the amount of time it takes to get to the action. Gamespy in particular had something very specific to say about this:

While this last mission was a lot of fun, it also raised one possible concern: it takes a looong time to get around. We spent the better part of an hour simply trying to drive from one of our bases to our mobile spawn, where our team was organizing an assault, but kept running into opposition along the way.

The genius of the towers is that they counter this problem in two distinct yet interconnected ways. For one, they make for more "captureable" real-estate. By adding towers, players won't have to travel as far before they find something to fight for. It also makes for a more "causal" mission. If you don't have a whole hour, and just want to play for a quick 20 minutes, you can go fight for towers. But even more important is the towers second function:

These Towers are easily controlled (no 15-minute timer to expire after hacking) and have gun turrets, lockers and bind tubes.

This is pretty self-explanatory, really. But it will make for a much smoother combat experience. Instead of going all the way back to one of your bases when your AMS is destroyed and you die, you will now return to a tower that is much closer to your enemies position. This is a really awesome idea. I also like the fact that there is no 15-minute timer. And on a more empire-wide level, by adding towers the front-line will be much more clearly defined. Brilliant idea, if you ask me. Also, if you note what the devs said in the chat, towers will be placed in very strategic positions (bridges, choke-points). This in effect offers players "stages" of combat before taking the big babys, facilities. They can work thier way up to a facility instead of having to just travel there. They'll have some work to do on the way. From the commanders stand-point, it will also serve as a much more accurate reflection of who controls what sections of the map.

[NapalmEnima]

One question that I wish had been answered (and maybe SJ can de-lurk and let us know), is if you get any CEP for capping a tower (much less than a base I would assume)...

So do ya?

[MooKoo]

sorry for my newb question but what is an ANT

[Airlift]

It is a base refueling truck