Tower design questions and observations

Canaris · 2012-06-01, 05:27 AM

I just finished watching the epic TB/Higby live stream, going to have to watch a few more times to get all the nitty gritty details to dissect

One thing that stood out was the tower design from what you showed and this topic is merely based on that, I know it was probably not finished but it seemed like the jump pads for access to the higher levels was on the towers outside, those white platforms?
Would that mean forcing attackers/defenders to the outside of the tower in order to go up and down would make them vulnerable to fire from well everything negating the towers protection.

Veterans from PS1 will remember how tower battles unfolded, drawing aircraft and vehicles like flies to dung, if you were infantry and outside the most likely thing to happen was to be blown to pieces, the tower doors were your friend.

Also a lack of a backup normal stair case access to the various floors, seemed that you could get to the first floor and no further do you think it will cause problems in tower fights for ease of access?
My concern on seeing you can only reach the upper floors by "grav lift" is it might lead to lemming effect as the troops go up the lift single file there could be simply enemies camping the other end with fast shooting guns with lots of bullets making it as TB said, a meat grinder, to rival the bloodiest tower battles of the PS1.

SKYeXile · 2012-06-01, 05:34 AM

shit, I'm gonna have to painfully watch the thing with sound now.

Graywolves · 2012-06-01, 05:36 AM

I think the tower has another level that isn't completed yet. I didn't notice any jumppads myself but it would make up for the lack of access to the landing pads. I don't really see what that gains though.

The one thing I really thought about was the lobby. You had that barrier wall for the smaller door but then you have two garage-sized doors on either side and a big open area with a very exposed catwalk. So that area itself definitely isn't meant to be used for defense.

RoninAfro · 2012-06-01, 05:37 AM

Were there jump pads on the tower? I don't remember seeing any. I do remember the white pad looking thing, but I wasn't getting a jump pad vibe from that. He was on a light assault toon and was jetpacking up iirc. While I didn't see any stairs from the lower floors to the top, I'm thinking that was just because he was trying to be quick (why take the stairs when you can jetpack up?) and he jumped down from the top.
I still think it's going to be a meat-grinder either way, but hopefully not to the extreme that tower battles were in the original.

Notser · 2012-06-01, 05:47 AM

Originally Posted by RoninAfro

Were there jump pads on the tower? I don't remember seeing any. I do remember the white pad looking thing, but I wasn't getting a jump pad vibe from that. He was on a light assault toon and was jetpacking up iirc. While I didn't see any stairs from the lower floors to the top, I'm thinking that was just because he was trying to be quick (why take the stairs when you can jetpack up?) and he jumped down from the top.
I still think it's going to be a meat-grinder either way, but hopefully not to the extreme that tower battles were in the original.

I believe they said jump pads were strictly for getting players across a base, so perhaps the tower is just stairs or dropship. There are elevator type stuff thought that might be useful for inside. I think they want some areas that assault class excels and is the only class that can get there.

Zekeen · 2012-06-01, 05:49 AM

Lot of wierd stuff on that tower in the video. I don't think I even saw a way for non jet pack equipped light infantry to get up to the landing pads.

Xyntech · 2012-06-01, 06:28 AM

Originally Posted by Zekeen

Lot of wierd stuff on that tower in the video. I don't think I even saw a way for non jet pack equipped light infantry to get up to the landing pads.

But why would you want to be a pilot as any other class?

SKYeXile · 2012-06-01, 06:31 AM

Originally Posted by Xyntech

But why would you want to be a pilot as any other class?

There is no other pilot class one could argue the enginner, but i think the AA is gonna be angry and i plan to bail on them if theres enough of them clustered together and they mange to shoot me down.

Xyntech · 2012-06-01, 06:39 AM

I just want to fly through the sky (like a pretty butterfly), aircraft or not. Yay jump packs. Engi seems like it will be better for Galaxy and possibly Liberator pilots.

It does seem weird not to have roof access, but they are still tweaking things.

I'm interested in how the CQC will work in PS2 towers as opposed to in PS1.

Noivad · 2012-06-01, 06:44 AM

There should be a seperate pilot class with no jump jets. And yes it looks like you have to use the jump jets to get up on the outside. And with those big open bays on the bottom, tanks and aircraft will be shooting inside worse then PS1 doors. The tower looks like its 7 stories high. With no staircase. Make towers have doors like in the caves for the ground vehicle spawn points.

Alderego · 2012-06-01, 07:07 AM

I'd like to point out that that tower had a lot of open space on certain floors. So it looked to me atleast, that they might have the level-designers still working on dressing it up.
Those open spots just looked to be begging for some boxes and other stuff to be used as cover in CQ.

We'll see soon enough I guess, there will probably be towers and fighting over them at E3.

SgtMAD · 2012-06-01, 10:34 AM

its like SOE designed the tower for the damn view because at first look the defensive set up is shit.

way too many open sight angles to the outside,it is going to be easy for air to hover spam the different levels of the tower inside and out

Brusi · 2012-06-01, 10:43 AM

I hold a certain sadness at the thought of never seeing another stairwell fight...

Leapfroging TR MAX units up a tower stairwell using lockdown was some of the most satisfying coordinated teamwork since EQ complete heal rotations, lol

kaffis · 2012-06-01, 10:47 AM

Originally Posted by HtSgtMAD

its like SOE designed the tower for the damn view because at first look the defensive set up is shit.

way too many open sight angles to the outside,it is going to be easy for air to hover spam the different levels of the tower inside and out

Well, we've been told that the air handling will preclude hoverspam. Presumably the Scythe is an exception, but we don't know what that gets balanced against yet.

Death2All · 2012-06-01, 10:49 AM

I'm guessing that tower designs aren't finalized yet. The interior seemed rather barren.