Interlink Facility Concept

[PsychoXR-20]

I've been working on this Interlink Facility concept off and on for a few weeks now, and seeing that in the 6 month road map they mentioned they would like to bring back the interlink facility I figured I'd go ahead and post this.

As the war on Auraxis waged on it was found that there was a need to more accurately detect enemies and enemy troop movement; thus was born the Interlink Facility. Somewhat hastily constructed, Interlink Facilities are retrofitted radio telescope facilities re-purposed for the war. Interlink Facilities are able to detect enemy movement from great distances away and relay that information back to friendly soldiers on the battlefield, and are also able to tap into other facilities and grant them the same ability. Because of the sensitive nature of the Interlink Facility it was designed as a far more defensible facility, and enemy armies will find that it is far more difficult to break into and take over an Interlink Facility than other facility types. Controlling an AMP station will increase the range at which an Interlink Facility can detect enemies.

Control Bonus: Enemies will show up on radar at all times while near an Interlink Facility, or any facility connected to an Interlink Facility.

With the introduction of the Interlink Facility comes a new certification for each class:

-Advanced Stealth Systems: Occupies the suit slot. Hides the user from all forms of radar and prevents them from showing up on the minimap. Firing a weapon will still cause you to briefly display.

The Interlink facility will display all users within a certain range on the mini-map. This certification allows individual players to hide themselves from radar, and coupled with a weapon suppressor they will never show up on radar ever. This cert could also prevent players from being "spotted" by enemies (PS2 currently lacks any sort of stealth ability).

I've created two concepts for the Interlink Facility: (NOTE: The courtyard for both is just some greeble, to fill it out and make it not look so empty, it is not indicative of what I would imagine it really looking like)



This version is more of a throwback to PS1, with a very walled feeling, and much of the guts of the facility are below ground.



This second version is radically different from anything seen in PS1 or 2. It's based off the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. It's essentially a giant radar dish built into the ground, again, with much (if not all) of the important stuff located underground. In order to provide better defense the gate shields features a very unique system. You'll notice that there are six gate shields and they just happen to be oriented the same way that the hex system is oriented. Only those shields on sides that have hexes that are fully surrounded by enemy territory will be in play (the others will act as spawn room shields allowing friendly anything to pass though, but acting as a wall to enemies) these shields - as long as they are "safe" - cannot be deactivated). Shields touching enemy territory will act as normal vehicle shields, allowing infantry and infantry projectiles though both ways, but preventing anything vehicle related from getting through. To better illustrate this, a graphic!



The two red shields are the shields that are in play and can be taken down by the enemy, this is because they are the two shields on sides that are touching enemy territory (the friendly hex that is touching that side is fully surrounded on all its exposed sides by enemy hexes). This system accomplishes a couple things. It makes the base more defensible early on as the attackers may only have one entrance into the facility, creating a choke point. It also gives reason for small teams to attempt to capture the surrounding territory to open up more gates and force a larger area that the defenders must defend.

I will admit this is a bit convoluted of a system and may not be entirely obvious to new players as to how it works (and to be perfectly honest I sort of forgot about the six hexagons surrounding the central hex when I thought of this system.), so if someone has a better way to do it I'm all ears. I do however (and maybe I'm just biased since I came up with it) do think it could be a interesting system that allows the players to dictate the flow of battle by opening up and closing different gates.

It's important to note that in both designs, there is a small opening that is unshielded and can be entered by anyone (assuming they can get to it). Top of Facility #1 and the center of the dish on Facility #2. This allows spec-ops teams to infiltrate the facility quickly and without arousing suspicion (no "Generator Compromised" warning until it's too late). In a battle situation this entrance will not be particularly viable to the enemy as it will most likely be heavily trafficked/guarded by the defenders, and it is a small (in the physical sense, massive in a strategic one) choke point; it's also very difficult to reach, especially when people are shooting at you. However, should the fighting be away from the Interlink Facility it should be entirely possible for a small squad to hot/Galaxy drop into the entrance (design #2 will take a skilled pilot or light assault to get to the entrance), get inside and take down the generator that powers the facility without the owners ever knowing.

You'll also notice that I have made a change to those big solar panel looking things that are strewn around bases, turning them into giant shield emitters. While they don't do a whole lot in facility #2 (other than look cool!) in #1, and in all other facilities, this wold give infantry a little more cover against the onslaught of Liberator and ESA spam (they are quite big, as you can see in relation to facility #1, which just shows how massive #2 is). These would be powered by the same generators that power the gate shields (the idea should be that protecting those generators is akin to protecting the courtyard in PS1, and that once those shields go down its only a matter of time before the courtyard is lost and the fight is pushed into the facility).

The general layout of the facility is as follows:

-Two Generators inside the courtyard that control the gate vehicle shields.
-Two Generators inside the courtyard that control the facility entrance shields. Both of these generators are protected by tech plant like shields (projectiles cannot pass though either direction) and are linked to the gate shield generators meaning that the attackers cannot get into the facility until the gate shields are down.
-Two dedicated defender spawn rooms, one outside in the courtyard area (such as typical in current facilities) and one inside, underground between the facility entrances and the control points.
-One back door entrance, protected by the facility entrance shields.
-One unsecured entrance that can be entered at any time by anyone, located in a difficult to access location (requiring either Light Assault or a Galaxy to reach).
-One primary entrance that is protected by the facility entrance shields.
-Three control points inside.
-One primary generator that controls everything (shields, terminals, spawn rooms, facility benefit etc). This generator is more like a PS1 generator that must physically be destroyed, no walking up to it, holding your use button down for a ten count then compromising it. It has an enormous amount of health but taking it down will completely shut down the facility until it is repaired. This generator is located in an easily defensible room, promoting generator hold tactics.

Both versions would feature a very similar internal structure (with minor difference to entrances to accommodate the exterior layout) which I haven't made yet.

I designed the Interlink to be a throwback to PS1 style facilities, with much of the facility being located underground, and connected by tight corridors (something PS2 currently lacks). This makes this facility safe from vehicles and puts the spawn room between the entrance and the control points, which in turn makes it take longer for the attackers to get back to a control point if they die than the defenders. The tight corridors make camping the spawn room much more difficult as the defenders will have clean line of sight to all attackers. The tight corridors are also a game-play style we don't have in PS2 (and it very well might not work with the vastly higher TTK)

Ideally there should be two Interlink Facilities on a continent. One Interlink per continent would result in that being the main hotspot forever and always, three would devalue them too much, and would probably just result in each empire always having one until one empire decides to take over a continent. Two provides two empires with one, and gives a target for both to do some spec-ops at, as well as a prime target for the third empire to try and cause some havoc.