SmedBlog: Seamless Continents/Naval Units - Page 14

Kipper · 2012-08-13, 05:01 PM

I haven't read through the whole thread but for my 2p worth, I wouldn't redefine the game to have giant behemoth movable ships with 40 crew slots etc. There's no need for it imo.

For me, to add naval combat to planetside you just need tanks that have boat hulls instead of wheels - they still require 1, 2 or 3 people to fully crew, they still have turrets, they move fairly rapidly and carry some inertia when they turn to give them a 'boaty' handling feel. Aircraft are still viable but compared to boats (as compared to tanks) they'd be made of paper.

'Water continent' (assuming it wasn't seamless) or open water areas would have water type bases - such as oil/resource rigs of varying designs which extended up above the water with access from the air; with capture points at the air pad, a couple of control rooms, the engine/drilling room etc that allows for infantry and air to play together, with lots of walkways and cover so that air isn't just able to farm. Bio labs could be structures that extend below the water allowing for tight infantry only zones with choke points - maybe that was easier to defend but didn't have its own spawn tubes (or you could cut the power to them from an external structure) so you could grind defenders down over time.

I'd like to see inland water areas too - lakes, bridges, rivers, anchored vessels, dockyard installations - all that could all allow air/boats/infantry/tanks to mix and fight over them.

I just don't think there's a real need to totally deviate from the formula and start imagining up new game mechanics - just some fitting base designs and vehicle designs would do it for me. Lack of terrain cover on the ocean could be compensated by speed and better AA. Lack of infantry fighting areas could be compensated by water structures that had plenty of opportunity to run around and get lost in, with indoor and outdoor sections and tunnels.

Masterr · 2012-08-13, 05:13 PM

Originally Posted by OcO

A little rethinking on my Mobile Naval Base suggestion. I rethought my original idea to make this more of what I originally had in mind which is a super massive naval base to fight over just like the ground based installations we have atm. I think the following would work better, and allows for Masterr's suggestions on separate GVC and ACC and resources.

One problem with anything labeled as an empire-level asset is who gets to drive it. If something is spawned by a particular outfit they can lock it down to whomever they wish to give rights to.

My new idea is instead of 1-2 MNB per faction make 1 per continent. The MNB circles the island at a set distance from shore and at a set speed and can not be driven by players. If you want to attack one continent from another you are still going to need the GVC and ACC suggested as this MNB is not technically a ship but as the name suggests this is simply a slowly moving naval version of the ground bases we currently have to fight over. It would not be destroyable. Each faction would fight to cap it and try to keep control of it.

I would make it very slow moving. While exact rotation times could be worked out, I'm thinking something like 4-6 hours to circle the continent once. You want it to be slow enough that it would be considered a threat if an enemy faction had control of it when it passed behind your frontlines and gave them access to coastal hexes you controlled.

Allow aircraft spawns and some smaller naval vessels though maybe not the larger GVC and ACC suggested by others. In this way for each continent each faction would have naval spawning available from their warpgates and 1 faction at a time would have a second naval spawn point.

Another problem to consider when adding any offshore static objective like islands and oil rigs etc is that 1 faction will always be closer and thus have an easier time trying to control it. Combine this with the suggested ideas of having naval specific harvested resources and chances are whichever faction is closest to the resource node will control it more often and thus be able to build more naval units. In addition to being a mobile spawn point to base attacks from, make the MNB itself a resource node. I would even make it THE resource node and worth more naval resources per tick than any static location. Since the base is constantly moving each faction has equal access to it as it passes closest to their warpgate/sanct.

I will think on this a bit more but I'm trying to think this up as a companion to ground and air carriers and give more meaning to why have naval fighting not as a replacement to them. The MNB offers a dynamic naval battlefield that can be incorporated whether the game world is made seamless or not.

I'm trying to like your mobile naval base idea. So this replaces static bases but not the ability to take over an aircraft carrier. Its hard for me to determine a reason why a base is moving. It would make for interesting combat though...the MNB rounds a bend and another factions armada was sitting there...waiting for it.

I understand your concern about empire proximity to static defenses but thats the same for all bases. There won't be just one static naval base thats close to a continent. In the end...a number of static water bases/outposts and one Mobile Naval Base seems like a toss up for the devs to decide..if they take our ideas seriously.

Stardouser · 2012-08-13, 05:19 PM

Personally I don't want ANY base, naval included, to be uncapturable, but there are two issues:
1. Rich get richer
2. If you have zero naval bases, then any naval unlocks you paid for you can never use

I was thinking that putting one naval base inside the planetary uncap of each empire would provide a happy medium - naval ships won't be that fast, so you'll still want to capture naval bases throughout the planet, but since you can always at least spawn sub-battleship ships at your planetary uncap base, no one will say "but I paid for unlawks and cant use them1".

Masterr · 2012-08-13, 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by Stardouser

Personally I don't want ANY base, naval included, to be uncapturable, but there are two issues:
1. Rich get richer
2. If you have zero naval bases, then any naval unlocks you paid for you can never use

I was thinking that putting one naval base inside the planetary uncap of each empire would provide a happy medium - naval ships won't be that fast, so you'll still want to capture naval bases throughout the planet, but since you can always at least spawn sub-battleship ships at your planetary uncap base, no one will say "but I paid for unlawks and cant use them1".

Warpgates can spawn anything, including ships.

If all the naval bases on the vanu home continent (the continent that has the vanu home warp gate) have been taken over. You can either take the base back with air/infantry/tanks or you can spawn naval ships form your home warp gate and take the naval base by air/land/sea

Duskguy · 2012-08-13, 05:59 PM

Originally Posted by Stardouser

Personally I don't want ANY base, naval included, to be uncapturable, but there are two issues:
1. Rich get richer
2. If you have zero naval bases, then any naval unlocks you paid for you can never use

I was thinking that putting one naval base inside the planetary uncap of each empire would provide a happy medium - naval ships won't be that fast, so you'll still want to capture naval bases throughout the planet, but since you can always at least spawn sub-battleship ships at your planetary uncap base, no one will say "but I paid for unlawks and cant use them1".

i did mention a base or the warp gate itself being able to spawn ships....