Change the Towers - Page 2

Vorgan · 2011-04-10, 02:40 PM

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

Towers I'd like to see..

Defense Tower. These are placed next to bases. They have a couple turrets on the side for tower defense, and one Big Ass turret up top that frightens children and makes grown men weep. The big turret cannot be killed, but it does have a minimum range, so it does not serve to directly protect the tower. It is a major obstacle attackers must clear before taking a base. After the base is taken, it supports the invasion.

The "bigass turret" on the top of this tower: does it have 360 degree rotation? Is it one shot, then reload? Or maybe one shot, then "cool down" (since it will likely have infinite ammo). Or...if it doesn't have infinite ammo, players would need to run down to the basement, get ammo boxes, run back up and refill it whenever it ran out. Could be a useful balancing tool.

Logistics Tower. This tower has air and vehicle repair pads, and is a non tech vehicle spawn point. These are most commonly located outside of warpgates, and in between bases with long distance lattice links

Nifty.

Watchtower. This tower has a massive radar installation capable of detecting units over a wide area, showing the location of enemy vehicles on the map(not minimap) as indistinct blobs. Cloaked vehicles are not shown. Aircraft are shown as a different color than ground units. Situated in a generally regular pattern providing coverage of most of the continent, though gaps do exist that can be exploited against enemies too reliant on it for intel.

This is really powerful, but a solid idea. Powerful enough that having more than two or three of these per map could be overpowered. Regardless, a cool idea.

Artillery tower. This tower has a massive artillery cannon attached that can be used to call down strikes by approved personnel. Not as devastating as OS, but still nasty. Generally only 1 or 2 per continent.

Does the tower itself have a limit on when it can be fired, or are the timers individual (as with OSes)?

All towers are to be constructed with firing ports that will make it difficult for vehicles to camp the doors.

And a tower mechanic.. A sorta gen droppy gizmo. If a fight rages for too long at a tower, a decision can be made to disconnect it from the lattice. This disconnection requires the cooperation of 3 individuals hacking at outside terminals. When the tower is dry, it goes neutral, stopping spawns. An ant must be used to recharge it before it can be hacked. However, all tower functions will be offline for twenty minutes as it reboots itself.

You can end a tower fight quickly, but the sacrifice is you lose the rather large advantage the tower represents for a lengthy period of time.

Overall really cool ideas. The gen-dropping mechanic is...interesting. Not sure how I feel about it, but then again these are towers, not bases. If people are locked inside the tower and unable to push back to reclaim it, then they've lost it and shouldn't be there anyway. Your mechanic is a nifty way around that.

duck · 2011-04-10, 03:38 PM

Originally Posted by DviddLeff

Apologise for the crude models, I need to go back and render them properly at some point.

Great models. I hope SOE is looking at this thread

I agree the towers in original Planetside were all similar, but again the game is about 8 years old. I'm sure the devs have a new vision on how bases and towers are designed. The diversity of the buildings will make the new game much more dynamic

wildcat140679 · 2011-04-10, 05:48 PM

I believe adding different types of towers similar to the renders would be a great addition. Different tower designs and layout would add diversity in battles and make one tower battle feel less like the previous one.

Towers however are a death trap once pinned down by multiple vehicles, tanks or reavers shooting at the doors. I don't believe different designs or addind more hard cover and elemens for infantry to hide behind will chance much.

Towers could use a defensive boost against vehicle superiority, shooting heavy ordinance at the doors, grinding easy kills with their (almost) instant kill weapons against infantry.

What if towers could be fitted with some kind of special defence module. Like a Shield bubble, heavy EMP blast or some sort of shock wave that pushes everything away from the tower just to name something crazy

These special defence modules would require to be charged before they can actually be triggered and it it's effect will either be instant or of very short duration.

Having a long range EMP blast to knock out vehicles their weapons (or more, knock out their engines as well), this might just be enough for those trapped in the tower to step outside, face enemy infantry and push out. I don't expect it to do wonders, but it could balance tower fights a bit more when the enemy is using vehicles to prevent infantry in getting out.

DviddLeff · 2011-04-10, 06:33 PM

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

And a tower mechanic.. A sorta gen droppy gizmo. If a fight rages for too long at a tower, a decision can be made to disconnect it from the lattice. This disconnection requires the cooperation of 3 individuals hacking at outside terminals. When the tower is dry, it goes neutral, stopping spawns. An ant must be used to recharge it before it can be hacked. However, all tower functions will be offline for twenty minutes as it reboots itself.

You can end a tower fight quickly, but the sacrifice is you lose the rather large advantage the tower represents for a lengthy period of time.

Giving towers NTU silos does this by using an already present system.

Baneblade · 2011-04-11, 12:16 AM

I think Towers should be something CR players deploy (advanced AMSes) rather than static objects.

2 points - AMS: As is.
-3 points - Forward Operating Base (CR 2 Required) : AMS Cloak changes to a BFR style shield. AMS deployment and recovery time increases ten fold. AMS shield increases in radius 100%. Segmented wall deploys along the inside edge of shield perimeter (basically the short obstacle walls that are around some bases and towers in current PS). Gaps in wall at each side of FOB.
--2 points - FOB SOI (CR 3 Required) : AMS bubble gains SOI properties, disabling enemy radar, implants, and HART dropping.
---2 points - FOB Adv SOI (CR 4 Required) : AMS SOI expands to double the radius of the Defense Shield. Perimeter walls convert to actual bunkers.
----5 points - Forward Command Base (CR 5 Required) : Actual AMS deployed model changed to sunken Command Bunker with spawn room and terminals. CB has a door that operates off hackable IFF panel. 'Jacking' the CB must be done at the Command Console. Deconstruction is not possible.

Each upgrade cert for the FOB/FCB increases the shield hp and hp regen.

CutterJohn · 2011-04-11, 12:31 AM

Originally Posted by DviddLeff

Giving towers NTU silos does this by using an already present system.

A rather poor system, in my opinion. Silo maintenance was nothing more than a chore. I'm fine with having to grab an ant after you use the easy(but detrimental) method to kill a tower camp that has been going on overly long. Adds yet another downside to it. Not so fine with expanding the number of silos that need filled by 2 or 3x.

Senyu · 2011-04-11, 01:46 AM

Im liking the Gen/ATU combo with the easy win option for tower. It will progress fights and change the battlefield than have forever stalemates. Though it should not be constantly refreshed like a base. And towers shouldn't be deployable. Perhaps something similar, but not towers.

Now as for upgrades. Should towers remain static on what they have with of course turret upgrades from engineers, or should their be more. And how will these upgrades work?

Will they need certain Bases capped for certain upgrades?
Will engineers build these upgrades to the tower itself?
Will high ranking command players decide these upgrades in tactical battles?

From these three options, Bases as requirments should give passive upgrades such as radar, stronger turrets,mayhap some have shields, minute timer before tower hack becomes active giving defenders more time, faster spawn times

For engineer upgrades, variety of turrets, small defence walls, biopain field in some areas, radar, adding vehicale repairs if there are no towers that can repair already, faster spawn times, and other innovative/utility upgrades.

With high ranking players these could be much more powerful such as adding walls, the artillery idea mentioned earlier, making it practically a small base, cloak, teleportation in which similar aspects as a drop for HART but only in a certain distance from tower, vehicle spawn pads. And more things that should be powerful but rare and long cool downs.

As you can see if Tower Upgrades became an option we have a few choices on what type and styles of upgrades to choose from. And of course I'm sure some of you can think of more. Also I understand this level of design and complexity/variety to towers will probably not make it into the game (but i hope it does) but this discussion is of innovated and theoretical ideas of possibilities of expanding the simple Tower. So please no remarks of it not making it into the game or saying devs should not focus so much on towers.

DviddLeff · 2011-04-11, 03:23 AM

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

A rather poor system, in my opinion. Silo maintenance was nothing more than a chore. I'm fine with having to grab an ant after you use the easy(but detrimental) method to kill a tower camp that has been going on overly long. Adds yet another downside to it. Not so fine with expanding the number of silos that need filled by 2 or 3x.

That is why in my NTU Overhaul I have NTUs replenish by themselves as long as the facility/tower is connected via the lattice to a warp gate.

It stops siege fights from going on for too long unless the defenders can get NTUs to their silo by whatever means (ANTs, vehicle NTU siphons or new hand held NTU siphons). Then once the fight is over the owner gets their supply lines secured by using Relay towers between the facility and the warp gate, and the base powers back up. Player NTU transfer can be used to speed up the process however.

Baneblade · 2011-04-11, 11:18 AM

I think NTU should be less about filling a silo and more about protecting a pipeline. Sure have the silo as a backup, and perhaps make the gen shielded until the pipeline is disrupted. But move the focus from ANT runs to more static logistics.

CutterJohn · 2011-04-11, 11:24 AM

Originally Posted by DviddLeff

That is why in my NTU Overhaul I have NTUs replenish by themselves as long as the facility/tower is connected via the lattice to a warp gate.

Helps if you mention that to start. I'm sure you're quite familiar with your thesis, but many others are not. If you don't offer an alternate suggestion, I'm going to presume you are referring to what planetside currently does.

I'll just stick with I'm not a fan of whats on that page. Some of the concepts are ok, but your numbers are whacked.

DviddLeff · 2011-04-11, 11:30 AM

Yeah, so much of my project is interlinked its hard to chip in here and there without writing essays each time.

Taking a bases tower quickly can be done with my NTU changes as the NTU silo on the tower would be much smaller than that of a base, only enough for ~50 respawns before it runs out (numbers obviously subject to change). However the NTUs could be drained by vehicles and infantry alike if they are equipped with NTU siphons, reducing the time taken significantly.

CutterJohn · 2011-04-11, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by Vorgan

The "bigass turret" on the top of this tower: does it have 360 degree rotation? Is it one shot, then reload? Or maybe one shot, then "cool down" (since it will likely have infinite ammo). Or...if it doesn't have infinite ammo, players would need to run down to the basement, get ammo boxes, run back up and refill it whenever it ran out. Could be a useful balancing tool.

I just figured infinite ammo, along with invincible. The purpose of the tower is that gun, as well as spawns, and is why you really want to take it. Not too effective if it just gets destroyed.

Actually, multiple guns is probably better balanced than one. People would be camping to get into that thing. Unless it gave no xp.. Tactical tool only? Worth considering.

This is really powerful, but a solid idea. Powerful enough that having more than two or three of these per map could be overpowered. Regardless, a cool idea.

I like it too. The watch towers always struck me as just plain stupid. Did they expect someone to sit up top with magnifier implant? No point to them.

Does the tower itself have a limit on when it can be fired, or are the timers individual (as with OSes)?

I don't think it would be of much use if people had to wait their turn. I didn't really think it out that hard.. I was just struggling to come up with another type of tower that had an actual purpose and point to it.

Heck, it could be called an Uplink tower and enable OSs/supply drops/etc for command abilities.

DviddLeff · 2011-04-11, 01:00 PM

Gun towers should have formidable weapons on them; 4 turrets would probably do it tbh.

Especially if those turrets could be customised with any large sized weapons in the game...

Lonehunter · 2011-04-11, 10:14 PM

I just hope towers play a bigger role, make them worth fighting for and relevant to the battle.

Hell, lets have a whole continent of towers

SilentHunterNC · 2011-04-12, 10:23 PM

Originally Posted by Senyu

Also another topic. What of upgrade choices. Should towers remain static and non-changing. Or should certain engineer certs be able to apply upgrades other than modified turrets. This could range to many options for upgrade choices and could have any limit such as how many active or the only last a duration.

I like the idea of engys being able to upgrade tower/base defenses. But, I really hope the devs stop there w/ engys. Dont get me wrong I loved playing a cloaker of boomering ppl. And even when i was grunting it up the boomer on teh wall was awesome for grps rushing a CC. But, the manned turrets in the field was tooooo much. Boomers/turret upgrades/spit fires/mines/sensors are all a good engys needs.

But, back to the tower front. Tower fights were for me and several friends were where the best fights happened. Tower duels of 5v5 were awesome. Blowing a gen to be ppl to come and holding the tower at some random non-important base were always a good 30-60mins of farming. But, then someone would blow the tubes and end our fun. I wanna see the pain field in towers and bases up so that its practically impossible to do that. No to mention door camping. Id really like to see towers and bases set up so that, vechs cant just spam an entrance and rack up kills. I really wanna see more skill based ways to kill people. Yea, NC, is at the end of my name so towers were way more fun than field battles of me, but hey how long can u kill ppl w/ a suppressor before it gets old.