Uncapturable Foothold / Sactuary Hexes - Pro's and Cons

[Raymac]

Originally Posted by LONGFELLA KOJ

Sorry, but this feature is so far off the mark of what Planetside is. We fight to lock continents. We fight to find and destroy every last spawn point. We fight until the population of the enemy is taken down to 0%.

This is actually why I'm glad they are making the change. The actual "capturing" of a continent was responsible for the lamest, longest, most boring downtime in the whole game. It was easy to waste an hour just in the those moments just before and after the continent lock.

It was BORING as hell because the losing empire would typically see the writing on the wall and shift their forces elsewhere, so the winning empire would have a 9:1 advantage as the mopped up the last few bases. THEN you get to watch the CR5s bicker over where to go next after you locked the continent. Complete boring waste of time.

Fighting the enemy down to 0% is vastly overrated.

[CutterJohn]

Agreed with raymac, and I'm also tired of everyone saying what PS was and wasn't about. There isn't a monolithic block of ps1 players who agree with all things. There are highly differing opinions about almost every single aspect of the game.

[DarkDwarf]

I think that the space drop option is a really good one. Although I agree that fighting the enemy down to zero can be less than fun, it's far more immersive and fun to have that option, as opposed to simply being forced to watch as your enemy constantly respawns at a base right in front of you.

[Skitrel]

Explain how invincible unassailable bases fit in the ethos of a world where they're supposed to be fighting for complete control of the world.

If there's nothing else to take, of course they'd attack the enemy home base. It makes no sense logically and there's no way to justify a magical invincible base within the world.

There is one other potential thought here though, that only 1 continent might hold the home footholds. If that's the case I can go with that. If there's 3 footholds on every continent though it just doesn't quite make sense and will only result in the same fights happening from the same directions with the same attackers and defenders, all the time.

[Figment]

@Skitrel: agreed.

@Raymac and Cutterjohn: why didn't you move yourself and your squad then? Why, if having a 90% pop was not fun and waiting for CR5s was not okay?

You chose to wait. You chose to stay and advance with the rest of the empire. Don't blame the game for your choices.

[kadrin]

Originally Posted by Figment

In PlanetSide 2, with only three continents at launch (meaning a max of around 6.000 people per server), I'm even wondering if we will even be able to move to another continent if we're bored of the current one? Because we can't END the current one. Worse, the other might be pop-locked...

Whoa whoa, wait... There's only three continents at launch? That doesn't bode well.

On the subject of the footholds, I don't like the idea at all. What's the point of fighting for a continent if we cannot kick the other empires off them and reap all the benefits of owning it? There's going to be less incentive to actually take a continent and hold it and more to just take the most beneficial parts and screw the rest.

And that's assuming you can hold your players attention long enough to do that, if there is no progress, no continents getting locked for your empire, no reason to move on to the next one, I think players are going to get bored quicker and move on to other games.

[StumpyTheOzzie]

yep. Never actually thought about it like that.

Maybe they made base defence impossible. Or very difficult. That way you think you've achieved something by taking a base. Sure, they're just gonna take it back in 5 minutes, but by then you're on to the next base =/

[VioletZero]

I don't like it either.

Good points all around.

[hypehype]

-make all bases capturable except when a faction is on their last main base.

That way the direction an enemy attacks from will be different depending on which base they have remaining.

[Skitrel]

Originally Posted by hypehype

-make all bases capturable except when a faction is on their last main base.

That way the direction an enemy attacks from will be different depending on which base they have remaining.

There are only 3 main bases on the continent. So everyone is on their only main base. Other large structures are amp stations, bio labs and tech, not main bases.

[hypehype]

Originally Posted by Skitrel

There are only 3 main bases on the continent. So everyone is on their only main base. Other large structures are amp stations, bio labs and tech, not main bases.

In that case, the idea with the rotating main bases in the previous post sounds like a good idea.

[Kipper]

Sorry, but I don't like the idea of the main bases being there and rotating - although it would mean that you get to play with attacking and defending different territory in different directions, it seems unrealistic and silly to me that your base would suddenly just change hands and you'd find yourself in the next one, surrounded by enemy territory - while your enemy was surrounded by your territory.

That just means to me that the territory surrounding your 'new' home would be an easy cap, because the enemy couldn't defend it easily, and you will take it without a fight, whilst not being able to defend what is now next to your enemies base, and losing that.

Its an artificial way for territory to change hands. I want there to be a fight over every hex - every time you take something, its a victory because you had to fight for it - whether it was a skirmish or an epic one doesn't matter, but if you can just walk in and grab it, that's no fun.

But likewise I'm still uneasy about uncapturable bases for the reasons I outlined in the OP.

The idea of BF2142 'titans' rotating around the continent would be okay, but I think the idea of HART drops from space would be far easier to implement, given that you don't have to show anything on the map (I remember the lag that moving your titan caused in BF2142 when it came out) and you only have to worry about modelling a disconnected 'interior' with a door to the drop pods - shows the map - you click on a hex you own, or any hex if you don't own any - and off you go.

It will be up to people to organise co-ordinated drops to take territory back when their empire has lost everything, which will be a game in itself. You'll need to either organise an overwhelmingly large drop to guarantee a contested space, or you can drop infil troops to scout an area first so that you can spread your forces and create many battles at once.

The outfit or squad that re-takes a hex to generate their own 'new' foothold for the empire will be heroes, and since that foothold can be anywhere and the empire can expand out from it, then the map/territory can end up being in ANY configuration.

[Fenrys]

Originally Posted by Shanesan

I like it.

[RavenUSC3]

I liked having sanctuaries. If you asked me as a PS1 vet hearing the details of PS2 what I would miss most from the original, that would probably be it....and the seven other continents but I know they'll bring those back through expansion. The sanctuaries don't have to be anything intricate, really just a rally point and place to set your stuff up, but there is something to be said for it being a different place away from the continent.

Something else I was just thinking though and I guess similar to what someone said above with some kind of space ship, but what about some kind of large ships out in the ocean that are constantly circling the continent? They could have some kind of protective shield around them and help to promote naval combat. It would certainly promote air combat and the use of galaxies just to get off the thing.

[OpolE]

Sounds fucking terrible.

Try it out in beta then see what we think