Sanctuaries and "Beach heads" Poll and discussion

[HELLFISH88]

This thread is for discussion about the renovation to the Sanctuary system in Planetside 2. It has been stated that SOE intends to remove sanctuary's and instead replace them with Un-captureable beach head positions on every continent of Auraxis. This of course is a severe change in gameplay mechanics from the original.


The poll serves as a barometer for our Developers to judge public opinion with math.

I for one don't really like the idea of the beach heads but understand the desire to "speed up gameplay" to suit an evolving market.

Do you approve of the new concept? If not why?

[MgFalcon]

I like the idea of a beach head is ok and good for a home base of operation... but NOTHING can ever beat the GLORY of Sanc locking another Empire... THAT is why we fight, to smear that and trash talk the other Empires about it!

[MooK]

With the kind of immersion the first Planetside had, I cannot imagine a way to introduce uncapturable bases of any kind per continent.

I prefer the original sanctuary system, with the potential for invasion.

[SKYeXile]

Yea, i really think each empire should have a home base or capital...seems kinda week without them...can you imagine playing any MMORPG without a capitcal city...they make the game feel more like an MMO and alive and IMO are a requirement for one.

[EASyEightyEight]

Except for the odd staged raid, sanctuaries were an annoying loading screen waiting to happen. Sticking the safe havens on continents streamlines the process. The old breed just can't let go of what they have grown accustomed to. Not like they can't stage the same raids in the beach heads.

[HELLFISH88]

Originally Posted by EASyEightyEight

Except for the odd staged raid, sanctuaries were an annoying loading screen waiting to happen. Sticking the safe havens on continents streamlines the process. The old breed just can't let go of what they have grown accustomed to. Not like they can't stage the same raids in the beach heads.

The issue with the beach heads is that it changes the dynamics of the Game. No more Cont. locks, no more capturing the whole of Auraxis..and my biggest fear: Meta gaming a Ghost hacking during off hours. Now to be fair the Game dynamics are being drastically altered as it is so may not be as big as an exploit as we fear...but we still don't know. I for one will feel better when we have a better idea of the resource acquisition and base capturing dynamics


Dynamics.

[MgFalcon]

I want to see what they have currently (as beachheads). But I love Sanc's and HOME CONTINENTS... It's always "Defend Amerish those TR bastards are attacking it again" that drove me insane... like legit Sanc's and Home Continents made Empire PROUD to keep that shit... whenever you were invading another Empire's Home Continent... You made sure to bring A LOT of friends cause you knew the entire Empire would be after y'all!!

[Raymac]

Main reason I'm glad they are getting rid of the sanc...It really sucked NOT being able to go back to a sanc to form up or get a vehicle because you wouldn't be able to get BACK into the fight because of a poplock.

I can definitely see the pride in having a home continent, but we'll have that same pride for the territory around the beach head.

Personally, I think the pros outweigh the cons. We don't need a whole separate zone.

[Marth Koopa]

What I think should be done is a combination of both....

Don't make sanctuaries and don't put footholds for every empire on every continent, instead give each empire a home continent, have the rest of them be neutral

A home continent will feature a SUPER Base for the Empire it belongs to. This is an uncapturable, large base where people are free to mass forces. It would feature automated weaponry that would completely annihilate anyone stupid enough to get near.

Neutral continents would feature no uncap footholds and can be taken for a continental lock bonus

[FastAndFree]

I need to see these Footholds before I can decide

[NewSith]

Originally Posted by FastAndFree

I need to see these Footholds before I can decide

And I decided already UNTIL I see these footholds. I mean they sound innovative but a little bit MMORPGish...

[GuyFawkes]

I like the beach head concept , but I feel the way they are described so far is flawed and detrimental to the game overall.

Why? because despite apparently replacing sanctuaries and speeding up gameplay ,it will nullify the strategic purpose of planetside as a whole, and the legacy upon which it was based.

Imagine for a moment that the basic concept of the hexagrid is true , and that you can capture territory anywhere, though a hex close to your own area is much quicker to cap. If you follow this through on a continent by continent basis and have to cap searus to enable a quick start on an adjacent cont , there is a genuine flow and strategic chess game going on in faction v faction v faction.

You can keep the beach head idea in a fashion as a genuine way into the continent within certain criteria ,and the idea of a huge mega beach head somewhere on a home continent is a good start imo.

Why does it nullify the planetside legacy you ask? Simply because this one feature ,if you assume say 10 continents on auraxis , will turn the game into 10x BF3 maps and not the global mmofps we have become used to as the ps template.

Don't forget too , the resources thing adds an element on a personal level with ftp/ class structure . Do I go fight at the main fight on cont A for hours and hours, or just *** over to cont Z and hack all that auraxium close to my faction base now its quiet . If ps2 does go ftp and attract many from world at large , many who may be more pve orientated possibly , the thought of path of least resistance will be attractive .

Its like in ps1 where some lone cloaker /hacker is off ghost hacking/draining a cont and 1 guy turns up to counter him. The 2 could spend the next week chasing each other and never doing anything contructive

[CutterJohn]

Bad poll is bad.

The beach heads are a good idea, and I'd like to see sancs too. Just reuse some stuff and make them for people to gather up for raids and whatnot.

Originally Posted by GuyFawkes

Why? because despite apparently replacing sanctuaries and speeding up gameplay ,it will nullify the strategic purpose of planetside as a whole, and the legacy upon which it was based.

You mean the legacy of where someone who's played for more than a few months can call, with a high degree of accuracy, all the moves the factions are going to make on the continent for the next several hours because of the way the lattice is set up and the rather predictable herd mentality of the zerg?

You can still lock down planets. Higgs gave a figure of 20-30+ minutes to cap a facility that was surrounded by friendlies. What is every base in a capped continent going to be surrounded by? Friendly bases.

And guess what took 30ish minutes to do in PS1? Make a base neutral and cap it.

Capping every base still serves a function. It protects all of the bases on the continent, not just the ones behind the lines. Hell, owning the continent may reinforce that even further.

What the system does is get rid of the absurdly rigid lattice structure that forced the same fights over and over and over again, and made 75% of the fighting occur on just 4 continents. You'll still have 'home' continents, but theres not a guaranteed system enforcing them, and they will not remain static.

[Bruttal]

Honestly Id love to have Sanctuary's and even let the enemy come inside IF they can get past all the automated defenses and the tons of players In the sant. and IF and When they cap it, It gives them 10 seconds to leave the sanctuary then an "Auto Destruct" goes off killing All players in the sanctuary Putting a Protective Bubble up around it and maybe like a wave of Emp bursts start streching out past the bubble to keep people from driving or flying more vehicles into the area.

Now you have all that FUN stuff but to top it off, The faction that was locked Into there sant Now has free rain on where they wanna drop for the next 30mins. they could leave the sant to its demise and take some kinda vehicle/tech penalty or all hot drop on an area of the map and try to take it and get defenses up before there enemy gets there. Or they can stay in the sant spend 30mins repairing broken things and gearing up for an attack and be given some kinda bonus for a limited time.


IDK just rambling

EDIT: oh and the faction that took the santuary would be given like 1 free point to unlock something in there class.

But seriosuly it needs to be vary Hard to do even if 1 empire has 100 people online and the one attacking has 800 but still manageable if they do.

[GuyFawkes]

The whole 'win' scenario too needs some examination I feel.

I hope they have something that enriches your faction pride . You log in , and you get a message that your efforts from the previous day helped your faction to gain the most ground .General X had awarded you x credits as a bonus to spend on your class certs. If you just logged in and didn't play yesterday ,you get the faction message but no bonus.
Likewise , you log in and get the message ''despite facing overwhelming NC and VS numbers , the few brave TR that we did have managed to defend our last base for 4 hours straight until reinforcements arrived later to rebuff the insurgents '' and get x credits bonus and a medal for the battle of gonuku .
That sort of thing , a counter to the 4th empire mentality