AGN: Matt Higby's Community Question #87 - What Base Benefits do you want to see in PS2?

[Deringer]

Last week Matt Higby was our special guest on ReachCast and he wanted to know ...

“What Base Benefits do you want to see in PS2?”

If you want to hear the full question, click the following link: http://www.twitch.tv/reachcast/c/4326910

As always, respond here or e-mail us at [email protected] or call us at (415)787-3224!

[ZephyrBurst]

Depending on what the benefits end up becoming, allowing benefits of the same type to stack could lead to some undesired gameplay issues. All the benefits I'm listing I assume are not to be allowed to stack with duplicate base benefits and will follow the current rules of only giving its benefits to those down the lattice links. I'm also assuming this under the proposed resource revamp since that's where the game is going eventually.

Note that the values are all arbitrary of course.
-5% boost to run speed. (Stacks with Adrenaline Boost.)
-5% reduction in reload speeds for infantry weapons. (Applies to heat reduction for the Phaseshift?)
-5% reduction in reload speeds for ground vehicle weapons.
-5% reduction in reload speeds for air vehicle weapons.
-5% reduction in cost to x type of resource, x being grenades, fighter plane, mines, etc. (Only 1.)
-Reduce spawn timer by 1 second. (Only 1 second since this has a big force multiplier based on how many players are present.)
-Increase infantry jump height by 10%.
-Increase generator overload timers by 15%.
-Increase vehicle armor(HP) by 5% for vehicles spawned from the base with this benefit.
-Infantry overshield. (Adds an extra 25-50 or so shield capacity.) I'm curious to see what others think of this one. Like the spawn timer reduction, this could have a big force multiplier. Could have another variant for health, if that's the case, only 25 for each.

-Reduce Liberator armor of both allies and enemies by 10%. This effect is global, permanent, and stacks across continents.

[bpostal]

Examples:
Amp stations: Personal shields recharge a bit faster

Tech Plants: Glue guns cooldown a bit faster

Interfarm: Spotted targets remain spotted longer

Dropship Center: Air vehicles pulled directly from here are little cheaper

Biolab: Corpses despawn twice as slowly (Added benefit, corpse explosion on despawn!)

[Mordelicius]

Originally Posted by Deringer

Last week Matt Higby was our special guest on ReachCast and he wanted to know ...

“What Base Benefits do you want to see in PS2?”

If you want to hear the full question, click the following link: http://www.twitch.tv/reachcast/c/4326910

As always, respond here or e-mail us at [email protected] or call us at (415)787-3224!

Problem: bases have no real innate value. They have to make holding bases useful, especially compound ones.

Suggestion: Advanced Research and Stolen Technology Cert line.

What:
- A new Cert line involving Advanced Research Tree / Stolen Tech from other factions.

- Cert line line can only be utilized when holding certain bases.

Example: Max Stolen Tech Cert

- Requisite: Hold 3 Indar Biolabs.
- If you are Certed to TR or VS Max Stolen Tech cert line, get access to one specific VS or TR Max weapon.
- When you lose concurrent control of the 3 Indar Biolab, the stolen tech cert line can no longer be equipped!

Example2: Advanced Tech Vehicle Hot Drop Cert

- Requisite: Hold Esamir Tech Plant.
- Allow ground vehicles to be hot dropped anywhere in the map with cooldown, as long as the player is certed in Advanced Tech Vehicle Hotdrop certline.
- That will increase the value of holding Esamir's sole Tech Plant.

Those are some examples. One can think of a whole slew of Advanced Tech/Stolen Tech Cert line. This not only make holding bases important but also doubles as a Cert sink!

[PredatorFour]

Dunno how they would do it but i like the idea that if you take an empires tech base, say near the warpgate, then you get their tech on that cont. That would make them want to keep that at all costs.

Amp stations could slowly rep vehicles like auto rep but a lot slower pace. That would make them useful.

Bio labs could give a quicker respawn, enabling troops to get back into the fight quicker which could be crucial.

Interlinks could just do what they didin ps1 and give radar to facilities and bases but maybe reduce the sphere of influence.

[Edfishy]

Whatever it is, it has to be something immediately recognizable by everyone as a tactical benefit. 5%, 2%, 11% benefits aren't enough to make me care, and they're too prone to complaints due to giving an empire a buff for actually playing good. My recommendation would be to use empire-only forcefields and holo-bridges on the terrain to grant defensive capabilities.

Tech plants activate secondary holo-bridges and defense bubbles to house sunderers/tanks, Bio labs activate infantry defense fields to hide behind or holo-catwalks, Amp Stations grant shield bubbles to protect spawn locations from Liberators, etc.

The number of connected enemy lattice links could affect the force fields. One has no effect. Two causes the defense fields to go "neutral" (stops weapons on both sides), and three nullifies the force field entirely.

I'd prefer your benefit to be improved defenses, not offenses.

[ZephyrBurst]

Scratch all my ideas and replace them with Edfishy. That's some good ideas there.

Though I still like the idea of increased overload timers on generators, and a jump height boost, like from owning a nearby tower.

[Rahabib]

I would say it needs to provide a strategic benefit not a stat increase. A stat increase just gives everyone on one side an uneven playing field, and borders on a similar issue of being just another implant like boost. Thats boring, and its unfair.

I would like to see something along the lines of either a resource change like in my signature, or as Edfishy stated, it opens up new access routes. Diffusers can only work if you have a tech plant connected in the area. Dome shields (like the ones they planned before) only function (on select bases) if have an amp station in the area. Those give a strategic change and makes the bases more than just some ethereal magic bonuses which doesn't make sense to me anyway.

Originally Posted by Edfishy

Whatever it is, it has to be something immediately recognizable by everyone as a tactical benefit. 5%, 2%, 11% benefits aren't enough to make me care, and they're too prone to complaints due to giving an empire a buff for actually playing good. My recommendation would be to use empire-only forcefields and holo-bridges on the terrain to grant defensive capabilities.

Tech plants activate secondary holo-bridges and defense bubbles to house sunderers/tanks, Bio labs activate infantry defense fields to hide behind or holo-catwalks, Amp Stations grant shield bubbles to protect spawn locations from Liberators, etc.

The number of connected enemy lattice links could affect the force fields. One has no effect. Two causes the defense fields to go "neutral" (stops weapons on both sides), and three nullifies the force field entirely.

I'd prefer your benefit to be improved defenses, not offenses.

I agree here. Taking bases should provide a strategic option not just a +10 to stats. Although just so you know, taking away a defense also doubles as an offensive bonus as well, but thats ok. It gives incentive to take bases other than just an unnoticeable resource change.

[Edfishy]

Originally Posted by Rahabib

I agree here. Taking bases should provide a strategic option not just a +10 to stats. Although just so you know, taking away a defense also doubles as an offensive bonus as well, but thats ok. It gives incentive to take bases other than just an unnoticeable resource change.

I think with the resource revamp's "saturation falloff" it would help to counteract the offense bonuses for owning a majority of the continent's facilities. In this scenario, the advantage of being pushed to your warpgate would be an improved arsenal (via high resources), and the advantage for taking territory further away from your base is much greater defenses and options (via forcefields and holo-bridges).

Edit:

As some other force field types, it'd be nice for air to have bubbles projected in the air (by those little satellite doodads, idk) that could essentially be used as "clouds". The projected air bubbles would only protect against projectiles going in or out; they would not stop damage from occurring when an enemy enters the bubble and fires at you. Again, perhaps the Tech Plant (or multiple Tech Plants) are necessary for their appearance.