What would the bases of Auraxis look and be like in battle if they were designed to resemble what you would imagine they would be by name alone? I'm not talking about locations that are named after their geological features like Slate Canyon Hold, Chimney Rock Depot, or Two-Stone Beach. I'm talking about places like Aramax Chemical Co, Eastshore Training Camp, Esper Research Station, Steelshore Reconstruction, Nascent Shipping and Storage, and the like. What kind of chemicals do Aramax Chemical Company make? Who gets trained at Eastshore Training Camp, and what for? What are those nerds researching at Esper Research Station? What made Steelshore so important enough to rebuilt? What is going in and out at Nascent Shipping and Storage? How would the answers to these lore questions influence their base design? Let me run you through an exercise with a facility name I made up. NS Ordnance Depot - what do you think that would look like? When I first played this game, I thought it would be true to its name and be a munitions storage and maintenance facility with features like unique assets to it large and small to reflect that. What it would really be if it was made right now is some combination of a crescent building, triple stack, shielded sunderer garage and maybe some interesting terrain, tree, crate, and shipping container placement to make it unique enough from the rest of the bases of game. There are some bases like The Traverse. Containment Sites, Remnant Cove, and Gourney Dam, that look and play the part behind their names. Most other places don't have anything related to their name like The Scarfield Reliquary. Where are the relics stored at that base? None?! Nani?! The devs have done a lot with the limited pool of assets they already have to make bases unique layout wise. What is lacking is the flavour and variety of those assets to make something like an NS Ordnance Depot really come to life through the details. I want to see the offices, tools, bullets, bombs, machines and vehicles, that would make up a facility like NS Ordnance Depot, and not some premade buildings that players have names and call outs for plopped down on some terrain, with some essentials like a spawn room, and vehicle pad. I want to see bases be what they say they are. I want to see the REAL NS Ordnance Depot
Some base names are definitely questionable as there isn't a lot to them that fits their names. I do however have some knowledge of my own regarding some names. First of all the major facilities meaning like the Tech Plants, Amp Stations and Bio Labs on each continent follow certain themes and are named after mythological gods and creatures. Like on Esamir the facilities are named for Nordic gods and Norse Mythology. Indar follows ancient Middle Eastern and Persian mythos particularly Zoroastrianism. Hossin is like a mix of Aztec and Mayan mythology. Amerish facilities are named after folklore characters and tribes of the Great Plains. Apparently the Oshur bases are named after Filipino mythos. Facilities in PS1 done the same thing, Searhus for example the facilities were named after Hawaiian mythos. Examples Indar: Mao Tech Plant: Named for the Persian moon god Saurva Bio Lab: One of the demons in Persian mythology Esamir: Freyr Amp Station: Son of the sea god Njord, god of peace Ymir Bio Lab/Containment Site: The first of the Jotnar in Nordic mythos Baldur Amp Station: Named after the son of Odin. Hossin: Acan Bio Lab: God of wine Hurakan Amp Station: Named for the Mayan god of storms Voltan (now Zotz) Bio Lab: an earth god Now as for other various bases in the game there are some interesting things behind the names of some, for example on the northern part of Indar there is Camp Connery and Camp Waterson on Indar are named after Tom Connery and Brent Waterson, the 2 leaders of the Terran Republic's expedition and colonization of Auraxis. Briggs Laboratories, hinted that was the lab of Henry Briggs, a xenobiologist that was part of the expedition to Auraxis and discoverer of the Vanu civilization. Those bases are named in a fashion hinting that is where the Terran Republic began its colonization of Indar and back in the earlier days of the game the warpgates were locked to one faction and didn't rotate around and the TR was the faction that owned the Northern Warpgate, VS had the Western Warpgate, and the NC had the Eastern Warpgate. On Esamir another base and one of my favs on the continent that wasn't ruined by Wrel, the Terran BL4 Crash Site. This base is obviously a destroyed Bio Lab and is called "BL4" meaning "Bio Lab 4" which indicates Esamir during colonizing was to have 4 Bio Labs, if look closely at the facilities you can tell the Tech Plants and Bio Labs with all their thrusters and moveable supports they were actually dropped from orbit onto the surface of the planet and BL4 during its deployment something must have gone wrong and it crash landed on the continent and was destroyed, the surviving crew members were rescued at the base "BL4 Recovery Point". The bases you mentioned Esper Research Station and Steelshore Reconstruction were both formally satellite bases of the Mani Bio Lab before it was removed in the SWU, the satellite bases remained and got renamed. Steelshore was originally "Mani Fortress" and Esper was "Mani Lake Outpost" So to answer your question Esper is likely researching botany and plants given it was the outpost of a Bio Lab. Now Eastshore Training Camp, if look at Amerish it has bases such as "NC Arsenal" in the north of the continent, hinting it is like a weapon storage for the New Conglomerate, reason for that is the same above that the warpgates used to be faction locked and of course the NC had the Eastern Warpgate on Amerish, Eastshore Training Camp was likely named to give an idea that was where the NC trained new recruits for their rebellion against the Terran Republic.
