[Video] Dome Shield Review - What you can do or cant do

It is rediculous how an unfinished product is being critized on its current state in the TEST server.

I, as an ESF pilot, am really interested in the potential of the dome.

what's the point of testing it in the first place if it's not going to be criticized. the main problem with most things is they aren't criticized enough during testing. more feedback gives them varied points of view and might give them some ideas on how to implement it differently so it actually creates fun(for most) while being somewhat 'balanced' and not completely destroying the fun some people have.

I like them only thing that needs looking at is some way for the sniper players to shoot through the shield and maybe galaxy drops

Please don't do this, these things are fixing a problem that doesn't exist bursters and skyguards deal with air most effectively as a PL I I have these at my disposal all the time. This change seems to me to be pandering to the soloists who don't run in an outfit, only run infantry and cry when a random ESF descends and kills them. This is meant to be a combined arms game what you're doing goes against that, it limits the options to assault a base making it too easy to defend.
IT'S A BAD IDEA DON'T DO IT.

Because this way they think they are being sneaky. Of course the goal is all biolabs at every base, but they are implementing it in increments so that dedicated vehicle drivers and pilots don't all quit at once.
Give it a few more GU's, you'll see.

Gah, they're almost as ugly as the large variant of spawn rooms...

This is just terrible.

The way things are going we might as well remove vehicles from this game. I'm not much of a vehicle guy myself, except for maybe the ESF, but the way every update seems to restrict or outright remove the usability of vehicles is getting a tad bit overboard. What the **** will the point of a Liberator be if it can't be used around facilities? Infantry already have tunnels at larger bases and most A2G weapons have already been tweaked if it's groundpounding infantry that's the reason for this.

They should at least have a generator to turn them off. That way the whole combined arms and teamwork aspects would make sense.

domeshields connecting closed paths between structures or underground facilities none of these are acceptable to tankers or lolpodders
for me a combined arms game does not mean air/armour/infantry in every or all fights if you want to participate in the fight within the base get out of your vehicle
tankers and pilots have the entire map outside enclosed places to kick butt this is where you operate

Great, so now I can't kill enemy nubs inside their base with my ESF, even though it takes skills to navigate through the buildings, and hover within inches of buildings.

Now I'll be able to escape air by ducking back into the base, while enemies will be able to do the same thing. LAME. This is not needed.

JUST ANOTHER CHANGE TO SUIT THE NUBS.

Bad idea.
If SOE wants to make spanning from A2G a bit less all they have to do is put some AA turrets inside the bases, rather than along the outside where they get picked off by distant tanks and turrets--making it the defender's responsibility to equip and maintain.

Also look forward to not being able to aproach large bases now, even in your armor. Its going to be trivial to get strikers, AV turrets and AV MAXes up to locations where they both have a good view over wide angles and are redered effectively invunerable by the curve of the shield - even to ground units. That will affect infantry too, unless infantry-bullets are excempted from being blocked like the current ampstation anti-vehicle shields.

Air is obviously screwed - practically invunerable G2A missiles and flak camps under the shield means that aside from the top 5% of pilots who will be able to do something inside of them with close-to-ground flying - its going to be a no-fly zone. I kind of doubt that even the best of pilots will be able to do much though to be honest, because those shields as they currently are will be MAGNETS to low-skill players and/or players who like that sort of stationary defense playstyle. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying those players are the problem (they exist in all games and are just a normal part of the playerbase), but just think about how many people have this mentality. How many people stay inside of spawn-shield, teleporter-room shields in biolabs ect. until there is nothing left to shoot because they are effectively invunerable? A lot. Now those people will be garrisoning the majority of the outside of the large bases doing exactly the same.

Thus, even if you are a very skilled pilot who can do this sort of manouvering (which in itself does seem like fun I admit) those areas will be chock-full of lockons and flak which you now can't do very much to avoid. If all you had to worry about inside the shield was dumbfire rockets and tanks shooting you down then perhaps you might be able to do with inside them, but one-way shields is just such a bad idea...

I've said this before but I think it bears repeating - the large bases already have tunnels that allow you to entirely bypass the outside of the base and go directly to the most important parts of the base. As infantry you don't have to deal with either ground or air vehicles if you don't want to, and if you do then the only thing those vehicles do is let the attackers place sunderers closer with a little less danger. What role does these shields have other than to exclude air (and to a large extent also ground-vehicles) from the outside fight of the base also?

-Stigma

I hope all the negative feedback on dome shields encourages the developers to reconsider this change to base design. I for one, think it is the most dangerous and negative change to the game that they could implement. It will alienate entire groups of players who love the air, or love to snipe.

With GU11, they were just beginning to hit a sweet spot with balance. I have many personal gripes about GU11 from an infiltrators perspective, but fights have felt overall better. If they slap dome shields on my bases, I am going to have a hard time logging in without being angry. This idea literally saps the fun out of the game - we have this wide open beautiful world with unique geography and bases. Putting a big fat dome on top of them that I can't shoot through? The very thought just sucks all the strategy and positioning you can take out of the equation and makes me depressed. I'll just go spawn a max, lock down, hold the trigger until I run out of ammo and repeat. Blah

Air [WALL] Vehicles [WALL] Infantry

God I love what whining has done to this game.

Forumside: The only place vehicles, air, and infantry can fight with each other.

In my opinion, if the idea is to make bases more defensible (which is agreeable to me), then this is going about it in the wrong way.

Instead you should bring back something like the zone of influence so that people can't just drop-pod willy-nilly right into your base and bypassing all outer defences entirely.

My rough idea of implementation:
- Have an anti-pod AA gun at the larger bases
- While active, you are not allowed to droppod inside the base (attempting to do so will redirect you to the cloest position outside the base)
- Powered by generator you can destroy
- anti-droppod area displayed on map
- You won't get actually killed by the anti-pod gun, its just there to act as a yes/no trigger for being allowed to drop there or not, based on if it is active or not.

This might actually allow for outer defences to have a purpose, which they certainly do not right now at all. When was the last time you saw peple bothering to defend the outer walls of say - an amp station? No one, becuase that's just begging to get killed from behind as the enemies are just spawning in behind you anyway. That sort of shenanigans should be for LAs, infiltrators and people who get inside by more direct means such as galaxydrops ect. Those players will make more than enough mayhem inside the base on their own. There is no need for HAs, medics and other assorted infantry raining in to the middle of your base on a whim.

Consider this - given the current system why would you ever really need a galaxy? It is rendered obsolete by a member of the squad flying above the base and the rest using squad-deply to do a steel-rain to the location where they would otherwise have galaxy-dropped. No need to pay for the galaxy. no need to risk being a target on aproach or in transit. Just fly over the base at max-altitude above any air defences and push the button... If you can't find a good answer to this question then I suggest that this is clear evidence that the current drop-pod mechanics need to be more limited.

I think the idea of drop-pods are:
- Being able to get to a fight quickly
- Being able to regroup with your squad

Instead they are used for:
- Destroying sunderers super easily (drop down with C4 or mines right next to it and watch it burn, almost impossible to defend against)
- Destroying armor ect. doing the same thing
- Ramming assorted vehicles directly if you are too lazy to bring C4/mines
- Completely negate all base defenses by dropping right into the middle to attack defenders from the rear

-Stigma

basically like a warpgate shield, except flatter (like an umbrella) and raised a little from the floor.

-Stigma

Isn't that exactly what the test-server is for? Giving feedback about upcoming changes so they can be good additions to the game when they actually go live?


-Stigma

Potential?

Care to expand on this?

Its clear by the comment of one of the devs made about liberators farming infantry at 800m as to how out of touch with game play they are. No one is getting farmed by air to this extent.

Its basically a huge spawn shield. Where you can shoot out but not in. So enemy skyguards can sit protected under the shield destroying any air that is stupid enough to wander any where near.

COD players rejoice.

Furthermore this will cause a huge influx of air and armor to small bases without dome shields. In which infantry will have no chance. So infantry will end up migrating to dome shields.

I see it as the end of planetside. But I hope I am completely mistaken.

If bases had more indoor and underground areas, this odd solution would not have ever been thought up in the first place.

Why are most bases limited to a couple box-style rooms with holes punched in them for doors/windows?

When I try to think of bases in PS2 with good indoor combat, the best I can come up with is Biolabs.. and that is a stretch. Biolabs would be fantastic, but since so much of the layout can fired at from one-way safety shields, the combat is usually reduced to both factions waiting for someone dumb enough to enter the 'danger zone' (area around one-way shields) and get insta-killed.

This game was launched a year too early. We have all the rights to complain about massive changes to the game. Its not like they use data and common sense to make changes. You might not have spent any cash in this game, but the top players know its pay-to-win and will find the next fix to roll massive farms. The cycle of balancing weapons by introducing new weapons then nerfing the old will contrinue.