FNO sneek-peek. Dome shields preventing air attacks over bases.

So this is how it works on your server? You guys physically move from base to base on foot?
This is not how the game is played on waterson..
It is all gal drops, drop spawn beacons, hack the terminal and spawn sunderer, everyone redeploy to new base..

Trying to do as pictured in your screenshot, you would all be dead from the libs bombing and ESF lolpoding you to death.

Oh wait, your TR.. On waterson everyone of those people would be in a prowler or mossie.. there is no TR foot zerg.

Yes, a combined arms game which is (was?) famous for its many play styles needs to phase out everything but infantry...

Having base made of two stages, one above the ground and then an underground complex (without it being a corridor fest) would have probably be a way better idea.
I've always seen tank and aircraft as ways to open a path to the enemy base and then be used to secure the outskirts and prevent reinforcement from coming to help the defenders. It won't ever work like this for as long as base are open areas and vehicles are spammable assets able to be mass product at terminals for whole platoons in a minute. I don't think those walls and shield are a viable solution but at least that's a bandaid (which will probably be abused by good pilots the same way spawn rooms are abused and made into invincible fortresses of doom, well at least pilots won't be able to stand still and get undeserved kills since they will have to at least be partially under the shield).
Maybe add some proper AA weapon for the ESF (AKA not lock on AA missiles) and this may turn the ESF into fighters instead of wannabe solo liberators.

Would have still like underground facilities more though.

Tanks are being pushed out too. See those big walls and the new design to force infantry battle to actually take the point?

Yah, that's the goal. As it should be.

Infantry has been seriously marginalized by the power of Air and Armor. In response they nerfed and nerfed and nerfed again to help the poor infantry.

Armor and Air are still very important. If you can lock down the outside of a base you can prevent reinforcement and spawn sundies. In fact, taking out enemy Sunderers will be a primary goal of Air (always should be FFS).

It's called "Laying Siege" to a base.

Once your siege is set up, you'll be able to dip below the shields for quick support strikes where needed as you won't have to worry about enemy air as you hover just above the dome waiting for an opportunity to dip down for a quick bombardment.


In PS1 they didn't have this issue for 1 simple reason.... the bases themselves were underground. You had to assault through long deep tunnels and stairways completely removed from the armor and air outside. Having the infantry combat on the surface is far more dynamic with more angles of attack then what tunnels can provide. However it has been a problem since beta that a large enough armor force could render any infantry force of defenders utterly moot and pointless.


This is for the better.

Quit crying

For the record, I love flying and do it all the time. I also am a big time tanker. I only take to the ground in my boots when really needed.... which finally will be the case a bit more often.

Armor has already been buffed back again against infantry... hopefully ground based AA (specifically bursters, skyguard is fine and maybe even a minor acc buff) will also receive a minor nerf. Specifically I think Bursters should have a maximum range implemented of like 300m (also keep in mind I own and use bursters... I'm saying this with lots of experience having dominated enemy air with near baseline MAX with dual-bursters)

wtf.. with this Ps2 will be dead for me.

Sounds like crazy conspiracy theory. SOE wouldn't be that stupid

Id like to also butt in and tell the OP that this is not new to planetside. New to incomplete ps2 yeah but not to planetside. Why not download and log into planetside 1 and see the dome shields in action and how to take them down instead of making assumptions and creating fake facts from midair.

/shrug i dunno. downloading and installing a file might be just as hard and complicated as say the lattice system, continent locks, magriders on water or dome shields.

Carry on. BTW Planetside 1 is free to check out and battle on. I'll be back there as soon as i get off work.

I am also severely disappointed by this move. The entire combined arms concept has gone out of the window with this.

I don't even mind the idea of an infantry only zone, but it needs to be more specific than just covering the entire base. At least Biolabs didn't have Sunderer Garages, which is just the most absurd thing ever. The role of aircraft is even narrower with that.

Saying that the shield protects aircraft from AA is also just patently absurd. As if AA players are completely ******** and can't figure out to walk outside of the shield.

This shield isn't needed. Infantry can defend themselves against air.

And the new design of those bases looks too clustered.

Can we not over react? It is clear only a few places would have these shields. The internal test server is just that, they are listening to the criticism of the new designs (remember the sniper rifle question? they are actually considering giving snipers options to pass through the shield.) It needs to be every where on the internal test so that they can test how the rendering works, which base can use it, which bases can't(towers obviously). This is actually a more infantry friendly-air friendly way of giving the indoor combat that people want, but would be unrealistic as any real indoor combat would go PS1 style grenade spam corridors with rocket launchers powning everyone.
Currently it looks like an esf would be able to stick their nose through spam ppa shots and be totally AA free as there would be no burster maxes or heavies waiting with strikers, wait until this goes on public test and try it before you condemn it. Then put your feedback in a concise manner up here (i.e towers don't need the shield as they are already pretty AA friendly etc)
Also note that more and more battles are happening outside on Indar than ever before, range compression is easing off and outdoor battles are becoming more important. Gal drops will be an important thing for esfs to counter and the esf update is coming soon.

This seems entirely unnecessary given the current state of AA being so strong. Liberators have not been an issue for months. Unless they plan to nerf AA significantly after these domes are added. If that's the case then I dunno. Maybe the intention is to make Air stronger out in the field but unable to interfere in the Infantry battle over the points.

The whole thing feels very artificial though. Like they just don't have the courage to keep this is a combined arms game. I guess the desire for the Call of Duty crowds money is pressuring them. But then they already announced stupid Battle Islands. How about let people have their no Aircraft battle island, and leave the main game alone?

That said the redesigned Esamir bases look pretty cool.

So much panic over 20 minute chat about very early, in-progress concept mechanics. He even said, several times, that what you're seeing isn't the final product and things are going to change as they get tweaked...

This information makes me sad. It just shows these devs complete ignorance of the air to ground situation. Getting killed by air in or around a base isn't a problem. AA is SO STRONG.

I think all of the people making these decisions need to be locked in a room and made to play in ESFs and Liberators for an extended period of time. They have zero understanding of how they function or affect the battle. Especially with the ESF update coming up, they need a better understanding of the current air situation.

Personally I like it.

I want bases to be a mostly infantry affair with the big armoured battles happening between bases.

The combination of a lattice system and dome shields would encourage that as people move from one place to the next.

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. This is this teams way of giving us infantry fights like in PS1.

Look you fly and vehicle boys are ruining the game. After the Tank Vehicle patch pops dropped agian... That should tell you something.

If you want this game to continue to live on your going to have to suck it up, grunt action is where the majority of people want to play. Campside needs to come to a end to get the population up agian and stop SOE from having to keep Merging servers.

Lib noobs?? Libs suck at the moment! They only ever run 2/3 because the 3 seat is pointless and even their 2nd seat is terrible unless you are flying low, in which case you get taken out by AA instantly! Aircraft in this game is already becoming samey, I thought they were going to diversify it, not take out the entire infantry interaction!