Introduction: Ever since Esamir was released back in beta it has been my favorite continent. Now it has had a massive overhaul and I had been planning on doing a full on analysis of the continent similar to my LMG analysis thread a week back. However I'm going on vacation tomorrow for 2 weeks and in 2 days I can't possibly give a full honest analysis of the new icy tundra. So I've settled to give my 1st impressions. New Outposts The new outposts are simply amazing. I haven't been able to play in all of them but in those I have I've fallen completely in love. Finally the much asked for walls which while blocking vehicle spawn camping also gives LA a new use in organized squad play. The infantry gameplay inside of these walls is simply amazing. Especially the Octagon. Outside the walls there are now auraxium crystal formations, rocks and hills to help sunderer placement. So while not completely inside the base they are close enough to make a fun battle for the defenders and attackers. The biggest issue everyone seems to have however is the infantry chokepoints in the entrance to the base. I personally love these. As an attacker I sincerely haven't experienced it much, perhaps due to me preferring gal drops over sunderer rushes. Either way I won't comment on it. Defending however it is a true beauty. Several MAXes on the other side of the chokepoint and just let it rip on anyone who dares try to push through. If you want to break the chokepoint you either stupidly bumrush it with superior numbers, or apply intelligent tactics accordingly. I for now won't speak of which tactics to apply aside from galaxy dropping as I think outfits should find out for themselves, at least for now. The reason I believe that people think they are too defensible is because ever since the game was 1st played in tech test the base design has been garbage and been in favor of the attacker. Now that they finally favor the defender as they should people don't know how to deal with the new situation. I believe in 2-3 weeks when just about every outfit learns the new tactics to crush the chokepoints all the whining will end. Re-worked Outposts This I'm not as happy about. Some outposts seem lazy compared with all the newer outposts. They are simply the same old base with a wall surrounding it. It is more defensible but I guess I expected more.However some other re-worked outposts are amazing such as Esamir Munitions. Overall I'm happy with this I suppose. Combined Arms: Is it dead? No. I'm still having great tank battles on Esamir, perhaps even better tank battles since infantry can't shoot from the inside of there bases anymore. I believe many tankers/farmers who are yelling that combined arms is dead simply don't realize that there new roll in the game is. Prior to lattice the job of armor was to suppress and camp infantry in their spawns/buildings. Now it's job is to escort, defend and eliminate enemy sunderers. Once the resource revamp is live then another job for them will be to kill the resource trucks. Now there is a lot larger(and entertaining) tank v tank battles. My most memorable one being today on an assault at the Rink. Infantry fought it out inside as the armor outside battled each other. Eventually the VS won the tank fight and destroyed the sunderers, breaking the TR offensive. This is how tanks are supposed to work imho. Defend and kill sundys and completely destroy any infantry out in the open. I think they should increase the tank's armor now by 1 or 2 rocket shots and it will be fair considering that they can no longer camp enemy spawn rooms. Air is dead! I agree with this. Every time I fly to one of the major battles I get destroyed in no time. Liberators were pretty bad before the Esamir lattice, now they are even worse due to the concentration of AA. ESFs are having their revamp so they are more A2A oriented and I believe that will fix them. Currently with only rocket pods and A2A missle pods there isn't much to do in terms of A2A combat. Even with the ESF revamp it won't mean anything if liberators don't get an armor buff. With the revamp focusing on A2A and libs remaining out of carton it won't make any sense to go a2a. Buff lib armor thus forcing players to go a2a ESF in order to counter that lib since G2A won't be good enough to destroy it. Strategic Flow - Lattice The playerbase had been demanding for more defensible bases since beta. Finally you have given it to us. Sadly you have given it to us alongside the lattice system. When Indar Lattice was released I was a fanboy of the lattice, now however I'm much more critical about it. Some base connections don't make sense on Esamir (nor on Indar for that matter). The most noticeable to me being the link between Pale Canyon Chemical and The Octagon. You literally pass in front of another outpost. Bio labs have less teleporters to assist in the assault on the bio dome, strategy is far more reduced with strategic flanking essentially gone. People would say that the HEX system made no sense, had no battle flow etc. I disagree, you merely had to pay more attention and spend more time playing the game. 3 days ago on Esamir I could've easily predicted where a zerg would go next. It took me months of beta and launch to learn the battle flow but eventually I did and became a better commander for it. Now with the lattice anyone can read a map since it is merely follow the lines. A plus for the lattice however is that it promotes tactical gameplay more since it funnels players, squad, platoons and outfits into fights. This I enjoy although sincerely in the Hex system I had lots of fights just like this. The main difference I see is the new outposts which helps disguise the fact that lattice has done very little to actually help tactical gameplay. I believe that we could have had equally tactical gameplay in the HEX system if SOE had implemented the new base designs. Before with the HEX system you could be attacked from all sides AND the base designs were garbage for defenders. Now you know where the enemy is usually coming from and have great bases to defend. The 2 combined makes less tactical/strategic players think that bases are far to defensible since many won't bother tactically flanking because of the Lattice. I believe that SOE should have gone with the middle ground of defensible bases and HEX system. Or at least test to see what would happen. Realistically however, hex isn't coming back so in order to end stalemates at outposts and such I believe the NTU silo and ANT from planetside 1 should return. Conclusion (and TL;DR): -The outpost revamp has been asked for since beta and it has finally arrived. However since people are accustomed to the crap layouts since launch they now don't know how to work their way around the new defensible bases. This will be fixed with time. It depends on how long outfits learn. -Armor has found itself with it's roll changed from suppressing enemy infantry inside buildings to the defense and elimination of sunderers. Many tankers seem caught off guard by this and thus start complaining on the base layout. In my opinion they will grow accustomed to their new role and in several weeks their cries will be silenced as they learned. I do however believe that tank's armor could be buffed by a rocket or 2 since they can no longer camp infantry inside facilities. -Air currently has very little places to go on Esamir since just about every facility has many AA turrets (alongside AA maxes and skyguards). That Liberators are currently made out of carton doesn't help the situation. To fix it buff liberator armor and continue with the ESF revamp which promotes a2a combat. If you don't buff the lib's armor then my train of thought as a commander will be: Why get a2a mossies to kill that lib if I can get that skyguard which does it better? -The lattice wouldn't have been needed if they had defensible bases in the 1st place. They should have tested HEX with the new bases and see what the battle flow was like. It is too late now but it is one of my biggest wonders. Since this isn't going to happen, we need NTUs and ANTs. Overall I am happy however with the Esamir Lattice and eagerly await the changes that will be applied in the next few months. I especially hope they apply the Liberator and tank armor buffs.
This is the first time I've played in like, a month, and I have to say, I'm impressed by esamir. Had a blast at the octagon yesterday and bases between there and saerro. I'll comment on the lattice since that's the one thing I've been critical of that past. I have to say it works surprisingly well on esamir from what I saw. I hated what it did to indar, and the lattice basically made me quit for a good month or so, mostly. But on esamir, I feel it actually does enhance battle flow. Perhaps because esamir was TOO open, and because of the lower pops on that continent. I notice when not dealing with peak populations, the lattice isn't that bad. It works fine when dealing with relatively small numbers. However, I would not trust it when dealing with high populations. Battles become too big, they become forced, they become static and boring. On the lower populations of esamir though, the lattice seems to work better. I will say I agree the lattice in general has arbitrarily bad connections, and lack thereof. I know this is a major issue I had with a certain part on Indar. You literally have to drive past tawrich tower from gravel pass to get to the mine, and then you have to go back to tawrich tower to take that. It's stupid, it's nonsensical, and if the enemy is already at tawrich tower, you can't even get to the mine. I havent experienced this issue on esamir yet, but am not surprised at you pointing it out. Connections should be made less arbitrary. One thing I must reinterate to SOE, again, and again. If we're going to regulate battle flow, the objective should NOT be to simply limit player options and force them to fight each other in awkward battles. The objective should be to improve the actual flow of the battle. Placing arbitrary limits on what you can and can't do is a very poor philosophy in itself, rather, the lattice in general should focus on improving the actual flow of battle. Connections should be based primarily on the strategic sense it makes, not on the number of connections. Some bases should be connected to as many as 4-6 others, because that's what makes sense.
I do understand the changed role (note spelling) and indeed I have been asking for it since beta. But for me tanks have taken a blow and the reason is the shorter distance between bases and the new terrain obstacles, both of which were unnecessary in my view.
I agree. Connections should be made so they make sense not forced. And bases are in some locations to close to each other.
I agree Esamir vol.2 is awesome, the added elevation does wonders to battle dynamics and things are much more interesting when there's action on multiple levels instead of just ground floor. I basically also agree with you about the lattice part, the system has it's benefits but there should be more links in the lattice web (I think adding some more connections would be fairly trivial to implement), and indeed at the very least large facility satellite bases should be all connected/captureable before the main facility is taken (biolabs being the prime example as you mentioned).
The lattice in the NE of Esamir seriously needs a rework, its bizarre that the NE warpgate only has one link to Mani which turns that base into an unpenetrable fortress if it is defended in anyway. Then there is Saerro which is the key to everything for the NE warpgate, also fairly easy to defend now which means that the NE warpgate will pretty much never see the rest of the map. There has to be more links, preferably from Apex Genetics to the new base (why is that base even needed, its within spitting distance from Apex but is 2-3 links away... ) to Aurora Materials or Freyer Pumpstation. That was the way most battles moved anyway before the lattice when you needed a better access point to Mani.
