[Video] PTS Construction System battles + Thoughts

It will be an interesting week after this first drops imo.

Better be able to place my engineer turret inside of bunkers. Vanu wills it!

Thanks for all the videos. They've been very good. DBG should learn from you.

With regards to the Construction System and going from what you're shown, I'm a bit worried. It seems to be just another "gameplay-unchecked"* Outfit Tool. Outfit play is a very small niche of the player population. And on PS2 we only see Outfits in Server Smash (which is rare and brief and disconnected to the Standard Game, though interesting), in doing infrequent grief stunts like setting up a Griefer "no fly" zone outside an enemy Warpgate, and in infrequent Flash Mobbing and overwhelming individual bases before they can be overwhelmed by Zergs of Standard Players.

Outfits have continued to receive a vastly disproportionate amount of Dev support and Dev balance catering (much of which has been toxic and massively stunting to the health of the Standard Game). I can only attribute this to personal bias within the Dev Team/Company toward niche gameplay (it was there when I was at Sigil and I know it's rampant in the SOE culture from time I have spent with them). It is not surprising that PS2 Devs have once again had the game changed for the Outfit play niche, but I think it once again pushes the game in the wrong direction... we'll just see how far.

All that said, I am encouraged to see more creative trailblazing from SOE/DBG. They have always been very good at creative trailblazing, and it's great to see them pursue one of their strong suits. The pattern is that other derivative companies will take some of these types of ideas and use them in a more commercially sane/"viable" way.

* gameplay-unchecked: Players don't seem to need to follow a Lattice style system (or other conventions of the game) with the Construction System. They don't have to build X bases/generators of X size/composition in each Hex spreading out from and linked-by-constructed-bases to the Warpgate, where losing all connecting Hexes depowers the cut-off bases. They can just drop em down anywhere. That is an Outfit thing to do in PS2, because it's based on rapid coordinate deployment and coordinated rapid construction, and all the decent Communication and Coordination tools in PS2 are Outfit-only.

Great video, actually. But I had great trouble getting through it because of how he pronounces "lattice."

Sorry mate, but there is no English dialect or accent that pronounces lattice as "La Teece."

this is awesome!
more PTS videos please!

I'm half Englishman, half banana, so I have a unique dialect.

squad lock/build restrictions for non-squadies on those silos Please!

I have a question about the construction system. I've heard it said that constructions generally have a lot health and powered repair modules can quickly fix them. Any construction can be damaged by vehicle fire, but without multiple tanks focusing on one target it can be difficult to destroy a base.

Does this mean that AP prowlers in lockdown will have a huge advantage over other MBT's when taking out bases? If so, it hardly seems fair.

Pretty interesting addition. Seems people on the PTS were having fun with it. Hope they keep tweaking it.

• Turbo on the ANT is garbage. Needs a buff.
• They should ditch the special deconstruction tool and simply add that functionality to the right-click of the Engineer's repair tool.
• The secondary gun on the ANT should be able to deposit into the Silo like the primary can to speed up the delivery process.
• Some UI enhancements (minimap icons?) to make it easy to find the buildings you constructed would be helpful as large bases can become messy rather quickly.
• Some UI enhancements to make it easy to see which buildings have access to which modules at a quick glance wouldn't hurt. Maybe little icons located on the building somewhere or on each buildings' little video screen.

I think the construction system is mostly good, unfortunately they cater it almost exclusively to coordinated play. A single player should be able to fortify somewhere and prepare a small fortress that can be manned and defended when his forces get there (either because they are attacking or because they are being pushed back). The only thing they need to do is allow for a much larger amount of standard walls to be placed. This allows a single player to build a rudimentary base. If more players arrive they can instantly latch on, expand the base design and strengthen it with the extra modules they offer. that's how you create teamplay and make sure players can enjoy it. Rather than forcing players to play together because the feature would be useless otherwise, a single player can use it but multiple would simply be stronger.

YO DAWG SO I HEARD YOU LIKE SHIELDS SO WE PUT SHIELDS OVER YOUR SHIELDS SO YOU CAN TURRET WHILE YOU SHIELDS.
Wanna hear some thoughts about this update?
>shields
>turrets
Skrew this game, that's what i think.

More generally, doesn't the ability to destroy constructions make the game more vehicle orientated? At present the game has a balance where vehicles basically secure the spawn but the actual attack is done almost exclusively by infantry. Some bases can't be entered by vehicles at all, and even those that can be entered almost always hide the control points and SCUs away behind impenetrable walls. If you have bases with penetrable walls then it seems like the spawns AND the attack itself are the job of vehicles, leaving the role of infantry as what exactly? Cannon fodder?

The construction model seems like an interesting idea, but it should have been a different game marketed for a different audience. I don't think the average PS2 player wants RTS-style base building in their game, and they have plenty of other FPSes they can move on to if this game turns into something they don't want.

really? thats incredibly silly!
several of my favourite PS2 youtubers aren't english or say words oddly,
but i don't struggle to get through the video because of it XD
i did laugh a little at lateese, but then just continued watching

I went into PTS on Wednesday, too late for the announced test but they did promise another one 'later in the day'. There were a handful of players messing about and I have to say mostly I had no clue what was going on. I was also called an idiot from a forum regular because I was shooting at VS and he demanded I shoot NC instead.

In the end I just logged out because it just seemed to be like playing one of those castle building games where you lob stones at each other with a trebuchet.

Perhaps. Giving tanks another role is not necessarily a bad thing, but if breaking into a constructed base boils down to throwing DPS at a wall, then we have a problem. One AP prowler with a gatekeeper locked down a hex away can land significantly more damage (in relative safety) than any other tank. The problem becomes that much worse the more prowlers you add.

"in doing infrequent grief stunts like setting up a Griefer "no fly" zone outside an enemy Warpgate"

wtf? that's just another form of grinding the enemy out. why are you guys such marys about everything?
this is a clan based game as it should be. solo players are pointless in this i guess they are ok as bullet sponges but a solo player isn't going to do jack in ps2. you should either join a clan or go back to cod. without the ant and clans this game is just another derp fps. even with the ant, it's only gonna last til juneish. and i doubt folks are gonna mess with the ant more then a couple times anyway... why put a bunch of effort into base building when it all gets wiped when the continent locks? without persistance, the ant is really just a bluff to keep folks fooled into sticking around a couple extra weeks. the gameplay over the crystals and vps is gonna be better then any of this take ti for the 1000th time crap.

" unfortunately they cater it almost exclusively to coordinated play"

holy crap this community is water headed. that... that right there is the single number one reason why games and gaming sucks, man. you honestly... honestly think that coordinated gameplay and teamwork is an unfortunate issue????

holy f ing crap.

I don't disagree with you. Consciously, I know how silly it is, but when I hear a word mispronounced its like someone grating their finger nails on a slate black board. It seriously makes me cringe. In social situations--through trial, error, and being called numerous filthy names--I've learned to suppress my reaction. But a video where watching and participating is voluntary, totally different story. I chased down the stop button as soon as I could.

I know. I'm petty.


Even so, great video about the construction system, and I can't wait to play with it.

Yea, Prowlers are at a huge advantage to taking out bases from long range.
However HEAT is better at killing structures than AP is, so if you was dedicated you use that.