Construction System: First Impressions (post your opinions!)

So far it's been a fun but kind of a rough start. I'm looking forward to seeing how the meta will change over the next month or so.

I'd like to point out a couple of things that I've seen or run into.

Possible Bug: I was unable to transfer Resources from my ANT into a Silo one time. Other times it has worked fine.

VS on Connery is not getting the message about creating HIVEs. Over the last hour, I've seen a grand total of 3, now down to zero, and NC and TR are planting them like weeds. Current pop is VS 31, TR 34, NC 34. VP board is currently NC 2, TR 8, VS 1

Possible Bug with deployment: I can face one direction, spin an object 360 degrees and it will stay green, but if I run down a ways, and face the opposite direction, and test the object in the exact same spot, it will show red no matter what, and the entire large area around it will be red.

If it stays green 360 degrees facing one direction, then it should be the same facing the opposite. With this current setup, it can make it VERY frustrating to find a good spot, and this is not an intuitive mechanic. Players will not naturally think that simply facing the opposite direction, will allow them to deploy in the same spot that wouldn't take before.

Possible Bug: I'm getting 'can't deploy in no deploy zone' messages even though the map clearly shows I'm 25-50+ meters out of the red circle, plus, my other objects like a silo and turret are closer to the red circle than the item I'm trying to deploy (this time was the mini-base structure I was trying to deploy)

EDIT: Another bug/nuisance: I can start to deploy an object when it's green, but then I get a message saying I can't deploy there and I have to adjust the height differently. This was present on PTS too. If it's green when I press 'E', then it needs to deploy.

Meta issue: I know it's day one, so this will all flesh out over time, but I thought I'd just mention, that I've been on Indar for over an hour, and territories are not hardly changing hands at all. Understandably, everyone is trying out the new system, but it is interesting none the less. The map has remained divided in almost equal 3rds the entire time.

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So, my first impression is mostly positive, and hopefully some of this stuff will get cleared up. If I've missed something about functionality, please let me know. I hope we get a lot more players coming back for this!

my first impression as a usually light minded person...its cancer.
i voiced my fears before hand, and every single one came true.

the entire night has been one big stalemate,
stuck back at base spamming ravens down at the nye INVINCIBLE TR base built on the doorstep,

TR can't advance because of the mass of raven maxes,
but NC can't advance because of the ridiculous durability of structures with auto repairs...
(and any push is met with ten million AI turrets...)

if this is a taste of things to come then i'll accept the loss of several thousand pound and several thousand hours
i'll mourn for the needless mutilation of a great game and move on with a heavy heart.

My first impression:

Those anti-aircraft shields were terribly necessary and might not be enough.

I saw an air Zerg completely overrun a base with several shields, they basically pounded one wall, then fired inside to destroy any modules and shields, finish off the VP generator and move on.

And I was NC watching the TR do this. It was a massacre...
Also I'm experiencing something I hadn't seen before: Combined arms. True combined arms. As in: Tanks, aircraft and infantry fighting together, in volume. 30+ infantry, around 10+ vehicles and 10+ aircraft on both sides (well, the aircraft were on the TR side, NC's airwing was quickly obliterated).

And boy... With 4 Burster MAX's, several lock-ons and two dual Walker Sunderers (one a deployed shield sundy) we didn't make a dent in them! They spawned just as fast as we killed them, and it wasn't very fast.

On the other hand, the death toll on both sides was high by the end with vehicles, aircraft and infantry throwing away their lives to defend/attack, and despite TR's air advantage we did manage to destroy their HIVe in the end. It was actually pretty glorious. If all battles had been like this for the last 3 years, no single person would have complained about either aircraft or AA I think.

Edit: And completely opposite to Liewec, the bases were tough nuts to crack, but far from stalemates. Even the bases that lasted almost my entire play session had a sense of both progress and defeat as the battle raged. Just achieving a foothold near the enemy base was a victory in and of itself. Some bases finally buckled because their energy ran out, others managed to survive because their energy ran out and the attackers found themselves in a meat grinder, defeating themselves through their greed when they suddenly weren't mowed down by AI turrets.

it's the downfal of game, maybe it was their intention, not to close it directly but to make ppl leave ?
ATROCIOUS, this is my experience
Dem ai turrets....

No doubt it's going to need a great deal of tweaking, but I'm optimistic that it can be made to work (I hope...)

It's gonna be fun! Zergs can now setup walls around their zerg!

Hey - about your bugs, suggest you post them here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/4gpgzr/construction_game_update_issue_reporting_thread/

The sooner the devs see everything all in one place, the sooner we can have a yabadaba old time!

Seems cool. Just had a nice battle between bases (Indar Ex/Quartz) with the new constructable system.
The constructables seemed to be durable enough to have a fight, but not enough to cause a stalemate once the MBTs (4-5+) showed up.
The air shield was really effective. You could actually have a ground battle without worrying about cheese.
Air shield was one of the first things to get destroyed though.

As someone who didnt bother to "research" anything about how the whole system works, everything seemed a bit confusing to me.
Especially when i first logged on and thought "where do i cert the constructables".
Took me a bit (in VR) to figure out its through the terminal on a deployed ANT.

That was just my first impressions though. I have only fought at one of these constructable bases so far.
All in all, it was fun.
Also really refreshing seeing people coordinate in /re about where to deploy stuff and where to attack bases using constructables etc.

What's with all the doomsayers? So far the system seems to have done more for the game than anything else has ever done. Combined arms, true teamwork required to either attack or defend. Apparently enough room available for single players to start building a fortress and other players to join. A good way to steer people towards one big all-out battle that can take place almost anywhere on the map in a player-generated fortress, while not forcing players to be traveling all over constantly. The most varied methods available to assault and destroy these fortresses without it boiling down to several predictable stages (The good old vehicle stage to place Sunderers, then the infantry stage to attack and hold the points, repeat).
Now everything is useful. Aircraft, tanks, scouting, knowing the enemy position, keeping their ANT's from resupplying the resources, area control... This is everything that PS2 was supposed to be. Well, maybe not everything, but this is the darn closest it's ever gotten.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

As far as the AI turrets we aren't use to seeing them very few exist outside the construction system and the ones that do exist are in terrible locations. Remember that this is intended to be a combined arms game, and we will need to see more of it to be able to attack player built bases. I also hope that this might shine a light on some of the holes in each factions arsenal.

while i would slap you in the face for such call outs on the first evening of its release.

I have seen the implentation of bases ruin my other favourite game.

it didnt kill the game by any means, but it completely changed the game to be about player made bases, and the maintainence of playermade bases, and the defence of player made bases.

that game is no longer really about killing one another and role palying as it used to be, but is all about the upkeep of peoples bases. which brought an influx of people who play the game differently than it had (and how i believe) it should be played.

so, im feeling a little grey atm, i do hope it doesnt change too much, but i also think thats asking too much.

at the very least, when i spawn in, can i not be spawned directly into VR training?

Man, this is crazy cool stuff.
Bad hitching and many little things that will need to be ironed out but geez, what a huge addition to strategy and tactical considerations. Looking at the map and trying to figure out where to help is brain melting.

Freakin' LOVE it!

So I play on all three factions - here is my first impression:

NC Character - spent almost the entire night in VR ! I tried to warp to other continents but to no avail, even though the populations looked fine. Someone even tried to invite me to a squad in VR. Geez. Eventually got to Indar but not much happening to be honest.

TR Character - TR had built a base just before the run up to Quartz. Was pounded by Raven Maxes constantly - so constantly rebuilding, nobody managed to advance so it was a stalemate.

VS Character - on Amerish, built a HUGE base close to the Bastion. A few tried to attack it but to no avail. We stayed there for a very long (boring) time before trotting off to an NC built base; very excited until we saw it was tiny so it was gone in no time. Lots of people wondering what the hell they're supposed to be doing. Got better when someone suggested playing 'old' Planetside - ie. attacking a proper base.

Some bugs - eg. VS characters talking with NC voicepacks. Very strange.

Overall - well i'm willing to give it some time but tonight was the least enjoyable night i've had on Planetside for some time. Boring and frustrating.

But hey, it's only just been updated so i'm willing to give it some time in the hope it will get better (forever the optimist).

Well I'm not impressed:
1) It seems rushed and crude:

• Was in a bunker that got destroyed, it just disappeared around us leaving us hanging in the air (as despawned objects to in this game) could not get "out of it" nor jump to get down to the ground. Basically ALPHA-feeling
• Talk about pop-ins - some things only render at 5 meters, and then there is the issues with players just spamming this stuff everywhere making the game look UGLY.

2) I never got how they put THIS much issues into this.

• I think we needed a solid macro/meta first before something like this came by. It feels "bolted-on" and I guess this was the easiest way to create a meta mechanic that would generate money (game seems far more p2w now), would not require redesign of bases etc. or rethinking the resource system and issues with territory.

Never felt so detached from the game as I did tonite. What I just don't get is this: Instead of giving us some of these tools to bolster basedefenses i.e. giving us active turrets in bases, shields and stuff and maybe make some of the exissting base-defenses destructable they just gave us this stuff that kinda makes territories and bases even MORE meaningless than it were allready. I definately don't have a good feeling about this. I guess it was the "easy" way of "fixing" meta and resource system.

Ot

Optimist ... ?¿ Why ?

This is going to be the game... day after day after day... people sitting on the same spots constructing, or sitting on vehicles defending/attacking those user made bases... territorial stalemates everywhere and all people waiting to see what faction constructs and maintain more of those horrible HIVE towers...

They turn the game into a vehicle / construction pointless zerg feast... I played 50 minutes, made 6 kills in the only medium infantry combat that i was capable of find ...

Booooooooooooooooring.

It's cool, but so far from what I can tell I don't think I'm going to like it.

The few bases I was able to actually play anywhere near where extinguished laughably fast by air and armour zergs. There were bits and pieces of bases strewn about randomly, like stray walls and bunkers, of which neither seemed to have even helped anyone. Walls clipped through other walls, bunkers literally half full of earth, just didn't look or perform well at all.

The cortium seems to be rather predictable in its spawn locations. I saw a few different bases being built with crystals spawning inside them, which I can already see becoming a problem. The base building itself seems to me like a cert wall designed to force, some players at least, to walk around it by unlocking the schematics with DBC rather than the absurd cert costs. (1500 certs for a sunndy garage!?)

On top of that, the bases themselves seem to be otherwise irrelevant. If there is no VP generator, nor a sunndy for someone to spawn at, they are just picked apart by tanks and air without actually contributing to the gameplay.

Ultimately, it seems more like a gimmick they rushed out to draw in more players and to line their pockets with DBC sales.

Well... so far I'd say its awesome.
Granted I have only built and defended a base yet and have yet to assault one, but I had more fun than the last half year.

The building itself....
The deploy-radius of turrets seems too big to me, especially since all three kinds of turrets share it. That leads to turrets being planted wherever they fit, instead of in a well-planned and organised manner. The base looked like a forest of needles instead of a well-planned fortification.
I have not really kept track of all the people using our silo to build stuff and the guys resupplying, but right now I feel like the cost of running a base, i.e. powering all those turrets, shield generators and modules is too low. But maybe we just had that many people gathering stuff for us.

Our base was a TR base in front of Quartz Ridge, if those other two guys play on Cobalt, yes that was ours.
NC tried to take our stuff down with Ravens, but our engineer corps held it up.
Although I gotta say seeing a whole squad of medics sitting in a bunker ************ with their tools gets awkward after a time....

Its not like the base was invincible though.... the first crisis was a whole lot of people on wraiths sneaking in and trying to kill the core, and the second was a drop from two gals. The enemy had so lilttle airforce we didn't even have an ASPIS turret....

Still, the greater part of NC decided to try gunning us down from range.
Since we had the great amount of a single Phalanx turret, if they had pulled Vanguards and Lightnings and actually COMMITED to an assault we would have been in serious trouble. I guess "muh K/D" was at work here.

Overall opinion on this:
People will have to adjust. A strong base must be attacked with a plan and commitment, some half-***** attack by people where each individual just does what he/she wants will not take a well-defended base down.
So for now - everything is as it should be.
Which might be a problem. A lot of people seem unwilling to take point in an attack that is almost guaranteed to kill at least half of them if they "only" reach a strategic, but no personal goal (K/D).
So I fear that more and more people will complain about stalemates that only exist because they are not willing to commit the resources and their own deaths neccessary to break it.

For the future - I think they really should expand on this system. There is too little to build right now.

PS: Of course our base had a VP generator. It got ultimately taken down when we captured Quartz Ridge and two NC outfits coordinated a drop on Indar Excavation that wiped out our base in a matter of five to ten minutes - that was at this point in time housing not only our generator, but a grand total of THREE! Yes it became rather big...

think it looks like ****, dont like it. this will, like some have said, kill PS2.......them Ants are a stupid design....the game was fine the way it was.....there was no need for them to add all this junk to the game. think i may cancel my membership now, as i cant see myself playing as often with all this crap stuff they have added. and i dont like the way they have changed how some of the bases look, or the layout of the new warpgates.

EXACTLY, MATE !
Game feels so slow now, cert aquisition, infantry combat, gun on gun, everything is kinda gone !
All you see is pocket of players, here and there, building some stuff !
I just logged of after about an hour, with a similar experience as yours....

Don't forget it's only day 1 and everybody is playing with the new shiny toys .. Give it a few days and IMO you will see more and more people gravitate back towards their old styles of play, leaving the construction to those more inclined to like that type of game..