I have a place in my heart for playing a Support role, to aid others in a goal, not taking it on directly myself. Because of this I love the idea of base building in PS2. Built a mean Hive back in the day. Now, whenever I do it it's usually just cause I have an itch to scratch, but today on Amerish, I wanted to help. So, with the TR on Ikanam's front door, I went to work on a roadblock Base. Was kind of proud of this one. Beautifully compact. Took a lesson from a previous failed attempt by placing a palisade wall directly behind the vehicle gate so when the shield is destroyed vehicles can't just roll right in, while still leaving enough of a path for friendlies to get through. Even kept the Silo full this time, been a while since I managed that. But when the TR finally got zergilicious enough to push through the back and forth at Ikanam and then captured it's satellite, and my roadblock was finally in the way? The 96 NC in the region ignored it. Lithcorp behind me had a few already on point and NC overpopped the defense. I counted maybe 4 other NC spawn at my Tube while the TR armor ball bulldozed through me. The most my couple hours of work amounted to was slowing them down. There was no hour long hold out, no heroic defense then push back. My effort was demolished, and then the TR ball group used my structures as their own cover. THEN some NC outfit Orbital'd the carcass of my own base. It's like I should just go back to the Biolab farms.
That indeed is a really good looking base, I can't imagine the frustration trying to get everything fitting seamless together. You just gotta keep at it, when people do actually fight at player made bases they're incredibly fun and break up the monotony of the lattice ones. Though just because people do show up at your base to defend doesn't mean you'll have a good time. I made a base and soon over 90+ Tr showed up at it, you know what happened? The enemy saw that 90+ players were in this small location with little cover so they OSed it 3 times in short succession, first to break the shield, the second to destroy any buildings, and the 3rd to kill everyone. 10/10 was worth using 3 OSs. Base building really needs to be readdressed. They take forever to construct, too vulnerable, can't be placed anywhere near objectives, and in general just worse than using a lattice facility to fight in. Buildings should be more resilient, wall clipping more forgiving, no construct zones shrunk, shortened respawn times at spawn tubes not increased time, less resources to build, and for the love of god fix the skyshield actually blocking 1 OS (it doesn't work most the time) More importantly they need to give them an actual strategic purpose on the map other than OS farming bases. I like the idea of changing the silos to reflect the intended role of the base. A OS satellite would operate how they currently do and would have to be built a distance away, a reinforcements silo which could be built really close to current bases and would offer another spawn location, and then maybe a expanded silo for players who want to stockpile cortium for vehicle spawns or collosus resupplying. We just need to keep telling daybreak that this is what we want, keep up on reddit and the forums and they will hopefully look more into it because base building has so much potential and is really fun for those of us who like a more support role on the battlefield.
Looks really nice, you must have put a lot of effort into this one. Bit of a shame the base building system is so half-baked.
Looks great. I like the tower having cover from that rock but still giving a good vantage point for people inside to shoot out. If it had been defended, it would have made for a great fight. It's a shame we don't have much incentive to fight over construction bases.
Generally speaking, i find roadblock bases not worth the efford, because nobody in this game has a reason to actually defend them. Router bases have a use, and orbital bases sometimes too. What you can do though with sort-of roadblock bases that works against low numbers of attackers is to leave deliberate gaps with pain spire right behind, paired with some AI mines you have to restock after Mr. Cloaker sneaks through the gap + ideally some spitfires on top. If you really wanna block a chokepoint though and try to force a fight, there are some tips that improve your chances: - Do not bother with turrets to the front (enemy facing side), for they will get sniped by tanks in no time. Instead, try to maximize line of sight for shielded windows, like tower, pillbox etc. - Maximize spawns for your team. Ideally, you have sundie + spawn tube in cover, plus your own router in the top room of the tower. That way, some teammates might spawn in there and decide to actually shoot out of the tower with good sight lines. - If possible avoid opening any shielded gates towards the front from your main base/base core with your spawns and modules and all the important stuff. Instead, if you can, split the road in two with walls, and have the core part of the base closed off towards the front with solid walls. The gateshield vehicle gates go into the other half of the split road. - Ammo tower increases the chance of friendly tanks sticking around - Tank mines behind shielded gates are a good idea, like in Amp stations and such. Gate Shield Diffusers are quite common. - There is nothing you can do really against OS spam. But at least you know your base was trouble enough to OS you, so thumbs up for that i guess.
Well seasoned construction player here. You need to do a couple more things to set up. I'll usually run a 2 to 3 person fire team within a platoon. It takes time to build the trust of an outfit's platoon leaders to the point that they will divert from their own plans to help you, but it is worth it. It avoids the exact frustration you address here. I had to change factions to find people who will do this. I used to be a TR main on Connery, but my outfit there didn't care for construction. I found a Vanu outfit also on Connery who help me a lot though. The key thing is that simply existing doesn't make a base useful, step into the PL's perspective and ask what they need. Give them that, and they will learn that you are worth it.
I made this a separate reply in case there is some issue with naming a specific outfit. The Vanu outfit I found who help with building are The Wild Cards on Connery. I've been building a lot lately, what with the whole not going out because of a virus thing. I like to teach, and I like to learn. I'd be happy to trade notes with you some time.
