[Guide] Rabid Construction: Episode 13 Ymir

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by RabidIBM, Jan 1, 2021.

  1. RabidIBM

    Hello folks, I know it's been months, I even took a break in there and came back to a new Esamir. I understand that more changes are coming, so this build may not be useful for long, but here it is. Also, yes the faction colours are inconsistent. I've built this base a few times, on different factions, even on different servers, don't worry about it.

    This build is built in the ruins of what I believe used to be called "Ymir Southern Reach", but I'm not 100% on that name. Anyways, abandoned structures south of Ymir Ruins. The purpose of this build is to defend ownership of Excavion...whatever the string of letters and numbers is. The reason you don't want to lose this base is in the screen shot:
    [IMG]
    For all the work that went into remaking Esamir, for some reason they left one of it's major flaws in place, the BL-4 line, only now it has an Amp station so it's an even juicier cut off. Excavion and Echo Valley Sub Station are 2 bases which are worth 5 bases, so you don't want to lose them. Side note: anyone else miss East River Sky Station?

    Now, let's zoom in on Excavion itself:
    [IMG]
    This base is very tilted in favor of the attackers. There is basically no utility for the defenders, there is a lot of open ground around the spawn room making spawn camps are easier than they should be, and the control points are much closer to the sunderer deployment locations than the spawn room. As you can see, my sundy is 66 meters from the B point, and my personal way point is on the main spawn room which is 283 meters away. If all other factors (player numbers, skill, equipment, leadership etc.) are even close to equal, there is no way the defenders will be able to get to B point simply due to distance.

    So, how do the troops defend Excavion in a thick fight? Plain and simple, they don't. Don't defend Excavion from the inside, defend it from the outside. The valleys in the snow which sunderers will deploy in are quite sheltered from the inside of the base, but exposed to the outside. Therefore, the way to defend Excavion is to kill the spawn points from the outside, then move in and reclaim the control points from attackers who no longer have spawn capability. Now, both Frostfall Overlook and Terran BL-4 Crash Site are too far away to draw a relief force from to arrive in time to save Excavion, which is why I build this base. It is a nearby supply of light vehicles, aircraft and even big guns.

    Now, why do I build in the abandoned satellite base instead of in the ruins of the bio lab? Cover. Even with repair modules, walls will only take so much beating. A handful of MBTs will crush a player made base in minutes. So I build in the last cover before the base I'm defending. Also, the Ymir ruins have lots of decorative debris which "collides with existing object", this location has open ground to build on.
    [IMG]
    Start with the silo obviously. In this screen shot my gun is blocking it, but the console faces to what is currently the right. The second structure is that pillbox. I enlarge my mini map with H and zoom it all the way in with square brackets, as I find it easier to see my cone of view like this. I then use my mini map to make sure I am pointing due south, then wiggle around to get that pill box tucked as far in as possible. Lift it a little above minimum height or you wont be able to fit all the modules in there. From there, build it to what I consider a standard pillbox spawn room, which is a repair module tucked in the front, a shield module second so you can actually reach the console to activate it if needed, then a spawn tube and sky shield in the back. The pain spire and alarm module are immediately outside the pillbox.
    [IMG]
    In the back of the base, I have the air and vehicle pads, both are tight to place, but possible. There are a lot of objects that "collide with existing object" close to where I have those 2 rampart walls on the right, but I was eventually able to wiggle them so they seal to the rock to create a full wall off. It's tight, it's frustrating, but it's possible. The vehicle gate is also tight to the static structure so there's no gap on that side. To make that fit, the stairs on the gate need to be on the outside. You can't see it well here, but there's a dead end alley way behind the air pad, I put the routing spire there. You can also see the top of a pain spire in the sight of my gun here, that combined with the anti infantry turret is meant to deter infiltrators. There have been times this has gotten a bit congested, as it is one lane, two way traffic when people are drawing vehicles and ants are delivering cortium, but people muddle it out.
    [IMG]
    Next up, the gun bay. I got a bit lazy here to be perfectly honest, but what you do is get the new "neutralizer" device to move that scrap sundy out of the way, then place your big guns in the bay here. That rampart only seals on the left side, there will be a gap on the right, so I put a pain spire there to help a bit. It also receives shields from the pill box. This outer gun bay will be the first place to get attacked generally, but once attackers are this close long range big guns aren't going to save you anyways. That said, even a half dozen or so people in the pillbox can ensure they don't gain effective control of this outer bay.
    [IMG]
    Here's another similar view from a bit later. I moved the AI module so that it powers that AV turret on the right. That is overlooking the vehicle pad so that if infils do take it, their vehicles immediately get shot. If you have an OS, and are getting attacked, consider drawing the welding tool to delete the OS before it explodes.

    That's pretty much it, I've had some good fights at this base, had it contribute to saving Excavion exactly as planned, seen Excavion fall, leading to a hold out at this base followed by a successful counter attack, as well as a number of fails and times the front has moved all the way to the southern warpgate, making this base irrelevant. But hey, these things happen.

    Some final notes:
    -It works to your favor that the derelict buildings have no interiors. This would be a lot harder to defend if attackers could claim those buildings, but hey, laziness helped the builders for once.
    -If others ask if they can join the in the building, the answer is "yes, but please let me place my stuff first", then ask them to make an outer perimeter with 3 rules: 1, don't block vehicle traffic, 2, no bunkers, ever, 3, if they place an infantry tower, put a pain spire beside it. The 360 degrees of shielded windows with an elevated firing position are juicy for attackers.
    -Those derelict sundies are a real bugger. They will respawn. If they respawn inside your structures, your structures will work, but things get weird if said structure is a vehicle pad. I originally used the outer bay for the vehicle pad, but moved it to the back because of this. If it spawns inside a flail, the flail still works. I've never had it spawn inside the OS uplink, but I assume it would be the same as a flail. The really annoying bit is that enemies can claim them for a pocket sundy in your base, and like I said, they ****ing respawn. I've even claimed and deployed the outer bay sundy in the outer bay and still the damn thing respawned.

    So, there's my latest build. Copy it, build it, improve it, critique it, have this open in a second monitor while you attack me, whatever suits you.
    • Up x 2
  2. JustGotSuspended

    A bit long, so it's nice you summarized it, perhaps put it at the start next time, but I like the fact you covered everything in nice detail.

    Overall, the esamir revamp was pretty bad, and it does seem like quite the headache to attack from the ymir/andvari lattice. The bases are awkward and not fun anyways, I avoid fighting on the side lanes because of the snowfort and excavation, which I simply don't find fun. I try to stick with rime and watersons, rarely do I adventure myself to the new bases, even rarer has it been to find a decent fight in those.
    • Up x 1