I've had this idea for possibly years now, but I finally drew up a VERY rough diagram of what it could look like. I know the game makes use of open terrain to both encourage large "combined arms" battles while at the same time saving on potential performance chugging from a minimally detailed map, and many people are perfectly fine with this so long as the fights are good. I realize even today there's going to be more opposition to my idea than previously what with the current disdain for the new containment facilities and their maze like corridors/interiors. Hopefully my idea can keep that under control while still providing the close, tight corners I have in mind. We fight on a colonized world right? Everyone needs places to live. That means cities. So, the war on Auraxis has taken to the streets. This continent would introduce urban combat while also incorporating the open outdoor vehicle battles we're used to. Much of the continent would consist of fields, hills, and mountainous terrain consistent with Amerish and Indar, with the one major difference being the map center. Taking up the inner jumble of my crude attempt at a lattice, would be a City, complete with grid like streets, packed multi level structures and tight corners, perhaps even some below ground routes in the form of transit stations or under passes. The very center of the city would be the map's center base, a Tech Plant similar to Esamir. Smaller single capture point facilities would dot the outer city edges around the Tech Plant. Special features of the continent include the SouthEast Warpgate being on an island. One of the ring bases outside the NorthEast Warpgate is a defensible plot of land surrounded on all sides by lakes, with two narrow strips of land as ground access for attackers, set up for Player Base Construction. There's another player base point between a mountain range and a river outside the SouthEast Warpgate, and a third Player Base point in a similarly defensible area surrounded by mountains below the SouthWest Biolab. At the very South Center of the map is a large inlet, separating a small base, and a Tower base. The most direct route between them is a long bridge, with a secondary route up and around the inlet, providing a much shorter bridge, but more time to travel, requiring attackers to choose between a direct but costly push, or a flanking maneuver. The route also provides a lane north through the mountains, (and a mountside base) up toward the center. At the very NorthWest corner of the continent is another Tower base, however situated on it's own island with only one main access for ground vehicles. Defenders can have a easier time holding back a ground push but Gal Drops are still a danger. The main selling point of the map would be the large city in the center of the continent, featuring close quarters infantry battles along narrow streets and alley ways, with Tank and Sundies fighting along the larger, major arterial roads which zig zag toward the Tech Plant. Again, the lattice on this map is a jumble, I just wanted to get a basic layout down to get the idea across.
The idea sounds nice, but I get the impression the NE warpgate has a slight advantage in terms of closer large facilities. Also, what is the base "PC"?
Player Construction. Those open areas with just a capture point that invites players to build around them. And yeah you have a point, I didn't really center the major facilities between the warpgates well so one gate is much closer to an AMP than another etc. That of course would be fixed since what I drew up is just a very quick and rough idea.
Ah ok, usually they are referred to as PMB (player made base) to avoid confusion. In any case those flat base building capture points have rarely ever regenerated a fun fight, if any at all. I would rather we ditch this entirely, and instead enable defensive construction to be placed within existing bases. For example we would ditch the pain spires, ai turrets and the likes. But maybe we need a wall there to protect us from hesh on that hill while we advance. Or perhaps a mini bunker as we set up a forward spawn. We could resize and redesign construction to operate based on that urban scenario map. Additionally since this is an urban map with an emphasis on tight corridors and extreme cqc infantry combat, I would like weapons restrictions to be considered for that map only. What I mean by this is restrict players from equipping shotguns, smgs, proxy-mines and the likes. This would allow for a bit more fun on the map, without being 1hk with 0 room to react as soon as you turn that tight corner. We could even add a specific class and vehicle only for that continent. Boat/submarine and scuba diver since I see some bodies of water. Amphibious warfare could be interesting if done right. I would love a kind of Chernobyl abandoned urban grounds map to play on, it would be pretty cool. There's a few things though that make me question if it would really be feasible and/or fun in planeside 2.
There's been several conceptual iterations of urban combat maps for years now. What ever happened to urban-centric Battle Islands? See this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/g90i42/any_plans_for_urban_battlefields/
Man I remember those old videos they were so engaging and entertaining. Unfortunately many times they set the bar to high and nothing came out of it. But some great ideas were discussed openly and shared with the community. I miss that transparency from SOE.
Well if we're approaching this with Construction in mind, I've got my own thoughts on a New Map that would be rather easy for the Devs to Produce... Biggest issue I see with yours is that we really don't have "Water" Mechanics, we instead have kill fields underneath animated Water Textures. Long time Planetmans have famously wanted Naval Combat since the Original Game as much as they've wanted an "Urban Combat" map, thus I'd suggest against major Water Features until we can swim/float/drown or something. I actually think our two concepts could be rather seamlessly combined though: My own only had four Major Facilities acting as the Chokepoints between the Empire (Center and the middle of each boarder), separating the map into three more intricate Lattices consisting entirely of Construction Bases (or Player Made Bases as has been mentioned). My thinking is that these mostly empty swaths of land can be built up into sprawling Mega PMBs, which themselves would be rather Urbanite in Combat-style, or just used as large Vehicle Battlefields if nobody actually bothers building anything! Where it could combine with your idea is with the Major Chokepoint Facilities; I'm thinking they'd be the only crossings of the Empire Dividing Mountain Ranges (Since we don't actually have WATER to work with), and at the very least the Central Facility could easily be made into a huge Urban complex.
I would vouch for great "Endgame" battles when an alert count-down is over: 1) The winning faction gets all the continent bases but the two enemy warpgates 2) The protective barrier around the two enemy warpgates disappear 3) The SCUs at the enemy warpgates remain active for a certain amount of time (say 3-5 minutes) and then they shut down. No reinforcements. 4) The winning faction amasses troops and vehicles at the hex border and then launches a massive attack 5) The defenders play Alamo until they are slaughtered to the last man or until the enemies enter the main building 6) The Death/KIll counters are NOT updated during this endgame phase whereas XP gain are doubled. Don't worry about KDR but just enjoy the Epic moment and extra certs. 7) when both warpgates are done, the Alert is really won and over.
Agreed a total wipeout would be fun. Even if it's just to settle ties. It would be interesting to actually get to fight inside the warpgates themselves.
If it wasn't for still being able to earn Certs it would be obvious players wouldn't stick around for that "last stand" battle if it's a guaranteed loss after a few minutes every time. If they did I bet an Outfit would try holding up inside the spawn room with hardlight barriers, MAXs and spitfires and farm from the back staircases. THAT might be fun, as a defender. It always sucks trying to get into a room that locked down.
Yes, it is hopeless for the Defenders, but that's why it is Epic. With no KDR track and extra XP it is meant to be a fun event to close an Alert with something satisfying. Add a lot of constructions on top (walls etc) and vehicles spawning round the clock and joining the fray immediately after. Pure chaos, doomsday, Alamo,... you name it.
