Says the guy who completely fails at reading comprehension. Again, I'm completely aware of all the different ways a tech plant can be taken, I'm level 42 for heavens sake, so I've seen just about every defensive/offensive tactic for taking/defending tech plants. That said, none of that knowledge helps server performance. You cram 2-300 defenders in 1 tiny spot, combined with as many or more attackers, and the server takes a **** Christ I was defending tarwich last night for 3 hours making 30kcerts an hour and as usual it was a complete non-rendering mess,right up to the point where the server crashed and kicked everyone off. I bet you'll never guess where everyone went when the servers came back up:yep, you guessed it, right back to the tech plants. Why was I fighting at a tech plant since I hate them so much? Because after flying an aircraft over the entirety of indar, the 2 tech plant fights had the only battles going on besides your onsey-twoseys here and there. Which brings me back to where I started. Sure its awesome short-term for cert-gain but I think long-term its bad for the health of the game... How many days/weeks are you gonna keep logging on to camp a tech plant? IMO it goes against what is perhaps the greatest draw (at least for me) to this game.... it's massive scale. I mean, whats the ******* point if we're all gonna sit in 1 place 90% of the time.
The only real problem with Tech Plant fights, and base fights in general, is the rendering problem. We shouldn't call the bases bad if the real problem is the Rendering of other players. If anything, Tech Plant fights are my favorite fights, and fights i have the most fun during. BOTH as Offense, and Defense. I will agree though, that Grenades are rediculas during heavy fighting. If anything, they should make the AMP and Bio Labs more defensable, so that there is incentive to fight at all types of bases, not just Tech Plants. Tech Plants are the only bases where Defenders really have a chance to defend anything. Bio Labs used to be defendable back in beta, but then they added all the Teleporters and Jump Pads all over the base. Can only hope that future base designs will be defenseable as well (Supposedly they are going to add Interlink Facilities and Dropship Centers), so that defense across a continent is spread out, rather than in one or two bases. Also: Tech Plants have the only worthwhile benefit. AMP and Bio Labs benefits are minor compared to pulling MBTs. Im sure if they gave facilities more tangable benefits, they might be more contested as well.
I say its bad design because it clearly wasn't designed with their server capabilities in mind. If you lay a foundation that will support a 1-story structure, and then you build 4 stories on top of it then your foundation is going to crumble. I would think the designers of the base's would have had at least some comprehension of the load the server can handle in a given area. ie: we can handle this many people in this much space, and they would work hard to design the bases in such a way that they avoid exceeding that number. Heck I've seen just as many people in a biolab/ amp station fight without the hit to server performance. Its because those bases were designed to spread out the fight. Again, I'll repeat, the day they make tech plant fights perform properly is they day I will retract my statements until then I will feel that their design is ****.
I think two infantry doors next to the back bay tied to one of the outside shield generators would probably fix Tech plants. That or move the lift to the roof to the back bay. Or something i'm not a huge fan of put a open upper area on the back bay like the side bays have. Any one of those things would probably do the trick. The main problem is if you park a Sunderer in that back bay and there is a decent sized force defending it's really difficult to get to that Sunderer and shut off the spawn wave. It's easier if they are stupid and park the Sunderer in the center bay because you can shoot at it over the side shields but that back bay is a solid shield.
There is only one thing I would like to have added to the Tech Plant fights. Holding the upper level(s) should have some sort of significance. As a suggestion I'd like to have a small room added directly unter the upmost level in which another generator is placed. That generator is powering the the single laser barrier in the back (or is that the actual front?), while the old one we have now stays for the sideways laser barriers and the SCU shield. That spreads the fighting out over a larger part of the facility, because really... now the only guys on the roof usually are a few attackers farming the odd 5 guys/minute going up the teleporters/pads for whatever reason and a few attackers that dropped in via pod and who go down the shaft to die a horrible and meaningless death. It also adds another stage to the fighting that does not end in a certain facility loss 10 seconds later, as losing the side shields does.
Ding! We have a winner. First spreading out the fight WILL improve server performance, and second, it makes defending the base require thought and teamwork. The condescending nitwits in this thread that are defending the status-quo are just scared the easy-mode cert-gain will go away. I'm sure many of them will happily farm away tech plants even as the game died around them. so long as they were benefiting in the short term. Heck I can think of quite a few failed games who's forums were rife with the "everythings fine lern2play n00B" fanboys. These types are rarely able to look past themselves to see what is good and bad for the overall game Put simply, the benefits for holding amp stations and biolabs needs to be on par with the incentive to hold a tech plant,and Tech plants need to be as difficult to hold as biolabs and amp stations. Those who say tech plants are the only stations that can be defended are either bad at the game, or lying to protect the easy-mode cert farm that the tech plants currently are.
The thing I hate about tech plants, is they're so easy to defend that defending the tech plant is all anyone wants to do. Most of the players will happily watch the other empires take all of our territory rather than leave the tech plant farm. Once the tech plant is cut off and outnumbered it needs to fall so that those players spread out over the rest of the map and get some more interesting fights going. The rendering thing is frustrating as well of course, but that happens everywhere.
Tech plant is fine .. the problem lays with AMP station's etc being to Easy to attack ... But I guess people want an easy life, and something being hard rather than be rewarding or a challenge is a reason to QQ
There's hard and there's laying a siege on the same plant for 6 HOURS! 6 real world hours! When the only way to get in is either through few small openings, which are easy to defend with a few guns, and close enough to each other for the same team to keep tabs on both, or a suicide run through the shielded doors with a piece of equipment that's not even standard issue, there's something wrong with it. I'm sure it's a hoot for anyone who just loves small crowded maps and constant shooting and dying, but for everyone else it's boring. Put the shield generators outside the base, force the defenders to come out of the plant (give them quick access to generator houses via teleporters or something) and not just camp the same key locations, doing the same old thing over and over and over again for hours and feel like you're doing something when your exp and certs go up. You're not doing a thing. You're playing whack-a-mole for hours on end. If that game had flashing lights and crapped out tickets with "you win one free internet", people would cue around the block and post it on their facebook how great they're at whack-a-mole.
Not being funny but if taking 6 hours then people need to look at themselves rather than the Tech plant design . 6 ways (afaik) into the base .. 7 if include breaching Sundy . Need to split the point of attack and not just zergling through the two back door's Biggest problem ? People to worried about their KDR and don't actually push the door's effectively , but rather sit outside trying to snipe or nade inside ..... Done it myself .. if you are not worried about dying its quite easy to suicide breach a tech plant to create an opening
L2P. No seriously, you're doing it wrong. You're trying to fit a square block through a circular hole. Tech Planets are the best designed bases because they require skill & organization to capture, and skill & organization to defend. Unlike the other bases where you throw a lot of noobs at the base to capture it, Tech Plant entrances can be blocked off. You are crying because you expect to capture the base just by throwing waves of unorganized players at it. Get a gate diffuser sundy, fill it with maxes, breach the facility, it's yours.
Tech plants are too much fun at the moment. They are the best option for farming certs. They are a guaranteed long drawn out battle. The rest of the game is not as fun in comparison. I would say the tech plants are not broken, they are just more fun and rewarding than the rest of the bases. I would make the other base types a bit harder to capture and the tech plants a bit easier to spread fun around.
Sometimes people want these long grind sessions, because you end up with a heck a lot more exp if you aren't one of those scary dogs that stay outside and worry about your kdr. Really, the longer a tech plant fight goes, the more you forget about that measly 1800xp you get from a tech plant capture. Because you end up getting a heck more than that, for both attackers & defenders. Again though, if you are someone who doesn't take risks you won't make xp in this situation. People really need to realize the best way for you to get better is by farming certs to upgrade your weapons, armors, utilities, and vehicles. You will do much better in battles, and help your faction more, by making sure you use the best of the best available. So if you get a chance to earn good xp, sometimes you shouldn't worry about whether you take a base or not because bases flip on an hourly basis. You should worry about just getting the xp so you can upgrade yourself.
been there, done that, you're obviously missing the point...Seriously, re-read the thread, catch up, and get back with us. Thank you for proving my point When it's ALL people want to do, its a problem. The continents are rapidly becoming dead-zones with the exception of tech plants. This is all well and good short term, but when people stop logging on because there tired of fighting at tech plants, what then?
Isn't that a problem with most of the other bases not being very good rather than Tech plants being bad though ?
Tech plants are arguably the best battles in this game. There were fights all the time in PS1 that would go on for days (and that included having to run an ant through opposing forces to get the energy for the station). Man ant runs were so fun... sigh
Also, how much money do you think the company is making, when people don't bother paying money to buy stuff and just sit at tech plants grinding away hundreds, even thousands of certs? L2P? You're barking at the wrong tree. While I'm doing my best to try and get into the place, 90% of the attacking for is far too happy to sit at the shield barriers farming exp. And no, it takes 0 effort to keep the tech plant. All you need to block the few small holes. The rest is just crowd control by doing quick hops outside the shield barriers to rack up few dozen kills with grenades, missiles and occasional heavy tank raids. You seriously don't see the problem here?
Actually, if you want to fix something, there should be a mechanic that makes it more difficult to defend if the base is completely cut of from its empire. Nothing crippling, just enough of a detriment so that the defending forces can feel it.
this also comes to mind. Yesterday we were holding a tech plant with a good amount of support when VS stormed the doors with like 40 maxes. Game over TR. It was pretty cool.
