Hello. I normally don't go into extreme detail for game updates, but the Esamir update on PTS has some... concerning problems. For context, I'm an MBT driver. I've done a lot with all 3 vehicles, both as an infantry farmer and far more work done beating up on infantry farmers. I know a lot about how to cheese bases in a brutally efficient manner as a result. So, to start off, I'm going to list the current problems with Esamir, as it stands on live: Number 1 is poor base positioning in bad terrain. This enables lots of unnecessary HESH spam, such as current Aurora Materials being below a hill that allows the spawn room to be blasted easily. Problem 2 is terrible sunderer position options. Base caps live or die because of the use of routers, since many sunderer positions are very easily sniped. Problem 3 is poor lattice. Esamir's lattice forces people into meatgrinder bases where fights stagnate infinitely. The NW and NE warpgates have a ridiculously short distance between them, while the Southern WG has an absurd distance between it and its foes. This leads to the S warpgate being extremely favored in starting alerts. Therefore, to be successful, an Esamir revamp must improve its lattice lanes, reduce infantry farming by vehicle, improve base placement/design/bus positions, and reduce meatgrinders. So, what does the new update to Esamir do? The NE warpgate is gone, and its replacement is farther south. This equalizes the number of bases between warpgates. The biolabs have been leveled, which eliminates the stalemate at the map's outer lanes. Many of the smaller satellite bases have been demolished, and most of the tower bases have been eliminated. In theory, this makes the center of the map more dynamic. In practice though? This has the potential to do the opposite. The center of Esamir revamped now has 5 3 point bases consecutively, which will likely lead to more stagnation. The terrain/base position mostly hasn't changed, which means a lot of the previous problems regarding A2G/HESH/sundy placement still exist. The fact of the matter is that infantry players want to shoot at infantry without being bombed/shelled constantly, and these base changes certainly won't help with that. Moving on, let's take a look at the base changes. I'll go over each base redesign/addition, and my suggestions for improvement. I'm going to be realistic here though- you're never going to make a base that's impossible for magriders to shell or harassers to enter. Here's a link to an album with screenshots of most of the bases. https://imgur.com/a/u9CFytW Apex Genetics: This base has been moved several hundred meters west. The actual base layout has not changed, but with the base no longer being backed into a mountain, HESH spam is now much harder. Jaegers' Fist: The new base looks good. However, there’s one glaring problem that wasn’t solved, which is that the point is still extremely exposed both to HESH and A2G spam. The HESH spam comes from a hill to the NE of the point, and no amount of moving/adding buildings will prevent that as long as the point is positioned like it is. However, the HESH spam could be stopped by moving the base north east up the hill. Alternately put some kind of roof on it. Matthersons’ Triumph: On live, the problems with this base stem from A point being too close to the defender spawn, poor sundy placement options, and the base’s position in a valley allowing tanks to bombard it easily from multiple angles. On PTS the points are moved out of the towers, with B and C being on the upper catwalks and A now located in the central courtyard between the two towers. Without edits to the surrounding terrain, these new points are just as bad. From the East I can still shell both points from the ridgeline. From the ridge on the north west side of the base I can still shell the A point and in certain areas I can hit B as well. Sundy options still aren’t great. Fortunately, this is fixable. There’s a flat spot sticking out of the North ridge that can be leveled and remove one HESH zone entirely. Increasing the slope angles of the NW ridge section can prevent all but the most determined drivers from setting up there. Likewise, steepening the eastern ridge’s northern and NW faces will make it much harder for tanks to get up there. Reducing sundy no-deploy zone radius will allow defenders to set up a bus inside the southwest tower, which is a reasonably safe position. Snowshear fort: This base is one of the most problematic. B point is totally exposed from the air, and there are few obstructions preventing enemy vehicles from setting up a brutal spawn trap. There’s also nothing preventing enemy vehicles from driving around freely inside the base, which will be a horrific problem for defenders. To fix this, I’d suggest putting a building over B, and adding a couple teleporters. Also, add in props or adjust terrain to make it more difficult for vehicles to drive in. Replace the AI turrets on the spawn room with an AV gun and an AA turret. Mani ruins: It’s a 60 second construction base. Not much else to say about it. The traverse: For the love of all that’s holy, please don’t put the point at the bottom of a giant pit. That’s encouraging war crimes. Maybe put it on the bridge central spire and increase capture radius? Excavion DS-01-E: The first thought that pops to my mind is “Is this name a typo?” My second is that it’s an amp station base, but without the central amp station structure. Instead it’s got some drilling device. Since the points are bugged here I couldn’t see where each one was, so I really can’t comment on them. The base currently has no vehicle pad (it's scheduled to be added), and no AA/AV guns. The removal of the amp station structure opens up a lot of area for vehicles to run rampant. There are two tunnels like traditional amp stations, but they have zero cover and will be bombed by aircraft. Suggestions for improvement: Add vehicle pull, attach AA/AV guns to spawn room, add in more small props/terrain features to restrict how vehicles can maneuver. Add some kind of cover to the tunnel entrances. Ymir ruins: It’s another vehicle cap base with three points this time. Couldn’t test cap timer since the points on Excavion DS-01-E were bugged and therefore impossible to capture. Not much else to say about it since we’ve seen vehicle bases before. Nott comms: The point’s currently missing here. I don’t know what the problems were with the previous version of this base, apart from the usual exposed sundy positions? In this incarnation, there are no walls, which allow vehicles to run rampant over the base and quarantine the spawn room very easily. Suggestions for improvement: AV/AA guns on spawn room if they’re not already present. Add a teleporter (or two) to improve flanking options. Alter terrain by spawn room and NE corner to reduce the ease of vehicles entering the base. Echo valley: This one’s another base that essentially was moved wholesale to a safer location. There are some minor differences compared to the old incarnation, namely the spawn room and vehicle pad are placed differently in relation to the point. There is no teleporter anymore. The West side now features a gigantic wall with a small door through it. This is a neat option for a very safe sunderer position, since defending vehicles will now have to drive around the hill to the south or go through the mountains separating Saerro listening post and the plain NE of Wattersons’ Redemption. This bus location is balanced by a long path to the A point. The base isn’t without its problems, though. It’s possible to drive a sunderer through the small cluster of trees separating the power house building from the crescent building, and then camp spawn with it. Likewise, it’s possible to drive around the shield next to the vehicle spawn and then drive right up to the spawn room. Defenders can utilize this as well, since there’s no obstructions between vehicle pull and spawn room. To improve this base I’d suggest adding in another wall with a doorway through it to complete the wall by vehicle pull. I’d then add in some barriers- rocks, walls, trees, etc to prevent players from spawning vehicles from the vehicle pull/using GSD to get through the shield and then setting up spawn camps. The same suggestion applies for the tree grove between the two buildings. Overall, it’s definitely an improvement, but needs a bit more love. Genudine Gardens: Formerly Nott communications. It’s changed very little from its original incarnation, except for a giant gap in the NE corner of the perimeter wall. This gap allows all kinds of fun vehicles inside the base. If it were closed off or at least restricted in size through the addition of more rocks, then the base would be fine. Alternately, add some barriers to restrict vehicle movement inside the base. With that exception, this base is in a pretty good spot. Grey Heron: This is one of the bigger head scratchers. The defenders have one route currently to the two new points that are underground, and that route is a set of wide stairs with zero cover. It’s going to get HESHed/bombed on a level that will boggle your minds. I’d suggest reversing the direction the stairs face (currently you descend them going South, new direction would be descending North) and adding a roof over them to reduce A2G spam. Consider putting a roof over that tunnel entrance too. There’s technically another route players could take to get into the base on the north side, but that needs gravity lifts. It’s possible to cover two points without moving. The limited number of entrances could make this into crown B point/nasons garbage disposal 2.0. I’d suggest moving one point back upstairs and shifting the two upstairs points around as needed. Vidar observation. It’s a vehicle point with an added spawn room. Might consider adding a light vehicle pull too then, or else you’re going to end up with confused newbies spawning there and walking for half an hour to find action. Same thing applies if you’re planning on doing this to the other traditional single point vehicle cap bases. Mani lake outpost: Compared to live, the high hill to the NE side and the ridge line to the southeast have been flattened a lot. There’s now a trench between the NE hill and SE ridge allowing infantry to pass. Both of these are bad ideas in their current form. I can easily drive prowlers up that ridge and hill and then spawn camp. I can drive through that trench too and spawn camp harder with kobalt buses and harassers, or MBTs if I feel particularly violent. The trench can be fixed with a wall with a doorway, or alternately some bollards. The hills need to have their outside slopes steepened significantly to deny treaded vehicles traction. Also add in some rocks to those exterior faces to make it more difficult for mags/harassers to scale them. Lastly, there’s a spur from the mountain to the SE that allows me to easily shell the spawn room. Flattening this makes spamming from the mountain much more difficult. Mani processing: I like the concept of this base becoming a three pointer. The new point placements bypass the old problem of horrible spawn placement options. However, the new points favor attackers heavily. It’s possible for attackers to set up kobalt bus/harassers around all 3 and completely deny infantry pushes. B point lacks any possible safe sundy spot since the northern map border is right up against the point room. To improve this, I’d suggest adding in props/cover/terrain features that reduce the ability of vehicles to get into infantry lanes. I’d move the north border farther north here to allow sunderers to set up at B point. Jord Amp Station: It’s a 3 points and one spawn Amp station. Like the three point amp stations that have spawns tied to point ownership, this one has no tunnel system. The spawn room is located at the standard location. A point is located inside the shielded central structure. C point is in the old horizontal generator building. B point is inside a triple stack at the far end of the facility. The two shield generators for the central structure are moved closer to the amp station building. This presents a nasty problem where all the points are up to 200 meters from the spawn for defenders, but attackers can place sunderers practically on them. Adding tunnels back only to the outside walls (no exits for SCU room) would alleviate this somewhat, but it could reintroduce the issue of repair grenades being spammed in tunnels to repair the generators. Maybe reducing rep nade radius would fix that? Alternately, swap SCU and spawn room locations. Baldur Amp Station: This one is a 3 point amp similar to Jord in that it has one spawn room and 3 points. The spawn room is located inside the amp station structure, with the SCU in a separate building. A point is in the triple next to the SCU building, but B and C are in the same places as at Jord. Because of its central spawn room, I think this base will be a lot less attacker-favored than Jord is. This one honestly probably could go live and be fine on its own. Eisa Tech plant: This is the one base on Esamir that really needed no changes. Therefore, its redesign comes as a puzzler, especially when you consider its new neighbors. The biggest problem with Eisa rework is that it's now a three point base in the center surrounded by more 3 point bases, which will undoubtedly result in the map center stagnating. Compared to live, two more points have been added, and A point has been moved. The big gun has swapped places with A point, and has shields placed around it that allow infantry movement but block weapons fire. B point has been added on the ground floor between the two jump pads by the vehicle terminals. C point has been added on the top of the main tech plant structure (not the air pad) and has some cover added to deter aircraft bombing, with the side affect of reducing the number of locations where galaxies can drop. I'm not sold on the tech plant needing a rework. On live it's one of the few bases where the center-map fight can actually end decisively and in a relatively quick manner (compared to Nasons', TI Alloys or the Ascent). C point is the biggest problem IMO. I’d move it to the powerhouse where SCU is or the crescent building north of the SCU powerhouse. I’d also move B up to the balcony above the vehicle pull. This spreads the fighting out a bit more and removes the ability of C to be bombed by determined aircraft. The moving of B makes it slightly more difficult for defenders to get an easily retaken point, but that’s offset by giving them C as an easily contested point. I’d consider removing SCU as well if the base actually has a 4 minute cap timer. Lastly, assuming C point gets moved, I’d remove that extra cover and open up that deck to galaxy drops again. Eastwake Harborage: This is by far the biggest offender of the Esamir rework. In short, it's a 200 meter sprint for infantry from spawn to the point room. In that distance there's minimal cover from infantry small arms and nothing whatsoever to protect them from A2G or ground vehicle AI weaponry. The point itself is in a building, but that building is at the center of a small pit that tanks can surround and shell mercilessly. The road between spawn and point is open enough for sunderers and prowlers to drive through. The current teleporter position doesn't open infantry flanking routes, and in any event there's no flank that you can take that won't see you bolted/airhammered/HESHed immediately. You can add all the jump pads you want, but that won't change the fact that this is the base HESH mains dream of. There's nothing you can do in its current state to fix this- it genuinely needs to be scrapped and rebuilt completely. I get that it's a warpgate base and probably won't be fought at often, but you can at least ensure that warpgate bases aren't total misery to fight at. So, with all that out of the way, I can't emphasize this enough: This version of Esamir is nowhere near ready for release. The center of the map is a mess of three point fortresses, and many of the outer ring bases still need enormous amounts of work. In their current state these bases pander almost exclusively to giant zergfits, A2G farmers, HESH spammers, and the like. This is everything the community has spent years complaining about, and barring another round of HESH/A2G AI nerfs or another overhaul of new player vehicle weapons most of these bases flat out won't work without significant changes. TL, DR: go back and read it.
