Howdy! I had a Bastion run yesterday. I used the facility lockdown feature for the first time ever. Not fun at all. When locking down a defended base, there's absolutely nothing to do for the captain of the Bastion. The gunners can shoot anything they could see, but from my perspective there's just using the 3rd person camera and watching. Very boring. Especially when gunners are paying attention and they spot targets on their own. I was also losing a module from time to time. The Bastion needs to remain motionless for any of the special functions to work, and so a clever enemy can sit just beyond render distance and score hits. From my point of view that means no damage indicators, no incoming projectiles rendered, no visible source of the damage, no feedback at all. The ideas to fix it: First off, there should be a module status indicator system. If the Sundy can have multiple health indicators for shields and hull strength, this is not beyond the capabilities of the game engine. This would fix the "no feedback" issue, and would allow to better maneuver and position the ship. Secondly, the captain should have a chin mounted gun. It would be something like what the Colossus has, so not nearly as powerful or game breaking as the old system of having a whole artillery battery with very high damage output. This chin mounted gun could be controlled like that of a tank turret rather than a barrage by clicking the map. The captain would have to actually do some gunnery. Thirdly, the Bastion should have options of diverting power. Using one special function means the others are turned off, so some thinking strategically is necessary. - Power to the support systems - this acts as the current anchor function for letting anyone (not just outfit members) teleport in. Plot twist - this would be the only way the Bastion could spawn interceptors. With any other power setting the outfit members would exit in a drop pod rather than in an airplane. Thus Bastion spawn point / aircraft carrier. - Power to the weapons - the captain's chin mounted gun would be supercharged. This would work exactly like a deployed Colossus. The turret guns also have more firing time before overheating. Thus Bastion battleship. - Power to the shields - the Bastion projects a bubble around it, similar to the outfit deployable. This bubble should reach from the ship itself down to the ground, blocking projectiles from entering, but allowing infantry and vehicles through, just like the outfit shield. This shield would have hitpoints like the Colossus force field. The difference is the Colossus gets both the shield and supercharged gun, while the Bastion needs to chose only one. Thus Bastion fortification. - Power to the engines - When the ship is moving around, it cannot use any abilities. Thus moving Bastion. Sorry for the wall of text, but I had a lot of thoughts to share.
Sure. Skills for Bastion seat one. The lockdown feature is nice to see from the outside. Yet I understand how that would slow for the pilot. I'll also mention that I want PUB platoons to be able to man the Bastion. I've only played solo outfits for years now. I've only been able to ever fly one bastion with a pub platoon who wasn't able to board, yet flew next to me. Then I shot the Crown tower & was destroyed 20 min later. As my pub platoon got bored with air. I've now had my 2nd bastion stocked for 6 to 8 months now & haven't used. As if my pub platoon doesn't board, then I only use if a pub platoon or another outfit is willing to support me with air & that never happens. As I have to talk to them & ask for them to follow & that's a meh strategy. So why not allow pub platoons to board? How is that not fair? It already takes forever to stock the dang thing solo. Why not allow pubs to board too? I'm not the only solo outfit owner, I've never wanted to join someones zerg outfit or medium pop outfit for years now. I'd rather have use of my small victories of bases & use all my resources to stock steele rains for pub platoons or else collosuses. So I've stocked 20 collosuses & haven't been trying to attain a new bastion stock, it's just too many resources. Are more people going to solo a outfit if bastion is allowed for pubs? no, it takes too long, so its fine, yet for those who do want to solo, they don't get to drive a bastion without it being near worthless and having zero pub platoon help? As of right now for solo outfit owners. Steele Rain & Collosus is all we get. The bubble shield is usually too expensive & dies too soon from esf's. & the bastion doesn't allow pubs to board. Then I like some Sunderer Anvils, for like Biolab Airpads, yet 50 green is too much. Wish sunderer anvils were 30 green for small outfits & 50 green for zerg outfits. Same goes for steele rain, wish it was 10 blue for small outfits & 15 blue for zerg outfits. & was able to stock 6/6 steele rains. Then citedal shield 15 blue for small outfits & 25 for zerg outfits. OS I never stock, yet that's fine, as I find double os's to be op verse large silo bases. However I do wish their was a budget version of the OS, that doesn't do dmg to vehicle or silo items, yet just hits soldiers only. As stocking the previous 75 blue os, was one of the more entertaining aspects of the outfit page, before they made it a extra 15 purple where only zerg outfits have 15 purple so easily. So now solo outfits don't get to use pocket os ever. Yet yes it would have to do zero dmg to silo items & vehicles to, & just hit soldiers only, for 50 blue purple & zero purple required. For me to want to buy it over more steele rains. For my pubs squads.
Sounds interesting, and being able to switch between utilities when one is needed would make them potentially quite useful. Though I would add a distinction between Neutral Power Setting (can move and guns can shoot, people can spawn in but only drop in pods) and Power to Engines (guns can't shoot, people can spawn but only drop out on chutes like from a Galaxy, 33% faster movement).
Oh the anchor mode makes the Bastion a spawn point for the whole faction, so this particular new feature is very useful. I enjoy this feature very much as my outfit often has 4-6 players online, so that's not enough to crew the B. But then open it up for blue team gunners and we have a full compliment. This allows my outfit to grab Reavers and fly around too, while the turrets are manned by the friendlies. Should some of them jump out, I can always anchor for a minute or two again and more folks join in. By "people" that would be outfit members I guess. With support systems powered then it would allow any friendlies to spawn and use drop pods, while outfit members get upgraded to airplanes. So yeah, neutral setting would work. I also think the power to engines turning off guns completely would just make this setting useless. A single fighter could just float nearby and disable module after module. Even with 33% more speed the Bastion will still be relatively slow. What about a faster overheat on normal turrets, and complete shutdown of only the theoretical captain's turret I suggested in the previous post?
Considering that you don't even drive the bastion yourself they could get rid of the pilot seat entirely, That way you could play like everyone else instead of sitting in the bastion bored.
With the ideas being hammered out in this discussion, the Bastion would become much more engaging. It's not just a "go over there and float and do nothing", but rather "which abilities will be most useful for the next couple minutes", with a side of "I have a naval gun, yaaaay!". Hypothetical situations: Bastion gets called to plug a hole in the front. Using power to support systems, all outfit members grab a fighter, and non-outfitties man the turrets. Then the Bastion does power to engines, closes the distance to firing range. Swap to power to weapons, the captain's supercharged chin gun and large heat capacity turret guns make for a nasty bombardment. Using a combo of power to engines and support systems, the Bastion could go from sector to sector within a couple minutes and launch waves of fighters, as well as drop folks into combat where needed. It can chose to alternate between support and shields, deploy its minions and then form a bubble over them. The friendlies would then take care of anything that could disable the shield bubble or get inside it, while using it for safety. The captain might want the balanced setting to be able to move and shoot at the same time while changing positions by the front line, to supercharge guns again when a better angle is obtained.
