Bastion too powerful

totally true, dont waste your time with these brain-dead people they dont deserve our patience and time odds are they are just ''hardycorey fanbois'' that dont have the strenght to see and admit their childishness and that their ''favorite'' game are not doing very well.

So I came back from a long pause to PS - thought, I give it a try. As a dedicated AA gunner (with all possible tools available) I thought I could make any kind of damage to the Bastion, but it seems these things are completely immune to any kind of AA weapon from the ground. I tried to aim on the weak spots, which were already damaged and under fire, but nothing seem to indicate that I make any damage., not even on its turrets.

So, who else thinks, that it is very appealing for the ground forces to play, while a Bastion hovers above them, that is is completely immune to their weapon damage and shreds them to pieces in no time? And only other air force can kill the Bastion. That is pretty much the concept, isn't it?

The concept of a Bastion itself might be a good thing. I wouldn't mind if it gets like a million HP and the ability to get repaired by an engie crew, but immunity against a certain group of players? I tried it as a ground player... and it adds nothing but frustration, because you can't do anything against it, except jumping in an aircraft (which isn't an option for me) or just log out.

I decided to logout and probably stay out until they change it

Vulnerable areas of the Bastion can be hit by Skyguard, but the probability of hitting them is very small, since this gun has a large spread at the distance at which the Bastion flies, and the explosion of the projectile does not work. And the damage is so small that it's pointless.
It makes sense to shoot missiles and large-caliber projectiles, although it is quite difficult to hit them at a vulnerable point, because of the low speed of the projectile and the long range.
When you hit a vulnerable area, the same mark appears in the scope as when you hit other targets.

It is somewhat confusing that the bright orange engines are not vulnerable, while the vulnerable points are also orange, but darker. Some players confuse them and shoot the engines (why the engine nozzle is not vulnerable, although it would be logical - this is already a question for developers)

The bastion being completely immune to all ground forces is only an idea Wrel could have possibly come up with. Give it more HPs, make it so it can take damage from all sources (including flak), make the glowing bits do double damage to it, fix the fact it can shoot through shields, reduce main cannon damage so it's at least a 2-hit kill (even 3 would probably be reasonable), and increase the passenger gun damage so that teamwork and coordination still make it a force to be reckoned with.

I made sure, that I hit the weak points by using a Walker AA gun, which should be same as effective as an ESF nose gun, at least from my point of view. But no damage at all.

Im wondering what an Archer can do, but since this thing got nerfed to uselessness, probably nothing

Best option against a Bastion: Bunker yourself inside a building (not an open spawnroom) and leave the Bastion with an empty battlefield. See how long the Bastions are an option for outfits, when the battlefield always gets empty...

Dying in a spawn room sucks, you can’t do anything when your supposed to be in a protected area.

When Bastions show up, I just leave, dedicated Anti Air units can’t do anything and you generally get bullied or over zerged.

I thought BFRs in first Planetside was horrific, this is even worst, more efforts dedicated towards worthless projects instead of building more maps, content, fixes and optimizations.

Well, of course you'll be pro-bastion if you actually do get to control one on a regular basis and are rewarded with insane amounts of XP (I've seen a video of someone racking up 100k in 15 minutes). I'm in an outfit that will not be able to do so. I'm also not a pilot so there are my options. Try being on the side of the fight where you're just getting killed over and over again with no real way to retaliate. Sure, it may be fun in a few big and locked battles, but mostly I've observed that thing just flying around killing all the battles that are going on, either by killing everyone or by people redeploying elsewhere, because there is no place to hide from that thing. I even got killed by it while in a Lightning and underground, how is that supposed to be realistic?

Before suggesting buffs because you "can't kill a lightning", try the reverse. There is no gun on a lightning that can do any serious damage on a bastion. I have actually tried and shot about 800 bullets with my skyguard (and that is a *very* long time) only to see maybe 10% hit on one of the weak spots and no idea whether or not I was doing any serious damage/progress, before I got killed by an AP vanguard that obviously had loads of time to find me.

The price of the Bastion is 625 auraxium, 225 synthium and 30 polystellarite. This equates to holding a small outpost for 10 hours + 2.5 hours holding an AMP/Bio + 1.5 hours holding the centre base. Ain't going into the exact math here with conversion rates etc but at least for me it took 4 days solo capping during the night and early mornings to craft one. 2 weeks later the outfit I started has launched 6 additional bastions, have one in stock + resources for the next. We've successfully destroyed one enemy bastion with ours and have damaged three more. Not to speak about the half a dozin or so of OSs and ANVILS that have also been deployed.

Basically if you're at ASP rank capture bases during off-peak hours and with construction unlocks bunker down at a construction enabled base.

Virtually anyone with skill can craft the bastion, but you need some gunners for it to be viable, so just send random invites to people in squads, run mentor squads etc. Many accept the invite and stay so after a while there are always some willing to gun even contributing resources continually by participating in captures.

When you gun the bastion yourself, that's when you dicover the bizarre power difference between the main cannon and the mannable ones. Basically the liberator belly gun, which can be deployed every 9 minutes for no effort at all, is much more powerful than the bastion guns, which can only be deployed every 13h at best even for a zergfit.

Hey there dear Devs

As i as well like the escaltion update basically, i want to give my Opinion to the "obviously" Overpowered Fleetcarrier "Bastion", and the "Outfit-Wars"..to make it more balanced for Players, Outfits and the Game overall.

I havent read all the posts before i got to admit, so sry if i just say the same as someone else .
But in that case it just shows that there are some changes nessessary.

Lets begin:

- Ressources:
At the moment we face a situation, where the fights on Auraxis are not only happen between factions, but between Outfits.
I get the Idea, but inside the gameplay it just creates unnessessarily that the Outfits dont work together anymore to win an alert, no, the wait until a base get lost to then try to be the one to get it back. It ruins the teamplay between Outfits.
--- Solution: I think it would be much better, if the ressources count factionwide. Make the Bastion a little bit more expansive, and the build up of ressources less. That way its not possible to pull a Bastion everyday for a bigger Outfit, but every Outfit gets Ressources and has the Option to pull one. And finally all Outfits can work together again properly.

- Maulers:
As alot ppl alrdy have said..Maulers should not ablte to kill ppl inside the Spawns.
IMO the Maulers should as well get some Damage nerf..just a little bit..so they are not that OP anymore.

- Bastion:
For the Bastion itself i would reduce the lifetime to 45 Minutes. That way Leaders need to think more wisely how and when to use them. They should only be an add to the game and not the dominating part, as it is atm. Also it would be nice if they where a bit more harmable.
--- Solution: Why not add a Construction Base Cannon, which is specially for the Bastion to shot at, nothing else. That way Outfits could place them at strategic places. Of course they shouldnt be too powerful as well.. just enough to scare the bastion away and damage it over time.

- Orbital Strikes in the Armoury:
That is the most annoying part of the update in my opinion. Where u go and where u look there comes an OS out of nowwhere? Pls change that!It ruins the gameplay experience.
OS are a nice thing if the are build inside of a construction base(CB), because they can be used only in an stationary area and also can be seen by the enemy, so they can react in it. But now its even useless to build them in ur CB, cuz the enemy just need to nuke it with the OS of the armoury and its over.
--- Solution: I dont say you guys should remove it completely from the Armoury. But leave the "old" OS the the CBs and call the new one "Bastion Strike" or something like that, and it only can harm Citadel-Shields and the Bastion itself. That way it is a useful but not annoying and OP tool.

Last but not least:

- Outfit Wars:
At the moment some "Elite" Outfits rule the Outfit-Wars game.
How they do it doesnt matter. It just shows that it again ruins the teamplay between outfits of a faction.
--- Solution: Why not make the pick for the Outfit Wars "random". Of course there should be selction-parameters int the background that pick "equal" factions..and after three Outfits got picked they have a delay before the can be picked again.
But that way ALL Outfits would have the chance to take part in the Outfit-Wars.

Well..thats it from my side of view. Small but big and healthy changes for the escalation

It would be great if you, dear Devs, mention them and discus them.
Thank you and keep going, i think u guys overall do a great job in this "one of a kind"-RPG-Shooter.
-Spike-Out-

So I tried it a little while as a Grounder against the Bastion, here my opinion: IT S*CKS MONKEYBALLS. Who was the f*cking idiot, who came up with an invulnerable flying fortress, that can only be damaged by air forces? That is the most stupid game concept ever and destroys the fun being a grounder, while this thing hover above you. IT S*CKS!

Personally I think the Bastion is a ridiculous farm tool. I play on Emerald and outside of certain hours it's not even worth logging in because of the Bastion. Total sh!tfits like N on Emerald that do nothing but air zerg come in after peak hours and they will sit over the only fights on a reduced continent and farm infantry. People log out when this happens and it kills the game for a lot of players and potential revenue. I don't know how the devs could have released something like this, let alone without a counter. This is stupid.

this guy.
he was a youtuber, but DBG hired him for some reason,
he's now been made LEAD DEVELOPER..shoving every bad idea he comes up with into the game.

I have killed a few points on Bastions with the Archer so it does work, takes a lot of shots though and even if you break all the "ground" points there are still like 4 or something more on the top side which you do need aircraft to reach and there is no effect on breaking points unless you break them all... which is something I think should be changed, like make it so the cannons under it are tied to the points, break them and guns stop working, break them all and no ground pounding guns.

Seems fair to me, I can shoot them from the ground and they can shoot me on the ground but if I break them all then they lose their ability to hit me on the ground just as I lose my ability to damage them further from the ground.

Next update we will very likely get the Colossus tank which is made to fight Bastions, it can fire through the ship and hit even the points on the top. It even gets big "aim here to hit the point" markers so you dont have to memorize where to shoot through the Bastion to hit them so things WILL get better.. but then we also get a Colossus tank that only outfits can pull which is a whole other can of worms since the big gun you use to kill Bastions can be used to hit other things as well.

Im honestly thinking of making a outfit and farm resources just to get the tank and then piss off pilots all day long, sniping Liberators and ESFs with the big railgun from miles and miles away.

I disagree. I was in a platoon, 30 of us went into airships and would destroy a bastion in about 2 minutes. Their "air-support" was made a joke. I was a bit shocked as it felt wrong to be able to kill those things so quickly.

I feel bastions are a bit too powerful too (mostly due to their cannons), I see a lot of people on Emerald getting spawn camped in the spawn room by bastions even if we have enough to push out and cap the point back. Honestly, just reduce the stun effect and we'll probably be fine (the damage radius isn't too large).