I want the old Tech Plant back. Honestly, who here didn't *immediately* see that SOE's change would lead to a completely un-defendable base? I really have to wonder what their designers are thinking.. The simplest fix for lengthy Tech Plant sieges would be to add a second capture point positioned upstairs in the SCU building. This would bring a lot of benefits: If the defenders are turtled in, they will lose because both teams will have one cap point but the attackers will have more influence. So, there will still be a decent battle but it won't drag on for hours. It splits the fight into two separate areas (the fight over the main building, and the fight over the SCU building), less spam, less lag. It makes for more varied fighting. The attackers are trying to breach the main building, trying various rushes, flanking moves, Max crashes etc while the defenders hold them off. But simultaneously, the defenders are trying to breach the SCU building while the attackers hold them off. Players on both teams get to experience attacking and defending in the same battle! Fun! In addition to this quick fix, I want to see the flow of the main building re-arranged. (I shall be speaking of the old Tech Plant main building layout, not the current utterly useless one). The layout of the main building is actually very punishing for the defenders if something goes "wrong". This leads to very binary game play. Either the defenders have a Sunderer up, are in full control and are farming the back door OR they've lost their Sunderer, their teleporter is camped, they can't get to the gen or the cap point and it's game over. This turn of events can happen very suddenly, leading to a battle going from full fury to a boring camp of the cap point and teleporter in the blink of an eye. A careful re-arranging of the game objects in the main building will lead to more satisfying battles where both sides are fighting all the way to the end rather than becoming a foregone conclusion with no come-backs possible: * Move the teleporter to the generator's current location. Use geometry ensure that it can't be camped directly by tanks outside the vehicle bay entrances or by infantry on floor below - better yet have two teleporters, one on each side of the current generator platform that players are randomly teleported to from the spawn room. * Move the generator to where the cap point is now. * Move the cap point to where the teleporter is now. Now the internals of the base would flow far better. As a newly spawned defender, what is the first thing you need? Access to the main building. With this change they get to teleport into a tactically superior location - high ground with line of sight to most of the upper level of the building. Even with your Sunderer dead, there's still a good chance to turn things around. After you have access to the building, what's next? Secure the gen so you have shields. This change puts the shield gen in striking distance of the teleporter - defenders are able to push down to it more easily with cover from above. After you have secured your gen, what's next? Take back the cap point to stop it ticking - with this change the cap point can be assaulted down both stairwells. The cap point is more easily accessible to attackers in its new location of course, but then the cap point is the least critical thing to lose control of temporarily, and the easiest thing to regain control of. In addition, because of the capture point's proximity to the back door, staying in range of it to help in the tug of war with the SCU cap point won't be a chore as a defender - you'll be in the thick of the fighting AND helping out at the same time. These changes (new cap point, moving objects) are simple to do and solve the endless siege while keep the essential character of the base intact and promoting fierce fighting all the way til the end. Make it so SOE!
One additional change I forgot to add - placing some tank traps & walls around the SCU / spawn building area to promote more house to house-style infantry fighting here, rather than having them camped by tanks.
These suggestions would really help make tech plants have good layouts. The latest patch ruined any chance of defending the base.
