On the latest Friday Night Ops stream an internal build of Esamir's redesigned battle flow and base layout was shown. I'll bullet point the main features for anyone who didn't watch it: - Adding a dome shield over bases which prevents weapon projectiles from passing through. Infantry and vehicles can still enter. - New trees and organic dressing elements to add infantry cover and make Esamir feel more ecologically natural - Significantly reduced vehicle access to most bases with the addition of surrounding walls - Adjusted layouts in bases to make more significant choke points which attackers have to break through While those changes are largely positive, the main point I took away from the build was just how dense the bases had become. There are narrow spaces and clusters of rocks everywhere which would be perfect for flanking and very close quaters gunplay, while at the same time limiting the use of medium range options like Battle and Scout Rifles and all but eliminating any long range sniper play. The real problem is that it would be too easy for close quaters brawlers with Shotguns and SMGs to close and engage at their own ideal range. The few high ground vantage points in place all have very limited views of the base and would only work if the battle happens to flow through the exact part of the base they can see. This means that any defending players who prefer medium range will probably be relegated to the current situation of sitting in the relative safety of the upper level of the spawn building so they don't have to worry about that one guy with a shotgun sneaking up behind them. But ontop of the other changes spawn buildings were shown to not have lines of sight to capture points so even that niche has been removed. A lot of it comes down to the cramped Biolab style layouts precluding medium range weapons, but it mostly comes down to capture points being inside buildings. Attackers pull out their close quaters loadouts to push in and defenders do the same to push out.
well i suppose it would encourage gal drops but also i see planetside making it so once the enemy flip the base the base is lost.
No space for medium/long range and there goes my sub. Seriously, cover in between bases is good. More trees, hills, etc. However now bases will be monstrosities were everything is shotgun range. I wanted bases to be more like PS1 bases to be more defensible, but this is going too far.
