Just thought I'd share some issues I have with this base, but I'd like to start by saying it looks fantastic… However looks can be deceiving. First of all, right off the bat the spawn room has issues. It is situated away from the main complex and there is only open ground from the spawnroom to the main "fort" that contains the point. This open ground will be a farm fest for air and ground vehicles (getting to ground vehicles in a sec). Perhaps a teleporter or tunnel to the main building? Secondly, the gens that keep the vehicle shields up are OUTSIDE THE WALLS. WTF? This HAS to change. There is no plausible way to justify having them outside the walls of the base the gens are meant to power. It will be incredibly easy to take down the AV shields on this base and quickly overrun the interior with vehicles and lock down the spawnroom. Lastly, the walls of the base are awesome. It feels like an actual fort. However, the terrain around the base has quite a few optimal spots that a vehicle can go up and negate the wall's cover. These raised portions of land should go, otherwise what's the reason of having walls if the land around the base is made for tanks to negate them? Sorry I don't have screens, posting this on my laptop -Quiiliitiila
Alright, for some reason I can't get my comp to take screens of the test server and any vids I take end up as PNG images If anyone else would like to do a walkthrough of the base as a vid or take some screens, you'll see what I'me talking about. Furthermore, as I explored it some more today, I found out that not only are the gen rooms CLEARLY exposed to enemy fire (the two doors into the gen are facing where enemies would be camping with tanks and such, but the entrance into the wall tunnels are clearly exposed to enemy fire as well. What does that mean? Well, if you wanted to try and take back the gen (a futile gesture in their current iteration) you'd first have to make it out of the tunnel, which if not swarming with enemy troops, will be being shelled by their armor. If somehow you get out of the tunnel, you still have to run around the gen building to get to an entrance, both of which are conveniently situated within clear LoS of any attackers. Then you'd have to flip the gen, which again is clearly visible from the main road. ANYONE would see you trying to flip it back. Again, sorry for no screens. My comp is mouthy sometimes -Q
Gotta agree with the OP. Lithicorp Fortress is anything but one. Here's my first shot at posting screenshots. Sorry if the quality is lacking. You can see that the base is surrounded by higher ground. The mountains to the left and right (west & east respectively) can be easily climbed by attacking infantry but can't be accessed by forces inside the base (except for light inf ofc). Any defending forces can be picked off from those mtns. The hill that this pic was taken from is great cover for attacking forces and there are similar hills elsewhere around the base. The As show the 2 doorways to the shield gens. Easily for attackers to get in. Not so easy for the defenders. There are 4 gens at the base. If all 4 gens need to be down for the shields to drop, it might be more interesting. The B is a doorway to a tunnel through the wall... Could be some interesting battles in this tight corridor. A few grenades, rockets and a good charge might be able to break through. Here's a shot from one of the mtns west of the base. I walked up to this point as an engy. Great vantage to shoot from with decent cover. In the bottom of the screen is one of two spawn rooms (with teleports to each other). JP shows where jumppads are (to each other). There are 2 AA turrets near the center of the base on top of 2-story rooms. The AA turrets would destroy any air attacks moving north-south aircraft moving east-west get great cover from the mountains. There are no turrets on the walls atm but there are 2 AV turrets facing the single cap point. You'll want to take them out before capping. These 2 turrets are actually tucked into their own little alcoves so a little tricky to target but not impossible. It's nice to see variation in base design finally. There are some really great bases on PTS Amerish atm (Ascent, anyone?). Just not sure Lithicorp Fortress should be worth any points in WDS if it goes live in its current form. Go on to PTS and check it out for yourselves though.
Most of what is being said I disagree on, but: Why in the heck are the shield gens for the gates, Outside of the base... That makes no sense.
Indeed. The fact that the point is open is not necessarily a bad thing as long as it can be dominated from nearby cover, ie buildings. I like this base but it does have those problems .... which I pointed out when amerish was updated a few weeks ago but it didn't change ... which probably means the devs are satisfied with the way it is.
Just from the pictures......its looks......interesting. If you need to blow all 4 gens to drop the shield, its not as bad as it looks. Yeah, the mountains can be climbed by infantry, but as long as tanks can't get up there, I am ok with that. Why? Because tanks can shoot from the base up into the mountains.....it all depends on cover. I don't think I have ever lost a base to infantry shooting down into a base from higher ground.....tanks on the other hand.... Once that shield drops, that base is toast....
Oh, the point at this base I absolutely love, because if you control the buildings flanking it, you get access to a turret, that can be used to suppress the point... that is amazing, because it adds in a secondary objective for people to go towards, by way of cunning base design. I really didn't pay a lick of attention to those gens, because tbh, I just Expected them to be in the courtyard, since you can penetrate into the base by means of the wall's openings. The fact that the gens are outside the gate just makes zero sense. This isn't a base that people are going to have a Hard time taking. It's relatively low to the ground, so the mountains Will be a point where you have people pouring over. Those entrances through the walls can be taken care of, but it just takes an infil or a LA to get around the narrow cooridors. You will have Harassers and flashes boosting over the sides. There probably will be a lot of air coming down on this one... So having those vehicle gens protected INSIDE THE BASE, just makes much more sense, especially since it's going to be that much harder for the defenders to Defend those gates, because while attackers will have a very easy time getting to the gens, the defenders will have to go out of their way to exit the base to get to those gens.
Thanks for the screens, I really don't know why my comp wasn't taking them… The quality is just fine, and the annotations a bonus! Yeah, the gens upset me the most. That single issue is what will make this base a joke to defend. However, there are other things that could use some work. What exactly don't you agree with that either myself or Tamon said? I'd like the discussion to be as constructive as possible! -Q
We won't know until we play test, but with little or no room to maneuver, taking down the gens and driving vehicles into the courtyard isn't going do you much good. It looks like they will be sitting ducks to fire from both sides. Having a teleporter from the spawn to each outer wall and moving the gens inside and accessible via those corridors would be an improvement as well.
Jump pads... more jump pads seriously level team what is the need of them? They're boring and contrived and more importantly they render players exceptionally poorly with them just morphing out of thin air and not rendering (exacerbated ten fold when population is high density in the area). For all their downsides they're not worth the band aid implementation of "couldn't creatively get players there any other way". Constructive notes: The "JP Screenshot" this would ideally be a wider than normal bridge span for infantry to fight up from / across and vehicles to take (limited) shelter underneath. Remove the jump pads. Gens moved inside to outhouses that form into the fort exterior wall (gives a new larger space and area to fight over / fall back). Vehicle pad roll off and turn to exit is too tight and will create jams - classed as "a good idea" having it neat a main exit and traffic way? Main complex building should be "deeper" and extend into the mound it's sitting on. A fortress... overlooked by mountains: this isn't Rorke's Drift - give defenders a reason to venture and hold up there, some kind of built in overlook/building with spawn room that can be captured and is an extension of the base. No let me stop you right there with that thought: don't use jump pads to get to and from there it'll decrease the value of holding it - make the foothold worth keeping for both attack and defence. Use trails with natural cover to advance to/from. Spawns, exposed, again. Simplistic guide of giving defenders options and chance for countering without having the spawn room pounded like a hardcore **** star from all angles:
