[Suggestion] Making Hives more central to gameplay

Like many of my fellow planetmans, I've noticed how Hives and player made bases are sometimes left to be largely ignored by the community. Many a time I've sent out requests empire wide, as well as received empire wide requests, to come help a besieged player made base under heavy attack. Universally, even when that base sports a high efficiency hive, the response has been a resounding 'no one cares'.

I find this to be a shame since a good player made base fight can be some of the most hectic fun the game has to offer.

In order to counter the indifference most seem to have for PMB (player made bases), I'd suggest an adjustment\addition to how HIVES are treated.First off, let me offer the caveat of admitting that I'm not an expert at the finer workings of HIVE Cores. From my current understanding there can only be 7 active Hives on a continent at a time, and if you want to build another hive, you have to go blow up an enemy one to do it. I'm going to be making these suggestions under that assumption, so if it's wrong, please just correct me.

1) HIVE Cores are no longer obtained simply by blowing up an enemies HIVE. Instead, you must overload an enemy HIVE, and whomever does so becomes the "Core Carrier". This CC is no longer able to pilot or ride in Aircraft while he has the Core, and any ground based Vehicle he rides in (Not allowed to drive) can move at only 50% speed.

2) The Core Carrier is fixed with a Continent wide, special indicator, showing all members of his own faction, as well as members of both enemy factions where he is.

3) In order to claim the core, the CC must get the Core back to his Empires WG.

4) The rewards to claiming a core would be an empire wide 15% bonus to all XP gains for a set amount of time. The time limit would be a point open to debate as depending on points of view, certain time frames could be considered far too long. Also, since 7 HIVES seem to be the limit, I feel a cap of three HIVE XP bonuses should be implemented. But again, that's something I haven't really brainstormed the finer points on.

5) Once the Core is picked up by the Original Core Carrier who pulled it from the enemy HIVE, it CANNOT be transferred to another player in any way. That player who pulled it from the HIVE HAS TO BE THE ONE TO TAKE IT BACK. Should the Core Carrier die, the Empire who killed him should receive a bonus of some kind, perhaps a lesser XP reward than claiming a core would gain.

6) Introduce new "Presidential Protection\Murder" line of XP bonuses. That tank you blew up that was within 10 meters of the CC? Yeah, you just killed the Presidents bodyguards, so bonus XP. Just shot down an ESF while you were close to the CC? Bonus XP for stopping the assassination attempt. Also, i suppose a Directive line could be implemented to revolve around CC escort and elimination.

That's all I've brainstormed at the moment. Obviously there are several points to work out with the system, and while I admit that my original objective of "Get people to fight at PMB" may not be as accomplished by this as some other ideas may be, I do feel like it would be a ton of fun and a good way to introduce some Dynamic events for players to enjoy.

So, thoughts on "VIP Escort\Kill the Quarterback"?

First off, HIVE's shouldn't give VP's anymore.

Currently the biggest problem with PBM's isn't that no one tries to defend them, but that no one really attacks them. Entire Zergs ignore these bases and pass them right on by to move to the next normal base.
And why should they? These bases are placed in area's that become nigh impossible to attack. Often you need to outpop the PBM defenders with 5 to 1 odds, if not more. It also takes a ridiculous amount of time and deaths to truly punch through and destroy it, making the entire affair an uphill battle. And an uphill battle is fine once in a while, but this?

Most bases are also placed somewhere so far off the map that there is no organic way that a large enough force can be build to assault the PBM. Meaning that only a handful of players will ever attack them.
What does that mean? HIVE's are build and then, ofcourse after considerable effort and time, the PBM builder(s) can sit around twiddling their thumbs, fending off the occasional infiltrator or tank that might pass them by. In the meantime there's hundreds of players on their faction fighting their butts off somewhere to achieve a small victory and maybe earn 1 VP in the process, but these PBM players are earning several VP's over the course of time after some base planning and practically no requirement to defend it? Most HIVE's that are build will remain build until the continent locks up, which is pretty telling how many times they are attacked.

Second off, if HIVE's do keep generating VP's then these VP's need to be brought back to the warpgate. Or better yet, brought to the enemy warpgate. Now that's a lot more interesting and rewarding gameplay right there. You could even bump up the amount of VP's that these HIVE's generate to increase the amount of times people can courier that stuff. Building in the middle of nowhere protects your base, but it doesn't help as much with getting to the enemy warpgate ASAP. Controlling area also helps with getting the victory core to the enemy warpgate.
The VP would only be carryable by the team that generated it. The VP would only disappear after lying on the ground for a certain time without being picked up. So if a VP is dropped the opposing factions can surround it and defend it until it disappears. The players that are in the region upon timeout of the VP would then gain some capture XP.

I think the efficiency of HIVE near the warp gate is too high. A faction with a weak ESF very difficult destroy it.
Need a stronger reason to build it at the forefront.

Okay, reading this gave me some ideas. What if, instead of HIVES sucking up cortium to generate VP, they sucked up a bunch of Ore to create a 'Core Bomb'. Once the HIVE had absorbed enough ore, a player of that HIVES faction would be able to interact with it to pick up the 'Core Bomb'. They would then need to run it into the enemy Warpgate like you suggested. Once the Bomb carrier got it into the Hex of the enemy warpgate.....BOOM. Big blast, lots of mayhem and mushroom clouds, and a whopping amount of VP for a successful mail order bomb delivery (lets say 4 VP just for arguments sake).

I would still think that restricting the Bomb Carriers transportation would be a must though, in order to keep them from being able to air speed their way right past over 90% of the fight. After thinking about it though, I think the 50% speed reduction may be a tad much, perhaps 25% would be better.

You could implement HIVE efficiency in much the same as it's current format. It would also help get around the whole "unattackable PMB" problem for when you find those builders who were able to turn their place into the proverbial Fort Knox. Even if the base itself were obscenely unassailable, the bomb carrier would still be exposed when he tried to get to a WG.

I've got more ideas bouncing around my head, but I need some time to put them together and think some of them through a little more.

The bases are being built so far off because they are weak. (or simply because you are not allowed to build anywhere near a fight, which is extremely stupid.)
If the base is small then all for one to do is to kill the phalanx, which can be achieved easily with any mbt, even with an ap lighting.
After that the base is basically already toast.

The bases need to be lot more dangerous than they are now. Most structures are still to vulnerable, as I pointed out here:
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/ps2/index.php?threads/base-building-discussion.243471/#post-3436540

Apart from what I said in the other thread already I think the individual turret limit should be brought up to 2 for each and one more ai and rep module.

I'd also like to see it made easier to place overlapping modules for redundancy. Something like keeping the effect radius like it is now, but make the build restriction only 3/4 of that.

We can talk about vp generation: The main problem for me. Any base is either there, or already as good as destroyed. There is no middle ground. That's because nobody want to try to defend. Why defend something that is already as good as lost?

Clearly the devs wanted to attract attention with the vp generators. But it just doesn' work well.
There clearly would be a lot more good ideas out there to bind bases into the capture gameplay.
If you bind bases into the lattice somehow and make it disrupt the capture process, then they become important and maybe get more fights and defenders.

They aren't weak, and even if they were powerful why on earth would you place them in weaker area's if you could just place them in stronger one's?

A single player in a base can suddenly take on more people, and even if he's killed his base isn't that easy to destroy if you build it properly. Having multiple people defend it also increases it's survivability and strength tenfold.

Except it takes more than 20 shots, the defender has more than a minute to react and retaliate, if not with the turret itself which can be repaired by a module and have added repair-strength by hopping out occasionally and repairing it yourself. Even if the AV turret is destroyed it's not as if the tank can just waltz into the base, even then it takes effort to get in and time to destroy everything, time that the defenders have to, you know, defend. And that's one of the problems: The defenders are right back and have a strong position, the attackers usually have to travel far and wide to get back there. In that time a defender can rebuild most of his base, if not make it stronger in the process.

But ofcourse, most HIVE bases aren't solo ventures but are done through multiple players. Even if you manage to destroy the base, there's usually some aircraft and randoms that pull up when the HIVE is under attack. So using a single MBT isn't feasible and it's also time-consuming during the times that it is.

But I have to agree that there is a discrepancy. It takes long to gather the resources, find a place and then plan&build the base. Having someone demolish it should take time, but it also makes it rather unfun to engage.
Centralizing the process by making construction important in bases and offering easier access to resources and building sites would immensely help in this. If it didn't take long to construct, it doesn't matter if it didn't take too long to destroy.

You didn't say anything about making the base more dangerous, but you did ask for making construction more integral to the 'normal' gameplay, which is kind of what I'm doing as well.

Making bases 'more dangerous' would make these ultra-chokepoints even worse to fight, and people will be less inclined to attack them. That's the opposite of what you want. PMB's should be fun to build, but also have lots of reasons for players to enjoy attacking it... Even if they can't demolish it because the defenders are good.

AI control isn't a good thing in PS2. If construction was better handled we would never even have needed AI control turrets, and you could just have had players occupy and use the towers. So rather than granting even more AI control turrets we should be focussing on making sure players happily use these turrets. And it shouldn't be that hard. The reason why no one uses these turrets is because not enough players are defending the base at any one time, and only when both a large group of attackers and defenders coincide are the turrets really used. But imagine if the turrets were simply build as part of current bases, then you would suddenly see these turrets used. There would also be enough players around to place turrets, so keeping the turret limits up would be good to prevent too many turrets in one spot.

The problem with "building in current bases" is performance. Bases already consist out of a bunch of buildings and crap that takes extra load on the server. Allowing players to randomly build stuff would increase server performance. Another reason why we should be careful with building in current bases is trolling, OP building combinations and mismanagement. Currently any building can be build right through walls and terrain. So you could build a wall that prevents the use of an entrance, or block off all entrances to the pointroom with walls and build a repair module inside for an invulnerable protection, and we haven't even talked about building an airshield in subterranean bases...
So no-deploy zones would have to be maintained in some form or another so that you can build inside bases but that there's a limited amount you can build and only in specific spots to prevent impossible to attack places. An AMP station with a Silo inside, repair&shield module and the entrances blocked by walls would be one such thing.

System vulnerability is one of the few things they did right with the current system. Knock a part out and it becomes easier to destroy the whole. But with redundancy you can take a ton of effort, only to have another module still up and running. Replacing downed modules is also relatively easy right now, assuming you kept track. So adding redundancy would be a kick in the teeth for the players who worked so hard to destroy something, even if it 'only' helps protect 1/4rth of the area.

I don't know from what angle you are looking, but most of the time these bases survive their attacks because simply not enough players come there to really destroy it. And when you do defend a base from attack, even if it's as good as lost, it's not that hard to murder more of them than they of you. PMB's are farmland when players attack it.

It worked well when it was new. When it was new the fights there were amazing. This was because players hadn't thought of the perfect places and designs to build these things at and there was a lot of enthusiasm on both the attacker and defender side to really go for it.
Ofcourse as time progressed it was more and more discouraged to attack bases. Invulnerable bases were build by using domes to protect against ground assaults. Walls became indestructible while under repair module. Additional defenses were created that allowed the defenders to attack from shielded bunkers almost without any chance of retaliation, bases were build in sinkholes in the terrain and blocked off with invulnerable walls, the time and effort to reach such a base with enough players to destroy it became increasingly difficult as bases were build in tough to reach and easy to defend regions, making PMB's farmland for the defenders rather than attackable targets.

PMB's were a great idea to use the additional area the game offered, but as it stands the only real area these bases use is impregnable terrain that's way, way to easy to defend.

How about allowing players to build additional capture points?

The capture points would have to be within a certain distance of the base, to prevent PMB's being build again in the farthest, most impregnable corner of any region by default. These capture points can either be destroyed or captured by the other side. Maybe you could also temporarily disable them with the Glaive artillery. That offers more strategy and more reason to fight at these PMB's, and it means that vehicular combat becomes more important again.

The problem with low-frequency high-risk drops like that is the troll. What if a troll picks up the Core Bomb and just suicides it? What if a troll decides to just kill the core carrier? That's why I increased the rate at which VP's would be generated and also included a timer before it disappears, allowing players to deal with trolls in case the troll suicides or runs away in the wrong direction. You could also have newbs pick it up who don't know what to do with it, and might run around doing nothing.

I understand your concerns, but I was aiming for the Bomb deliveries to become "Alert" sized events. With more frequent Bomb spawns I have concerns that they'd become a constant and repeating interruption to more traditional gameplay. In all fairness I guess that could be seen as a good or bad thing, but I can't help but feel it would get really annoying to see base captures constantly turned on their heads to go work the Bomb carrying objective.

You're not wrong though, Trolls\malicious Fourth Factioners\Noobs would be particularly able to exploit something like this. The only thing I can think of to at least partially address the issue (That you've not already suggested), would be to introduce a new Cert-line related to bomb carrying that you had to invest in to even pick up bombs. If the Cert Line were to be made expensive enough, it would keep Noobs from investing into something that they didn't understand, and possibly deter the Malicious 4th Factioners who only have low end characters to sabotage other factions. Admittedly it wouldn't stop the Trolls, and the 4th Factioners would still be able to exploit it if they were willing to put in the work. It's a far from perfect idea as it would also keep the Bomb carrying participation a lot more exclusive than I'd like it.

I need more ideas.

Agreed


Not only are PMBs largely only for a subset of the players, but they have now made Continent Locking only for a subset of players.

It used to be (pre-PMB) that the average player would keep their eye on the VPs and frequently try to attack/defend bases if their Faction could win. Now the average player just ignores VPs and Continent Locking. Which not only means they have been ejected from caring about and participating in the Formal Objective of the game, but that they also aren't trying to trying to attack/defend key bases anymore, and they are just finding some fun and/or easy battle somewhere and treating the game like a small scale FPS: cap some base, farm some Certs, pad some stats, grief some people, etc.

PS2 Devs continually push the game design to give crutches to hardcore organized players, and to steer content and formal game objectives progressively more to these groups. It leads to easy-mode and lazy narrow tactics/strategies by these hardcore organized players, and it leads to the average players being pushed out of playing explicitly toward and within the formal objectives of the game.

You're doing it wrong.

While I mostly agree that this game caters to ADD kids, Hives take organized players to defend and attack. If anything, construction was a buff to organized play.

If PMB's are strong instead of weak you are doing it wrong?
And please show me a video of someone taking down a PMB solo with ease.

That's why I think the bombs shouldn't be worth more than 1 VP, and since you'll be bringing it to the enemy warpgate you'll have a lot of the players who spawn there take a shot at you.

Making it an alert-sized event but essentially leaving the event in the hands of a single person is going to be a nightmare. Even if it rarely happens that a troll decides to kill the bomb carrier or some faction-switcher picks up the bomb and suicides himself with it, it's going to be those times that people will remember and hate.
At the very least you should have the option to teamkill the bombcarrier without the bomb depleting or something, so that you can deal with the option of a troll or fourth factioner.

I think that it would be better to make the event less an alert-sized event and more a part of the core gameplay. That way players can enjoy the carrier-type event more often instead of being bored to death with king-of-the-hill.
No small PMB with a HIVE is going to make it if they just grab a vehicle and drive up to the enemy warpgate because of enemy aircraft that are likely going to take a few shots at it. So you would always need a larger group to support you. This would give more motivation to place HIVE's in area's nearby fights, or where you can easily move passed allies who are likely to join you in your protection. That would make assaulting and defending PMB's also more enjoyable as there's likely more people joining the battle.

Hives can't defend themselves, they're only as strong as the people guarding them. And since guarding them is boring and doesn't pay, there's usually a single player in a hive, if any players. There are a few ways a solo person can go about this.

Solo Infil: Put a mine on the spawn tube. Get an angle on the hive where the AI turret can't hit you, decloak, overload it, and camp the spawntube with a knife. If there was a player in the hive, then you'll obviously have to deal with him, and success at that of course depends on your own skill.

Solo Harasser with a gate diffuser: You'll possibly take a single hit from the AV turret on the way in, but they don't react in time to get a second hit. Depending on the base, you'll either be able to drive your Harasser in the base and behind a building or right up on the AV turret. From there you can use the turret on the guard, turret AI module, and spawntube. If the hive is built well, you'll have to walk in the Sundy Garage to destroy the shield module, then the Hive is easily killed with the Vulcan or whatever other close range gun you have.

Solo Tank: Get an angle on the AI turret where the AV turret can't hit you and take it out. Most Base builders are Engineers so you should have time to take out the A turret before they can switch to a heavy to counter you. You'll have to deal with the guard once the AI turret is down, but once he's dead, you can mine the spawn tube while you pick apart the base.

Solo ESF: A solo ESF with Hornets can wreck Hives faster than anything, if there's an angle on the core where the AA turret can't hit it. If there's no angle to, it takes 2 Hornet ESFs to kill the core before the AA turret can kill both planes.

This is all done by solo players quite often, and you can see how much easier things would be with even a single other hand. And if all that sneaky crap doesn't work, there's nothing stopping a Max crash, nothing short of a full squad waiting for them. 4 MAXes, 4 Engineers, 3 Medics and an Infiltrator can Gal drop on just about any hive and take it out if they know what they're doing, and there's not a platoon waiting for them.

And as strong as the AI turrets, and since even a single player has an advantage over the attackers it's highly likely that the defender can ward them off.

You might as well say "the attackers are only as strong as the people attacking". It's just as much an 'argument' here.

And a few ways a solo defender can go about it, but with AI turrets to support you. Also if you fail by dying you still have time since it takes time to take a base apart. Time you can use to destroy the attackers, who need a lot more time to get back there.

Oh wow, kill a defender once, maybe twice, then he's free to engage you and defend the HIVE.

Those aren't always available, and they highly limit your mobility in case you are attacked.

Aand... when do you attack the HIVE center? You realise that simply overloading doesn't do anything but take down the shield, right?

All of which take a lot of time. Have you ever attacked such a base? Because in 90% of the time there will at least be an aircraft along to **** you up, as well as defenders. With the new alert module that makes sure the defenders can come there and defend it during an attack these type of tactics are a sure-fire way to get a C4 on your Harasser.

Which takes a crapton of shells and time. If you want to take out the HIVE afterwards you need to resupply. I know because I've done it before the HIVE buffs, meaning they are even sturdier now. With the new systems that alert the owners you'll also be engaged long before you are done with the AV turret, let alone when you finally enter the facility.

Yes, because that's going to be easy and a short endeavor...

And it also takes the absence of a shield and structures that take away vision. It also means that you are taking apart a single-player base with only one AA turret.

Define "quite often". Show me some video's if this happens so often and easily. Do it yourself a few times and put it on youtube.

All good ideas.

Right now the continent are run over by ghost cappers so quick I am not able to find a good spot or have the hive active for a long time - if I can even get it active.

Right now a feature you can save CERTs or DBC on.

If you don't see this stuff happening then you're either not paying enough attention or you're only on during that magic prime-time window when everyone seems to care. Either way, I'm not going to argue over you're theories, I'm just relating what I see/do in actual gameplay. As a builder and attacker, I think hives need some work to let them defend themselves a little better and give reinforcements time to show up. Either that or give guards something to do while they're just sitting there, like fly drones from a new player-made building, that would give the enemy a reason to attack hives.

I do pay attention and I'm not just on during tha tmagic prime-time window. Although now that you mention it, it's easier to attack bases during the magic prime-time window as it's easier to get enough players together for an attack.

And I'm just pointing out that what you see/do in actual gameplay is pretty much non-existant.

Like indestructible walls, turrets that can get an AI, turrets that have a lot of health and take minutes to wear down if repaired by a repair-module and the fact that you have to take down things like the shield generators, Elysium tube, any Sunderers and open up a path into the base depending on if you use a vehicle or not? Oh and ofcourse a HIVE that has a ton of health and regenerates on a whim?

It's already there, it's all there! So I don't know where you get the idea that it should take even longer or that HIVE's are completely defenseless structures sitting in an open plain and die to a sneeze, but that's just not the reality.

Here's what the guards could do: Build in area's where they are more likely to get attacked, but at the same time have more players come to it's defense.
Ofcourse as anyone can see in-game that doesn't really work, for instance on Esamir there's the regular HIVE position at Northpoint station facing Mani Fortress. Normally attackers from Mani Fortress would go up that path and attack Northpoint from there, but entire Zergs will ignore that HIVE base and move up to Northpoint because they don't want to attack that HIVE base. This is sure-fire proof that these PMB's are more than strong enough to fend for themselves and not entertaining to attack at all.

So again, PMB's should receive encouragements to be build into the normal gameplay, instead of as far away as possible in impossible-to-attack positions that suck the fun out of engaging. No more HIVE's that generate VP's despite the guards sitting on their hands. And especially no Drones that make it even easier to almost costlessly boost your KD from a PMB. That would only serve to annoy people even more and have them avoid PMB's more than they already do.

You're asking about how a solo player can take down a hive, so I gave examples of how he can take down a hive built by a single player, which many are. Solo hives don't have parked Sunderers and such things, they just don't, the owners are either driving around in an Ant or out killing stuff in a fight somewhere else. Once you kill that single soldier, if there is one, then you can easily overload the hive before he can make it back in a vehicle. If he's not there, and he has an alarm module, and you mine the spawn tube, you have plenty of time to start the overload while he blows up once, then go back and camp and knife as many people as come through to save the hive, and the thing is almost always destroyed before even an ESF can get there. If you're ever on Connery during Asian time, go VS and follow around this guy named VG1, or something like that, he's got a hard on for solo killing hives. I've sat cloaked and just watched how he does it, and it's easy as can be. I go around and stop him when I feel like it, but he doesn't quit, and chasing around solo Infils when the own Hive owner is too stupid to know what's happening isn't too fun. I don't have a certed tank, so I use Hornet ESFs, and I solo plenty of them as a noob pilot. With 2 wingmen it's only 3 salvos to destroy a hive, that's a 10 second ttk, much quicker than an AA turret can kill an ESF with Fire Supression that's dumb firing Hornets. If there's even a hill to hide behind within 450m of the core, a single ESF can dumb fire Hornets and kill a Hive before the AA gun can kill it. Follow Grisha or Hisoka around on VS if you want to see how easy hives go down to a single plane. It all comes down to staying out of the firing line of the single turret that can hurt you, and there's no way to build around that. Even if you have the core dead center in a Sundy Garage you can drive right in the base, or fly an ESF in and bail, walk in the Sundy garage and overload the shield, then just walk over and camp the spawn tube. Most hives are in garages which give you perfect cover from the AI turret, and most spawn tubes are in buildings to give spawning infantry cover, which shields you from the AI turret. I'm not making this stuff up, it's really that simple. At least one of those guys is usually on if you feel like seeing it for yourself.

Perhaps it should have been that hives would be made in actual bases and you could fortify the base with specific constructs.
Was kind of a strange concept to begin with, trying to force conflicts away from the lattice lines? Why? The game is at its best with as many people swarmed in one area as possible not split up ghostcapping each other.

Many aren't build by a solo player.
Your suggestions 'work' as in "there's a better chance that this succeeds compared to other tactics, but don't count on it".

Some do, some don't. Those that do, you'd better be ready for them. They can be one nasty defense inside a base, especially a shield sundy.

Define "easily", a player that quick-respawns is done before you can hack the HIVE, and that's assuming you kill him just before you hack it.

Also you are assuming a lot of things:
1: You've destroyed the AI module and/or the AV turret.
2: You've destroyed the AI turret or are outside of it's vision (those things can actually deal damage, especially over extended periods of time that you need to destroy other stuff).
3: You've found an opening to enter the base or made an opening by shooting.
4: The defender hasn't found a way to nuke you yet, and since you are trying to get into what is usually an enclosed space with little room to move it shouldn't be hard to C4 you or have you drive over some pre-deployed mines.
5: No extra players have come along for the ride.
6: You have found and destroyed the Elysium tube and any potential Sunderers.
7: You still have enough ammo after punching through the outer defenses to destroy the HIVE, which may or may not have a shield generator somewhere that's going to take time to find and destroy as well.
8: You have enough time to safely get out, find a spot where potential AI turrets with AI modules can't hit you, hack it and safely get in your tank again.
9: No curious vehicles or aircraft come and check during your attack. Since these bases can now sport aircraft resupply pads they are more frequently used and defended by these pilots.

If even one of these things happens you are basically screwed, the attack has failed, the base will be rebuild for the most part by the time you get back there.

Ok I have to correct you here again. Overloading the HIVE only disables it's shield, it doesn't actually deal damage. Sitting at the spawntube knifing people does not contribute to the HIVE destruction.

Besides that, you are again assuming that the player can safely get inside and get a safe angle on the HIVE. That's simply not always possible and when it is, there's still time for the owners or aircraft to come take a look before you finish it off.

"Yeah there's this one guy who can do it easily, I've watched him do it, therefore everyone can do it and it's easy to take out any HIVE solo".

Not exactly the greatest argument. Especially since following a solo Infil is kinda hard if they are on the enemy side, that's their job.

And it sounds a lot like this guy could be stopped by, I don't know, an anti-personal mine, an AI-controlled AI turret and a well-placed Spitfire.

You know I'm not going to follow characters on a different server. First I would have to track them down, then I have to follow them, then I would have to hope they are hunting HIVE's, then I would have to hope they can actually do what you say they do.
Why don't you provide your own proof by showing me a video of them at work? Either a video they made, or a video you are going to make of them doing it.

But let's put it like this: While it's most certainly possible to rip a HIVE apart with 3 ESF (which beats the whole "do it solo" routine), it's not going to be easy even if it's a solo base, unless said base isn't protected at all.

As a defender you could bring your own vehicle, or aircraft, or use infantry and some tactics... You can easily use all of those because vehicle and air pads are available now for construction. And in the meantime your opponent has to stay out of your turret vision and take care of you at the same time. if he focusses on you, you just fall back. With a repair module the damage your opponent does is easily countered the moment he focusses on you. You can use your base to keep him occupied, if necessary you just bleed him dry of ammo as he keeps wasting shots at a turret he can't destroy unless he keeps focussing on it. If he focusses on the turret, you can destroy your opponent. Jobs done! Bye bye enemy attacker! It's just that simple ^^.

Yes yes "there's some guys that do it, just go switch servers, find them, track them, wait for them to finally engage a HIVE, then be amazed! And that proves that it's easy!"

Look, you don't even understand that knifing people at the Elysium tube isn't going to destroy the HIVE in any way after you overload it. So I have no worries about ignoring your stories and leave them for what they are: Stories. Fisherman stories about how big a fish they caught with their little pinky because it was so easy.