Alright, so we've had the base building system for some time now, we've seen the game evolve, and we've seen that Outfit resource systems work. So the next evolution for those of us who like the construction system, but want something a little more... useful in a fight beyond just delaying the inevitable, is the Outfit Forward Operating Base. Now the OFOB is not a complete base on its own. When you call it down, it is just a foundation for adding construction units to. It sits about the same height off the ground as the height of a rampart wall. The OFOB is a solid construction that has a buildable area on top, but disallows building around the OFOB for 200 meters. The foundation has infantry up and down elevators on one side. These must be flush with the ground to place the OFOB. No glitching to block access to them. The other side can be overlooking a fairly steep hill. No part of the map can go through the buildable platform. So you can build it on a steep hill, but not in a way that keeps you from using it. The platform itself is large enough for Rampart walls to be placed on each side. The OFOB doesn't need a Silo, instead the OFOB itself acts as the Silo does, including having a refill port outside near the infantry access. The OFOB has 100k Cortium capacity. The OFOB doesn't have the maintenance drain that the Silo does. Now for the segue: Some change suggestions I have for construction regardless of what happens with this idea, but are kind of important to make it work: Pillboxes should be adjusted into being an actual spawn room complete with a terminal. Requires an active SCU Module for spawn to function. Infantry Towers become Command Keeps, these structures are incompatible with Artillery structures. You can build an Orbital Beacon or a Keep, not both. The Command Keep is where modules can be installed for the OFOB, and has a built in AA Turret on the roof (Still needs AI Module to function), and the entry way door is smaller and has a shield. The Keep can only install modules when used with the OFOB. The Keep also has a Spawn/Equipment Terminal in the bottom level that requires the SCU Module. Now for the reason you would use a Keep instead of Artillary: CKs double the hp, effectiveness, and range of constructs placed in its radius: 50 meters. So this means the constructs have double the hp, the repair module repairs twice as quick, turrets and towers auto engage at twice the distance, Skywall has double the radius, Vehicle gate shields are twice as tough, pain fields are doubled in radius, and cortium consumption is doubled as well. Basically you are choosing defensive vs offensive. These new buildings would be usable with the current construction system, they aren't exclusive to the OFOB Concept. The other change is that each player will have a total turret limit instead of the current one of each type limit. So you can specialize your mountaintop base for AA duty, or your siege base for AV work. Whatever you decide is more use. There would also be Turret versions of the AA and AI Towers instead of just the AV. Towers have their use, and so do Turrets. Now back to the OFOB: I wish I had some way to illustrate this, but here's the basic process of building the OFOB and the Base on it: You call down an OFOB the same way any other outfit war asset is called. The only difference is you have to place the structure silhouette before it actually drops from the sky. So you place the OFOB, let's say you chose a nice flat swamp on Hossin. Once the OFOB drops, it will need Cortium, it will despawn if you have no Cortium in it or structures on it for ten minutes. The OFOB itself can't be damaged, so the enemy actually has to attack your base and not just your OFOB. Once you add cortium, you can place structures. The terminal is on the platform across from the infantry access lift. Unlike normal construction, the OFOB is meant to be a quickly assembled base that trades the versatility of current construction for pure combat effectiveness. These arent the bases sitting back fueling orbital strikes. First, the Command Keep (Former Infantry Tower) snaps to the middle of the OFOB. This has to be done first to enable the OFOB to function. The Keep is the central feature of the OFOB and is the thing that the enemy is aimed at destroying to remove the OFOB. Once the Keep is taken down, the entire OFOB is destroyed. The Keep is not weak though, and takes a lot of damage to destroy. Rampart walls will snap into place on all four sides. AI/AV/AA Towers will snap to each corner and the aforementioned Walls. You can fit 4 Towers in any configuration on the OFOB. When the Skywall Module is installed, the apex of the shield will be just above the Keep's AA Turret. Enemies that try to stand on the Keep will be burned by the shield. The SC Module is required for the Spawn to function. The Shield Module is required for the Keep and Wall shields to work. It also puts a shield on the infantry access lift so vehicles can't farm the lift directly. The other modules work as they do now. The second level of the Keep is the Module Level. It will take one of each Module type, including the new Spawn Control Module. Modules can be sabotaged and destroyed by enemies that can reach them. The top level of the Keep is where the control point is. If the Control Point is flipped to the enemy, the Modules become vulnerable to sabotage. This control point works like shield consoles for garages and bridges. The OFOB is not impossible to attack, just a lot more of a challenge than current player bases tend to be. The OFOB being a war asset means it won't be spammed everywhere, and will tend to be used for places that require an anchor in a larger fight. It still has to be put together by one of more players, and is most vulnerable when being built. The central idea is greater combat efficacy, trading away versatility. The OFOB will have the owning outfit's name on it, along with their logo. It is intended that the OFOB doesn't allow other construction near it. Though this may be a debatable thing.
As with all such idea's, why limit it to Outfits only? Spam isnt a big concern and its not like Randoms cant use something like this. It also doesnt work as an FOB, it just protects itself more than usual and could once again lead to murder hole PMB's that no one wants to fight at (or at least, less than they already do). Building an OS would make it more of an FOB. That said focussing PMB's in general on an FOB design would give it the purpose it is lacking. Logistics (teleporting infantry and vehicles across the map to other PMB's), tactical fire support, powering special effects and generating special items could help them support the main game instead of being this rotting appandage to the game. The same can be said about the Outfit resource system. It doesnt work. PS2'S core gameplay is about large scale combat of many players fighting in one area. The Outfit resource system encourages players to avoid fighting by Zerging, Ghost capping, cheese tactics and griefing. Its the antithesis of the game and destroying the game rather than complementing it. It was tacked on without any regard for the existing gameplay and the game has suffered for it.
It doesn't have to be tied into outfits. I just figured that would be the easiest way to sell it. I was also trying to avoid making it the next Bastion, but I see your point. What if the OFOB permitted you to build a Flail and a Router? Both are strategically useful, I've died to more Flails than Orbital Strikes, personally. And Routers aren't used enough. Perhaps the OFOB Flail could have additional range. If the OFOB Router worked like the namesake from PlanetSide 1 and was a two way teleportation system, that would add risk to using it, but would give the OFOB deployment capability it definitely lacks. I still don't believe an Orbital Strike should be possible from an OFOB, those still need to be fairly easy to take down. I figure Orbitals will be used against OFOBs quite often.
A Router and Flail would be minimum. Add a second router based on the PS1 version that lets you place 2 telepads within 300m of one another for quick movement through a base for example. Add more, a stragetic flail which anyone can access by holding V which opens a radial menu, and lets you fire a series of smoke grenades, a bunch of low-yield (100 damage each) mines, scan bombs that spot enemies near the impact etc. That kind of stuff would make the PMB useful for the main game rather than be its own thing without any incentives to actually engage in it. Then you still have to redesign the PMB itself. Right now its basically designed for a "come on in if you are tough enough" approach, with little means to control the surrounding area and even less incentive to create a fun fight inside the base.
It is difficult to balance something that can't move and must take the hits sent its way. The OFOB concept still allows for stealth infiltrations, light assaults can get around using the infantry access, and of course Prowlers can just DPS down the towers and walls like now, though it might take awhile, even for them. The main weakness, which I didn't really expand on is the way the refueling system is exposed to the enemy forces outside the walls. The most definitive way to kill an OFOB is to siege it and let it starve. Incidentally, that is how a lot of bases in PlanetSide 1 were captured. Perhaps if an OFOB is placed near enough to an outside capture point, that point can't be flipped as long as the OFOB is operational? At least then an enemy wouldn't be able to just ignore one. The size of the concept might be too cramped for real fights, but I'm leery of making it directly compete with traditional player bases too much. Perhaps air and ground vehicles spawns that keep the terminals inside, so infiltrators cant just flip it without getting inside. It is important not to make these bases the new Hives, and I don't want it to be used to make Orbital Strikes even more common, but they still need to matter. So maybe when they are in a region, they affect it? Like if you deploy one in a friendly region, it allows for cheaper Vehicle spawns at the local base or adds 50% to the capture timers, or maybe even adds a Citadel Shield over the Base that lasts until the OFOB is inoperable, from being destroyed, out of fuel, or just sabotaged. And adding an OFOB to a region that has an enemy OFOB, could create an Alert that the involved empires have to kill the other one to win the region. Meaning the base flips to the last one standing. No more than one OFOB per empire per region, and there would be a timer between OFOBs in each region. There are a number of ways this could work.
One problem with the current design is that players are encouraged to build a sealed environment and getting over any wall is basically jumping over a chokepoint. That is why walls got health, so it becomes possible to fight bases without them being murder holes no one wants to fight at. That change wasnt enough since until the walls go down its still a murder hole and when you destroy it why stop there? Instead they should add regular buildings from normal bases to place down. These would be invulnerable but have doorways, windows and cant be placed too close to one another to seal off the base. That allows enemies to enter, and any walls you place are just temporary stopgaps to support the base defenses. The building template would be semi-randomly picked for you to prevent players from always placing the same specific building piece(s). Making a PMB useful to the main game so players want to attack and defend it is good, but needs to be done carefully so we dont have glitched murder hole bases like the old HIVES again. One thing they need to do is QOL: you need to be able to spawn there as fast as with other spawn options and you need to be able to see what the PMB offers and how intact they are.. Having it power a Citadel shield or similar would definitely help, although I wouldnt want it to completely shut out players. I would look to things that would be useful but not vital: block the Sunderer Garage from enemy Sunderers so they have to deploy farther away or attack the PMB, create a Skywall or whatever its called over a nearby base to partially protect vital area's from air attack or Galdrops. Provide fire support in the area etc.
Well a Citadel Shield doesn't block players or even vehicles, so that won't be an issue. The main benefit is that it stops vehicles from controlling the base. A Large Skywall is an option too, but that one might invalidate too many underused tactics. Gal Drops shouldn't be made rarer than they already are imo.
There were a lot of different proposals. And of all their number, they only added accelerated production of cortium. I think you can no longer offer any improvements in construction. Because I feel indifference on the part of the developers towards the Construction System.
You might be right, there. But if we stop speaking up, then they relax into that idea. Since I can't edit the OP, I'd like to add a follow-up to it here: Change the OP OFOB into POB, Player Outpost Base. Untie it from outfits entirely. But otherwise keep it more or less buildable by a single person as described. Make the initial Cortium cost of placement, 10k. This will add a gate to who can place them, so they aren't just spammed by alts. The 10k would be refunded like it is with the Silo after placement. The new OFOB will be meant for outfits and organized groups to build and utilize: The platform is 9 times larger, being 3x3 when measured by Rampart Walls on each side with room for Weapon Towers between each. So potentially 12 Towers in all. Unlike the OP, which is now the POB, you can only have 4 of each type. So no stacking 12 AA Towers or anything crazy like that. The bigger OFOB would be capable of handling vehicle spawn structures, including a shielded ramp (if shield module is installed) that would align with the Light Vehicle structure, would have four SkyWall module anchors (roughly where the Towers would be if it was a POB and not an OFOB), and would otherwise function much the same. But unlike the POB, the OFOB would allow for installation of a Flail and Glaive. The OFOB would have the same Keep as the POB, the only difference is the SkyWall modules would be outside it and more vulnerable. The OFOB would require 4 people to fully put together. The POB Foundation would still store up to 100k Cortium, and the OFOB Foundation would step that up again to 150k. Refillable or, drainable from the outside. The Anchor side of the OFOB Foundation would have the Cortium Supply access in the middle section, the Vehicle Ramp on the left, and the infantry elevators on the right. This is both intended to keep placement of the Foundation fairly easy as well as to create an innate vulnerability in being able to be 'camped' on one side if the enemy has the capability to do so. To wrap up: I also feel like the defenses should take more effort to take down, and with the changes to the Tower into a Keep, that is more or less done. Double hp with double repair will make defenses pretty formidable, but not invincible like some might suggest. Neither of the Foundations are meant to be placed in locations where the main battle doesn't hit them head on, the idea here was more or less to give solo constructors and outfit group constructors a better framework to build on for a quick and effective battle base that is familiar to friendlies. How useful it ends up being is entirely decided by the placement. I also want to mention that the regional effects of these bases as discussed by previous replies would be via the outfit Base Foundation, not the single player Base Foundation. POBs would have no limits on placement other than the current limitations on Silos. OFOBs would be limited to 3 per empire per continent, and only one per region, regardless of empire. The affects to the base in that region if the OFOB is equipped with the new Strategic Victory Module are a Citadel Shield over that base, with doubled enemy timers, halved friendly timers, and the region itself can't be consider owned (even if it flips to the enemy) while the OFOB and the SVM are intact. So the OFOB can lattice lock the enemy from advancing to the next linked base.
What's the point, outfits don't utilize player made bases as it is today. Give these tools to every player, not the outfit exploiters.
The point is they would utilize these. Either the small one that everyone can build or the larger one that outfits can build. Even if an outfit only did it to secure a territory that they want to keep their flag up in. The revised idea splits from just an outfit base to both an outfit and non outfit base.
The devs have nerfed the turrets and removed the ability to repair base assets with repair sundys, bases get wiped out quick... made taking the time to build them worthless.
That is partly why I think the limits on turrets need to be changed. Let a base specialize the defenses if it wants without requiring a squad of one turret each members. To summarize, an individual should get 4 turret slots which is enough to fully arm the POB, but only partially arm the OFOB. And they can make those turrets into any combination they desire. Repair Sundies are a slippery slope that we already get to see when the Sundy Ball platoons roll through Esamir. So I don't mind that they don't repair bases. But, I also enhanced repair modules via the Keep upgrades.
