The flops of Defense and base design so far, with solutions

Good luck in your endeavors. I'm sorry that you have so much stacked against you as to make them impossible.

Lulz at the people "Just spawn in another base and counter-attack" logic.

What the frig use are bases in that case then? SOE may as well remove them if the only choice is to run away every time an enemy attacks.

Planetside 2: Run like a b*tch and like it!

Keep hitting your head against a wall.

No, ideally I would like the spawn room to actually be part of the base, and not a separate little hut that can be camped by vehicles at the start of an assault. It would still be campable by infantry, but at least then defense would have a chance.

Your inability to acknowledge the zergs does not mean they do not exist, and your point about communication is meaningless when it comes to a zerg, because they are the non-communicating masses. I would also hope that a base would be an advantageous position to defend from, but as you say it, it is better to just run away when the attackers get into the base and do a counter-attack. You see, poor base design is the root cause of this, and the way spawns can be camped by vehicles to prevent the defenders access to the rest of the base is the reason why it becomes a spawn camp.

Here you are just repeating yourself, don't defend from bases, defend from advantageous locations. Don't defend when the enemy gets into the base, you have already lost, do a counter attack. I agree with all your points, I just reach a different conclusion then you. Counter attacks are better then defending further because defending from a base grants no advantage to the defenders, additionally don't base your defense around bases, start an engagement before them, because the base gives no advantage. It all comes back to poor base design and nothing for Engineers or other classes to actively do to improve the bases defenses.

We don't have it.

Stuff like unit icons disappearing from the global map past a certain distance doesn't help.
How often did we move a entire platoon to a base only to realize it was already camped by 300 dudes ?

It's really annoying to send dudes all around the map for sitreps to a compensate for a missing UI feature

We need faction chat at least, you're right.

Perhaps we should be yelling for that instead of spawnfortresses.

Yeah setup a Sunderer on higher terrain out of LOS of attacking forces but in a flanking position.......OOPS the sunderer was just hit by 3 Liberators.



PS1 cloaked AMS, PS1 mines, PS1 spitfires and PS1 motion detectors; only thing that will get players defending.

bumping for visibility.

bumping for invisibility

hacking and stairs, both need immediate relevancy to this game for it to flourish and evolve correctly/benignly. Great OP [original post, in this case].

bump so developers have a clue.

bump for visibility,

Shut up, it's a great post. I agree with pretty much every single thing you stated.
It's like game devs suffer from the same problem hollywood suffers from.
They have no logical thinking in terms of military defence and attack.
They can just think in terms of Super Mario. Gamey concepts. That do not suit a military game.

I almost wish they employed an actual officer or general to provide feedback on the base designs, attack routes and defensive establishments..
I sure know they need it, if a willy-nilly random person on the internet can come up with a better more logical militarily viable defensive base than an official SOE employee that has it as their official job to work on games all day long.
Great job, doing what you love. But god, please try to actually research how defence and attack strategies work in military installations.


I mean, it would be interesting to know. Did they do any research what so ever before designing these bases and outposts?
I know researching medieval castles might sound off, but when even they were more defendable, hunks of rock and mortar, than futuristic metal bases with forceshields.... Then something is seriously wrong.

It reminds me of a behind-the-scenes of Lord of The Rings, about Helms Deep.
In the initial draft of the Helms Deep main gate scene, the prop artists built the gate as a real gate would have been built. They had solid wood logs and designed a real lock system that would have been used in medieval times.
Then they went ahead and built the orcish battering ram, in full scale, full weight. Metal tip. This thing was like a real battering ram, only bigger.

Know what happened? Nothing. They could not break down the gate no matter what they tried, it was simply too strong. Built with wood, old techniques, nothing fancy, no technology.
They had to weaken it intentionally for the gate to break in the movie.

There's a few bases and outposts i'd like to go over in this fashion.

Bump because SOE dont have a clue... also ESPORT is completly dumb, especialy for this game.

Awesome.


But they did not have cannonballs in the movie.
A military advisor would be pointless since even trees are indestructible in this game. Nor a medieval warfare specialist since we have bullets, jetpacks and airplanes.


Wolf:ET and its sequel should be a big source of inspiration, they had by far one of the best map designs, coupled with class based gameplay, even more so than BF2/142

SOE did the exact same thing that the movie makers did in that they deliberately made the defenses easier to overcome to make the game more "accessible" for players. There is such a thing as going to far in the other direction but I think it would take a complete ground up overhaul of bases to get anywhere close to that level. The bases are easy mode to attackers right now with few exceptions, all most of us want is for them to be made a little more difficult for attacking forces to get though especially if all they bring is planes and tanks.

People Zerg (organized unit or not) because it's easy. People don't defend because it's difficult and frustrating. Both of those are true because of base design. If SOE wanted to promote a more balanced play style they would improve base defenses (especially from vehicles) some degree and give defenders a opportunity to take advantage of those defense XP bonuses instead of being overwhelmed almost instantly.

I have to contradict! Influence is still inside the game - not as strong as it once was but this chance came
for some good reason. With the old beta influence you defended a base by not being there!

I like the new capture mechanic, did i say like, well its not that worse then that before.


Satellites are truly a problem. Also the tech- and ampfacility need some chances.
But i think the biodomes are fine, small but nicely designed.

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bump for an awesome post i never saw before today. so it must need more bumping.