I think most people would agree that constructions main problem at the moment is that it is effectively sidelined from the main game. The no-build zones have completely cut construction off and the hive mechanic only exists to make construction bases relevant at all. Change/Remove No Build Zones Looking at how difficult it is to actually place construction objects near other objects to make impassable barriers I think that the no-build zone mechanics should be changed. They should work much like the no-deploy zones for sunderers so they only restrict attackers and let the defenders build anywhere they want on the base. You aren't realistically going to be able to create airtight barriers, at worst it will simply make more work for light assaults. The extra bit I would add to that is that once a base is captured, any structures remaining within the no-build zone automatically switch sides exactly like turrets do. That will create a suitable risk for building extensive fortifications. Get Rid of the Hive Mechanic They should remove the hive mechanic entirely and switch back to territory control. Maybe they could change the hive into an 'AI Core' or something that is needed in order to have AI modules. Let it be hacked and disabled so that all the turrets in the silos control region lose AI control. I just don't like the score mechanics with this, it encourages turtling and lets you win by being defensive. Honestly speaking if people actually paid more attention to construction and defended bases, you could win just by having more hive production. Bases can be so tough at the moment that they require huge numerical advantages to break into. Cortium Requirements The amount of cortium needed to keep powered modules like sky-shields going should be increased. At the moment it's relatively trivial to keep even a really extensive base going. A dozen or so turrets, along with multiple sky shields and all the shield, repair and AI modules to go with that should require pretty regular ant supplies to keep going. That way you will be able to more effectively lay siege to a base and the defenders will have to desperately get more cortium via an ant run. Also take a page out of transport tycoon and make the XP reward for bringing cortium related to the distance between the last node you mined and the silo you deposited at. That will deter people from building single silos next to cortium crystals just for an XP dump and will reward long and dangerous journeys more. Sky Shields Need to be Less Broken I believe the original purpose of sky-shields was to protect the base from air attack. Currently they protect it from vehicle incursion, infantry incursion and air attack. Most of the changes to defend from the first two were made because people could just go straight through and kill the hive rapidly. Remove the hive and this issue dies as well, skyshields can go back to simply blocking weapons fire from the outside, nothing more. Remove the setting infantry on fire mechanic and make it passable to vehicles. AI Should Have More Risks As I mentioned earlier there should be a way of disabling the AI. This would be a good role for infiltrators to fill since one of the genuinely fun things with construction at the moment is killing someones base as a stalker. Getting in and disabling the AI would be a vital role for infiltrators and be much less trolly than the capturing turrets mechanic we have at the moment. The AI turrets are currently a severe threat and along with the skyshields constitutes most of the overpowered defensive ability of the bases. As long as there is a way to bring them down via a backdoor, they can remain powerful. Hacking individual turrets should also be possible, just in case a defender figures out a way to hide an AI module behind a shield (like in an amp station). That will also mean that the defenders cannot just sit and defend a single point to keep all their turrets going. Shield Modules Should Work Like Anti-Vehicle Shields The small shields you get on windows on buildings like the wall and infantry tower should block heavy weaponry only. Small arms should still pass through in exactly the same way as the vehicle shields on bases do at the moment. That way infantry can shoot back without worrying about getting shelled at range by tanks but are equally at risk of getting killed by enemy infantry.
All good points. Another problem is people littering the map with Silos. A friendly abandoned Silo prevents you from using a potentially great spot for building. It takes a long time for a Silo to go away.
I think that defenders and attackers should have limited building capabilities within bases, but still be restricted. Both because of the framerates that will probably drop when you build within a base and because of the problems you can create. For instance, imagine someone placing a Rampart wall in such a way that it clips through a tunnel, you could easily block access to gravlifts, completely prevent access to base area's by foxing yourself in and placing a single repair module which now makes the walls invulnerable. We are already seeing how that affects the game with players finding holes in the ground where they place the HIVE, Silo and repair module underground and then close the entrance with a Rampart wall, essentially making it invulnerable. So I would extremely limit the placement of walls within bases, especially prevention methods to prevent walls clipping into buildings or being placeable on top of balconies etc. Otherwise I would heavily reduce the size of the no-build zone (NBZ from now on). This allows constructions to be placed much closer to bases and have an actual effect. I would also add NBZ generators. These will only affect the attackers and not the defenders. These generators would be targets for vehicles and infantry to destroy with firepower (rather than the boring overloading). Once destroyed a part of the NBZ opens up and allows the attackers to build protections for their staging area's. This adds secondary objectives to destroy or defend to the game, and can have a large impact. Especially if you add a mechanic where if an NBZ generator goes back online, all enemy constructions still in the area start taking DOT. I would change Hives to create a victory-point vehicle. Once created, the vehicle has to be driven to your own warpgate before you get the point. Enemies can track it down and destroy it. This forces turtlers to keep an entrance/exit in their base and also allows players to combat turtlers by simply patrolling the surrounding area's. It also prevents unfair methods such as the Hive's underground to be a problem. This encourages the control of the surrounding area, and could even cause players to build support bases on the route to the warpgate to offer protection to the victory vehicle. Not sure, I think the cortium requirements are pretty OK. It doesn't force you out instantly and allows you to survive a good siege without being starved and broken within 15 minutes of the siege starting. And considering the time and effort you put into building a fortress it should take a while to break one as well. Although I would like to see some more weaknesses added to it, such as being able to deactivate the wall's auto-repair and invulnerability by accessing the panel at the inside or allowing you to deal more damage to it at certain points. The Skyshields were designed to protect against air bombardments but had special attention to deal with Galaxy drops, which was the (justified) fear of being OP against fortresses if you could just drop in right on top of the HIVE/Silo and blow it up. I would change the shields. Against enemy infantry it can simply EMP them, this leaves them with half health and vulnerable, explosives like C4 are destroyed upon entering and any LA "smart" enough to hover around before dropping through the shield would be without fuel+shield and likely drop to his death. Players dropping from Galaxies also lose their shield and ability energy, again leaving them vulnerable. Aircraft already have a special hitbox that allows Flak to detonate on them, so these shields could just use something like that to deal damage to aircraft. This leaves ground vehicles free to move through a shield unscathed and unhindered as they should. I would also add more ways to disable the Skyshield. For instance allow it to block a large amount of damage, then the shield disables for 5 to 10 seconds (depending on how much DPS we want each ground vehicle to throw at it in case the shield is low) before it goes back up again and starts regenerating health rapidly. This allows aircraft to have an effect on a shielded base, rather than being forced to fly around it until the Skyshield collapses, at which point most bases are simply overrun. I would increase the range and decrease the accuracy of the turrets. Make sure the turrets are far more valuable when player-controlled, and perhaps let the AI module help identify and locate targets for the player while he's in a turret. Sounds good.
I doubt FPS will be effected, any more than building elsewhere. The construction objects are mostly single meshes without any animations, they're not going to be much more costly to render than any other object in the scene. This has been demonstrated by when the devs did performance tests on the test server and spawned in hundreds of objects. The invulnerability aspect was primarily there to deal with prowlers, other tanks and sources of AV to a lesser degree. The easiest way to ensure that you can't make impassable barriers around important doors to capture points is simply to change the invulnerability so that certain types of explosive (C4, Mines) aren't effected, problem solved. Infantry can then simply move forward and blow the walls themselves. You will run into the same problem as hives already have, no one will care. Platoons won't wait outside a base for a vehicle to pop out, especially when it is likely to be far behind enemy lines. We need to get the bases involved in the larger meta. Just go back to my point, if there is no hive (i.e. single targettable object that will obliterate the entire base instantly) then it doesn't actually matter if people drop through the shields or aircraft come through them, they will do their job which is to protect the guys on the ground from long range aerial bombardment. I agree objects like C4 and mines should not go through though. If you want to disable it, give the job to infiltrators. If we give them enough things to do maybe we can get rid of the endlessly rehealing and capturable turrets that you can troll with so easily as a stalker. Most of the turrets already are more valuable when controlled by players, the exception is the anti infantry turret. I think at most all you need to do is make it track players slower. The accuracy of the turret is actually fine, it just is too responsive.
This is what is needed now. Not taking into account the improvements to some structures in terms of survivability and module slots.
Yes you correct. Only a few bases have been acceptable, no build zone. Adjust NBZ on most bases to be like pommel gardens, wokuk eco, or west pass watchtower. Allowing you to place building right next to sundy deployment hotspots!. that will give construction more purpose than it being focused for orbital strikes, router and cheaper air.
