From what I've experienced, towers are the most difficult structures to successfully defend from coordinated attacks. I thought it might change after beta with more people playing, but it evidently has not, so I post this now in the hopes that something might. The only towers that are easily defended... there are none. It's always the terrain that makes the location defensible (such as at the Crown); the tower could have been replaced by any other structure in such locations and it would have been just as defensible if not more so. There are a number of reasons why towers are incredibly difficult to defend / easy to attack: The ground level's stairways are the only two locations that can be defended; from the top or with a jetpack, anyone can gain easy entry and wreck havoc in the base, especially on the middle floor where the building itself obscures enemies that have gained entry from defenders that are running around rather aimlessly and neglect to watch their backs. The solo players continuously circle the towers in search of enemies in open areas (even when there are none) and neglect to prevent entry from the bottom floor. It's dizzying to even watch them from the minimap or map, continuously running laps around the tower, only to be picked off without having accomplishing anything. There is no real cover for infantry in the towers; tanks can shell and deal splash damage to anyone near a wall, snipers can pick off anyone not crouched behind protective railing (which doesn't always help since some locations have nearby terrain that rises far above the top floor, leaving anyone outside the core exposed. And it is possible to shoot through the gaps to damage and kill targets), and attackers that have moved into closer ranges have an easier time navigating the tower from the outskirts since defenders tend to clump closer together inside the tower (as they try to avoid tank shells and sniper fire). If by chance liberators are present, nearly the entire top floor can be kept clear. Should players spawn and move to the top floor, they can be shelled the moment they move out from the center or shot at by anything/anyone else that can manage. In such a scenario, the only way to return to combat without having to risk getting bombed first (and not redeploying) would be to use the tubes that teleport to the bottom floor--right into the fray with what may be the bulk of the attackers' infantry force. Turrets are weak, easily destroyed, not automated (thereby requiring a player for any activation, and even then being mediocre), and take a long time to repair: it's just easy exp for the attackers. Towers are truly a nightmare for defenders against any reasonable combined-arms attack force. The only times I've seen people lose are when they brought only one sunderer.. and the driver decided he'd like to park it below the tower before their team had established full control of the ground level. I'm not sure what could ease this situation; because of the aforementioned reasons, even having more people doesn't help (I think it gets more difficult the more crowded it is because of friendly fire). I doubt any single solution would remedy this problem. Any ideas?
The ability of light assault to hop up is what has changed tower defense since PSide1. In PS1 only VS MAXes could jumpjet, but needed some guy with a mossie to REK the door. They could hang out outside the first tier of a watchtower and wait for someone to open the door for them, but that was relatively unreliable. The layouts are way more open than PS1. A PS1 tower was just a staircase, and the weapons to defend them were perfect for the job. Thumpers, full-fire rocklets, a Lasher, a Jackhammer or a ADADAD MCG'er. The present garage layout has two staircases that have to be held, and each staircase has three flights. Both then go into a center area, which has two staircases up to the equipment room floor and holds the CC. The respawn requires us to pass through a forcefield, and sometimes you get stuck up there and it's hard to pile down as quickly as the enemy can pile up. You drop into a little box, and they can just hang out outside and grenade or shotgun you or LMG you. It's not defensible once your bottleneck is rate-of-exit-of-spawn-box.
The 2nd or "main" floor directly under turrets where the capture point resides has no reason to have outside access and should be walled off.
I'd much rather defend a tower than some of these open outposts with absolutely nothing going for them.
