What's the silence around dome shields?

I think the community is overseeing a coming major update to the current metagame, namely dome shields. Just recently watched some Friday Night Ops (not sure but I recall it was ep.33) and came to the conclusion that certain base's airplay will change entirely (just to be clear the domes are freely passable and block fire from both sides)

It leads to...
... no more spawnroom-camping AA maxes, as they have to get to the perimeter of the dome which actually even so blocks their effective LOS up to 30%, or wait aircraft to come MUCH closer
... no more (or at least less) spawnroom-farming Libs and ESF, or more certs invested in vertical frame to do 'dives' into the dome, and 'hops' out of it to escape lock ons
... more Gal drops, as they become easier to do for reasons mentioned in first line
... safer dogfights above the dome
... a 'sweet spot' just above the center of the dome, which can't be (or can hardly be) shot from the ground, depending on the dome's curve, perimeter terrain and base layout (high terrain, slopes off hills, nearby structures, etc)

Just a few things that came through my mind solely from air perspective, but it will affect vechicular and infantry play as well. Maybe fight zones pushed or new ones created at the very edge of the shield, abusing it by jumping/(t)rolling in and out?

Let's do some theorycrafting guys, it really is an interesting addition imho!

It's a really nice concept ,but what if the other zerg losses inside the Dome and just camps outside ,you know , 40 tanks , impassible shields, just on hold. and Lib 'farming' is mostly 'support fire' :<

Its stupid for a combined arms game and totally goes against the Esamir concept of being an open continent where you have very little cover too.

And you want to know what will go on inside those domes. Find a bio-lab fight today and you'll get more of the same.

The idea is sound, and I think overall it will be a good idea.

However?

I expect that, SOE being SOE, they will take their "new toy" and overuse it to the extreme. Every place there could imaginably be one, there will be. Bad idea as it does wipe out combined arms in those areas and vehicles are relegated to moving targets on open ground while infantry have great cover and a plethora of AV weapons to soak up certs with.

If they use them for flavor at SOME bases/outposts and not all? It will be a good thing. If they go overboard? Bad thing.

I would also argue there needs to be a generator to disable the shield. This game is starting to lack in victory conditions beyond hurry up and wait, which is a terrible mechanic (*cough* getting rid of SCU gens *cough).

They do need a shield generator for these dome shields, put it where the SCU generator used to be so that the defenders have to at least lose control of the main building for the dome to go down.

I hate the idea of these things. Not only do they look extremely tacky, but they solve a non-existent problem. Yes, getting killed by a liberator bombing run is annoying, but it is a valid tactic that is being destroyed for no real reason. With all the AA possibilities infantry have Liberators are hardly a threat anymore, and barely anyone pulls them.

Then again, I haven't been killed by a liberator in quite a while so maybe I just need to sit outside directly under one and wave my arms at it, Maybe then I'd understand why these are being added.

Thats when the defending force leaves a 'skeleton crew' behind, spawn-jumps to the next chain in line, and attacks behind the 'blockade', forcing them to pull back.

Though to be fair. I'd much rather have INDOOR bases... ala PS1's base design, but on the 'grand-scale' that we have with PS2. Think Bio-lab.. but not as 'compact'. Large interior rooms which you can fight threw to get from one end of the 'fully enclosed base' to the other. A few (but not alot) hallways to move threw or defend. Maybe a stairway/grav-lift or three. You know.. a 'base'. Not a modular block created temporary structure the size of a small moon that can be easily navigated by vehicles leaving Infantry nowhere to really 'fight'.

Hopefully the silence has something to do with them rethinking the idea.
It is a failed concept and should be forgotten about.

Functionally speaking, the new Esamir outposts are "indoor" facilities with a chance of rocket showers.

Don't confuse form for function. Just because it has grass/sand/snow for a floor doesn't mean vehicles must have access to the area. Though SOE probably could easily carve out an indoor facility by placing the shacks together at the doors and carving away at the ground where necessary, the "surface pen" approach just allows for more open ground to engage infantry over and doesn't render the LA useless.

Dome shields bad, Walls bad.

2-3 MBTs and/or aircraft during base assault = manageable


A bandaid for vehicle spam.
There, I said it.

didnt mean i wanted 'every' base to be a cave =), but wouldnt mind seeing somethig like the bio-lab.. but on a 'larger' and more 'bunkerish' scale. =)

Domes are a bandaid. If we simply had more cover and caves then aircraft wouldnt have to be nerfed. Maxes should have never been allowed to fire bursters from spawn.

I don't understand the problem. If you don't have any anti air you deserve to be farmed by Libs, plain and simple, it only takes two to three burster maxes to completely shut down air for several hexes. Hell I can't even remember the last time a Liberator killed me, and when I go up in one I can never get more than a handful of kills before getting totally annihilated by anti-air.

I think a big thing that it provides that you might be overlooking is how much less AA their will be. A2A battles will be more abundant and I think that it's a win/win for infantry and air alike. As for libs I don't know how it is going to affect them I can only assume that certing into a Dalton is going to be the main choice as infantry farming will go down.

Spawns should never have been an outhouse exposed to vehicle fire and 100% cut off from the very things you're trying to protect in the first place. They should have been 'within' the bases away from vehicle fire, and only, ONLY vulnerable to infantry.

THAT is the core of ALL of the 'vehicle-farming' crap, and your own personal "Bursters shouldn't be allowed to fire from spawns" . Hell if they couldn't fire from the outhouse, you flyboys would just sit there happily farming infantry and MAX's that tried to exit it with absolutely 0 danger to yourself as you did before they 'remodeled' them. But then.. thats what most flyboys want, a return to the 0-danger farming with rocket pods.

Again, the main problem is not 'this is overpowered' or 'that is overpowered'. The main problem is, and has always been, the base design. Starting with the spawn-outhouses. The game is great, it looks great, it plays great. But they fell flat when it comes to base design. Vehicles should NEVER have ruled 'courtyards' as easily as they do. Vehicles should NEVER have been the 'thing that takes basses'. The design of the bases should have made it were Vehicles were what got you 'to' the base, but you NEEDED infantry to TAKE that base.

They have 'never' had this anywhere but at the bio-farms. And those are too enclosed, and too compact to really call it 'working'. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you took what was 'inside' the bio-farms dome, and planted it on top of say.. a PS1 Tech Center.. and find out the Tech Center from PS1 actually has a bigger 'foot-print' (i.e. size)

Your right, Domes are a band-aid, and unfortunately, until we get 'actual' bases, instead of pre-fab block, temporary-looking, towns to defend. They are the best thing we'll have.

It depends on the situation. If you 'inside' the spawn area... or even in the general vicinity when a liberator shows up and gets into position. You have 0 time to exit the spawn house, look around, target it, then begin firing, before he's already killed you. Even if 10 AA maxes exited the spawn room at the same time, they would all be clumped up, all getting hit by the AE, and all die, before the Lib even takes 1/4 damage.

Attacking a place 'already' covered in bursters, yea, thats a bit rough, but thats what ground troops are for, to clear them out for you. But again, if you are already overhead... and higher than 100m. Your pretty much untouchable to anyone that spawn 'at' that place.

Unfortunately it usually turns out to be 20-30 MBT/Aircraft/Harassers........ and like 3 infantry.

And wft is up with the forums always making my posts suddenly become size 1 or 2 font?

The way I see it, these shields are just a bandaid for poorly organized infantry, and against very dedicated pilots.

Truthfully, I never have a problem with air spam, even on spawn rooms, unless my enemies have already secured the ground. I know there will be a mention of Libs and lolpods from ESFs, but by planning ahead, I almost always drive them off (with my squad of course). True, one could argue that when enemy air shows up and your team goes into the spawn to grab AA maxes and the like, that when you exit you get spammed by Libs and ESFs. My rebuttal to that is, why didn't you have dedicated AA set up before that? Think of it this way, as infantry, if an enemy player flanks you when you are not prepared, and you die, its fair because they caught you off guard and flanked you right? Same thing for air, they catch you off guard with no dedicated AA and kill you, its almost like a flank against ground units. So on that first point about poorly organized infantry, I can safely say I have almost never had a problem against aircraft unless we are totally outnumbered...or for the following point. (This is by experience of course, so take what I say with a grain of salt)

It is an action against dedicated pilots. With all my organization and tactics, there is really only one air threat to me and my squad. I'm talking about those crazy good pilots who always shoot you down, who always pick you off when you least expect it, whose lolpods seem to be attracted to your very face. On mattherson where I play, the only real air threat to my squad are guys like SMG and QRY (btw, kudos for them for being crazy good in the air). And...I won't lie...when they get the upper hand I get quite frustrated due to the lolpods and how it seems I can't even fight back. But on the other hand, it is usually cause I'm outnumbered, wasn't ready for them, or just cause they are plain better in the air that I am on the ground. It makes sense...they ARE in a vehicle versus just my infantry. Check for yourself the next time you seem to get lolpodded alot, or the next time you take a rotary to your face...you'll probably notice the same names over and over again. The problem people have with air doesn't stem from a bunch of inexperienced pilots being spammed (I mean cmon...they usually just crash into each other anyway, or just plain can't aim or dodge). What people are really getting upset with are the skilled pilots that constantly kill them somewhat repeatedly. And, in my opinion, there is no way to fix good pilots killing you. You can't nerf a good player just cause they are good at what they are doing.

On the shields, they look tacky and they restrict the whole idea of combined arms. Now, I would love an infantry only area, but only a couple. Not at EVERY amp station and tech plant, that is what the AA is there for. There is no reason for AA AND a shield against ESFs that in order to attack the ground units, they have to get so close a freaking decimator could catch them on a whim. On another note, this destroys being able to take the high ground against a base, sure they might let you use special bullets or figure something out. But I doubt they will do a good job, just a hunch. And somewhere I think I read they might block squad deploy pods. That is just plain ridiculous. The whole point of the squad beacon is a forward deploy point into a dangerous area that sundies can't get in to. Sure I get annoyed by drop pods as much as anyone, but what is the point of a squad deploy beacon that can't deploy your infantry closer than the sundy parked outside the base? It is just nonsense. Air was NOT that so large of a threat that they needed to block them out of every large base fight. The only good thing I see out of all this would be that maybe fighters wouldn't be subject to the ridiculous amount of striker spam. (Or if you don't want to be biased, any AA lock on rockets) Truth be told, this shield idea is caused by the same cancer that causes so many other bad changes. Bad players. If players would think again, and just have just a little dedicated AA, air is never a problem. There is no reason to Easy Mode an entire base just so they don't have to worry about air.

Prepare for my Rant good sir!

Raaage engage. When this game launched people whined and *****ed because air was powerfull. In my humble opinion air should be powerfull but the ground forces should have good bases which cannot be cleaned out by air forces. Infantry should be needed to hold bases and take bases, then air power superiority and ground forces should be needed to move between bases. This shield goes towards actually splitting the battle appart so infantry will be NEEDED. Now the interesting thing to see is if some of the supporting vehicles such as tanks / liberators are going to get some of their previous damage nerfs undone.

Combined arms isn't everyone fighting together everywhere. Some fights are combined, and some are separated; but all matter. What is with people thinking the only "real" form of combined arms is a big open field with infantry tanks and air all obliterating eachother? You realize mechanized infantry dismount from their vehicles to fight in MOUT right?

Time to invest heavily into those galaxy bulldogs.

Additionally, sniping will apparently have absolutely no role in the game anymore. Apparently the most important people in the game to appease are skilled pilots that complain endlessly about AA spam. Be careful what you wish for, though.