Planet-side Conflict Zones

[Essential NPC]

Conflict Zones- you love them, I love them, and the sub-missions added in previous updates are fantastic additions to combat.
I would like to see some spicy new additions to conflict zones and I will outline them thusly:

• Unique Areas
  • The game has terrific unique areas that already exist- like the different types of installations, ice rings, and of course planet-side outposts and such. These are fun locales that are very beautiful and have very little to do at them. It would also make sense to have conflict zones over places like military installations, and especially planet-side territories that produce resources.
• New Combat Vehicle
  • With planet-side warfare there comes an opportunity for a different type of warfare, and thus a different vehicle to aid in such warfare. I propose a support vehicle like a Core Dynamics tank- more heavily armored than an SRV, vastly slower, and with only one cargo slot to make it ineffective at exploration but usable for certain other in-game interactions. I suggest equipping the AAV (Armored attack vehicle) with a size 2 plasma accelerator or rail gun to make primary shots difficult, but satisfyingly effective to land, and a size 1 seeker missile rack as a secondary weapon to make the AAV feel like an effective weapon against unshielded enemies. Maybe equip a point-defense system as well so they're not immediate pushovers for seeker missiles and are more effective in an anti-air role.
• New Tactics
  • With these new locales and vehicles added, it won't just look better and be funner, but the potential to add tactics to big battles will open up fun opportunities that we see elsewhere in the game, for example:
    • Do you want to fly directly into the battle above, or do you want to land outside the battle and deploy your AAV to make your way to the installation, sniping off enemy tanks with your rail gun and moving in close to disable the gates and get inside to deactivate turrets while allies protect you from above?
    • Do you want to fly down close to the battle, go down into your role panel and select the RAPID-DEPLOY AAV option to hot drop your crew mate from 500m above the ground at 100mps so they can drop into the action and provide immediate ground support?
    • Maybe high-priority targets get launched from the base at a certain point of losing a battle and can be killed for a big payout for preventing their escape?
    • Maybe the main base is protected by a shield generator located a few kilometers away, and destroying the shield generator leaves the main base susceptible to actual destruction or capture?
    • Maybe the attacking team has a capital ship assisting them to even the odds! Maybe the base has a capital ship assisting them making the battle look incredibly difficult?

I know Frontier focuses on many aspects of the game, but I LOVE combat and I think there is so much more potential to grow in really fun and simple ways like this. I'm looking for Star-Wars level battles, and I think we can get there with just some intentional location picking, some set dressing, and some minor tweaks and additions. I'm sure the main limitation is the number of moving parts all at once, but if Frontier can pull it off, this will put it light years ahead of its competitors. Heck, even canyons that are just fun to fly through would make amazing locations for CZ's.

 

[starman]

Why can't we all just get along.
When is coasters being added to ED and an Alien zoo.

 

[CMDR Yates]

Yeah. Definitely. Planet surfaces are criminally underused at the moment.

I would love to see new SRVs invovled in surface combat zones, but I'd happily accept just ships fighting over installations and such. The gravity and terrain add a whole differed dimension to combat that is rarely explored at the moment.

 

[Daynen]

Trench run. That is all.

You're welcome.

 

[Bloodsign]

I'd love to see some heavy orbital bombardments during base assault type missions.

More is better than less!

 

[starman]

Is that cmdrs still stranded on the surface? Why can't they be physically rescued?

 

[Bigmaec]

That's actually some very good ideas

(albeit watching some of those ganking videos over Farseer made my stomach revolt )

 

[Jaylem]

I have suggested the same thing, installations, asteroid belts, and of course planet side combat would elevate combat ten fold...sadly is STILL not a thing. which is a shame.

 

[Kissamies]

Good ideas. I especially like rapid deploying the vehichle Mass Effect style. I'll opportunistically go on a little tangent and copy-paste my surface vehicle ideas here:

• SCV: Heavy, tracked and uparmed.
• STV: Also heavy and possibly tracked, has more cargo space.
• A Guardian hybrid one that is equivalent to regular SRV in function, but hovers.

I think the heavy variants should take 2 vehicle bay slots therefore requiring at least class 4 vehicle bay.

J. States mentioned orbital bombardments. Sounds like something only capital ships could do, but that sounds like a good idea for new missions. There is a capital, or megaship in orbit, shooting gigantic plasma balls at ground installations and you have to drive it away/disable the bombardment weapon, or go near the surface site and spot targets for it. Imagine the visuals!