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Capturing Bases

The most basic element of strategy in Planeteside is the fine art of capturing bases. Though the mechanics of a base capture are simple, there's a lot of different ways you can do it.

The Goal: Hack the CC

When you are attacking a base the ultimate goal will be to hack the Control Console of the facility and secure the control console. You must keep control of the CC until either the 15 minute capture timer runs, or in the case of an LLU base, the LLU is delivered.

It takes 20 seconds for an advanced hacker to control a CC, so you must be sure that the CC is never insecure for more than 20 seconds. Furthermore, when you are attempting to stop an enemy from taking your base, remember that once it gets down to that 20 second mark, they will get the base, so it's time to change from defense to offense at that base.

Securing the hack

Ultimately, control of a base comes down to controlling spawn points. If you can spawn at a base and the enemy cannot, you will win most of the time. It is possible for well coordinated forces to retake a CC without having a nearby spawn point but it is far more difficult to do so.

There are three types of spawn points to consider in this situation:

  1. AMS
  2. Towers
  3. Base spawn tubes

Base Spawn Tubes

Generally speaking, the closer a spawn is to the CC, the more dangerous it is going to be for you. The base spawns, being inside the base, are obviously the greatest threat to a successful base capture.

To shut down the base spawns you can either destroy the individual tubes or destroy the generator. A tube can be destroyed with one boomer, three decimators, or a number of other combinations of weapons. Armor piercing and AV weapons are going to be best suited to destroying tubes.

The tubes, though easily destroyed, are also easily repaired. An engineer need only repair one tube half way to permit forces to spawn at the base. So another tactic is to destroy the generator.

A destroyed generator is more difficult to recover from because it not only shuts down the spawn but also all equipment terminals. It also takes more effort to repair a damaged generator. The side-effect of taking down a gen though is that, as the attacker, you also lose the ability to make use of the equipment terminals at the base.

Destroying generators should usually be avoided except as a last resort. You should never destroy the generator of a base that is your first link into a continent. This will leave you with no ability to spawn vehicles on the continent.

Towers

Towers, though usually a good distance from the base, are dangerous because of two factors:

  1. MAX units can be obtained at them
  2. Towers are indestructible

AMS's

Though AMS's can be destroyed, unlike a tower, it requires that somebody be able to get outdoors with the proper gear to do it. In a heated battle with many enemies spawning close to the base, this may not be possible.