Necessary: Real Assets

Another one of the real benefits of true tactical gameplay concerns friendly and enemy military assets. In many games these assets are static, repairable, not to mention easily recognizable and located. This hurts tactical gameplay in a number of ways, we'd like to see real assets, but we'd also like to see more variety in regards to them.



Hidden - So we set up our fancy-schmansy Base/HQ complete with anti-aircraft and mortar batteries, radar towers and communication arrays. If an attacking force descends and is able to easily look over their tac-map and see exactly what assets we have available and where they are--it'll be a little disappointing. The Beauty of EVE is that it provides options in regards to how we want to do things. While there will be one cost for a standard AA Battery, what about what one that is hidden, mobile or even a submerged one that only rises to the surface when about to fire. That way, a little guess-work is involved and destroying some assets may require either a pinpoint grid location or a laser designator courtesy of an discreet and resourceful mercenary behind enemy lines.

Consequences - Too many games implement assets as an afterthought. For a very long time there haven't been disadvantages to losing them, simply bonus points for taking them down. We hope CCP changes this, taking down a communications array or an ammunition depot is devastating, hopefully we're rewarded with that result in a tactical shooter with the depth of Dust 514.

Benefits - While losing assets can be crippling, having the full use of them is certainly advantageous. For instance, if we spend our hard-earned ISK on a radar tower and are fortunate enough to keep it upright during an attack, the real-time information it provides to us should be critical in providing us the location of enemy forces.

Intangibles - We wonder, if a corp didn't have its ISK stored at one of the popular banks, and instead had a vault at their HQ and you broke in, could you steal it? If you had an operative sneak into an enemy base or a double-agent in their ranks, could they deactivate assets rather than destroy them? Can soldiers or vehicles be outfitted with stealth technology to avoid some manners of detection? What about mainframes? We all know how important information is, if your forces took over a facility before it could be self-destructed (a potential perk, maybe?) would you be privy to the data that a corp had stored within?  Can you hack a communications array and listen to enemy transmissions? We realize some of these things may NEVER be offered in DUST gameplay, we're only speculating since we're still unclear how much depth the developers intend to give us.

Well that's our two cents for now, be sure to chime in via the comments with any ideas that you may have. We're all in this together.