Battle Station

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The Battle Station Core

The Battle Station is a playfield providing team-based Player versus Player content in the game. The main objective of the Battle Station is to gain more points than the players of the opposite team. Points are gained through the capture of the four control points - one in the center and one at each tip of the playfield. Capturing and holding more control points gives more points over time with the round ending when a specified amount of time expires, or when one team reaches 500 points.


How it Works[edit]

Preparation[edit]

Any players of level 10 that and up have left Arete Landing can take part, including Froobs. It is a good idea to pickup Daily Missions that require participating in Battle Station matches to earn bonus XP and side mission tokens in Battle Station matches. There is one that is available daily from a bar in Borealis, and another one is offered daily for a week every 6 weeks by Arbiter Vincenzo Palmiero in ICC HQ. Then make your way to one of the following transport locations.

Transport Locations[edit]

Battle signup is located in the lobby of Unicorn Defense Hub which is accessible from the following locations:

  • Grid ground floor.
  • Borealis (Main gate). Coordinates:(685,506)
  • Borealis (Rear gate). Coordinates:(599,687)
  • Newland (Near Whompahs). Coordinates:(397,305)
  • Newland (Near front gate). Coordinates:(247,292)
  • Outside Newland. Coordinates:(1133,546)
  • Outside Newland. Coordinates:(1137,517)
  • ICC. Coordinates:(3254,904)
  • Unicorn Landing pad. Coordinates:(3443,1235)
  • Unicorn Landing pad. Coordinates:(3437,1235)

Signup[edit]

Once inside the lobby area of the Unicorn Defense Hub, players will find signup consoles for different level ranges, the following being available:

  • 10-30
  • 31-60
  • 61-100
  • 101-150
  • 151-200
  • 201-214
  • 215-220

Interacting with the console within your level range will offer you a dialog, allowing to pick either blue or red team. Despite colors seemingly matching those Omni and Clan, there is in fact no restriction on color choice by different player factions. Once you choose your team color, you will be added to the queue and may freely leave the lobby and travel between any playfields until your team fills up. At least 4 players (and at most 5) are required to join the queues for each of the teams before the match can begin. Once there are at least 4 players on each team - all players in the queue for both teams will receive a notification that the match is ready. Note that rejecting the invitation will have consequences, as described in the following section.

Loyalty System[edit]

A loyalty system exists to discourage people from refusing invites, or leaving the battle station before the end of the match if they didn't like the situation they were in by temporarily locking them out from joining the match queue. The system works like this:

  • All players start with a loyalty score of 10.
  • Receiving a battlestation invitation deducts your loyalty score by one.
  • Completing a battlestation (win or lose) adds two to your loyalty score, up to a maximum of 10.
  • If your loyalty score reaches 0 you will not be able to enter the battlestation queue until you improve your loyalty score.

A duty mission will be available to increase your loyalty level again if it falls to 0. Rumors that it may involve picking up trash in Borealis may not be unfounded.

Match[edit]

A Battle Station Terminal

Players will first find themselves in Decontamination room together with the rest of the players from both teams, where they can remain for up to 1 minute (leaving early is possible - see below) and with a 100% suppression gas - are immune from any attacks or debuffs while inside the room. Ending up in this room will instantly heal and replenish all nano, and will also cancel all running nano programs, both friendly and hostile, except pets and nano programs running on pets. Players will have their nano replenished every few seconds, so that they can buff themselves before leaving the safe area of room, where they could encounter the opposite team. Should a player be killed during the match - they will simply be teleported back to the Decontamination room again.

In the BS there are 4 terminals spaced out in the center and the three arms of the area. 3 terminals that are located in the battle station arms are secondary terminals, and the one in the center is the primary terminal. While in the Decontamination room, players can choose to teleport to one of the 3 arms housing secondary terminals by interacting with the controls on the wall map within 1 minute, failing which they will be automatically teleported to a random arm. To capture a terminal a character uses the terminal and then is rooted in location for around a minute to 'hack' the terminal. When the terminal is hacked you have 5 seconds to use it again to capture it.

Each team garners points for captured terminals every tick. A tick is ten seconds and a team will get 1 point for every secondary terminal captured and 2 for the primary terminal. If a team captures all the terminals the tick time decreases to around 2-3 seconds.


Strategy[edit]

Basic

  • Power in Numbers Groups or teams give more firepower and support than running alone.
  • Assisting Concentration of Fire means that everyone is attacking the same target, which outdamages healing and kills targets faster; when they are dead they cease to do damage to your team. Use assist macros such as /macro Assist /assist and designate a person to acquire targets, to ensure this.
  • Crowd Control If it cannot attack, it is effectively out of the fight. Root, Snare, Calm and Blind Nano Programs threaten the enemy with the ability to concentrate on fewer targets. In practice, in PvP, opponents will use items that reduce the duration of these effects or eliminate them entirely, but they can still force opponents to lock their First Aid skills.

Battle-Station-Specific

  • Take the Center Taking and holding the center is usually the key to winning, so having a large group of people rush the center early is generally a winning strategy even over capturing your own point first.
  • Sliding/Suiciding - This strategy involves running into zones just long enough to capture a point, generally while under fire, and than running off to attempt to capture another. This strategy works for characters who have some sort of major protective abilities, (usually absorbs and reflects but not always) like Adventurers, Engineers, Keepers, and Soldiers. It also works well for characters with high dodge abilities like Keepers, Martial Artists, and Fixers.
  • Defending Points - Important in any long term strategy for winning a battle station round. Generally, the back bone of any defense effort is made up by the Anti-Personal Turret. This more or less always needs to be backed up by other people though because the Turret does do well against evaders. The best combination seems to be a combination of an APT, Anti-Mech unit (Assualt Mech, Anti-Armor Turret, Rocket Launcher), and a non-meched support to help in fighting off evaders and recapturing points if they are taken.

Rewards[edit]

Both winning and losing a Battle Station battle will garner all combatants Victory Points that can be used to buy items from the OFAB vendors in Tower Shops and Unicorn Defense Hub trading kiosks room. The amounts of these rewards are based on your level and the amount of points your team had at the end of the battle, though the winning rewards are much higher then the losing. Additionally, all players will receive XP and side mission tokens for completing a match, which will be the same no matter win or loss.

Map[edit]

NB. In illustrations below, "Omni" and "Clan" labels are for lore flavor purposes only, as players of any faction can join any of the 2 teams.

Battlestation new.jpg
Map drawn by Vitalis

Battlestation.gif
Map drawn by Cruisefix