A Walkthrough to capturing Facilities

[DeVadder]

Hello folks,
i thought i'd make a thread explaining how the three different facilities are laid out and can be captured. This seems to be a problem for many people ingame and it is afterall the games main objective, so why not make some screenshots and explain them.
As you certainly have noted by now, english is not my motherlanguage and i will surely make many stupid mistakes. Feel free to laugh about them.

Disclaimer:
I have not been to every single facility in the game. And especially not to those in future updates. They are all kinda different. I tried to explain the qualities i believe all facilities of a certain type share, but i can not be sure about that.
So when i say 'they will always' or 'there will never' take that with a grain of salt.


What all facilities have in common

There are two things common for all facilities. They all have satelites and they all have a spawn control unit (SCU) which is protected by a dedicated shield.
Satellites look like this on the map:

01Sat-map.jpg

All satellites offer a spawn location and most have vehicle stations. Some also have air vehicle stations and few block roads with a vehicle shield (more on those later).
The satellites of Bio labs also have teleporters into the Bio lab and in some cases jump pads to the bio labs air pads.
Satellites can be captured independendly of the actual facility by standing next to this thing:

02Sat-cap.jpg

That capping is actually quite fast and as the capture point is often a small way from the actual spawn, can be done solo. If done by the defenders, this often is super annoying for the attacking faction, especially in Bio labs as it also captures the corresponding teleporter which then can not be used even when a sundy is deployed next to it.
The defending faction can also spawn in a main spawn room. That can not be captured but disabled. More on those later in the individual sections.
Spawning in the main spawn room can be disabled by overloading and destroying a spawn control unit (SCU) which is allways guarded by a shield with its own generator. Their positions will be shown in the individual sections.

AMP Stations

03AMP.jpg

The first image showed an AMP station layout. You can see that it has walls, many smaller buildings and the actual facility in the center.
The walls are equipped with anti-tank and anti-air guns and the gates are protected by vehicle-shields as can be seen here:

04walldef.jpg

These vehicle shields do not block the movement of any infantry or of defending vehicles but they forbid attacking vehicles. They also block all projectiles, as do all shields except for those guarding spawnbuildings. Shields guarding spawn buildings allow the owning faction to shoot out but do not allow the enemies to shoot inside (that means, if camped in your spawn, step away from the door so that more people can shoot out).
The vehicle shields of an AMP station can be disabled by destroying their respective generators. These generators can be found inside the walls in close proximity to the vehicle shiel and their icon looks like this:

05Vehgen.jpg

As i can only upload 5 pictures per post, i will need more posts.
TBC

[DeVadder]

AMP Stations continued

When going inside the building whith the vehicle shields generator, you will find this:

06vehgenclose.jpg

This is a shield generator, they all look and work the same.
Any attacking infantry can walk up to them and hold e until a little circle is full. Once that is done, the gen is overloaded and the friendly voice will announce that it is in danger. If it is left overloaded for a short period of time, it will explode and be destroyed. In most cases, this will disable the corresponding shield. Only the main shields of AMP stations require two generators to be destroyed. More on that later.
While the gen is overloaded, any defending infantry can walk up to it and also hold e to stabilize it. Once the gen is blown up, only an engineer can repair it with his repair tool.
That means you should probably stay close to the vehicle shield gen while it is overloaded, especially if there is a lot of friendly armor waiting outside the shield.

Now that you and your armor friends are inside the walls, you will face this:

07mainshield.jpg

The main shields.
These shields require two generators to be destroyed, the horizontal one and the vertical one, as you can see on the shield. The main shields block all enemy movement.
Those two generators look like this

08maingen1.jpg

and this:

09maingen2.jpg

No surprise there. They work and look exactly like the vehicle shield gen, only that you need to keep both down at the same time to open the main shields.
With some organization or superior numbers, you should be able to do it and after you have entered the base, you see this:

10inside.jpg

This is the main room. There are some things of interest here:
A: The actual control point, take and hold this to capture the station. If at least 6 of you stay near it, that will be faster.
B: The shield guarding the SCU. This is not the main spawn room, it is just where the SCU is.
C: Vehicle station. It may be a good idea to hack these so you can spawn sundys should the defenders repair the gens.
D: The SCU shield gen is here, see next picture.

TBC

[DeVadder]

AMP Stations continued

Across the bridge from the control node is this:

11scugen.jpg

The SCU shield gen.
Destroying this one disables the yellow shield seen earlier. Going down there brings you to the SCU:

12scu.jpg

The SCU can be overloaded exactly like a generator and once destroyed, the main spawn room is no longer available to the defenders.

Thats it.
Two things to note: There are grav lifts behind the control node and below the SCU shield gen that allow acces to or from the roof (where there also are air pads and air vehicle stations). But these are shielded by the main shields as well.

13outshield.jpg

The main spawn room is outside of the actual facility and does not enter a teleporter inside. That means, once the walls are breached, it is not a very safe spawn and a sunderer inside would be a really good idea. However, the main shield gens are also outside and should not be neglected anyways.

Hope that helped, i will do Tech Plants next.

[One Pigeon]

Brilliant post! Thanks very much for this. Maybe it should get a sticky?

Looking forward to the next one.

[DeVadder]

Okay, the Tech Plant got delayed by TR raiding and pillaging wherever i tried to take screenshots and my thirst for vengeance.
But i got it now:

Tech Plant

IMPORTANT:
Tech plants have been changed a lot in the game update 1 patch. I have not played very much since then so for, so i am not entirely sure i got these right currently.
Also i have not yet taken new pictures so the ones here will show the old symbols on the shield and not show the newly added shield genereators.

111tecplant.jpg

(Hvar Tech Plant is the most beautiful place in the game imho)

First: A map:

112tecmap.jpg

You can again see the satellites. In this case the two to the right have road blocking vehicle shields and walls. That is not allways the case.
This is an old picture. It does not show the shield generators. Nowadays Tech Plants have a vertical and horizontal shield generator just like AMP Stations do. They are in the buildings next to the Main Spawn room. I assume, that you can find them on your map yourself, now that the AMP guide has shown you what to look for. ^^
Also, the main shields of the Tech Plant work exactly like the ones of the AMP. One difference is just, that the generators are closer to the main spawn and thus probably slightly harder to attack.
But as opposed to AMP stations, Tech Plants do have a few unshielded entrances.
The first one is at the sides of the building:

113laentrance.jpg

Ligt assault can fly over these shields and get inside. However, if the plant is defended, they will most likely be greeted by defenders standing on the balcony behind the shield or tanks waiting inside.
Note that opposed to this image, the shields now will have the same symbols as AMP Stations Main shields and will also work in the same way.
This is what it looks like from the inside:

113laentrance2.jpg

When attacking, it can be a very good idea to shell that balcony with a few tanks so that LA can fly in. Note however, that those very LA are very likely to land on the balcony so watch your fire.

On the 'backside' of the building (the short side with the high structure on the top) there are two doors:

114doors.jpg

If the plant is defended, a lot of fighting will happen here. The best way to get in is either smoke grenades or MAX units or both... together with lots and lots of infantry that does not mind dieing.
With the addition of the posibility to destroy the main shields, these doors now are probably way less of a bottleneck. But do not ignore them over the generators!
Note that while taking this screenshot, the main spawn room is only a few dozen meters behind me. As attackers it can be vital to watch your back here, as defenders it is a good idea to remember the main spawn room from time to time even if you have sunderer inside.

TBC

[DeVadder]

More Tech Plant intel

The next entrance can only be reached from the roof. It is a grav lift:

115elevator.jpg

This lift connects the flight deck (the highest deck on that high structure above the doors), the roof of the main building and the earth level inside. It can be entered from every level on top of the facility.
Note that the only of those levels of any interest is the flight deck which has air vehicle stations and AA guns. To reach the elevator you have several options. Beeing dropped there by a friendly galaxy is the most obvious one. La can also fly up there with a few recharging stops on ledges. You could also land on the roof when using a spawn beacon that has been placed sufficiently close to the building. And of course instant action.

However, there is a downside to the elevator:

116eleunten.jpg

It ends right next to the doors.
It can be helpfull to have some guys come down the elevator but there will be a lot of defenders anyways because of the doors.
The defenders can use more safe teleporters to get to the flight deck, btw.

If you manage to push through the doors and elevator, you are on the ground level. There are plenty of stairs and short grav lifts that will get you to the control level above (or you are la and just hop there):

117control.jpg

Here i am above the doors in the air.
You can see the control node and upstairs on the other side the SCU shield gen. The only other thing worth noting are the struttings (is that a word? google said thats what they are) seen in the upper right corner of that screenshot. La can fly up there and hide in them if they crouch while in the air. They offer a great overview of the control level and are awesome for killing unexpecting enemies.

The SCU is outside, near the main spawn room.

Important Change
The main spawn room is no longer connected to the inside of the Tech Plant via teleporter, as it used to be the case before the update.
The main spawn room now is as unreliable and dangerous as it is in AMP stations.

I guess thats it. Tech Plants are way easier to capture solo or with a small squad when not or only very slightly defended than AMP Stations because you do not have to wory about keeping those shield gens down.
I have not played enough to have an opinion of how hard it is to attack a defended Tech Plant with the new rules.
I would guess it has become a lot easier as the attackers now can either push the doors or destroy the generators.

Okay, lets see if those damn TR let me take some screenshots of Ymir (my favorite Bio Lab).

[DeVadder]

Nope, no such luck.
But we can do with Andvari Bio Lab

201biolab.jpg

This time i will show you the spawn screen instead of a map.

202biospawn.jpg

You can see, that Andvari has only two satellites. Ymir has four. I highlighted the teleporter symbol in those two. If there are more satellites, then some of them may not have teleporters, so make sure you spawn at one that does.
When you spawn, the teleporter buildings will look something like this:

203biotelespawn.jpg

But i suppose by now you are familiar with finding symbols on your HUD and walking towards them.
Those teleporters take you into a small room inside the dome like this:

204telemain.jpg

Those are once again spawn room shields, so you can shoot out. These spawn room shields are tied to the satellite though. So if you are in that tiny room when the satellite gets flipped, you are in some trouble. The room also has a painfield if it does not belong to your faction, so if the satellite is captured while you are in there, you will get a message to leave the restricted area and take some hefty damage.
Holding satellites is a high priority! But often enough they will be completely ignored.

Often, if not allways (i do not know because i hardly care) the satellites will also have jumppads like these:

205jumppad.jpg

These take you to the airfields at the sides of the dome. However, jumppads do not show up on the map or hud and are thus very hard to find. And because beeing on the airfield is most likely much worse than beeing in a safe spawn room inside the dome, i rarely use them at all.

Except to reach the satellite from the airfield. I forgot this in the first version. Those are two ways jump pads, so on the sides of the airfield, there are jump pads that take you to the satellite. A very convenient route for the defenders to take back those satellites.

TBC

[DeVadder]

Bio Lab cont.

Using the jump pad will take you here:

206weeev.jpg

Those are the airfields. There are two of them and they are the hell.
Andvari is a bit unique in how the airfields are acessed so i will later add screenshot of a more common version. But the airfields are normaly above a building at the ground that only has grav lifts onto it. In this special case there is an actual wall around the base of the lab with vehicle shields (that is not common for Bio Labs) and some of the walls towers have jumppads onto the airfield. Because a sunderer deployed next to these lifts/pads is way closer to the dome than one in the satellites and will thus be preselected, most of the mindless zerg will spawn there instead near the comfortable and safe teleporters in the satellites. Those lifts drop you quite high above the field, meaning it takes some time before you can properly shoot and there is only that one gate into the dome. And to make matters worse, the defenders behind that gate have great cover, plants to hide behind, a quick retreat to restock and get healed and generally the upper hand. Those people outside on the field have close to no retreat, little cover and stand in the bright light. If there are defenders, the airfields tend to become a slaughterhouse.

Explaining the layout of the inside of a Bio Lab in great detail makes no sense. There are lots of buildings, bridges, boulders and trees. And the number and position of the control nodes is different from lab to lab.
However they all have the SCU shield gen:

207scushield.jpg

The SCU is allways in the circular structure in the middle of the Bio Lab:

208scu.jpg

The SCU and the SCU gen have the highest priority in the chaotic battle that allways ensues once the attackers are inside. That is because the main spawn room is inside the dome. Right across from the SCU. Because of this, for the defenders the main spawn room is often a way better spawn option than a sunderer.

Between the two entrances to the SCU is a teleporter:

210televehicle.jpg

This takes you (if you are a defender) down into the base of the dome where you can purchase vehicles:

211televehicleunten.jpg

Those shields are once again indesctructible.
When a massive battle rages, it can be a good idea for the attackers to besiege this room so that the defenders can not break out and threat the sunderers. Unless those sunderers lure most of your faction into the grinder on the airfields while perfectly viable sunderers at the teleporters are available, of course. ^^

Now i just need some more standard Bio Lab for the final screenshots and then i am done. I hope i was able to help somebody.

[DeVadder]

Yay, Ymir has finally been freed.

So, this is one of those 'lift buildings' you will find under the airfields of most Bio Labs.

301lifthaus.jpg

The next picture shows nothing new but just looks so damn good:

302liftschon.jpg

This is on top of the building, showing the lifts upwards:

303dreilift.jpg

And this only serves to reemphasize my dislike for these lifts. This is the highest point on your way up:

304dropoff.jpg

You can see, that you will fall down quite some time before you can even aim on the defenders. And you can see how little cover there is. And you can see how small the gate into the dome is.

For comparison, this is the kind of cover the defenders get:

305cover.jpg

[DeVadder]

And because i fought for around three hours to take this picture in peace:

3064sat.jpg

You can see that there are 4 satellites of which one has no teleport.
Note also how there is no TR anywhere close to this facility. Especially not a squad of immature and annoying tea-baggers that kept taking Ymir. Lucky for them they offered so easy xp, otherwise i would not have fought them for all that time!

[mrpier]

Very nice guide, I wasn't aware of the differences between shield-types and between facilities.

[harvb]

Superb guide, really, really useful, thank you!

I am such a dumbass noob at this game, it's scary.

[DeVadder]

Brilliant post! Thanks very much for this. Maybe it should get a sticky?

Looking forward to the next one.

I completely overlooked your post. ^^
Thank you, but i believe we do not have anyone here who even could do stickies.

[sinister agent]

Anyone new should read this. Great stuff, thank you.

[TehK]

Exceptional Thread. Thanks a lot!

[Ayam]

This is a great post, thanks for deconstructing the mystery that is capturing bases. I was actually reading parts of this out loud to the NC fellas tonight on our voyage of discovery through a tech plant. When I read out the following line:

"That is because a Tech plants shields are indestructible"

Everyone was, like, "D'Oh!"

[Hirmetrium]

Don't forget, Sunderer's are shield breakers, especially at tech plants. Driving in, shield gate defuse to get inside, proceed to rape. Obviously, expect every single gun inside to suddenly point at you, so having a pimped out sunderer (with explosive AOE grenade launchers and additional armour) is necessary to help with the clean up. You can also fill it with MAX's.

[DeVadder]

A few infiltrators to hack the vehicle console in the chaos and spawn an actual spawning sunderer do not hurt either.

[sinister agent]

Don't forget, Sunderer's are shield breakers, especially at tech plants.

I believe you need to upgrade before you can break through a shield in a sunderer. Also before you can make it a spawn point, which is probably the most important upgrade in the game, and one of few that I'd call vital. Word of warning: You have to equip the upgrades from the vehicle spawn screen for them to work. Found that out the infuriating way.

[Carpe_Dentum]

Thanks for posting this fantastic guide! Now I'll actually have a clue as to what I'm supposed to be doing!