Hello. Here’s the Skybase thread I promised everyone.
Firstly, I want to explain that this thread will talk about having multiple skybases. Having one really isn’t the same.
Secondly, I want to notify that this is heavily biased as… Well I’m SKT. Made that Skybase petition… Has held every SB multiple times… Just all around SB Pr0 mk. To counteract this, I have asked a few others for their opinions in game and I have found that many also wish for the original 4 skybases setup.
To begin, I’d like to start off with the obvious facts about the original Skybases. There were 4 and they gave 40 seconds/minute you held them. They were a solid minute apart from each other, maybe two, via walking and about twenty second via jetpacks. They consisted of stations, which were put on a larger platform, which had ladders going up to the station itself. The entrance of the skybases were blocked off by gates which you would have to break to enter. Inside the entirety of the little sky island, there were usually seats and a table, a few plants, and a few barrels which broke on impact and spewed out goo. Each skybase was unique, with sizes varying. Skybase #2 was the largest, ahead of #1, followed by #4, with #3 being the smallest in size.
Their locations were well picked as it allowed each corner of the world to have a base. 1 was at the top of Skyworld near all the shops; 2 was on the top right next to most of the jobs; 3 was near the hotel and beach; and 4 was near the skate shop and the planet buildings. Including Gem, which had been in the top left, You could go in any direction in the game and find a base in under 3 minutes. I believe this gave the map a wider feel even though it had been the second smallest we ever used(apart from the original). It was eye catching, and it was always pretty easy to move around the map because you would remember that X was near SB #X. On top of that, while they had been very similar to one another, they were slightly different. This worked well in its favor because unlike Gem, Aqua, and Aries which try to differ from themselves, the SBs embraced the similarities but continued to be different. (The Server be playing reverse psychology.)
Along with their structures, they had also been unique in the sense that no other server had them. No other server has non-minute/minute bases. No other server has 4 identical yet different bases. In the “scores” leaderboard, it was refreshing to see the line go with 4, and not just 1. No other server has same-level basing. This has been my expertise on Zone, and it all started from Zone. No other server came close to the feel of rushing as Zone did with skybases. I hate having to strategize in one base and to regroup for a unified attack. So much time on Classic gets wasted due to it. On Zone’s skybases, rushing was always plausible.
As I had just mentioned, I love rushing. Rushing is love. Rushing is life. As @Chelterrar said on the new in game forums, many find them as “nothing different… except that it is outside”. That’s a tragedy. Same-level basing is so much more different in almost every aspect. Those of us who primarily base at SB have a saying; “Guns are for noobs”, the melee spam is our life. Using a gun isn’t as exciting. I only recently understood this reasoning, but in essence our “high” derives from the repetitive clicking of our melees. With a gun, you can just hold and aim. Ew. For melees, you have to precisely tap and the faster you tap, the better you are. Now we have auto-melees, but most of us serious basers still prefer tapping. It’s more fun. Some of us, including myself, have become so used to tapping as fast as we can that we have become as fast as the limit of the auto-melees. It becomes a mosh-pit in some instances, but it only drives us to continue tapping and tapping and tapping. I’ve legitimately started sweating during a spam-off. That’s intense. That’s fun.
Being outside, they also are good because given multiple, you were still able to watch Zone. You watched people walk by. People collecting trash. It made you feel the community a lot more than just staying in a base. Sure others might come by to attack. But you already know them. They’re basers, they wanted to attack. I’ve met great friends from just recruiting them next to Skybase #2(my personal favorite) and asking them to help for just 10 minutes. 10 minutes turned into 30. Next thing you know, they’re better gunmen than I am and are pr0 (Ahem ahem Asher). The sense of community grew with skybases. Nuff said.
Well actually, no. It wasn’t enough. That was from the perspective of a baser. When I wasn’t basing and I was bored, I’d just patrol around the Skybases and started talking to the people there. Another way it helped bring the community together. Most “pr0s” don’t talk during basing. It gives me ebola. I always liked how Skybases weren’t end of the world bases and people were happy to talk while holding them. I did this while basing if anyone came by, and made tons of fishing friends at #3 when it came out who just needed to talk (Ahem ahem Tay).
Oh speaking of Pr0s, skybases were always pawns. Like even I didn’t mind too much when we lost a skybase. People wanted bases. These were giving people amazing starts. Sure pr0s would take them, but they would eventually all flee to another base which gave more hours when given the chance thanks to the 40/minute additions. It left new basers room to grow and gain some skill without having to worry about being 3 shot and flawed and made fun of. And even with the squads that controlled the Skybases often, such as Sangue, Triction, NP, and DM, there was always a challenge because we would always be spread out. Even with owning every base for like entire days, we never got more than 15 hours an hour because of the constant ownership changes. I found this to be part of the rush too. It was more fun to show people that you were good enough to not only take, but defend the bases, than getting the hours. And whenever you lost the base, you would only reset your boredom timer.
To address the “1 person defending a base” thing, I’d like to mention how it’s impossible to singly hold a skybase. You always needed at least 3 to be sure. Between the PKers and the actual basers, I swear I’ve gotten a million deaths by now. And with holding multiple bases, you had to be smart and position your members smart and strategically. I said earlier that I hate planning attacks. I still do. I love planning defenses though. Not only was it fun to lead defenses because I was able to shout and talk and call people names, I loved going to another base which was under attack.
Again with the adrenaline thing I’ve talked about like three times now, whenever a base was attacked and you owned more than just one, you would immediately rush over to that one. You would equip your jetpack and just book it, intensifying the moment. After getting there, a war would start and your intensity would fuel the battle. Then a second later, the attackers would rush to your other base and the same thing would happen over and over. It was bants. It was fun. Unlike how we still attempt to take Gem and then go for aqua or aries whenever we want to troll, Skybases being same-level made the attacks much faster and they were actually plausible to take and defend for minutes and then lose again. Nobody ever gave up because within skybases, numbers meant nothing if they were just by one or two.
Now I’ll bring this up before anyone else does below. Jetpacks made Skybasing too easy. I used them, because y naut, but they allowed you to just skip over the gates. I think that jetpacks should have been allowed on the map, but not over the Skybases.
To refer to another thing Chelt said, Melees were not OP at SB. And they still aren’t. They’re much better for basing. But they don’t guarantee a take. Really good gunmen would surround you before you even had the chance to take the base. Rebels and Darko were really good at this. A melee user is good if they can MeleeVGun 1v1. A melee user is lucky if they can MeleeVGun 1v2.
There were also mad strats people used. Using a goon at Gem doesn’t last the entire way up. A goon at the current lasts too long K. A goon at the old Skybases were just lit. They would last until the ladders and it was a good way to stop the offensive, while still being not OP because people just jetpacked over/were good and could not die for 3 seconds.
Flame also had use back then because of the ladders… And Lava. Hell the lava killed me more often running around the bases than guns did.
Asking a few other players who were around back then, they all loved the original four skybase setup. They weren’t just good for noobs, or pr0s, but also for non-basers. Sometimes you just want to base but don’t have any basing friends. Grab your friends either way and a skybase was never above reason to grab. Bants.
Plus, they did handle the PK problem. Kind of. Now people PK at one skybase. It’s chaos there. Back then, there’d be one or two PKers, sometimes even 0. You could actually base. And I mean this for both sides. As a defender you hate the PKers for killing you aiding the attackers. As an attacker, you hate the PKers for killing you and aiding the defenders… and then it switches. I don’t mind dying. I just get back over there. But the rage ensues when you lose a base because of PKers.
Before @Pigparty mentions it though, there was a boosting problem. No way to hide that. There were 4 guaranteed locations for boosters to find AFK people at. #AddMoveToRespawn.
Lastly, I want to tie this back to the community. There were 4 of them. Many a bonds were made from us fellow owners. Between truces, the “Im leaving. Take this base.” situations, and the “Ey I’m bored. Let’s chat.” convos, I made tons of friends. It was rare for every base to be owned by one squad, especially if we and Rebels were being lazy, giving you at least 3 other people to talk to right off the bat. Menu>Squads>Scores>Click on a base owner. Ez.
I have more to write. I always do in terms of SB, but at this point, after all these threads, I’ve forgotten what I have written in this sitting and what I’ve written before. They begin to blend now:/.
I’d like to point out that the vote to get rid of Skybases was also very shady and unfair. They chose certain elite players who simply had no use for skybases, so why would they say to keep them? I’ve gotten apologies from some of these players and simply put, they regret their removal. That’s not how management should treat major updates. Everyone should have been notified of this change and an open poll should have been conducted. JS. (Plus there was literally a pact between some of those noobs to not tell me about this poll so I couldn’t sway people. Smh. @Ry)