I was under the impression that attacking a tower would have to be an expensive, and calculated move. It would only be possible through the use of a Shield Disabler device, which would be very expensive to obtain.
Here's what led me to this impression, from Gaute's second NW article ( http://www.anarchy-online.com/conten...ticles/02.html ).
The shield disabler is a new concept. Basically it is there to make attacking a controller an expensive manoeuvre...
...The Shield Disabler is basically an item that any person who wants to attack an area has to use in that area. It makes you able to attack! It also should cost enough that it is something you only use when you really want to launch an attack on the controller. This shield disabler increases in price with QL, naturally, and must have at least the QL of the controller to make it work. Hopefully this will force people not to throw shots left, right and centre just to annoy others.
It makes sense right? Attacking an enemy base is a risky thing. First off it's a very difficult fight under most circumstances, and second (perhaps more important) it will make your own base vulnerable to attack for a long period of time... which is my main gripe.
Last night I helped my guild spend two or three hours defending our base while it was in 25% supression gas mode. We held off the attackers in a great battle until it turned 5%... we only had an hour left. 20 minutes into the 5% gas mode, some doof who didn't understand the new gas rules found a random omni base somewhere and attacked it...........................
resetting our base to 25% (I think it's for another 4 hours).
For exhausted defenders who really want to go to bed during the 20 hours of 100% gas, this wasn't exactly a welcome thing.
If your guild is of any large size, it's very hard to communicate to all of your members that you can not under any circumstances wander close to an enemy tower without permission of the president or advisors (going to close will cause the towers to agg, which will activate the 'war' gas changes, wether or not you want them).
So I guess the shield disablers are broken? Or were they a last minute thing that was pulled from the game?
I'd personally like them back in. Attacking an enemy base should be a well thought out plan, with plenty of backing and support that is relatively financially draining. It should *not* occur simply because someone yalming through DAV accidentally flew too close to an enemy's cannon turret.
I'd personally really like to hear a quick note from either Cz or a dev here to confirm if this is working as intended... because it certainly doesn't appear that way right now.