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What would've made MGSV's Mother Base perfect?

S

Spring-Loaded

Member
Playing the role of burgeoning villain and leader of a mercenary military force was furthered by being able to be flown around your massive lair. There was some novel stuff going on there (named soldiers saluting you, target practice, visible expansion), and the scale was on point. Landing at your R&D platform with
that giant robot
looming over it felt really dope.

Beyond that, there was so little going on there. The gameplay loop of acquiring more soldiers and receiving tangible rewards for them was pretty good, but there's nothing really encouraging visiting the platforms personally, especially not the zoo one (aside from the extra tape). Target practice was fun. Beating soldiers was fun. Stuff like the medical platform thing was neat, same with the low morale cutscene, but that was it.

I feel like the home base had the potential to be completely fantastic, but I couldn't pinpoint what more could be done. The game was unfinished of course, and all I can do is wonder whether it would've been improved had the original vision been seen through.

Any ideas for making Mother Base perfect?
 
Nothing. Mother Base was supposed to be completely optional and a place to unwind and do random stuff. You have no incentive to visit it other than your own curiosity and I think that's perfectly fine to be honest. Maybe it could have one or two more minigames, but it feels to me it is what it's supposed to be
 
-Mutsukki- said:
Nothing. Mother Base was supposed to be completely optional and a place to unwind and do random stuff. You have no incentive to visit it other than your own curiosity and I think that's perfectly fine to be honest. Maybe it could have one or two more minigames, but it feels to me it is what it's supposed to be
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Did you play the game in it's entirety ? A lot of plot curial stuff happen in mother base and thus it's NOT optional.

OT: Have minigames that could give you extra resources. And maybe , let us actually explore the interior of the base.
 
Needed goofy challenges. Or let you build a platform with an arena where you face off against harder versions of bosses and then all new ones like what Peace Walker did with the Monster Hunter fights.
 
Azoor said:
Did you play the game in it's entirety ? A lot of plot curial stuff happen in mother base and thus it's NOT optional.
Click to expand...

I did. But I don't think OP was focusing on these parts? More like on why would you go back there between missions. That is what I meant with it being optional, but I guess I worded it kinda weird.
 
Look at the Normandy in Mass Effect; that's what I'd always hoped for in MGSV's Mother Base. I wanted to find Ocelot just walking around, or go and see him in his quarters and talk to him. Visit all the various areas and have someone tell me what they all do, go and check out all the various vehicles I can use, maybe pick up some sidequests.

Instead, Mother Base is completely empty, with nothing to do but find inexplicably scattered diamonds and hip throw your soldiers. The seemingly randomly triggered cutscenes are maybe the most baffling thing of all. In my game Liquid literally never spoke until his final cutscene, because an earlier one in which he does speak just never triggered in my game.
 
I think the comparison to the Normandy is apt. It should have been a nice spot where you could get more background on your crew, and with interiors and actual activities going on to make it feel more like a home to the Diamond Dogs. In its current state, it's just very far apart platforms in an ocean of nothing.
 
I was hoping for a Mass Effect style "come back to base to chat with your friends after every mission!" type thing.

It's truly perplexing to me that they have the R&D lab set up to go see Huey...and nothing ever comes from it. I must have run into that room 4 or 5 times throughout my campaign cause I just knew something would happen eventually right?....Nope
 
What truly bothers me about Mother Base is its design. I much prefer Peace Walker's design rather than the spread out nature of the one in V.
 
Alienous said:
Some personality would help. Interiors. See the troops eating, playing recreational games, sports, etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think stuff like this would've gone a long way

-Mutsukki- said:
I did. But I don't think OP was focusing on these parts? More like on why would you go back there between missions. That is what I meant with it being optional, but I guess I worded it kinda weird.
Click to expand...

Outside of cutscenes, there's nothing really significant to do there, mandatory or otherwise. If it's there for the player's curiosity, there's little to reward that curiosity — having something be so notably empty and featureless doesn't seem intentional, or proper.

ffejeromdiks said:
It's truly perplexing to me that they have the R&D lab set up to go see Huey...and nothing ever comes from it. I must have run into that room 4 or 5 times throughout my campaign cause I just knew something would happen eventually right?....Nope
Click to expand...

And stuff like this makes it evident more was planned.

Tagyhag said:
The Infinite Heaven mod.
Click to expand...

Looked this up and it seems neat, but seems mostly like a remix of existing elements found in MB — a lot of this would be welcome, but it's nothing like training your soldiers personally or (actually) interacting with all unique story NPCs
 
Phreakuency said:
The Mordor orc system for your soldiers would add some personality.
Click to expand...

Would've been good alongside options/incentives to bring a few soldiers with you on missions, and have them level up like that rather than go on unseen missions that only exist for the player through text. That way, the player could lose a soldier they had particular memories with
 
I wanted to be able to go inside the base and customize the rooms and facilities. Having dialogue options and chatting with soldiers would have been great too.
 
You know how in Peace Walker you had those tapes of all the awesome things that was going on in Mother Base? The soccer matches, Kaz and Snake fighting in the shower, the birthday parties, etc. I wish more of those type of events would be in the game. Like you got to see your soldiers actually do things besides just walk around. Have maybe some mini game with them and have a like 3 or 4 big events that occur throughout (like those that mentioned in the tapes). That's what I would have like to see. Hearing those tapes from Peace Walker really gave you a sense of how Snake and Miller interacted with the crew and it would have been great for that to of been something the player could experience themselves. Also would have been cool if you could talk to people like Miller and Ocelot from time to time as well. It would also make one of the later missions in the game have more impact.
 
To be able to actually go into the different sections of the base and talk to members of the unit. Even if it's not much of a two way conversation, something like in Mass Effect where you go up to the certain unique characters and talk about their research or training, or an interrogation.
 
Actual interaction with npcs and your troops would be cool, if it were more like a hub where the npcs could ask you to participate in missions, it'd feel less empty.

A shooting range to test out your new gear would be cool as well.

Enterable buildings would have been great too.
 
The R&D platform should've had a dedicated weapons deck/range where Snake could test out different custom weapons.

And as others mentioned, more activity; helos in the air, boats patrolling, soldier interactions, interiors, etc.
 
Pictured: what Mother Base is missing:

43eb75f0c59ddbe02d3f50c8589d6527be1f84a55c905cb46bc2c81ce9c9acdc.jpg
Click to expand...
 
KingBroly said:
Not having to go a million miles between each platform would've been nice
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You can just use a cardboard box to warp between platforms.

I think Mother Base could have benefited tremendously from having more customization for the structures themselves, so that there's more of a personal flair to them other than the color and logo.
 
It might have been better, but got cut off. Watch very early gameplay trailers and comments by Kojima, it sounded better than it is now...(key characters like Miller and Ocelot hanging around and interacting with you, etc)
 
I remember leading up to it's release the Kojima pro team mentioning multiple times that everyone's mother base would be different. Besides the color and emblem, it isn't. I thought we would actually be able to customize the layout.
 
Honestly, walking around Mother Base should have been cut. It's empty, and outside of the Paz and Quiet stuff there isn't much to do. The trainings felt bolted on and the game wouldn't have suffered if it weren't there.

Not naysaying, I happen to have loved MGSV, but I didn't care much for Mother Base.
 
It would be nice if it was even remotely like they showed in trailers and promised in interviews, instead of this barren lifeless wasteland with zero interaction.

The Mother Base gameplay video is borderline misdirection:

Ld4nDcm.jpg

LR6nV88.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Cutting it entirely, having the game take place entirely in one single open world map, and replacing all soldier kidnapping and item R&D with survival mechanics and OSP like 3.

Peace Walker was a mistake, it's nothing but trash.
 
matrix-cat said:
Pictured: what Mother Base is missing:
Click to expand...

Metal Gear Wrex?

Anyways, some more meaningful interactions with the soldiers that roam around mother base would have gone a long way. Doing things like actually training with soldiers or having a conversation that didnt include putting them in a chokehold would have been an easy way to add a lot of life to what would otherwise be little more than another base resource
 
I would've liked different platform types like in Peace Walker instead of hexagons. Fighter jet runways, hospitals, mess halls, etc.

It was also missing the great shooting ranges and kill houses from Peace Walker. They were similar to the training levels in Modern Warfare 1 and 2 and the open gameplay of MGS gave you a ton of ways to solve them.

And yeah, more stuff going on in the background like helicopters, patrols, and training sessions you could join in on if you wanted.
 
Mother Base is basically a smaller game map designed for MP. The actual 'home base' is your helicopter, whereas Mother Base is essentially just a place for cutscenes to trigger or as a template for the MP map.

Perfecting seems about seven or eight major foundational changes away. To perfect it as a home base would require it to really function as your sort of home base in the first place, which it doesn't really in a gameplay perspective since you cannot perform most of your home base functionality there.

Practically speaking, it's designed around looking good in cutscenes and being fun to invade. It has no hub functionality.
SJRB said:
It would be nice if it was even remotely like they showed in trailers and promised in interviews, instead of this barren lifeless wasteland with zero interaction.

The Mother Base gameplay video is borderline misdirection:
Click to expand...
The full trailer that released barely 1 or 2 months before release was, too... It showed the same level of infrastructure 'life' in Afghanistan, such as multiple trucks driving around, that never appeared in the final game.

Mother Base and MGS V more broadly would have benefited from that, but it wouldn't have been enough to perfect Mother Base.

The biggest problem is that Mother Base in not even your 'home' per se... the helicopter (ACC) is. That's where all your management really takes place because it cannot be done from the 'world' mode, and Mother Base is basically just another loaded 'map' in that regard. It basically lacked content or management features.
 
Turn Mother Base into the single player equivalent of GTA Online:

More missions for your soldiers around the world that feed into MGS mythology.

Enhanced customization including more music from the time, new interiors, and a living quarters for BB.

Water based exploration missions to mine resources that make sense under the context of the game.

Backstory for crucial personnel.

Team invasions for MGO where selected personnel can team up to invade another Mother Base.

Weather effects like snow.

^^ all of this could be DLC as the game turns into a service and prepares us for MGS 6.
 
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