I assume any base build out in the open, in the shared world, would suffer the fate of a field tent. There are countless videos of a single guy finding a base of 5-6 tents and several vehicles, and then torching the place. Basically, few weeks of gameplay lost in a matter of minutes. Currently, the game lacks any staying/evolution/roleplaying potential. At first, you perhaps build a tiny tent camp somewhere far north, but after a week of dying and running half an hour to your tent, just to be shot again gets tedious. After that, all you do is run around cherno and elektro and have old-fashioned deathmatch. Underground bases do look like a way to go, assuming they would act as a spawn point. Think latest x-com game, you could expand your base, add various facilities (perhaps only small areas), at a very high price, involving several days of gameplay. Obviously, the first problem is manifestation of this base in shared world. Both development- and gameplay-wise. One idea is having a single point of entry, a hatch, that would use some kind of access list. The builder of this hatch/base would choose, using a dialogue, who can enter this base. It is my opinion, that this base should have actual physical manifestation. A literal space, where you could roam, and furnish, and upgrade (think the already existing air-conditioner and air-filter items), as opposed to being merely an object in the world, where the interaction with it would open an inventory, like a smaller tent. Development wise, this would probably be a nightmare to implement. Having undefined number of "underground" areas somewhere off-map, where you would get teleported after interacting with a hatch. One solution would be to define a fixed maximum sized area a base can have, and allocate for each new hatch crated in the shared world, a "slot", somewhere off the map. This would incur a server limit of bases that can exist. Other solution is to implement phasing (think world of warcraft/swtor), which would probably be impossible using only scripts. As to what the base should include, that would be storage areas and spawn point. Thats not much, but if one is going down the evolution/rpg path, it would make sense to implement mechanics such as workshops of repairing/crafting items, opening a wide array of customization options. Now I know it has been said by the devs numerous times, that this is supposed to be a survival simulation, where you dont get to craft and mod weapons, you just "pick whats laying on the ground". This is all very nice, but that has staying value of something around 1 month. After that, the game gets boring as hell, because it changes from hiking/"survival" simulator, to wide-arena deathmatch. This of course depends all on the devs, whether they are making the game for the sake of creating a quality product, or making a one-time cash burner, which you "throw away" after a month. The latter seems to be all the rage the last few years. One last point, storing vehicles. Now obviously, you could hardly stash a 10 ton truck underground, leaving the vehicles in the state that they are in now, a one time transportation. Should you wish to implement a vehicle storing solution, that has no risk of getting torched after a day, one answer is implement safe-zones (which I think were categorically dismissed), or somehow create private overground bases. Honestly, I have no idea how to solve this issue, since one excludes the other. On one hand there is the need to create a safe spot for the vehicles, where you can be confident it survives for a long period of time (at which point, server vehicle limit starts being an issue). On the other hand, you have a game that is built around openness, and denying players access to certain areas of the map contradicts the fundamental principle. Making overground private bases (the ones outside the playing arena) would look silly, vehicle and players suddenly disappearing in the middle of an empty space. Perhaps an underground garage, a virtual space for vehicles. Gameplay wise, explained as "digging a hole in the ground big enough to drive a truck into", developement wise, having a huge bunker door acting as a valet server, that spawns stored vehicles on demand. But, most likely, this will all be solved with the typical risk/reward formula, creating pseudo-bases in open space, leaving them to be ransacked by a single person. While this is by all means realistic, it may not be as entertaining to wake up and see the work you put in for a month completely reversed.
