The whole Base thing is really complicated.. as far as the technical aspects and the (technical) gamplay  goes.. NOBODY has the same idea about "what is a Base"... and BI are not giving any specifications right now.  Without going into the Whole List of expectations/technical/gameplay..  just your example of "keys" for instance: - Do you 'lock your base' with a key that you CARRY in the game.. so someone can loot that key off you?.. & you can MAKE ingame another key for a friend? OR - are you listed on a database as the "owner.". Can you add other owners to the list?.. Can multiple owners spawn in and out of the base.. Can the original "owner" take them off the list again? If the base is taken over (even when the owner is not in the game) does the base transfer ownership to whoever captured it, or is it "destroyed" ? Is the base totally impregnable when the owner is not logged in (some folk expect this).. or is it .. er "easy" to break into a base when the owner is not there. Can you ram through the gate with a car, for instance, or cut the barbed wire with a cutter.. etc.. or use a lockpick.. (even if the owner isn't around.) People are thinking of Bases exactly as if they were in-game bulletproof indestructible TENTS that only the person who put up the tent can get in and out.  This would be really Stupid for gameplay. And if a base were Seriously Difficult to get into - WHY would someone attack it while the player was at home?  Wait till he comes out, shoot him and take his key. Or wait till hes not in play and break in or use a lockpick ? So.. (er) .. for instance.. A base would be a kind of shooting gallery for players outside, who could snipe at players trapped inside, who could not get out the gate without being almost certainly killed.. So what would be the advantage of that to a Base builder?  You can already do that with a standard house if you lock the front door. (except players CAN hop in to an ordinary house .. as you point out). The gameplay implementation has not been made public, and so the idea of <what is a "Base">  is a still a general individual player fantasy .. whatever comes up will not make most players "happy", because they have such different vague ideas on what they want and how it will play. In my opinion, they think, "if it LOOKS like a Base then it IS a Base" (so it must be Cool!) and haven't thought further. ..  but the look of a thing doesn't have much to do with the gameplay. So BI is working it out and not saying a lot right now.  But I see a lot of argument & rants coming up. IMO