Mother Base (Seychelles)

"In addition to mercenaries and former government soldiers, [Mother Base] is also home to researchers and other civilian personnel. Together, they form a group without borders, ideologies or isms, with no regard to age, gender, nationality or race."

- Militaires Sans Frontières briefing



Mother Base was the base of operations for Diamond Dogs, a mercenary unit composed of surviving members of the Militaires Sans Frontières. Like the MSF before them, Diamond Dogs' Mother Base was an offshore plant comprised of several connected struts. It was located near the Seychelles off the eastern coast of Africa.

History
At some point during the 1980s, Diamond Dogs managed to situate themselves on an offshore plant modeled after their doomed prior base. Ocelot aided in the construction of the plant, and returned after rescuing Venom Snake. He introduced Venom Snake to the base and supplied the latter with some Fulton surface-to-air recovery systems with the request that any soldiers or soldiers he found during his missions he could send back to expand Mother Base to build it up. During this time, only one strut, the Command Center, was remotely complete. Even then, it was still under construction with white tarps. Ocelot later returned to the base again after sending Venom Snake to rescue Kazuhira Miller from the Soviets in Afghanistan to retrieve a lead regarding XOF. He also gave advice to Snake via radio.

Eventually, their Mother Base grew large enough to install several forward operating bases and act as a major player in the world. At some point, at least one of Mother Base's forward operating bases ended up invaded by an outside party, presumably one of their competitors, requiring Venom Snake to go into the captured strut and kill the commander at which point there was an announcement to surrender or die. At one point, some soldiers got infected with a unique parasite. Venom Snake found out that those who were infected all shared a certain spoken language and required isolation for all members that spoke that particular language so they couldn't infect anyone else. Once Code Talker was rescued from Skull Face, he gave Diamond Dogs a cure that could prevent the disease but not cure it. The medical staff took this sample and mass produced it. They then treated all the isolated patients. Everyone who wasn't infected too bad was cured and released back to work. Diamond Dogs held a funeral for the members who didn't survive.

Functionality and development
Similar to the Mother Base in the Caribbean, the one in the Seychelles contained seven sections, each relating to a specific function for Mother Base. The following sections were: Medical, Base Development, Command, Intel, Support, Research and development, and Combat Unit. Each had their own strut and could each have 3 additional struts added to themto increase the total amount of staff that could work in that catagory, for a total of 28 sturts, that were connected by long roads. Unlike Mother Base Caribbean, which had struts clustered together and ultimately made it very vulnerable to attack, Mother Base Seychelle's struts are spaced farther apart, making it easier to isolate them in the event of an attack. The animal conservative platforms were 4 connected sturts that were for holding animals captured in the field, but these struts were seperate from the main base. Most platforms contained some collectable diamonds, some contained collectable posters and audio tapes. The sturts were occupied by surviving soldiers of MSF, soldiers kidnapped from the field, and soldiers that volunteered to work at mother base. The player Can travel to most struts by helicopter, mailing system, driving, or walking.

Command Platform
The center (both figuratively and literally) and proverbial brain of Mother Base and Diamond Dogs. Initially, it was the only element of Mother Base present during the 1980s, and was undergoing various development. It was marked with several towers with bridges as well as lifeboats. It had a maximum of four struts for the section, (each addition added to the staff level cap for this catagory), and required at most 240000 GMP, 10000 minor metals, and 20000 fuel resources to be developed to full capacity.

Combat Unit Platform
The home base for the Combat Unit of Diamond Dogs, it comprised of various radio towers and communication arrays, cranes, and a variety of buildings. It was located to the northeast of the Command Platform.

R&D Platform
"Platform with facilities for the R&D team, which develop weapons, items, and other equipment. Higher grade equipment can be unlocked as you increase staff and unit level increases."

- R&D Platform description in the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Gamescom Mother Base/FOB demo

Home of the R&D team ,used to develop new weapons and equipment. It was identified by a monolithic spoked building. The labs are where most scientists and researchers, including Huey Emmerich, can be found. One lab also includes a private research facility for Huey where he can develop various mechanized parts for large scale robots. It was located slightly southeast of the Command Platform, below the Combat Platform.

Base Development Platform
This strut contains various buildings and at least one crane. It was the home of the Base Development Unit, which was relegated to the procurement and processing of various materials to be useful for Diamond Dogs in various ways, including development of ammunition, support weapons, vehicles, and food. However, its most important function was the further development of Mother Base itself, Miller headed the platform and the unit. It was located slightly to the northwest of the Command Platform.

Support Platform
The home base for the Support Team, it was identified by a small building with a hangar inside, as well as two inter-connected struts. There were at least four support base struts in Mother Base. As the staff increased, and their unit level went up and they could respond faster to help Big Boss. There were support options like distracting the enemy by firing at them while Big Boss snuck through another side of the level, or even shooting missiles at a certain target. When leveled up enough, they could change the weather for the benefit of Diamond Dogs operatives, like creating a dust storm to give Big Boss cover. It was located to the south of the Command Platform.

Intel Platform
The home platform for the Intel unit, some of the personnel with information or special skills were housed here. When the intel platform reached a certain number of people, and a certain unit level, it would allow Venom Snake the ability to predict the weather while he's on a mission, and even mark all the enemies in a mission area before the mission begins. Ocelot headed the intel platform, and the unit stationed there. It was located to the southwest of the Command Platform.

Medical Platform
Doctors and nurses were located here, as well as most recovering soldiers. It was located to the north of the Command Platform. At the top of the platform is the door leading to Paz. It also had a below level holding cell that was a room with a large cage dominating the space with one bed and a prison like sink toilet combo. After this platform was built, and Quiet was captured, she could be found here until the side mission visiting Quiet was completed.

Animal Conservation Platform
The holding place for various animals captured in the field. It was one of the few Mother Base areas to not be directly connected to the main Mother Base. As such, it could only be accessed via chopper. The platform consisted of three prongs connected to a central strut. The strut also is an excellent place to harvest medicinal plants.

Quarantine Zone
A place to put soldiers into quarantine regarding potentially dangerous diseases. Unlike most other places of Mother Base, it only had one strut. In addition, similar to the Animal Conservation Platform, it was kept separate from the main Mother Base facility and was only accessible via chopper, for obvious reasons. This platform was also used to house the corpse of the Man on Fire, as well as members of the Parasite Unit that had been extracted during combat operations.

Brig
The holding place for various soldiers who were rowdy and/or various captured soldiers who weren't initially willing to join Diamond Dogs.

Mailing system
Mother Base had a mailing system where boxes would be put in small designated cargo holds on each strut, and mailing trucks would pick them up and deliver them to various points around the base. Venom Snake exploited this system by getting in his cardboard box when on a cargo hold, and having it mail himself instantly to the next cargo hold that he wanted to go to.

Development
The Mother Base mechanic returns in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Although similar to the base building mechanic from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, it is far more extensive in The Phantom Pain. Specifically, the player can assign staff during a mission via the iDroid and actually visit Mother Base and interact with it. In the latter, it more closely resembles the Mother Base minigame from the Ground Zeroes companion app. In addition, the player can also customize their own Mother Base's colors, with orange, sky blue, and hot pink being color choices for Mother Base. Although both the Mother Base/FOB Gamescom 2015 demo and various press releases stated that the player could make Mother Base in their own manner, a leaked map that would have been included in the Italian version of Piggyback Guides' manual for the game revealed that it would have been pre-designed, like in Peace Walker.

The player can assign staff during a mission via the iDroid as well as visit the base in person and manage the base with a greater depth than was offered in Peace Walker.

During the main story of The Phantom Pain, it was planned that Mother Base could've be attacked in retaliation to the player's actions during the missions, such as shooting up a hostile base instead of sneaking into it. The player could then personally defend the base themselves or ignore it. This feature was showcased in the E3 2014 demo, but later removed for unknown reasons.

Hideo Kojima stated during interviews after the 2015 Taipei Game Show that Mother Base in The Phantom Pain would feature a zoo to house recovered animals. He also revealed that the Mother Base infiltration game mode was entirely optional and Mother Base could be enjoyed offline if the player wished.

Like the previous Mother Base, this Mother Base shared similar design details to the Big Shell from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. During a Live IGN demo for The Phantom Pain at Gamescom 2015, Sean Eyestone and the IGN interviewer even directly compared the base to Big Shell.

Journalists covering gameplay of The Phantom Pain confirmed that, besides the Mother Base in the main game, the online version had a similar mechanic called the Forward Operating Base. A promotional pamphlet for The Phantom Pain implied that the Forward Operating Base was the only part of a player's Mother Base accessible during online mode. The Official PlayStation Magazine and Official Xbox Magazine confirmed that the Mother Base was near Africa, more specifically around the Seychelles archipelago. It also revealed that certain actions by the player could cause lowered morale among the troops, particularly if Quiet was among the members of the base or if the player was gone from the base for far too long. Both sources also implied that similar to Dark Souls, the invasions on Mother Base could be switched off by the players.

The site JunkerHQ implied on their Twitter account that Konami was working on a gameplay demo relating to Mother Base development. This was later confirmed by Konami on July 30, and also revealed to be shown on August 5.

Layout
The layout of the Diamond Dogs' Mother Base is determined and customized by the player, and as such there is no standard canonical appearance. However, the following components are true of all Mother Base builds shown thus far: It is unknown if the interior of Mother Base is accessible during multiplayer game modes. However, three interior locations have been confirmed so far: There has been no mention yet as to the new Mother Base's capacity to hold Metal Gears. However, Mother Base can hold weaponry with nuclear strike capability as the player can obtain nuclear weapons throughout the game. In addition, the E3 2015 trailer briefly featured a yet unspecified Metal Gear model at the base, as well as what was presumably Metal Gear Sahelanthropus.
 * Unlike the previous Mother Base, it was built from irregular-octagon shaped struts.
 * At least one (two simultaneous confirmed possible) Command Strut (of which two varieties are known), plus a variety of Regular Struts connected via bridges, some of which can stretch for great distances with bridge columns or smaller struts along them. Struts under construction are not always connected, however.
 * Cranes (which in the Ground Zeroes app were used to salvage resources from the seabed). Multiple cranes can be seen attached to a single strut.
 * Large storage tanks, silos and other buildings on top of Regular Struts. These assets appear to be mix-and-match in placement, with tanks and silos taking up 1/4 of a strut, and an unknown grey building taking up 1/2 of a strut.
 * Space for at least five helicopters (including Pequod).
 * One helipad per Regular Strut, two per Command Strut.
 * One unknown custom colored building on the edge of each Regular Strut.
 * Security measures such as cameras (static, rotating, gun), laser barriers, mines, spotlights and combat drones.
 * Jeeps and APCs can be recovered back to Mother Base via Fulton Recovery and are stored on the base's struts. The vehicles can also be driven by the player and NPCs.
 * Some artillery weapons can also be equipped on the base after being retrieved from a mission (via Fulton Recovery), which can be used for defense.
 * Shipping containers, obtained via Fulton (which can be stolen by other players during the Mother Base multiplayer infiltration mode).
 * Some of the struts also contain enclosed lifeboats.
 * Shooting Ranges located on the upper and lower decks of Struts, where the player and NPCs can train. Shooting ranges are determined by what shape the strut they are on so the medical strut has a different different range than the research and development strut.
 * Recovered non-player characters (such as extracted soldiers and even wildlife) populate Mother Base, but as the base gets filled to capacity new struts will be needed before more non-playing characters can be added.
 * Critical non-player characters such as Ocelot can be found in Mother Base (Ocelot in the Command Strut), and will interact with the player at times.
 * Hangars - Where many scenes from trailers have been set, such as the torturing of Huey Emmerich and Quiet, as well as a scene in which shows Venom Snake mounting a combat mech.
 * Main Area - An open space where several Diamond Dogs soldiers are seen fighting and rioting.
 * Paz's Room - Upstairs on the Medical Platform. Unlocked once the player finds a wandering solider.
 * Possible photos of the Animal Conservation Platform can be seen onboard Snake's helicopter in the beginning of the E3 2015 gameplay video demo.

Customization
Customization is a setting that only appears on the iDroid menu when in the Aerial Control Center. Upon selecting this option, the player can change the following things:

The base has 8 "plain" colors, orange, blue, grey, red, white, green, pink, tan. Changing this option changes the main color of the base.

Videos
How to get to the Zoo in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain