The recent Nerf to the IR/NV was counterproductive. Removing the ability for the IRNV to detect infiltrators is a significant drawback. The scope is already Nerfed by being a x1 zoom, and having a tiny draw distance. To those claiming that it made the infiltrator weaker; please remember that you have a sniper rifle, with a much greater engagement range than any other class and damage to boot. An infiltrator armed with a sniper rifle should not be with the main cluster of troops in a firefight, but rather 1-2 clicks away. If the infiltrator is still considered underpowered then it should be given a single shot anti-material rifle for extremely limited effect against vehicles, something in line with the MO of a real-life sniper. Another Nerf that should be removed in the Nerf to the UBGL, the Under Barrel Grenade Launcher. This weapon recently had its drop Nerfed, as well as its Damage radius significantly Nerfed. The UBGL was designed as a force multiplier with which a single soldier could kill in one round 4-5 tightly clustered enemies. The presence of this weapon on the battlefield discourages clustering and should be returned to its original state. Keeping the arming time Nerf is reasonable as this prevents it from being used as a shotgun-esk weapon. One final point I will note but not speculate on further is the addition of armoring inside windows. This is very annoying as a light assault as it prevents some flanking maneuvers, but so far has not had a truly significant effect on gameplay.
The IR/NV's is fine as it is now, it was way too powerful before and should only be used in low illumination conditions. Infiltrators are still fairly easy to locate when they are cloaked (especially for the people using low graphics). And infiltrator are not supposed to work at long range only, they had scout rifles which operate at close range, and SMGs seem to have been tailored for them especially.
Thought id adress this point by point. Its the best scope atm, people stick out like sore thumbs, you can jump while shooting with it in ADS and it wont throw it off. Render distance is currently set incredibly low, 300m for infantry afaik. So your suggestion of 1-2 clicks is just off by 1700m. You want UBGL back so you can camp and ammo pack and farm with it, it was designed as an AoE weapon thats the extent of what you can claim as fact. Its not a force multiplier its an attachment used to farm from good spots with ammo packs. And finally to adress your last point trying to justify your argument, in this game of HE, Nuclear Pineapples(hand grenades), Rockets, ESFS, Grenade spam.... yeah im sure that one guy with a UBGL will be the thing that acts as a force multiplier and on top of that makes people worried about clustering when no one can even see you in a major fight. Just be honest and say you want it to be powerfull again, this thread was just a thinly veiled justification for saying its UP, nice try though.
What they need to fix HS/NV - 1. Better friendly spotting, when I'm using this thing and I spot and it doesn't give me a blue triangle, I sometimes shoot friendlies in the face. It's hard not to since it's reflex at this point. For some reason it seems like this issue only popped up for me post patch, I'm wondering if rendering friendly spot triangles is lower priority now or something. 2. A decent crosshair, instead of the awful black one that's very difficult to see in many situations. It's still very powerful though, probably a crutch but I can't help but lean on it. As for infil cloak, I play on pretty high graphics settings and have a difficult time keeping track of infils now even at close ranges. I don't feel I should have to turn my pretty down for an advantage. Cloak with SMGs really does make them extremely effective in CQC, plus sneaking behind groups and planting mines is now much easier. Not amazingly stealthy due to the sound, but it still gives you a method of getting the jump on players which is a huge advantage.
If they ever bring in real infiltrator cloaks, like ones that make you completely invisable at the cost of a big primary weapon... then they should probably re-introduce some sort of hard-counter. I spose they can just add a dark-light scope to the game at some point and it will be balanced. How i would implement the mechanics of this: Shorter view distance than IR/NV. Used for hunting, not spotting snipers. Poorest resolution of terrain. Cloaked Enemies pop out crazier than ever with the scope activated. (Think Vin Deisal vision, from pitch black) More difficult to see regular uncloaked enemies while activated than without the scope activated at all.
Good Points, The scope is currently inferior to x3.4 or x1 scopes for TR and NC at the respective ranges. I don’t play VS so I can't make an assumption there, but removing the ability to remain in ADS while scoped would help to counteract any "OPness" of the scope, a good catch. I often forget that the game has poor rendering distance as it is not usually problematic for me, but regardless, snipers should be optimized at between 300m-600m with ranges far exceeding, if this means requiring PC's to render more then so be it, the engine can handle it and so can most gaming comps, perhaps thay can simple boost diretional rendering when scoped in? Still, a very good point. Further note on infiltrators, when equiped with a sniper rifle, they should be primarily a sniper class. Adding a version of the cloak more effective at close quarters at the expense of the sniper is of course reasonable for infiltrators intending a more up-close and personal approach. Your UBGL inference is completely off-base. I play almost exclusively LA, so I obviously don't GL spam by ammo boxes, rather I use the UBGL when attacking fortified points by drawing 3 or more enemies to a choke and blasting them, before continuing guerilla type operations around the area. As such the UBGL allows a single well positioned infantryman to make a significant difference in even a large firefight. However they want to do it, this function needs to be reinstated. To counter the "ammo box UBGL spam" simply set a timer on how often a UBGL can get an ammo from a box, say 60 seconds each after the first 2 rounds. To address your final point about AOE proliferation, it is true that plenty of other classes and weapons also act as cluster deterrents, but on a modern, or futuristic battlefield cluster is likely to be very uncommon due to this exact effect, ensuring that classes like the LA, Medic, and Engi are able to assist in that is crucial. Finally I stand by my point that, if Planetside’s weapons are designed to function in any way like their real world counterparts, a UBGL is and should be a position-based force multiplier. As an additional note I always play on high graphics, the low graphics render problems with the infiltrater cloak are a seperate issue that needs to be fixed.
Also, the UBGL has been consistantly underpowered for some time, due to glitches reloading it and glitches resulting in no damage from direct or close impacts, it appears that these glitches have been fixed, a definite plus, but adding nerfs to replace the glitches is not the right approach. And if it seemed veiled then the fault is mine, let me restate. I find the UBGL UP at the current time. The IRNV is not particularly UP, but having a weapon scope of some type able to detect stealthed snipers is something I think should definately return.
why not give the option to change the color of crosshairs or mil dots or w/e sight you happen to be using and give the HS/Nv the ability to spot infiltrators again, thats the main reason i got it, the sight is pretty good on it for CQC an short ranges IMHO. or if nto fix it give us an IR scope or something that can show infiltrators. i have my graphics on max and love how everything looks, i shouldn't have to tune anything down just to spot them.
There could be an armor added that hides you from infared. Would be pretty useful. I do think removing it's special abilities to detect Infiltrators or see through smoke risks making the scope useless due to the gimped sight range. I'm also still waiting for a regular NV scope that has normal range, and doesn't highlight people just lets you see better in the dark.
