Higsby said we would get cool knife moves. Yeah that is a load of crap. New "Moves"? Dev's are way to lazy to make true "Changes" other than tweaking damage and armor numbers. Once a game is made such things never ever happen.
There were faction flavored knives in the original that, essentially, complimented the Stalker cloaking device. They had a default mode, which was akin to the normal knife; then they had an activated mode that provided additional damage and a one hit kill, if I'm not mistaken. I can't fathom what they would be thinking if they are planning to give us Stalker cloaking without an adequate means to really do anything with it...since it costs our primary weapon, just like the Stalker cloaking of old.
I would expect hunter cloaking to receive a buff, because there are those of us infiltrators who want to keep using our smg's or, dare I say, scout rifles. I don't expect hunter cloaking to go up to half an hour or be close to on par with the length of the stalker cloak, but would a few second extension and increase of cloak quality really be too much to ask? I think not.
I doubt it'll get any sort of buff, on high end graphics...I'm almost positive it's working as intended. The only buff I see coming for the Hunter Cloak is in regards to the low end settings, which has seemingly been addressed in the Test forums according to someone within this thread (name eludes me and I'm lazy to back peddle.)
Hmmm, hunter's cloak is already pretty strong in areas with terrain, or large bases. It's just most people sit on Indra. I'm surprised we didn't get a cloak that lets us stay off motion tracking.. But I guess they wanted to implement that with the implants. As for the Drone it has to do something besides recon. We have the recon tool already so it'd be pointless not to have it weaponized.
Hunter Cloak still needs a buff, because true infiltration with it in its current state is nearly impossible. Doing some occasional flanking with it MIGHT work at times, but it's almost useless in infiltrating an actual enemy facility with actual enemies. A few small changes would really go a long way. I'm standing by with my view that the noise is too loud on hunter cloaking, the duration is too short, and the cloak itself is too obvious. It's called "hunter" cloaking for a reason, isn't it? Most likely the hunter cloak will stay the way it is minus the bug fix, but that doesn't mean the problems with it aren't still there. Yeah. If the drone only did recon, the recon tool would actually be superior to the drone because the recon dart can't be shot down, and you can use it while moving. The drone will most likely be outfitted with some weapon. Imagine how you'd use that, eh? Weapons notwithstanding, ff it starts off deployed on the ground, a clever infiltrator will get a light assault to strap C4 on it... now THAT'D be fun!
Always said that: Hunter is ok for sniping and flanking, not for infiltration. That's why we're getting a new cloaking device: Stalker Cloaking is the way to go if you want to sneak next to your targets.
I agree with you, but the problem is that what about those of us who want to infiltrate and use those smgs? My cyclone is all decked out. I have extended ammunition, suppressor, soft point ammo, and reflex scope and NV scope. I don't see why it would be at all overpowered to just give the stalker cloak some other weakness and let us keep primary weapons. As I've said, I think it was just something not thought through completely.
Here's what I really want to know: Are you doing to debug and then buff the EMP nades? If the existing bugs were fixed, and they were then buffed to not just deactivate shields and cloaks but to completely deplete the energy pool of the active abilities of all classes (medic AOE heal, HA shield, LA jetpack, Infil cloak and Engie turrets), this would be a very useful thing. As it is, it's a novelty item that's not really worth 200 certs.
That would completely ruin the point of the Stalker Cloak which is non-combat infiltration. The Hunter Cloak is perfectly fine for sniping (which includes SA Scout Rifles). This leaves only Auto Scout Rifles and SMGs - the CQC weapons. Ideally, the Nano-Armor Cloak would be the cloak for CQC, and in some ways it is - it helps you escape combat situations that are not suitable. Could it use buff? I personally think so, but not a direct increase of the damage mitigation stat - instead add a motion-wave effect to it to throw off enemy bullets. If you want a cloak that helps directly in CQC (like the other classes have via their abilities), then you have to design a new cloak altogether - maybe a cloak that allows you to fire but has very poor visibility reduction and gives you normalised shields (like the other classes). Still, not sure how needed this is - you could just play another class. I guess being able to play that playstyle but have the ability to hack for your team wouldn't be a bad idea (instead of healing, repairing, AV options, etc).
If it's for non-combat infiltration, good luck having something to do. The nano-armor cloak is the most useless item in the game. It's just a terrible version of the heavy shield that doesn't last as long and takes longer to recharge- anyone who uses it effectively should get an auraxium medal. I specialize mostly in going behind enemy lines, killing important people that are vulnerable and taking their stuff with hacking. Simple as that. The tools for doing that aren't there. The best we have is the hunter cloak that is woefully underpowered for that. Don't misunderstand me, I don't hate the stalker cloak. I'll even give it a chance when it comes out on the chance that I can very well be wrong about it. I don't like the lack of flexibility with the cloaks. With the update, you can either make loud shing sounds around an enemy base armed with a cloak as clear as day, get stripped of your primary weapon, or... the nano armor cloak. If the nano-armor cloak were dramatically buffed (CQC or not, the point of an infiltrator is stealth, right?) I would say otherwise.
" Vehicle hacking was talked about. The word is a big no " Yes I did play the first game and I enjoyed sneaking up to an AMS and put it out of commision !! I could hack it while beeing cloaked BUT there would be a Beam out of my rec tool ,, alerting everyone what was going on What they could do without messing up every single thread of coding ,, is this !! instead of turning a Hacked prowler suddenly turn NC prowler is > immobilize the target and turrets wouldn't fire for 10 secs or something like that
@Dr. Euthenasia That's actually very cool. Even if the rate was, say, 50% faster, I would utilize that. I hope it makes it into the final update. It would be very useful, but only if it lasted just long enough and could be certed so it would last longer. No use only being for four seconds. Well, here's what I've always thought about hacking vehicles. The infiltrator uses a boxy device that he either latches on to the vehicle directly or it has a short range and he throws it onto the vehicle. The vehicle begins operating erratically, such as moving slower overall, randomly firing/not firing the weapon, and making bizarre turns/directions. It could be dealt with by a friendly infiltrator using a similar method, or an engineer. The same would go for planes, as well. I think that'd be simple to implement. One problem could be that the devs interpreted vehicle hacking as something similar to turret hacking. Truth be told, that's not what I was thinking, and I'm sure most people weren't thinking anything of the sort.
Well, vehicle hacking in the original Planetside was exactly that - taking control of the vehicle. It's usually the default assumption when anyone brings up the idea without elaborating further, both because of its history and the fact that our current hacking ability accomplishes that same effect and nothing else. I actually did a poll in the Gameplay Discussion forum with the explicit statement that the effect of a hack be left to the developers, and the results were surprisingly favorable. Coding problems (which I really wish I could speak to one of the people involved about since that happens to be a language I understand) seem to be the only reason it's not in the game, unless SOE is waiting for us to collectively decide what we want the hack to do.
From watching the video I can only surmise that neither of the announcers has played an infiltrator. My analysis. Explosive Detection Suitslot - So infiltrators can spot explosives, but cannot disarm them apart from shooting them. I don't really see this replacing nanoweave on infiltrators. Yes, explosives can sometimes be hard to spot, but we tend to face bullets more than we do explosives. If you do spot an explosive, it is often better to find a way around it than shooting it on the off-chance that your decloaking sound or gunfire would attract someone's attention. Stalker Cloak - I get that this comes from PS1, but back during PS1 infiltrators had more options to influence the battlefield than we do now. Will this cloak work at all? Or will this suffer from the same problems that hunter cloak has? They do not go into any specifics about the cloak's effective duration (that is how long you can move while cloaked before having to stop). Is it longer or shorter than the Hunter Cloak? Will you be able to fire from cloak with stalker cloak like you could in PS1? None of this is even touched on. Motion Sensor - The problem I see with the motion sensor is its effective range. The smaller the range the closer the infiltrator has to get the front to deploy it. Given the dangers involved in approaching a large group of enemy soldiers and planting a sensor, it will be easier on infiltrators to just use their recon dart. Solo, you aren't going to need that amount of static sensor coverage, and in a squad/platoon, you can rely on some engineer playing the resupply game. Straight Bolt - Chambering rounds while aiming down sights sounds nice, but what is going to be the tradeoff? Lower bullet velocity? Longer reload? Lower damage? Higher Bloom? Even if you have multiple targets to hit down range, we are still limited by the smoker-lung breathe mechanics. This could be useful, but it doesn't cover the fact that sniper rifles are slowly becoming inefficient to use due to nanoweave proliferation. Recon Drone - something about this feels wrong. While an expendable drone on the battlefield would be invaluable, how does this help the infiltrator do what he's supposed to do? Death is cheap on Auraxis. If we need sensor coverage we have the recon tool. The ability to stealthily scout out areas should be something built into the base of our class. Weapons on the drone? What kind? Is the drone going to be sturdy enough to be useful in combat? This feels like something an engineer would deploy rather than an infiltrator. General Gripes This really doesn't address many of the problems that infiltrators face in game. A) Nanoweave negates OHK with bolt actions. The fact that this is allowed is absurd. A headshot with a bolt action should kill any infantry save maybe a heavy with his shield up. That is the purpose of the bolt action, it trades off fire rate for high-damage high-precision shot. B) There is little for an infiltrator to do apart from killing. Hacking works, but there is often very little for an infiltrator to hack, and more often than not it is destroyed in the fight. Recon darts are useful, but that is often something we do while killing things. C) Sniping has no impact on large fights. Death on Auraxis is cheap, and people will respawn often as fast as you kill them. As the number of enemy players increases, the effect of killing medics and engineers drops. In addition, medics can pick people up often as fast, or faster than you can chamber a round for your rifle. At this point, all the sniper is doing is padding his score. D) Infiltrators is the only class that cannot cert into a way to affect vehicles. If hacking vehicles isn't going to work, then why do we not have C4? Thematically it makes no sense that a class that is dedicated to stealth, recon, and sabotage not have a way of dealing with stationary/inattentive vehicles. E) Why are the devs trying to force infiltrators to remain stationary when the class is at its strongest when it is mobile? As the lowest health class that relies on either extreme range or ambush tactics to function, why do the devs think being stationary (and oblivious) while manning a drone is a good thing? F) For a class based around stealth, why is our basic stealth limited to 12 seconds? This makes our class extremely inflexible when it comes to stealth. Instead we should have a longer lasting cloak that recharges at the same rate that our cloak does now (that is it would take the same amount of time to recharge 12s rather than the max amount). By providing a flexible base cloak, it allows the creation of alternative cloaks to be more limited, yet focused in scope. This is really just my views on the class, but from what I've seen, the devs are not playing the same infiltrators that we are.
Infils need items that reduce sway on the scope. An increased stabilization so that they can have the gun stay steady longer. Straight bolt is good. Also, let Sniper Rifles mount HVA. Then, let them mount the suppressor without the minus to velocity. Next, increase damage degradation to 750@100m-650@200m. Its a long range precision weapon afterall. I was trying to snipe today with an EM4, I found it incredibly hard to even see the targets from the 400m I was trying initially. Then the sway made it impossible. Also, Sniper RIfles and scout rifles and marksman rifles should all have like a 600m/s velocity. The EM4/RAMS50 should be like 725m/s. I trialed the Gauss SPR....500m/s? yikes thats bad.
I can see the explosive detection suit being somewhat more useful if it allowed infils to "rewire" mines to their own faction without changing the outward appearance of the mine.
Wow that is exciting to see a possible spectre cloak is at least being considered. I think that if the developers are just now trying out the infiltrator they should be seeing the shortcomings of the hunter cloak, short duration, high visibility, sound effect that gives away your position, and the difference in visibility at different settings levels. These things took time to overcome that I feel will make these changes more of a possibility thanever before.
This would be the option that you're looking for. Nano-Armor Cloaking appears to be an extremely viable choice for those who have a more aggressive infiltration style...making use of the SMG in particular. When they implement Stalker cloaking into the game, we'll finally have a much more fleshed out class that permits multiple styles of play, on par with the other classes. Hunter Cloaking: Snipers Cloak Stalker Cloaking: Infiltration Cloak Nano-Armor Cloaking: Middle-ground Cloak With the Stalker cloaking...we'll become melee oriented assassins who make use of the knife for quick clean kills. It's likely that they'll provide us with a designated knife that's similar to the original game, granting an alternate mode that gives one hit kill capability. Now, we'll be terror agents who are capable of quick kills from a distance and at range, while still possessing an adequate middle-ground for those who seek out that style. The type of playing style you seem more geared towards is the chaotic middle-ground; where we should be at our weakest. The other two types focus around time and patience, rewarded with quick kills and a more sadistic sort of pleasure. In my opinion, that's where we should be our strongest...hence the one hit kill capabilities. Still, with that said, the video goes to show you that the Infiltrator is capable of entering that awkward middle-ground and providing a very harasser-type presence if those who choose it are willing to work towards the skill needed to exceed the area being our weak point. The fix to the low end graphics bug will make this a bit easier to accomplish for those choosing that style, but beyond that...I don't see any reason to change those two types of cloak. This provides us with a very fleshed out class. I disagree that the Stalker Cloak should be non-combat oriented; I just feel that it should render us an absolute terror at melee range. Even if they don't provide us with a new designated knife, the current quick knife is still going to provide us a lot of offensive fun while infiltrating an enemy stronghold...so long as the cloak is up to par with what it should be. I do, however, completely agree with you on your thoughts towards Nano-Armor cloaking...and that motion-wave effect would be an interesting idea... Either way, I address all of this more in my post within the signature. They need to completely change the way hacking works, and I believe the way I have set it up will do the job. If they were to add some new hackable systems, like vehicles, doors, etc...then this would be even better.
