Infiltratorside 2

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by SarahM, Oct 7, 2013.

  1. Get2dachoppa

    No FOTM for me. I run a non-ZOE Nebula Max.

    As for Infiltrators, not really seeing any big increase in them. Its still mostly Heavies/Medics/Engi's from what I can tell.
  2. Rikkit

    In my opinion th e cloacker is a great choice for the first hours in the game.
    While they sitting far away they could learn the game step by step.
    How to move, how to aim.... and who is who. And while they learning all this stuff they didnt get killed every 2m.
    So they are not just dieing and running, they can run sit watch shoot and die.

    And i belive some of the higer BR guys are now bored so they try some different experiences
  3. Rolfski

    Because infiltrator is one of the best CQB classes in the game.
  4. Being@RT

    Note: I'm terrible at infiltrator. I don't have an SMG, and don't ever snipe. But I see the recon dart as one of the most powerful abilities in game you can bring to a team, and hacking stuff is high up on the list as well.. so I've been attempting to practice infiltrator a bit, with the automatic scout rifle and maxed recon dart. Someone has to bring radar coverage, and sitting on a Flash is not very fun.

    If I recall correctly, there was quite a bit of complaints early on. After that initial high usage wave passed, the SMG infiltrator wasn't that numerous after all. I'd wager that early on only very active players (who are few in numbers) or those who spent SC (also low in numbers) got it.. but they have other classes/vehicles/games to play as well, and they had their early fill of the SMG.

    Now, 10 months later, even the less active/nonpaying playerbase has had time to purchase SMGs, with certs. In those months, more people started using nanoweave (high level nanoweave at that) as well, pushing more of the sniper infiltrators into CQC instead. I'd even argue that new map design has more close range combat more than the old areas did. Add in the cloak visibility changes and recon dart (another item where people have started to spend certs on) giving exp when spotted targets get killed.

    It's not that the SMG infiltrator is more powerful now than it was (arguable, but if there is a difference, it's not huge), they're just more common. People complain about what kills them, and there are more SMG infiltrators killing them now than in the past 9 months. Imo, anyways.

    Agreed.
    It truly feels like the cloak is worse when I'm using it than when it is used against me. Maybe it's a graphics settings issue (or resolution issue? something anyways) or just me imagining things. Maybe it's a difference in latency or who knows what.


    This truly puzzles me. It doesn't have a resource cost, everyone has it, it's always with you regardless of what equipment you choose otherwise and can even get darts from ammo packs.. and it gets you exp directly for showing you targets, and indirectly from other peoples' kills.
    Granted, it can seem lackluster at level 1. All it takes is the expenditure of certs to get increased radius/duration/darts.. remotely deployed 50m radius scout radar ping every 1.25 seconds for 45 seconds at max level, with 5 "ammo". (actually, the tooltip for the dart launcher says 40 seconds, the cert tooltip says 45s, not sure which is correct (if either)).


    Indeed.
    Only the Armistice and Cyclone actually beat Carv/Orion in sheer damage output, and them only up to 12m. Against NC they fare a bit better, but still lose out at 20m-ish. Against carbines or assault rifles the SMGs fare worse in a dps/TTK comparison.

    SMGs are a good choice for infiltrators, whose other choice for CQC role is the automatic scout rifle.. which is basically an average carbine with worse hipfire, less ammo and 0.5x movement.

    1. True
    2. True, although the devs could have made the auto-scouts do this.
    3. Nanoweave in general has too big of an effect, 25% total hitpoints is madness whether you're shooting at a target with sniper rifles (they get the worst effect obviously) or not. I already thought it was strong back when it was (or I thought it was) 125 health. At least the changes to flak armor (as per test server patch notes) might make nanoweave have actual competition (but that change will make ASC even more marginalized..)
  5. Corporate Thug

    yeah, it's really annoying. I have an AMD processor and I've always played on low since my start in January. Before others couldn't see them on higher settings, now I can barely see them right in front of me, while they're running, on low settings :(

    My FPS isn't that bad and I should probably turn up my graphics because I've been running into lots more of them. I don't have any issues with others playing infiltrator, as long as I can see them, but it isn't for me. I prefer head up gun fights.
  6. Vaphell

    what's so puzzling? Does every inf have 1780 certs to burn to max the ability that for majority of the game life yielded 0xp and up to rank3 is more or less useless? It's not like it's a maxed mana AV turret that prints certs.
  7. Liberty

    If I had to take a guess, the increase in SMG infilitrators is the result of two things, first bolt actions no longer OHKO's against most targets. Second, the repeated nerfs to shotguns.

    Combine that with the general trend to take the path of least resistance (in this case, having a better chance of flanking targets and killing targets before they can react) and you have your answer.

    I personally have no qualms with CQC infilitrators, just why I would expect players to flock to them.
    • Up x 1
  8. Corporate Thug

    Basically the same reasons why certain things become OP. Not because a few guys excel at using the weapons/class/ability but more because it is a bit easier so many others wish capitalize on it and that creates situations that developers couldn't predict when they did the initial balancing.

    Some people say that it isn't easy, when I am super camped, like no way out, how is it that the only class I can escape and actually get some kills with is the infiltrator? The lower HP means nothing, it's pretty much saying a LA with a shot gun is at a disadvantage when facing a HA w/ a LMG. Now, with having the ability to take less damage when cloaked(like a faster, almost invisible HA with his shield up), how is it even hard?
  9. Being@RT

    It never yielded 0 exp.. but the thing is that people generally have trouble seeing indirect bonuses. If it doesn't pop up xp numbers on the screen, it didn't give you any? But clearly a legal "radar hack" is useful, else something with similar effect wouldn't be illegal in games where it's not part of the design.


    ---
    And no, every inf doesn't have 1780 certs to burn. But then again it doesn't require that many to start being useful..
    If it starts being useful at rank4, that's a cert cost of 280. rank5 is 780 and the final rank makes it that 1780.
    The rank4 cost definitely isn't too much, even if the final two ranks are costly (a new total cost of 30+50+200+300+500 = 1080, maybe?)

    Rank3 prox radar costs 700 certs and has same 40m range as rank4 recon dart, but can't be deployed remotely, obviously. Also only shows for occupants of a vehicle instead of everyone of your faction. Maxed it ends up costing 1200.

    ---
    In a similar vein as recon darts are engineer ammo packs.. way too few engineers drop them around, but at least there's the possibility they don't know about changing fire mode on the mana turret deployables to deploy an ammo pack instead.
  10. Vaphell

    the class is cert starved as it is, in case of f2p with no access to decent weapons beyond sniper rifles it takes ages to farm certs for anything and there is no meaningful secondary source of xp beyond killing, unlike repairs/ammo/heals. Infs also don't have means to deal with mech for fat rewards.

    Everything on inf is ungodly expensive. I play nothing but inf (95%) + engie for turret repairs and recently HA for cheap AA/AV lockons yet it took me 40+BRs to deck out the class, mines, longshot, smg, cloak, darts. Yes, i maxed darts, i spam them religiously in teamplay situations, sometimes doing nothing but staying near terminals and shooting at anything that will make the dart stick - according to my profile at players.planetside2.com recon device rank 6 alone sits at 16k uses as compared to 7.5k kills.
    All that doesn't change the fact that if you are on early stages of your inf journey, price tag on darts seem absurdly exorbitant and that they are very binary - you either max them or not bother because 2-3 short lived darts are nothing.

    True, there is some indirect profit in darts, but let's compare it to engies driving tanks. When you drive a tank, it's the tank that earns you xp but you still get direct repair xp, even thought the repair with 0xp would still yield indirect profit related to increased survivability and less downtime. In that sense darts were 0xp which made countless other options have much bigger perceived bang for the cert.

    Also for majority of the game life ATVs with the scout radar pretty much nullified significance of recon darts: baseline 5 minutes of time, required no ammo. I had flash radar certed only to 3/4 of max range and it was obscenely powerful, way beyond dart rank 3 or 4. Darts were only useful to notorious lonewolves because in teamplay every other corner saw a parked flash.

    Now the situation is reversed. You get the most out of darts when you spam them in meatgrinders thanks to the stream of +10xp, but their use in lonewolfing became a double edged sword, as the dart circle showing up on the minimap draws unwanted attention.
  11. Divinorium

    That's the problem here. the developers didn't need to predict what would happen. They saw, they experienced, they ACKNOWLEDGED what happens.

    In the beta Infiltrators had acess to shotguns, not the pump action, the old shotguns that was almost never used because it sucked. Yet when Infiltrators could use the weapon, that "sucked", they were so OP that the devs blocked the weapon for the class.

    Then they add a weapon that has focus in CqC like shotguns but different from shotguns isn't completely useless at distance, is worse then others but you still can kill players.

    Tell me how they didn't know what would happen?

    The complains are coming now? NO back when SMG were added to the game ppl complained, alot.

    But SOE made one "OPss" and let low settings see clearly infiltrators.

    Most of the competitive players begun to use low setting because of that, completely shutting down the Infiltrators in the game.

    Infiltrators didn't use this tactic because everyone was using low setting completely breaking his special ability in CqC.

    Now they fixed the setting problem. Guess who noticed and is beginning to take advantage of the OP tactic?
  12. Mustarde

    Vaphell is pointing out what had bothered a lot of dedicated infiltrators for a long time in the game's lifecycle.

    The medic ability, with the amazing power to revive players and MAX units, only required 500c get the final rank (too lazy to get you the full cert cost for all ranks but you get the idea. Not only is this cheaper, and yet a powerful ability for medics, but it rewards one with the same amt of certs as getting a kill. The engineer gun is no better, with an equally cheap cert investment (relative to recon gun), incredible importance in gameplay, and also highly rewarding in certs.

    Now take the recon dart - a powerful ability for sure. Wall-hack on demand. But with a much higher cert requirement, and for months, no way to directly earn those certs back. The dedicated infils of course maxed this out right away. But even then, with less ways to "grind" those certs efficiently, it took quite the masochistic infiltrator to stay true to his/her craft and still get to the point where you can appreciate the power of this ability.

    I'm glad we get some xp for darts. I still think the dart tool is too expensive, and would like to see it brought in line with other class abilities. That being said, it's not highest on the list of things I want to see changed regarding infiltrators.

    As far as the game being infiltratorside - I think the HA will always remain supreme in most combat situations, with medics being a close second. I do find it entertaining how much hate people have for infiltrators, even though we are not very numerous and often have a low impact on the battle. The number of threads with sniper hate and now SMG hate... what the hell do you want me to use to kill you? Pretty soon there will be a thread asking for a nerf to the infiltrator knife, because it's a 2 hit kill.
    • Up x 1
  13. DeadliestMoon

    I was 100% serious, it's because Infiltrators are the go to "montage" class.
  14. Scudmungus


    I believe the Stalker Cloak will either take up/disable the Primary Weapon slot.

    So, no, Stalker Cloak SMG Infi. Sorry, so say.

    Which is why I've been running with my Commy so much!
  15. HAYMAKER

    Are you talking about Otakuwizard on Woodman? Lol. That dude, is everywhere, but nowhere to be seen. Untill he uncloaks in your face..
  16. HAYMAKER

    Are you talking about Otakuwizard on Woodman? Lol. That dude, is everywhere, but nowhere to be seen. Untill he uncloaks in your face..
  17. IamDH

    yeah thats him lol.

    He usually gets a skyguard and goes to enemy WGs too
  18. ViXeN


    I actually have noticed more INFs on Waterson lately, especially the ones with SMGs who like to creep up on you if you're not paying attention.
  19. HAYMAKER

    Yeah, but you have to admit everyone does it to the Faction who sits in the warpgate TR is in now.
  20. IamDH

    Pretty sure if he wanted to he could still do it.

    That guy gets an infiltrator and starts hacking AA turrets near bases next to WG. When you go looking for him he vanishes and takes the AA in the next base

    I've seen that guy do so much things. I recall once seeing him farm people in a bulldog galaxy