[Suggestion] LA tools

Discussion in 'Light Assault' started by Demigan, Dec 11, 2016.

  1. Demigan

    So the LA might be getting the RockletRifle, but I expect that it will be a bit of a let down. Because it's going to be in the LA toolslot it's capabilities are going to be heavily handicapped or otherwise every HA will start moaning about how their RL's aren't as good as the LA despite the LA being 'Light' right?

    So I would like to suggest additional LA tools to give the LA the variability and capabilities it needs as both a team-oriented class and chaos expert. The LA has much in common with the Infiltrator in that both rely on stealth, flanking and creating chaos behind enemy lines, so some of these idea's will come fairly close to the Infiltrator's capabilities:

    Sonic pulse:
    Gives off a single pule that locates all enemies within a certain distance. All enemies that are located will receive a wire-frame on the exact location they are in at that moment. The wire-frame doesn't follow them, so it only gives a rough idea of what the players are doing at the moment you ping them. The wire-frame is visible to everyone in your team within 100m and disappears after a few seconds.
    The ability would have a short cooldown. Say 30 seconds at the first cert and the last cert would shorten it to 10 to 15 seconds.

    Heat goggles:
    Instead of having to equip a special scope and being in ADS to spot through smoke, completely negating the LA's mobility, you can equip heat goggles. Great for LA's that throw smoke and use their hipfire or newfound flying combat capabilities.

    Spot tracker:
    Tracks a maximum number of enemies when you spot them. Tracked enemies will receive a wire-frame that's visible through objects and walls, allowing the LA and his allies to lay traps for spotted enemies. The wire-frame lasts 10 seconds after the LA himself spots the target, any spots by allies will not extend the duration. If you exceed the maximum number of tracked spots then an old spot will simply disappear.

    False signatures:
    Creates false signatures on the radar to confuse the enemy, especially handy when the enemy uses spotting devices, but could also be used to feign enemy attacks or to lure players in search of a player that's not there.
    This could be a cooldown ability or it could use jumpjet fuel to run.

    Fire-nozzles:
    Burns some jumpjet fuel to fire a cone-shaped blast in front of the LA for some alpha-damage (say 300 damage within 2m and 50 damage at 5m where the cone ends as an example), the blast leaves smoke behind for a short moment, blinding the opponent. Also allows the LA to make himself harder to spot when engaged. Would be nice to remove all current spots on the LA and make the LA immune to spots for a few seconds when he uses this so he can use the smoke to obfuscate himself.
    After use it goes on a short cooldown, so you can't instantly burn all your jumpjet fuel for a OHK. The cooldown would be really short, like 3 to 10 seconds depending on your certification. Higher certs would increase the time the smoke remains in the air and the time you remain unspottable.

    Fuel tank:
    When your jumpjet fuel is full you'll recharge up to two fuel tanks. When used a fuel tank will instantly refill 33% of your jumpjet fuel (as an example, it could depend on the type of jumpjet you are using, say 100% for Icarus, 50% for normal and 10% for Drifter).
    Fuel tanks can also be dropped, after which they can be shot to detonate. This will deal (for instance) 300 damage in the inner blast radius and have a large AOE, for instance 8m. The fuel tankscan also deal light damage to vehicles.
    These fuel tanks would be great for allowing the LA to set traps, weakening opponents with a nice explosion of 1 or 2 fuel tanks before finishing them off.
    • Up x 2
  2. Kanelbullen300

  3. FirePhox

    I personally think the rocklet rifle will be a good fit for the light assault. It fills the niche of close range anti-air which basically doesn't exist for infantry at the moment, and also gives all new players an anti-air weapon on stock, the lack of which has always been a big criticism for this game. Given the easy ride Heavies have had for the past 4 years, I don't think they have any right to complain about anything. (thankfully the designer doesn't seem to be the kind of person to give into forum tears, but rather change things to improve the game for the population as a whole) I'm a little concerned what impact the RR will have on the ground vehicle game but then there is talk of tanks (possibly) getting machine guns so it probably won't be a massive issue.

    That said, I used to fantasize about what kind of tools the LA could have gotten in the past. I always liked to think of the LA as a sort of special forces class, get in quickly, him em hard and fast and then get out before they know what him them. Heat goggles would have been a perfect match since they would synergise well with smoke grenades, and help reinforce the LA's breach and clear role. (maybe even with close range (10m) heart-beat scanner to help the class indentify potential targets quickly) I also like the idea of a false signiture generator or Jammer, basically to spread misdirection so that the fagile LA can get his job done without attracting too much attention.

    I'm not really a fan of the idea of giving the LA group utility though, things which affect the whole team will probably turn out to be either incredibly overpowered to the point of necessity (dildars), or encourage a 'bring a token LA for his party trick' situation which is basically the situation with the Infiltrator already. Classes should be brought for their individual impact on a fight, not their 'how can they buff the 9 other heavy assualts in the squad' impact.
  4. Demigan

    Oh it's definitely going to be a good fit for the LA, but I doubt that the DPS capabilities of the RR will be high enough to be really worth it. That's why I think it should go in the utility slot: The resource cost means it doesn't have to be weak and it would be a viable competition for C4 bricks.

    Also as a short-ranged G2A weapon I think it's going to suck balls. Like any G2A weapon it's designed as a low-skill flak weapon that's going to give more than enough time for the aircraft to get out of range. I would rather fire powerful micro-missiles that require aim to hit aircraft but actually pay off if the aircraft doesn't react or is hovering about rather than flying.

    :)

    But since you've been thinking about it, what are your idea's for tools?

    This is more a criticism against the Heavy and current team-abilities as a whole than the actual idea of giving the LA teamplay capabilities.

    I hoped that my idea's wouldn't generate the "one LA is enough" ideals because the abilities aren't fire-and-forget and are less general purpose than the infiltrator dildar, engineer ammo pack or the 'two medics is enough' revives.
    The sonic pulse for instance has a cooldown, shows only one glimps of the enemy and is completely based on your LA's position and survival, while a dildar and ammo don't care about the owner surviving or even being in the same room.
    The same with the spot tracker. It's mainly useful for the LA to track and hunt down enemies they saw beforehand, but it also helps track enemy vehicles or infantry for allies. Especially as a spotter this would allow the LA to give a heads-up to his allies who can pre-aim and pre-fire on targets. Due to the limited tracks you have there's always room for more LA's. Also it's completely dependent on the LA, and only lasts 10 seconds after the LA spotted the target.
  5. Eternaloptimist

    I haven't kept track of what the RR will do. Hopefully it will be useful for things where one of our precious C4 bricks would be overkill, like taking down flashes and mana turrets, maybe hurting harrassers. Being able to kill a Max without having to brick him would be cool too.

    TBH I don't think a G2A RL is much use as an air deterrent on it's own or with just the occasional opportunity to shoot. So a less powerful RR ain't gonna be much use against air on its own is it?
  6. kr47er


    what are you a frustated hacker?
  7. FirePhox

    Provided the RR releases as it is on PTS, there will be 3 ammo types for different occassions. The default is AA/AV, the Typhoon is AV/AM and the Locklet is the same as the default but lower DPS potential in exchange for a very mobile lockon system (the default already has low DPS, so locklets are super low DPS)

    Compared to the Rocklet launchers which are everything or nothing, the RR gives the user more opportunities to hit the target, coupled with the LA's ability to get higher ground this makes it more difficult for Aircraft to hide from retaliation (which is pretty much the biggest problem with G2A launchers). The default rocklets are also quite accurate over range which will also give the LA the ability to pressure armor at a distance or deal burst damage at close range using the discharge function.

    I think it will see a lot of use as an ESF AA weapon, but its use will definitely be restricted to close range lolpodding or AirHammers. The typhoon ammo type would probably see more use by veteran players because of its anti vehicle and anti max capabilities.

    My favourite was the NV/heat goggles as mentioned earlier. I liked the idea of giving LA a hook of sorts that they could scale things easier. Rather than tools, there were also some suggestions for using the Jetpack for extra utility like a press F to jet backwards quickly (for extra survivability) or to jump forward quickly like the jetpacks in the beta trailers. Personally, I think that any tool that the LA gets should be strictly offensive in nature to help reinforce LA as an Assualt class instead of an infiltrator with a jetpack.

    I think some new ammo types for RR would be a good addition, such as a darklight flare which reveals nearby infs and causes a small (non-stackable) DOT effect which could be used to help break chokes.
  8. Kcalehc

    I think tools that enhance their already good mobility might also be useful.

    Nanite Gravity Repulsor - Increases the distance the LA can fall before taking damage, and increases the distance fall that will cause fatal damage. Has several ranks, stacks (additively) with the implant that does the same.

    Attractor Harness - Allows the LA to 'stick' to any vertical or near vertical surface. Must be equipped to place, can then turn round and fire. Using jump jets will immediately un-stick you. Gives opportunity to climb some areas more easily, and to ambush from unexpected places.

    Extractor Jets - A small jet that allows the LA to jump backwards a short distance; for those times when you overextend and need to back away quickly or slow/stop your forward motion.
    • Up x 1
  9. NubCannon


    i like alot of these ideas but they would really step in the infiltrators territory a lot. the false signature thing actually is a grenade for the infiltrator. not really worth the 150 certs to unlock, but its occasionally fun

    and the spot tracker and sonic pulse are straight up infiltrator territory however light assault can get motion darts if using the xbow. i feel like the spot tracker would be a little op for LAs that use shotguns especially in biolabs

    but the heat goggles are a great idea.
  10. Demigan

    The Infiltrator and LA share a lot of properties. Both are good at sabotage behind enemy lines and the LA is a wonderful spotter, albeit without spotting tools.

    The difference that I was trying to make is how they spot. The Infiltrator uses external spotting tools and his decoy grenade is external too, he places them and doesn't look at them anymore, he doesn't even need to be around for them to work! This works well for the Infiltrator as he's more of a back-of-the-frontline guy (assuming you aren't SMG infiltrating).
    The LA's proposed spotting/decoy tools are all designed internally. They are on top of the LA and never leave him. This fits the LA more as he's more into-the-fray due to his weapon selection. His spotting tools are also more limited. The sonic pulse only shows the current location but doesn't update itself, the spot tracker can only track a limited amount of people and requires active spotting, and when the spot wears off the enemy is invisible again while the Infiltrators spotting tools remain operational for extended periods of time and don't even require a LOS.
    The decoy grenade of the Infiltrator needs a nice upgrade anyway. However I think that the proposed false signatures wouldn't be a bad fit for the LA. The LA would use it to confuse and obfuscate his position, while the Infiltrator uses decoys to attract enemies (or their attention) and lay traps. Fits both characters pretty well.

    Also, how would the spot tracker be OP in biolabs? You would have to spot the target, get out of sight before they blow your face off (you are wielding a shotgun and if you had the opportunity to shoot you wouldn't be spotting), and then... You have 10 seconds to relocate and try to flank the opponent(s) you spotted, hoping to all hell that in the busy biolab you won't get flanked while you are focused on the tracked targets. I would think that these type of spots would be more valuable in semi-open terrain, where the LA can spot someone from a height or covert position, then immediately follow them and flank them.
  11. NubCannon

    I feel like the Spot tracker would be OP in biolabs because it would negate the effects smoke grenades, and seeing exactly where someone is behind cover would make shotgun (pump action mostly) LAs impossible to fight against in biolabs. as 90% of the battles are hiding behind cover.

    I agree that the LA and infiltrator share a lot of ground presently, but im not a big fan of that because 95% of the infiltrators jobs can be done by another class, or are useless as other classes don't allow them to do their job

    Any class can have motion darts at the expense of a 2ndary weapon...
    any class but LA can have a battle rifle for sniping
    everyone just destroys terminals instead of letting infiltrators hack them
    Darklights everywhere

    I would be okay with LAs being able to use Decoy grenades, but making it a consistently reusable ability would be too much IMO

    If LAs did get decoy nades, they should not only show someone on the mini map, but should spawn in a person, like in VR training.

    two days ago a fellow VS player gave me a wonderful idea to give the infiltrator some of its grounds back: Remove all darklights from secondary weapons to force people to choose between the improved primary weapon or the ability to see infiltrators.
  12. Corezer

    what is this I don't even...

    The only direct counter to infiltrator is infiltrator, which was poor design from the get go, cloak counters spotters

    lol have you fired a radar bolt? it's not even a rank 2 dart!
    battle rifle for sniping? Is SA as good as BA for sniping? Multiply the answer by 100 for BRs
    not everyone first off, second off they don't work from any range, they also don't put you on radar, and are most often on a secondary that you are likely better at using being more practiced as an infiltrator...

    I wouldn't be, deeks are crap, even if they were reusable

    Binary solution for the class who's biggest problem is that it's too binary... perfect, what could go wrong...
  13. Demigan

    That's exactly the point. Currently LA's shoot themselves in the foot when using smoke grenades. A simple spot already reveals your position enough for some accurate spray&pray, which the Heavies are perfectly good at, while the LA will be trying to spot and engage multiple people (you don't use smoke for a 1v1). Using an heat scope on your rifle destroys the entire premise of the fast LA since you slow yourself down with a CQC weapon while breaching. This spot tracker would, besides it's outside capabilities, allow LA's to use their superior hipfire while breaching with smoke.

    Also the spot tracker only works on people you spot. Meaning you still have to get a LOS on the opponent first, spot them, move up close within 10 seconds and engage.
    Ofcourse your opponent isn't going to be sitting still behind cover if he's not regenerating shields. At best (or worse) your opponent will be behind some low cover while surveying the scene, not an ideal target to attack with a pump-action. Additionally since Biolabs are busy places you are likely to be attacked by someone else who you didn't spot. Also in Biolabs it's not exactly rocketscience to see where people are. If you spot them you can quickly see on the radar where they are and stay, then do the exact same as you would with a spot-tracker and move up to their location from another direction. But once again this works only up to a point since enemy players are moving about constantly increasing the chance that you run into someone you didn't spot.

    What the Heavy can do is also possible with the LA and Engineer, up to a certain extend. Vice-versa what the LA can do most other classes can do as well. However the Infiltrator remains superior at it's job with it's stealth, hacking and waaaaaaay superior recon devices. The Infiltrator is arguably even the best class available.

    Motion darts on your secondary are weaksauce. 10 seconds and maybe 15 m range?
    Battle rifle for sniping? That's like saying that an LMG and Assault Rifle are the same because they are both mid-range weapons. Or that a Shotgun and SMG are the same because they are CQC.
    Destroying terminals is the opposite of the Infil's hacking power. Additionally no one else can hack enemy turrets.
    Darklights aren't everywhere, and darklights are worse for the user than for the Infiltrator. If you can't keep out of a short-range flashlight that 'reveals' on less than 30% of your screen then you are doing something horribly wrong. Besides that people have to sacrifice a good option like lasersight for it, hence people put it on their side-arm, they deliberately nerf their capabilities when hunting an Infil just to be capable of using a Darklight. The moment you get people to use a Darklight you already are at an advantage!!!! Besides that Darklights are only really dangerous for Stalkers who think their cloak is invisibility. SMG/Scout rifle Infils just engage a Darklight user and sniper Infils should be well capable of keeping their distance.

    Decoy grenades suck balls and need their own improvements. A reusable decoy ability wouldn't be OP and it would depend completely on the LA's skill how useful it gets, as well as on the opponent's skill on how much it confuses them or not. Hell, some players don't use the radar much and wouldn't even notice!

    That's one way of improving the decoy grenade. I would even let the grenade roll in one direction indefinitely so you can actually screw people out of their ammo.

    So... Basically you are screwing everyone over even more, although when a Darklight is used the Infiltrator is at a larger disadvantage? This isn't giving the Infiltrator some ground back, this is giving it ground it never had to begin with and screwing players over who are trying to track down Stalkers.
    Again, Darklights have a small cone of vision on your screen and a short range. The biggest 'problem' that people always have with it is that it goes through walls... which the owner can't oven use as he won't be able to see you through walls! Darklights aren't the problem, it's people using Stalker who think they should be invisible even after alerting everyone of their presence who are the problem.
  14. NubCannon

    Motion darts on the QCX are perfectly fine. they might not last as long but you get 24 of them by default.

    any LA who uses smoke effectively uses a weapon that benefits more from ADS for instance the NS carbine. The purpose of the LA is to not fight fair, they are supposed to attack from above their targets where they have an advantage. giving a class the ability to see enemies through smoke but still use hipfire would be extremely out of balance with all the other classes. and would make smoke nades more effective than EMP or concussion grenades.

    Battle rifles are perfectly decent mid to long range weapons (50-150meters). As of the 9/7 update of 2016, the battle rifles no longer have scope sway even when using the 6X sights. additionally having the ability to equip a compensater and a forward grip makes their recoil less than the empire specific semi auto sniper rifles. the only drawback is 1 more shot is required at long ranges.

    The current spot marker is sufficient for an experienced player to land consistent headshots as it always reamins a certain distance from the players head.

    Removing darklights from secondary weapons would not screw everyone, the infiltrator has the lowest amount of health, and smgs have the lowest ttk of all cqc specific weapons except LMGs which are marginally slower than the armistice and cyclone

    GD-7F ttk is .425 seconds (theoretical based on killing a LA with no nanoweave however using SPA on all except the anchor)
    anchor is .500 seconds
    cyclone is .46 seconds
    (i pulled the NC data only because i remembered the names best.)


    Infiltrators even deep cloaked are not impossible to see if you are running anything except the lowest graphic settings. When you throw into account the time to cloak and decloak, the Infiltrator is at an extreme disadvantage to begin with, having lower base health and risking being seen before they can strike. Throw into the mix of all the darklights, which if you were unaware work within 15m of the user regardless of visually impeding things such as walls, floors, and other cover.

    before darklights and stalker cloak were released infiltrators were very well balanced as they could actually hide. however now with a large number of the population using a sidearm that can 1 shot infiltrators (the comi can 1 shot kill infiltrators with headshots in cqc) and a darklight. the infiltrator can not hide anywhere, as soon as an infiltrators presence is known either by getting a kill or by being seen on a motion spotter, the infiltrator is as good as dead.

    destroying terminals may not be the same as hacking them, but allies and enemies alike do it, in an experiment i went around to every VS owned territory and hacked every possible terminal on esamir there were a grand total of 11 including the 5 in the base of the biolabs (i used a GSD flash to get those).

    what i meant when i said that giving LA an ability that was infinitely usable but had the same effect as a decoy nade was OP i meant that it would be unfair to the infiltrators who would have to spend their nanites to do the same thing and could only use them up to 4 times before they would have to resupply at a terminal. even though decoy nades are an infiltrator ability.

    What the heavy is supposed to do against infantry is to soak up alpha damage and advance the front lines. any class can do this, but none are nearly as OP and effective as the HA is.

    Every class has a weapon that can counter infiltrator, closing the gap between you and a long range infiltrator is not difficult at all. once you close that gap the infiltrator has to use their secondary weapon to fend off an attack. HA and LA are good at countering snipers as LA can attack them in unique ways, and HA can soak up the damage the sniper puts out. but medic and engineer are still capable of it.

    Midrange infiltrator is the most underpowered as the infiltrators main midrange weapons are not as effective as the midrange weapons of other classes, especially HA.

    cqc infiltrator is no longer effective as cloaking has become only useful against players with low awareness, Infiltrators can easily be seen when moving, yet no longer can stay still as most players use a darklight either on their primary weapon of their secondary weapon. The CQC weapons aren't as effective as other classes, except HA which has max nanoweave by default and an instantly activatable shield.

    LA is currently the second most powerful class as it has a wide variety of weapons that are competitive in most situations, LA has the ability to be extremely mobile and accurate (using a good hipfire carbine and drifter jets), LA can destroy any vehicle in the game without sacrificing any of its other abilities (using C4 and rocklets). LA does not need to be more powerful.

    And if you really want to draw people out, run a secondary with no suppressor, shoot a few rounds then fly up to some cover.
  15. Demigan

    Ah so that's why no one ever uses them!
    Besides that they offer far to little area and far too short a lifespan to be truly useful.

    First some information for you:
    1: Smoke grenades are only as effective as the settings of your enemy. Low graphics settings can make smoke grenades a laugh that barely obstructs view and lasts maybe 5 seconds before it's almost gone. High graphics it's far more obstructive to your view and when it starts dissipating it still takes a while before it's really gone.
    2: You could change the .ini files to simply turn off smoke. It's supposed to be fixed, but some other .ini file hacks were also 'fixed' and they are still around.
    3: I'm a dedicated LA user, and smoke is pretty damn useless, especially for those who "attack from above". Giving LA's the ability to see through smoke and use hipfire means that they don't have to attack from above, and due to how Carbines work it's not smart to attack from above most of the time. Additionally with the new flying COF that deactivates your scopes it's even more glaringly obvious how useless it is to force an LA into ADS to spot his enemies.
    As for making smoke grenades more effective than EMP or concussion... OMG are you serious? That's the biggest bullcrap ever! Do you even know how powerful EMP's are? Or how royally screwed you are if you get concussioned?

    They aren't "perfectly decent". Yes they are better than most people make them out to be, but BR's are still weaksauce.

    ...
    So giving LA's the ability to see spotted enemies through smoke shouldn't be a factor at all, right? Because if you can spot the enemy right now and see his dorito, it's more than sufficient for any experienced LA to land consistent headshots, right? So my spot tracker ability would amount to being absolutely worthless? Just a teeny tiny little quality of life improvement to make it easier for non-experienced players? Try to be consistent in your argumentation please.

    It has the lowest amount of health for a reason. SMG's are powerhouses for Infiltrators that can lay waste to shielded Heavies because of the surprise effect you have allowing you to put in a lot of damage before they react. Also you skip over the fact that SMG's have a much better hipfire than LMG's, making it far easier to land headshots or hit consistently in CQC.

    The infiltrator is only at a disadvantage if you wait around doing nothing until you are discovered. However if you attack first, you are almost always at an advantage.
    It's clear how you use cloak: You pray it's an invisibility despite knowing better. I keep telling you that cloak is nothing more than an advanced camo that makes you harder to spot. Not invisible, harder to spot. I keep telling people they should try to use units like the LA for stealth, because you don't need an active cloak to be stealthy. You need to move through the area undetected, moving from cover to cover, having the situational awareness to know where enemies are and what routes they may take so you can set up ambushes or avoid their paths so you won't be seen. Then once you've learned how to do that, stop using cloak as invisibility and start using it as it's supposed to: Something to make it easier to keep you hidden.

    "throw in the mix of all the Darklights" is a terrible sentence. There aren't a lot of Darklights. If you get caught within 15m by a Darklight user then you made a mistake and are going to pay for it, that's just as it's supposed to be. Darklights are limited in range and limited in cone of view, so if you get caught by one even though Darklights are massively obvious then you screwed up. First by letting them know where you are (probably by killing someone), then by letting them get close (probably because you didn't relocate), then by sitting there gaping while the Darklight user spots you and blows you face off. When a Darklight user enters the room, you either run away or you take a second before you blow his face off. The Darklight user is concentrated on his teeny tiny world that is the Darklight beam, if you attack him while he's concentrated on that he needs to switch gears and go into attack mode, but ofcourse he's also holding a pistol so no matter what he does he's already at a disadvantage compared to you as you've already put at least two hits on him by the time he can return fire.
    As for Darklights going through obstacles, big freaking deal! Seriously! If you get seen by a Darklight that went through an object you screwed up double! Not only did you stay within range of a Darklight user that you didn't move away from or kill, you let someone else spot you when a Darklight accidentally crossed over you while the Darklight user couldn't even see you! That's not a problem with the darklight, that's a problem with the Infiltrator. That's like saying "But if someone looks up while I fly over them with an LA I'm at a disadvantage!", only difference is that to look up they require a specific weapon modification and your range is cut short at 15 to 20m distance.

    You really don't use the Infiltrator a lot do you? And if you do you are a Stalker who thinks he's invisible.
    Before the Darklight and Stalker, and even today if you aren't using Stalker, you couldn't "hide" with the infiltrator cloak. It's duration is short, meaning you have to cloak while the enemy is almost in hearing distance and your cloak will run out before he's out of it again. So no matter what you do you tip off enemies you are close if you use cloak in their proximity. Ofcourse, people back then just used cloak as they should: A tool to avoid being seen and shot at, a tool to get the drop on enemies even though the enemies knew you were in the area.

    As for the Infiltrator being as good as dead, wrong. Any good Infiltrator will constantly leave his enemies guessing. You kill someone, then you relocate. You don't even have to relocate far most of the time, you can just go to the other corner. Then when your original kill comes back he first checks the area you were in the first time and you screw him over again. Or you move away altogether because it's likely more people will come for you than you can handle and you go shoot some people somewhere else, moving across the battlefield while murdering people left and right. Infiltrators aren't about being undetected, they are about confusing your enemy, attacking from the shadows and then moving somewhere else to surprise your enemy again and again. Being spotted by a motion spotter is tough, but it's tough for any class, even more so by the LA. Infiltrators at the very least can still obscure themselves and make themselves hard to aim for by stealthing.

    Buuuuuuuuuullllllllllllshhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttt.

    First off, counting only large facilities and towers there's already at least 54 terminals available on Esamir, add all the bases where you can reach the vehicle terminal (almost all of them) and that number quickly goes through the roof.

    Second off allies destroy terminals because it increases their accuracy ratio and it gives a tiny bit of XP, especially if you can repair the terminal afterwards when you capture the base. Enemies destroy their own terminals in territories that aren't under attack to prevent Infiltrators from stealing them, but those people are few and far between. They usually only start destroying terminals when an infil starts hacking terminals in the first place. I know this because I do this all the time.

    It's currently an Infil ability. That doesn't mean it should always be an infil ability, just like adrenalin pump used to be an LA-only ability and was given to Infils, or that smoke was an LA-only ability and then given to all classes who could equip an underbarrel grenade launcher (which will include the Infil soon when he gets the BR!).
    Also just because the Infil decoy is terrible doesn't mean the LA could have something better. Especially since the Infil almost exclusively uses the arguably strongest grenades in the game (EMP's). That said the Infil decoy grenade needs an upgrade badly, which is again another reason not to skimp on the LA false signature ability.

    Which was my point exactly: Just because the roles and abilities of the Infiltrator are available to others doesn't mean the Infil is obsolete, because the Infil is simply better at it than others.

    Not on stupid one's who sit around and never relocate. Or who don't place scan equipment around them to warn them beforehand and get away or engage.

    But first you have to close that gap. That's the point. You are at an advantage beforehand because you are holding a sniper. If you didn't keep them at range then you deserve your face getting stomped in. Besides that, it would be a poor game if there was no single way to approach an Infiltrator and close the gap. Ofcourse a truly good infil can keep his enemies at range forever, but it does require an abnormal amount of relocation that simply ruins your game experience.

    Boo hoo?
    Besides that the HA isn't going to soak up the damage the sniper puts out. You don't want to slow yourself down using a shield when getting attacked by a sniper unless it's to reach some cover. But anyway, do you really want Infiltrators to be completely impossible to reach? Did you ever consider that in this MMO you can put yourself in positions that force your enemies to go through your allies to reach you? That way they can protect you from approaching enemies, meaning the amount of ways they can reach you just got a lot more specific. Specific is good, as you can protect against specific routes of attacks with mines and sensors.

    BR's and scout rifles function pretty similar, yet BR's are perfectly OK but scout rifles are underpowered? I really hope you are joking.

    Completely and utterly untrue.
    Here's the stupid way to approach someone: You just cloak and walk through the open to reach them.
    Here's the smart way to approach someone: You move from cover to cover, using your cloak to make yourself tough to see when you reveal yourself to potential enemy eyes. You keep an eye on enemy presence and the paths they take so you won't get surprised as easily or can avoid players that might otherwise accidentally spot you. In fact if you are really good, you don't even need the cloak in the first place. Which is incredibly useful when you get close to enemies and don't want to tip them off with your cloak sound.
    I've been using the latter since I've started the game, and now it's even more useful. I still haven't experienced the entire "omg we are so much more visible now" panic that happened some time ago because I don't get caught that way. I know the limits and usefulness of the cloak, and it's a powerhouse. If you think that an SMG is weak in an Infiltrator's hand you don't know how to use an Infil in the first place. I can guarantee you right now that you don't sneak up on people, you don't use cover to approach your target area and that you probably walk straight into the enemy lines rather than circle around. You also don't relocate or try to avoid enemy paths. Infiltrators can easily have a guaranteed surprise attack, which instantly puts the Infiltrator at an advantage over his enemies regardless of class. If you did it right you can even kill off Heavies before they can activate their shield.

    I'm not making LA's more powerful, I'm making them more diverse. If you hadn't noticed these abilities take the toolslot, meaning you sacrifice your Rocklet Rifle.
    Besides that the LA is finally as developed as other classes were... at launch. At best you can argue that the LA is as useful or powerful as the HA and Infiltrator, because oh yes the Infiltrator can easily make a bid for most powerful class in PS2.

    It's as if you don't play LA at all. Oh wait, you don't! Firing off a secondary to draw people out is a terrible idea. At least with the Infiltrator you can lure them onto mines or force them to use a secondary weapon with Darklight, which is in your advantage if you have any sort of brains at all. However if you use this with the LA all you'll do is draw people's attention and have them on alert when you engage them. You also lose control over how many people come looking and thus how many you engage, and there's fairly few places where you can truly stay hidden if people come looking for you and might check for LA's.