Melee Improvements?

Discussion in 'Infiltrator' started by Tenebrae Aeterna, Nov 28, 2012.

  1. Tenebrae Aeterna

    Greetings and salutations everyone,

    Before I begin, I feel obligated to state that I don't yet have the ability to play the game due to computer inadequacies, so take my concerns and suggestions with a grain of salt. However, it's come to my attention, through reading these forums and speaking with a few various individuals, that the melee capabilities of the Infiltrator have been severely lacking. For someone such as myself, who intends on alternating between sniping and melee assassination, this is deeply saddening news.

    I was told that there was a certification within beta that upgraded one's melee capabilities...but it had been removed upon release for reasons that this specific individual wasn't aware of. I'm not too terribly sure myself, though as I expressed above, I've yet to find myself able to play the game regardless of its stage in development.

    Still, I find myself hoping that what's been said is either wrong...or they implement ways of advancing our melee capabilities within the future. From what I've been reading, it seems that it's almost impossible to attack someone with the knife unless you're lodged so far up their anus that you're tickling that dangling thing within the back of their throat.

    If it's a matter of balance, I wouldn't even mind if the advanced melee capabilities came within the form of an upgraded knife that you have to purchase for 1000 credits, like the other high end weapons. Although, an upgrade of that magnitude should provide a little bit more than simply some increased range, no? This may seem a bit unorthodox, but what if each blade had an additional effect in combination to the advanced range?

    The following are just possibilities, and don't please don't mind the names...

    Either way, correct me if I'm wrong on what I've been observing... I'm just desperately hoping that the melee capabilities for the Infiltrator either:

    A: Aren't as bad as people seem to make them out to be.
    B: Are going to be improved upon later down the road.

    My idea up there isn't the easiest solution to the problems I've been reading about, I just thought it might be interesting to convert the increased melee capabilities into new blade types that also have a little faction oriented twist that differentiates them from one another. The easiest solution would simply be to increase the capabilities through certifications...as was the case within beta, from what I've read.

    Thoughts?

    What are your experiences with the melee capabilities in Planetside 2, do you believe that they're adequate...or could they use some work?
  2. KingCrimson

    Knifes are totally fine, got plenty of knife kills. If they were any better than they are, they would be ridiculously overpowered.
  3. Vindiana Jones

    I get a decent chunk of knife kills, but I sometimes have a sync type issue, where I'm at point blank range of a target, clearly hit him with the knife, but there's no register of the hit. I've "hit" stationary targets 2-3 times before and not had it register anything at all. Other times it works great and I'm able to sneak around and rack up streaks of knife kills. My internet connection is fine. I imagine it has something to do with the game.

    I would like to see upgraded melee weapons or abilities though. Sneaking around knifing people is a lot of fun.
  4. StrangerDanger

    Add chainsaws. That is all.
  5. Vindiana Jones

    I'm picturing a stealthy infiltration attempt gone horribly wrong when the culprit whips out a chainsaw and proceeds to start up the ear blasting motor in the middle of an enemy facility.
  6. Tenebrae Aeterna

    What's your kill to fail ratio with the knife, roughly speaking of course?

    That seems to be similar with what I've heard from others...hopefully they, at least, fix that because I'm of the same mentality you are. I like sneaking around and coming out with the knife to quickly kill someone before vanishing once again, I like that whole nightmarish feel about it. It's one of the things I'm looking forward to most upon finally being able to play. :)

    Indeed...

    As much as I agree with that, we have the Chainblade for the TR. :p
  7. xBoneBreakerx

    A.... no doubt about it... 2 hit kills on most targets and it has a pretty fast refire rate
    if it gets buffed to do more dmg ppl whould just run at u and knife u instead of useing guns in CQ...

    imo the knife should stay as it is... i get plenty of knife kills if i sneak up on ppl
    dont want it to end up like the COD games where ppl spec heavily into speed and just run around 1 shotting ppl with there knife


    mine is about 1 out of 20 hits fail to register...
    but i have still only been killed becous of it once...
  8. Timeraider

    Knifes would be fine... if people wouldnt see an infiltrator coming from 500 meters.. and the fact that between the first and second knife, an standard light assault would be able to do enough dmg to take down your shield and minimal 75% of your health.

    i still think backstab should be instant kill. Risk/Reward situation would be much better.
  9. Daejin

    Want to know why the knife sucks? Because it is VERY easy to miss, even when the knife itself makes contact. I've tested this out on numerous people, all of enemy factions. It takes 3 knife strikes to kill someone standing completely still.
    The first one will hit and cause damage.
    The second one will make the guy recoil but cause no damage and not register a hit.
    The 3rd strike will again hit and cause damage, which would kill the person.

    Little things like this have costed me a lot of lives when I run low on ammo and have a clear advantage over people. I hit them twice before they react, but because of the glitch, they move away and make too much noise, alerting everyone around to my pressence.
  10. Opapanax

    One hit sniper rifles, one shotting maxes, rip face jackhammers and now a one hit kill knife.. no no thank you..

    I really wouldn't care to try an knife any other faction if this were their bonuses... Why get close enough to even try to knife him when he can turn and one shot me with his.. but he's blind now so it's all cool.. no not really..

    and then also again the TR knife would come with increased damage output, while the VS would only offer some "debuff" to vision..

    I'd rather all the knives have a secondary damage effect or something else.. But giving even more OHK capabilities to the faction already blessed with them seems a little on the OP side of things..

    The real issue with knives right now is the ranges they are effective seems akward and never the same twice. I've been point blank and missed, 3 steps back in arms length and missed and right inside of the other guy and still register no hits.. or if you do, there's no real tell to let you know.

    Animation of the kniving is atrocious as well, why the end of the blade flings up like that as he twist his wrist is horrid. Maybe one of the worse knifing mechanics I've come across in an FPS's..

    I thought MAG had a decent knife mechanic, it was much like PS2, wasn't an equip just a button press to use. But the animiation looked way better and when you made contact you could tell, and the range for effectiveness was very clear..
  11. Zinus

    But then again just imagine! A unselfconscious levitating chainsaw that cuts up people! From the blood cloud and all the panic they wouldn't even notice that the inf is holding it :p


    On topic: i feel that the knives are fine, tho sometimes the hit detection is weird...
  12. MrVex

    As it stands there are terrible hit-registration problems with using the knife. It doesn't really need to be more powerful, it needs to be more reliable. One second you hit someone with a mighty blow of your nanite meshed blade, the next swipe you're watching as your now rather non-collidey knife slips through your target, even though they have not moved, you have not moved and the same strike was applied to the same spot.

    The thing is that knives as it stand are pretty sweet, but the hit registry stops them from being useful. You can't afford to sneak up behind someone and knife them to avoid alerting the enemy that you've flanked them or to conserve ammo because you're a light assault zipping around a bio-lab because the knife might miss. The moment the enemy hears that *swoosh* They're going to turn around and kill you, and fast.

    The hit registry issue there makes it more practical to shoot people in the back of the head rather then knife them and save alerting absolutely every surrounding enemy that you're there.
  13. Tenebrae Aeterna

    Good to know,

    Still, I wasn't really suggesting the ability to spec into speed or one hit kills. My suggestions simply increased the effective range by granting a larger blade and added an additional effect.

    The NC would be the only one hit kill Melee knives, were my concept utilized. I did also consider a "crippling" effect that made their victims stumble around instead of the instant kill...which would also fit the whole NC heavy hitting feel.

    Still a bit too overpowered?

    That's actually some pretty good statistics.

    Oi, I really want to get myself a new computer soon...this is driving me crazy. I've missed playing FPSers ever since my days in the Delta Force games. :p

    Advanced Knives could be restricted to Infiltrators alone.

    We did lose our shotguns, after all.

    Two hits would be fine...three hits, I agree is a bit underpowered and makes a knife pretty useless in most situations. Hopefully what you're experiencing is a glitch that they intend to fix.

    My VS debuff idea may have not been very great, but those were purely examples. Truth be told, I'm most likely going to go VS when I can actually play, and would have enjoyed something different myself. Personally, I'm much more fond of the TR bleed effect since it plays off the problems with the Knife right now. You hit them once, and if they escape, they may still bleed to death from that additional effect. I adore that idea...but it only really fit with the TR play style of sustained damage.

    The NC, well...it was that or causing you to limp around if the thing hits you, either works in my eyes for them.

    I added an increase in range, again, to play off the problems everyone seems to be experiencing...

    At the very least, I'd like to see this fixed. We're the squishy class that shouldn't be punished in melee, I'd like to see us excel best when it comes to direct melee and extreme range...while being subpar medium range. Though, I am of the more assassin/rogue mentality...so I may be a bit bias.

    This is what I've been seeing within the various videos and hearing from other people. It's just far more reliable to shoot them in the head with the pistol than it is knife them. That saddens me, I'd rather see us extremely adept at melee and extreme ranged combat and suffer medium ranged...while getting adequate stealth capabilities to ensure we can use the former.