[Poll] Should Infiltrators be able to hack vehicles?

What do you mean by this, a slight sound or something like the lock icon?

I don't mind reading your thoughts on the matter. I've actually suggested a time bomb before which we could stick to vehicles - indestructible to bullets, of course - which simply blows them up if nobody walks over to disable them. As long as ripping the thing off took more than a second of holding down E, we could defend them until the vehicle is finished, much like an overloaded generator.

Of course, your idea would give people more advance warning, wouldn't have potential applications for killing infantry, and would definitely have to disable engineer repairs on the affected vehicle. People might find it more fair, though, and it solves the issue of Infiltrators having a resource-free solution to armor just like mine does.

The difference between Medics and Infiltrators in this case is that Medics can't counter vehicles easily, but they can still do it anywhere they please. Infiltrators can counter vehicles easily (insofar as the turrets are extremely effective at killing them) but only in the extremely rare circumstances where they're allowed to at all. This isn't fun for us. It's not a matter of "I can't approach that tank to destroy it because I'll die", it's "attempting to oppose that tank in any way is impossible regardless of what I do", all because the driver chose not to linger around an anti-vehicle turret. Having no freedom to make that decision, even if the decision is an incredibly bad one, feels unfair in a game where there will always be tanks driving around and trying to kill us.

Also, for the Medic, the vehicle is dead almost instantly once he reaches it. Hacking would take more time by necessity, and I'm not suggesting it result in something as destructive as C4 anyways.

Hey, no problem. It looks like the majority agrees too, so that's even better for us.

Yes ... but only if it became locked and not usable by anyone including the Infi .

I used to be very much in favor of infiltrators hacking vehicles. Now, I'd be fine with disrupting an AMS, but I don't see that we really need this ability anymore. Three words:

Wraith Fury Flash.

It won't solo kill a tank, but if you use it smartly, you can get lots of vehicle kills, and assists. Its balanced vs vehicles, and gives us a cheap and fun way to be unique and hurt vehicles. I have killed dozens of tanks with it, and I no longer feel worthless against vehicles.

I'm ok with us having no C4, and no real powerful AV abilities. I'd rather SOE takes away c4 from medics. Wraiths and hacking turrets are all i need.

Even after they nerf the fury, it will still be useful. As it is right now, I'm just raking in the kills and laughing all night.

Hacking Kits replace your AI mines or dart gun.

-Vehicle Lock: Kicks the players out of the vehicle and locks it for 1-5 minutes depending on cert level. Friendly engineers can unlock the vehicle but takes 5 seconds.

-Radar Scrambler: disables the vehicles active radar. Instead a player will see a blank radar for the next 1-5 minutes (certable).

-Vehicle Tracker: places a tracker on the vehicle which reports enemy activity around that vehicle for the next 1-5 minutes in a 5-15m radius (certable).

-Deploy Breaker: disables a vehicles ability to deploy (mainly used against Sunderers). Vehicle can redeploy in 1-5 minutes (certable).

-Vehicle theft: only usable in a vehicle without a driver. Will kick out all passengers and allow the infiltrator to steal said vehicle for their own use.

I think hacking unoccupied vehicles is fine, maybe with a timer that's longer than the terminal hack, or maybe not. It doesn't take long for an unchecked Engie or LA to deal with an unattended Sundie, and they're not bad at dealing with attended and occupied ones. So I really don't see infiltrators being able to do this as OP...at all. It could possibly require a special tool, as Engies and LA do have to equip certain explosive devices, but then again an Infil hacking a vehicle would either lose their own (if any) or be required to not have one to begin with.

Yep, signed for this

NO.

I would be in favor of Infiltrators being able to hack unmanned vehicles, but only to make them neutral or inert... rather than flip them to their side. If it isn't flipped back within 5 mins, then it deconstructs.

This will sort out the balance problem with people getting access to faction specific weaponry and the devs having to reskin all the faction specific vehicles.

The exemption would be deployed vehicles, such as the Sunderer AMS. Rather than it deconstructing after 5 mins, it is simply disabled for a short period of time. Say between 10 seconds to maybe a minute (whatever is good for balance). When the timer is up, the AMS returns to is original function, as a spawn point and resupply vehicle.

This would allow infiltrators to attack Sunderers - That in itself is a dangerous proposal. They are by far the easiest class to play if you intend to approach a Sunderer, but also currently the only class that can't take one out solo. This is a balance decision, obviously.

wouldn't need to reskin a vehicle, people should recognize a friendly marker floating above the vehicle. If not, the friendly fire sound should be enough.

Now I think this would balance itself out by having the infiltrator do this since he can't repair it unless he changes classes or brings a friend, it would be a great way to sabotage people who leave their vehicles lying around for someone to use it against them.

max level should allow you to eject people from the vehicle, and instead of a radar gun it should be a REK TOOL to hack instead of a just a skill you put certs into.

Alright, so here are the results so far.

People who may not agree about the specifics of vehicle hacking, but still wish for it to be in the game:
DrEuthanasia, Teegeeack, Oheck, Laraso, haldolium, Konfuzfanten, soeguud, Lazaruz, Ketobor, HMR85, Enxel, ChrisEarth, Terran537, Vumpler, meucha, Aimeryan, Skippytjc, Vaphell, Posse, Chubrokoli, RoMoronik666, Oathblivion, Griff1n, JudgeDeath, Tekuila, Evilsooty, Calisai, Kenny007, Spookydodger, EliteEskimo, FlameGankin, Oreo202, Palladuix, Get2dachoppa, iller, Brusilov1975, OrbitalNZ, HadesR, illgot, BDMagnum, Obscura, Brusilov [TR], Rentago

People who are fundamentally opposed to the idea of vehicle hacking:
LT_Latency, SClaw, ih8Darian, Bearcat, PhilDun, }{ellKnight, Phrygen, Luighseach, Sharmanti, Int

And just so they don't feel left out, People who gave answers which I am forced to interpret as "maybe" or "only with significant gameplay changes elsewhere":
Zan_Aus, Koldorn, Mustarde

Total count is 43 for, 10 against. 76% of the people who have replied to this thread think that vehicle hacking should exist in some form.

Yes, because who wouldn't want to see a friendly prowler driving around with teal and purple or yellow and blue markings.

bump dis

I definitely dont see why they shouldnt. But only after a few conditions are met. 1. After the sunderer gets an AMS shield so you cant just hack spawns willy nilly. 2. After they have the rest of the planned vehicle management stuff added in. This is so once you hack a vacant tank or something, you can deconstruct it for later use. In empire colors of course.

The two most common arguments I see against vehicle hacking have been about it being easy to sneak up on vehicles with Hunter Stealth (which actually is effective outdoors at long range), and how it can be done without a resource cost. Everything else is a disagreement about what the hack does or shouldn't do.

I say we just let SoE decide the latter, and make it as clear as we can that this is something the community wants. That's why I started this thread.

Combat is even the first word of our job title, Seriously!

Remember in PS1 when people actually NEEDED Infs to capture and take over enemy bases?

Apparently the second paragraph were ignored by almost every reply to this suggestion. Almost everyone here in favor or against this suggestion assumes that hacking vehicles should act / is acting as e.g. hacking turrets.

To reply your suggestion: yes, i also think hacking vehicles - in general - should be allowed and would add great value to infiltrator usefulness and general versatility.

However, i don't think it would be a good idea to implement this the same way as it works for e.g. turrets. This would led to too much open issues (occupied vs. empty vehicles, balancing, ... ). Instead other effect could take place, as e.g. disable / disturb vehicle movement / firing, disturb / reset vehicle certified specials, prohibit repairing, and so on ...

No

Reasoning: It's not an infiltrators job to have any Anti-Vehicle capabilities. Leave that to other classes for the sake of teamplay.