Does it matter how many people are coming out of a spawn room if they can go anywhere out of your drones sight or the infantry have no where to go because of the zerg waiting outside? Any LA or ESF can do a drones job better if all the drone can do is observe and spot.
If they go through with this aerial drone, there must be a shop oriented item for all aircraft, drone included, that plays Flight of the Valkyries at the push of a button. Can you imagine several Infiltrators launching their drones for kicks towards an enemy base while playing that? The enemy taking pause in sheer confusion, laughing, firing off anti-air in an attempt to hit these little boomboxes........ ....................all the while, our forces close in from the opposing side as they're too busy laughing their ***** off. Oh yes, delicious amusement... I still like my Spider Drone idea more, but I must admit...this idea tickles me pink.
My biggest concern with the recon drone will be that it might be yet another item that generates next to no certs for a class that already is at the lower end of the food chain and cert gain. Something to mess with vehicles without destroying them would be nice though (generating assist exp), perhaps a short disable for engineer turrets or a kind of static effect for tanks so it's a bit harder to aim for them like an EMP pulse, perhaps also clear mines with said pulse. Of course road kills work too I guess. We also don't know what slot the drone will occupy. Will it cost infantry resources and take up the mine / med kit slot or will it replace the recon tool with limited 'ammo'. Then there's also the possibility of it being ACE tool style and occupying our cloak slot like it does for engineers. Usefulness and viability depend a lot on how it is implemented and what it takes away from an infiltrators loadout.
If the Stalker Cloak makes it to live, a drone would be great, assuming it can be controlled while stealthed. What else would a Stalker Cloak equipped Infiltrator take? Sensor Darts? Darts are limited and require a vertical surface (or a player model) to deploy - a drone can provide greater, extended coverage. It won't last forever if placed poorly and the sound it generates will probably reduce its use to external locations. Of course, it will only be a matter of time until it's sniped Still... Who doesn't enjoy shooting infiltrators with the revolvers? I do hope the Stalker Cloak makes it to live!
Yep, but you could tell the same about the recon dart: who cares to see how many red dots are coming out of the spawn room, as they can go anyywhere? The drone imho is just going to be an alternative to the recon dart: longer-lasting and able to chase down enemies. Agreed: LA and ESF could also provide an aerial view of a base, but they can be killed / destroyed. While drone is likely to be small and silent, probably hard to spot. If you lose it, who cares? Imho it will have a very limited use: only well-coordinated squads and only with Stalker Suite. But it won't be that different from recon darts or deployable recon device. Then we're just speculating, we have to wait until this stuff hits test server.
Just a little titbit for you folks, the original concept for the drone (pre-launch) was that you could fly it from your mobile phone or tablet ... ! Be interested to see how that would work, given that presumably the graphics would be basic at best. But at least I could be 'useful' on my lunch hour
same as in bf3 i guess (where it was copied from): - recon work - spotting - running people over with it - using it as an elevator to get to high places - crashing into air units bugging them out and destroying them
Not sure it would help spot at greater distances than a sniper rifle would to be honest! I doubt they have unlimited flight range away from the infiltrator as well - like the Phoenix does not from HAs. Any radar could perform the same function, yet better, at determining when and how many are coming out of spawn rooms. Couldn't be shot down either. Heh, didn't think of that. However, I could comment on the Phoenix having the same argument. Arguably, since it could also be shot down and due to the size of the drone (and therefore any armament attached to it) would be highly unlikely to be good at destroying vehicles (which could be repaired), it would probably not be that effective at the task if not supported by better AV weapons - especially if people are watching for it like they would be when camping a spawn room. There will probably be a resource cost as well, so it hardly seems like something you would want to spam while sitting in a spawn room camped by enemies that could make it a futile attempt. Still, I think it would be better to just have hard counters on this to begin with (and do the same for the Phoenix!) - make it not be able to go through shields (of any kind), or just stop it being deployed when inside a restricted area. That would stop this problem in its tracks (and allow us to use this drone for a purpose we don't already fulfil to such a degree as to make any further improvement pointless).
I can see plenty of use for that drone, especially if it can spot people. Awareness is everything to an infiltrator.
I see plenty of uses for the drone too but they all depend on how it will be implemented. We don't know yet what we have to give up to equip it, will it cost resources, can we cloak while using it and the biggest question to make it useful for everyone not just dedicated squad spotters... will it earn you enough certs to make it worth using for the general population? The drone will turn infiltrator into a decent support class, I'm just worried that it will earn you next to no exp while making you a sitting duck (if you can't cloak and are forced to stand up like when using the phoenix) because to get spot exp you will have to be the first one to spot someone and then the target has to be killed in a shortly after.
Agreed. Or to be more specific: I really wonder what an infiltrator with a drone will accomplish that any other class with a scout flash or ESF would not (while being a much bigger asset to the team due to better offense, defense, survivability and support). I think SOE just doesn't have any role for the infiltrator in mind so they figured "throw some gimmicks at them that change nothing about the problems of the class but they are easier to implement and will give us an excuse to say that we're not totally neglecting the class due to our bad game design". Oh well.
Toss the drone at the LA, give them Icarus Jump Jets, and allow them to dual wield pistols. Call that a day. Infiltrators need some impact on vehicles, be it hacking them to shut them down temporarily, decreasing their rate of fire, making their ammo load more slowly, something useful against vehicles. A third option for assisting the team in locating the enemy is redundant and pretty useless.
it is classed as a vehicle so it will make heavy assaults waste rockets and can probably be used to ram efs that are hovering with those annoying rocket pods right outside your spawn room ? I'm pretty sure it will have some sort of weapon tho and can be shot down I just hope it is redeployable like the AV mana turret
