Infiltrators need a HUGE boost to invisibility or their 100 shields back

Seriously, I cant walk 5 feet while cloaked without being shot and killed so fast it isn't funny. I know all the "its not a cloak just a thing to keep you from being spotted and blend in far away" stuff and its stupid. Same for wraith flashes, their INCREDIBLY easy to see and kill. And plus, low-graphics is being changed to see infiltrators super easy now (on pts). I say we infiltrators need either better cloak invisibility (how it is currently low on all the graphics settings) or we need our 100 shields back. Although its fun to 1-shot other infils with my commissioner, we need our 100 shields back.

tldr: cloak currently is a joke, buff invisibility or give back our 100 shields

By 100 shields, do you mean you want to lower your shields down to 100?

By all means, amazing. Now I'll be able to kill those Cyclone Infiltrators

I main infiltrator and have no problem with our health or cloak. Be sneaky, and you won't be seen. Be sneakier, and you won't be shot.

^ sheeeeeeiiii....... ANY class can "just be sneaky"... I've "snuck up" on people as a Heavy with the NMG shield on.
The Infiltrator cloak is a shiny plastic body bag that's only as effective as your opponent is "bad" / unaware
It's also way less effective when contrasting over certain backgrounds than pay2win Camo can be

Just wait till next week, it's only going to get WORSE

I don't really understand why Infil has so many restrictions/downsides based on having a flimsy cloak, and Light Assault gets no such treatment for having a freaking jetpack. I guess because they didn't give Light Assault anything useful to do besides suicide C4 runs...

It's difficult to balance a low-visibility cloak against:

• Players that are very aware
• Players that are new to shooters or less aware
• Close range
• Long range
• Multiple graphics settings (which is finally being addressed in the next update, thank you SOE)
• Has four tiers of visibility: crouch, crouch move, walk and sprint

Does anyone else think one of those variables could very easily be taken out to the benefit of all the rest?

Fantastic. Then cloak should aid you further then. And by that, I mean deep cloak. Sounds like your problem is that you sprint around trying to SMG people in the back, bringing you out of deep cloak and into the "shiny plastic body bag" cloak you describe. That's not how you play this class, I've found. Think of cloak as a tool used to flank, not a "free on-demand invisibility" ability.

You must be new here.

I'm the most vocal-against-SMG's infiltrator in the entire forum. I'm sitting at roughly 700 stealth kills from sneaking up on people with Stalker cloak. Where are you at? The stupidest part is how it used to be easier before Stalker simply b/c they hadn't nerfed the Commish-Knife wambo combo. Now I have to crutch EMP nades instead b/c I refuse to buy that dorky Crossbow

Really? NO. I do NOT think so.

HunterCloak4lyfe. With that being said, I still rely on deep cloak when I'm spotted. (Cloak, crouch, move behind cover, come out of cover somewhere else) If I'm being shot at, I sprint for the hills, and sometimes get away, even with cloak on. If it's used like a flanking and escape tool, cloak is powerful. If used like on-demand invisibility, cloak is flimsy, like it should be. If you want an example of how cheesy near invisible cloak is, try to play on low like I do. I can only see infiltrators at around 10 meters, beyond that they are invisible.

This just made absolutely no sense at all.... There is no Deep cloak while moving. That's the whole PROBLEM with "sneaking" or crouch walking infact. That there's no deeper cloaking. No shades of gray. Anything else that isn't holding perfectly still and crouched, is just as visible as running full speed against players who aren't Shyte. But I'm guessing you mostly only play against N.C. who have the awareness of a bag of spuds despite a dozen eyes pointing every which way....

I meant to say that when you crouch into deep cloak, you throw off the person who initially saw you (also clears your spotting dorito), which means that you can move to cover with the next level of cloak, which isn't as bad as you say, or haul *** to the nearest piece of cover, which shouldn't be far.

/minirant I am fighting the NC more than the VS, but only because of that dreaded PPA spam. /minirant

This sums up the issues well. It's hard to really pinpoint a sweet spot where they're visible enough to not feel unfair while still being functional as a stealthy/flanking class. Many times as infil it will seem you're just getting randomly killed while cloaked. Other times you feel you're practically a ghost.

It's a similar situation with the spy in TF2 actually. Pretty much no one plays spy in competitive modes unless it's forced. But on random servers full of noobs you can be a total wrecking ball. Although PS2 also has the added issue of varying visibility levels based on player graphic settings.

Yeah, it's difficult to balance in many games. I just wonder why on Earth SOE would make such a difficult issue even harder by adding in the movement state variable?

I mean, standing still already has the advantage of not attracting people's attention or moving the distortion. Crouching makes your distortion smaller and can hide you behind objects.

If they really MUST have some effect tied to it, why not power drain rate?

I think there are actually just three tiers of cloak visibility: crouch, stand, and move. It's very frustrating to infiltrators, since crouch-walking makes you just as visible as sprinting, which doesn't seem right.

Honestly, I don't think balancing the cloak would as hard as you're making it out to be. I mean, the current low-settings cloak and high-settings cloak are worlds apart, and while it's totally unfair to people with potato computers, it shows how drastically the cloak could be changed without totally ruining the game. Now, dealing with the backlash after any change to cloaking balance (buff or nerf), that would be difficult.

Spies in TF2 are used in 6 v 6, but like the 5 classes other than Scout, Soldier, Demo and Medic, he is more situational and more importantly, using him all the time in a match will diminish the element of surprise. You see Scouts (or sometimes Soldiers) changing to Spy to get a Medic pick if they think the time is right, but playing him throughout the match just puts the enemy team on guard and makes it much more difficult to get the kill.

Infiltrator isnt a frontline soldier like are the people who complain about infil being too weak want him to be he is just an "infiltrator" hes suppose to go behind enemy lines and cause trouble or make the enemy move units away from the frontlines to deal with his in all honesty i feel they should have:
250 health
250 shields
if you are an infil at long range the only thing that can kill you is another infil since you can just walk behind something after gettiing hit if you're an SMG infil then you shouldnt be running up to a guy shooting him you should camp a corner or flank behind them and go for the kill with those fast firing weapons.

Or maybe they should give infi's something else to do but snipe.

Sure lets give only HA 1000 health.

Answered your own question.