[Suggestion] Improve Deep Cloak

Ever since the cloaks were standardize cloaking and especially deep cloaking doesn't feel all that stealthy or invisible. Don't get me wrong I am happy they made the cloak equal across all settings but I feel like it is almost to easy to see infiltrators in any cloak state (running or deep). Does anyone else feel like cloaking is a bit weak right now or do you think that it is fine as is?

Deep cloak should be slightly less visible while crouch walking cloak should be slightly more visible than deep cloak. Everything else should remain as is.

Deep cloak is fine.
the Problem is that moving cloak is so easy to see.
i was driving around in my AP Lightning today and was sniping Cloakers from about 100m away simply because i was shoting at the moving air...

Deep cloak is fine.
What is wrong is that you do not maintain deep cloak while crouch walking.

You can't even attack when cloaked, you make this loud noise when you decloak..
Can't the devs just let you guys at least stay in deep cloak when crouch walking.

I can't imagine how it would be game breaking to have infiltrators slowly crawling around in deep cloak..

Cloaking itself is just worthless. I've sat there crouched in Deep Cloak in inconspicuous areas, not moving (I was camping for Trick or Treat kills) and someone will just run up and start shooting me. It's ******* pointless.

Deep cloak needs to be invisible, and every other form of cloaking needs to be Deep Cloak.

The cloak mechanics also should be changed to something more akin to Crysis - crouch-walking should keep me impossibly hard to see, but drain very little energy, allowing me to cover the same amount of ground but at a slower pace.

At the very least, STALKER cloak (the one where you lose your primary weapon) should be made to be nearly invisible 100% of the time. Being armed with only a secondary severely limits your ability to kill, and the ability to remain cloaked while stationary and regenerate power, to me, is not worth the tradeoff whatsoever, not unless you're doing some serious long-term camping.

The best was I was counter-sniping with just a 6x scope, and the guy had to be like 225m away, and sure enough, I could make out the tell-tale shimmer and shot him in the head. Got some nasty PMs. I don't blame him, really.

The crouched static cloak is ok, I wouldn't mind the crouched movement cloak being a LITTLE bit better but not to the extent that it is equal to crouched static cloak.

Deep cloak is invisible, other than the current bugs with it.
If you stay motionless, you cannot even move you mouse, as that will distort the background your on, you are invisible.

I have been killing quite a few infiltrators that think they are deep cloak, but their head or gun, or magazine are not in deep cloak.
That is a bug, which was fixed in the past, but is now back. I have it on video from 10-20-2014...

Sometimes I send tells, like no ESP buddy, you reloaded when cloaked and your mag isn't in deep cloak..
Take that mask off, it seems bugged, the back of your head is a big swirl..
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zomfXN3K38k#t=209 put it on 1080p, slow it to .25x speed, watch me kill this infil whos head is bugged.
You know that guy in the video I just linked was probably like "WTF hacks"...

It absolutely is not, and I know enough to not look around.

Spot the infil??


Answer:


Now the guy in the video I link posted with the bugged mask:



This is not invisible to you??

In the very first picture there is massive distortion along all the straight lines where the infiltrator is. You can see it on the corner of the window 'frame' and especially where the floor and wall meet.

That aside, are you seriously using hideous, blurry, static, low-res images to try to prove your point? Do you have any idea how the human eye works? We see movement very well, and the shimmering parallax of even a deep cloaked infiltrator as you run by is fairly obvious.

Of course, that would require you to know what parallax is, and considering you actually thought a static screenshot was a good way to judge visibility of cloaking, I'm going to guess you don't.

Did you actually think anyone would fall for that? I don't think you're even remotely qualified to comment on this anymore.

There is not massive distortion in any picture, you just lying now.
That is how the game looks on low, what you gonna tell me that there is another infil on the equipment on the left?
There is more distortion on that then there is on the window...

Post some screenshots and video of your own of people in deep cloak, I posted video and pics of mine, they are invisible.
You want to say I'm wrong, you have to prove it buddy.

Deep cloak is far from invisible, now if you said this before the standardization patch I would agree that it was 95-98% invisible especially at night time, but now I don't even feel like I have a cloak, I feel like im in the open.

deep cloak is absolutely not invisible. I track down stalker cloakers sitting in deep cloak without the aid of a flashlight all the time. (obvious bugs not included).

making still screenshots of the scene isn't representative. While you can see distortions of where the cloaker is in those screenshots, that's not really obvious because there is no motion involved (and the images are somewhat poor quality to boot). What you spot when you actually play is those distortions moving around as you change your viewpoint. The cloaker doesn't have to move, but whoever is looking for them obviously is - and that creates motion in those distortions. It's not even close to perfect invisibility.

It is however very often enough of a camoflage to overlook if you aren't expecting it, or even if you are but you only know a cloaker is SOMEWHERE inside a building but you aren't sure where then sure - a lot of people will miss it. An experienced player with good eyes chasing a cloaker around a corner only to not find the expected target will most times be able to find the shimmer in the handful of places that would have been within reach though.

If you want to test this then go on the test-server and hide within a room and let someone come find you after you hide. I've played that game before so I know I will find the cloaker 9 out of 10 times (without testing with bullets). Sometimes I can do so within a a few seconds, sometimes it takes me a lot longer, but I find him eventually. If deep cloak was actually invisible this feat would literally be impossible without "poking and prodding" randomly around the room. So, unless your definition of "invisible" is "not actually invisible" then I'd say your wrong on this...

ADDENDUM: Now, as to the question of if deepcloak SHOULD be invisible is another matter entirely. I think cloaking probably just needs some minor tweaking to how prominent the warping effect is. I think movement in other states of deepcloak is more needed to be honest, as anything other than deepcloak is easily visible out to 40-50 meters ( I headshot running cloaked infils at that range after i spot them just casually looking in the direction). Running cloak perhaps should be poor, but standing, walking and crouch-walking certainly needs a reduction to their visibility as they are either the same visibility as running, or so close to it that I have a hard time noticing any practical difference. I'd rather see buffs to that part of cloaking than perfect invisibility deepcloak. Deepcloak as it stands is at least useful, while the other states are more of a liability and an asset unless you are at sniping distances away from your enemies.

-Stigma

I think that when they introduce the 'auto-cloak cancel' thing, where when you fire you get pulled out of cloak, it should make things easier. Until then I think cloak is fine as it is, but I would appreciate Stalker cloak getting some buffs. Preferably no cloak decrease while crouch-walking.

This is all pretty good feedback guys.

Probably wouldn't hurt to make some slight tweaks to the energy consumption of the cloak too to go along with tweaks to visibility in various states. Currently it is very basic and hunter cloak drains in 12 seconds no matter what, and stalker drains at the same speed no matter what movement. Running is the same as crouch-walking.

I'd envision cloaking to drain a little on a sliding scale from running to sitting still (maybe crouchwalk could be 0 drain 0 gain for stalker). Stalker would be better at conserving energy in slow motions as that's its area of expertise, while hunter should probably only get a small part of that benefit (but maybe perform high-movement states like running and walking a tad better than the stalker in terms of visibility since hunter cloak is catered towards mobility over duration).

Just some thoughts. It might add a little more dynamics and flavor to the ability.
-Stigma

I think that would be a great thing to add, and I'm surprised it wasn't part of the game from the start really. I think the delay until you can fire should still remain, but clicking to shoot should just uncloak for you - and if you hold down the button until the delay is over you actually fire when the delay is over (otherwise not). It surely would make the whole process a lot more intuitive. I generally think that it is never a good idea to make controls more cumersome than they have to be - and having to essentially hit two buttons to do what could just as easily be done with one (with no drawbacks as I can see it) makes this a no-brainer. Just implement it so that you can still use the claok button to uncloak manually and I'm sure that nobody would have any objections to this addition as players could still do things exactly as before if they prefer that manual control method.

-Stigma

Deep cloak is fine, running cloak maybe could use a tweak. Maybe.

cloak does not mean be invisible