E.L.A for short - Enhanced Light Absorber is a specialised suit slot, designated for Infiltrators that helps them when approached by Darklight wielders. The suit slot only works in cooperation with active cloak and prevents infiltrator from being uncovered by a flashlight at a cost of additional cloak energy drain. So basically it extends infiltrators (especially stalkers) survivability a bit, letting them avoid The Harbinger of the Certain Death a bit longer. It isn't meant to be a hard-counter for a Darklight. Bah, the idea of ELA was born purely because of my aversion to hard-counters. I prefer things that give a chance of accomplishing something, instead of 100% hard-counter. My idea is to give the stalkers (who aren't at really good position by now) a chance to keep going for a bit longer, since now it only takes a quick scan around the corners with your sidearm Darklight to uncover such lurker. If ELA would go live, it would take more effort to find a stalker but it would still be perfectly doable - your flashlight would still be infitite, while his cloak wouldn't. If someone would have to shine his flashlight somewhat longer at one spot to uncover an enemy it would give Infiltrators a chance to escape if the Darklight-wielder was occupied illuminating another spot. FURTHERMORE: Being illuminated with Darklight prevents the cloak energy regain for a brief (1-2s) moment, which means an immobile cloaker can be uncloaked by a series of quick flashes (although it would take more time) as well as by focused beam of light draining all the energy in one go. Cert-wise I'd see it like this: Lv. 1: 50 certs - Allows the user to remain cloaked even when illuminated by a Darklight Flashlight at a cost of <X energy per second>. Being illuminated prevents energy regain for 2 seconds. Lv. 2: 150 certs (200 total) - Reduces the energy drain by 10%. Being illuminated prevents energy regain for 1,5 second. Lv. 3: 300 certs (500 total) - Reduces the energy drain by 15%. Being illuminated prevents energy regain for 1 second. Lv. 4: 500 certs (1000 total) - Reduces the energy drain by 20%. Being illuminated prevents energy regain for 0,5 second. Lv. 5: 1000 certs (2000 total) - Energy regain is no longer stopped by a Darklight beam. So at maximum level and 2000 certs spent you'd get 20% more effective energy against a light beam and your energy starts to regain immediately after you leave said beam. And I know that I placed a mysterious "X per second" in energy drain. I know it's lazy and I apologise for that, but I also know that I'm not in a position to balance such thing so I'd like the Devs to give it a shot. But if I were to guess I'd like to see the Darklight to take from 3 seconds base to 3.6 seconds at level 4 and above to drain the full energy bar completely, however it could depend on how certed your cloak is (since stalker cloak has more energy when certed). Like I said - I'm not the perfect person to balance it. I'm open to any suggestions or correction, should I made a mistake. Thank you.
So if you pay 2k certs the people looking for you will have to know where you are already and shine the light on you long enough for your cloak to be drained? That's kind of stupid imo, no one would bother with that, better to just shoot at the spot where you know the infil is in that case instead of standing there like a derp trying to drain the shield first.
id actually love this as an option. it gives stalkers more of a chance because as it is its worthless to do anything usful to your team as youll have two minutes before some guy comes in with a darklight. this could add more use to stalkers flipping points since itd be harder to find them before reinforcements arrive
Personally, I think darklights should never have been added to the game so long as there's virtually nothing to sabotage in any base, but this suit option seems a little bit over-complicated. I'd like a suit option (or just a permanent change to the darklight mechanic) which causes the infiltrator to light up only if he's under the light for about half a second. This way, you can use the flashlight to scan for infiltrators, but you have to consciously examine particular spots, .not just spin around in hopes of accidentally discovering one. This should give a smart infiltrator a chance of remaining undetected, which is currently not really possible in indoor settings.
I have no problem with the concept, but the implementation and its considerations are messy. Moreover, it requires that Daybreak fix the flashlight thus that it illuminates the surface behind the Infiltrator, or else a discerning eye will notice him anyway. (Note to enterprising infiltrators: be wary when you stand cloaked in front of "holographic" surfaces. On some/all graphic settings, you block the hologram out and can be seen like that.) Alternate suggestion: the proposed Suit Slot utility, when you are cloaked, makes you appear the faction-specific color of the person looking at you (in other words, to other players, you look like an Infiltrator of their faction). Under Darklight, however, you will be seen in your appropriate faction color. This, of course, means a discerning eye will have to look at your basic body shape and for any faction-specific side-arms; but, anyone who focuses only on the color of your cloak will be fooled. Edit: come to think of it, you probably can drop the "Darklight reveals true colors" detail.
Just have it delay the time until you appear to darklight by 0.5 - 2 seconds. At the lowest level people who are just running by with DL on won't see you. At the higher levels you have a brief time to react before people who suspect you're there see you.
just remove darklight entirely Honestly since our cloak is as visible as if it were off when we move except 40+ meters out darklight just makes cloaking anywhere indoors pointless.
That's the general idea. It's meant to keep Stalkers hidden if they have already positioned themselves somewhere good, because now it's just too easy to reveal one. And remember that the time to drain the cloak is when the cloak is FULL. So if the cloaker has moved recently, it'd be quicker. In some cases (you chase a cloaked enemy, he turns a corner and crouches somewhere) - his cloak will be drained much. The other scenario is when a bunch of people is looking for an infiltrator - they WILL find him EVENTUALLY but it should take a bit more effort than now. If a bunch of people is in the room, give the cloaker at least a chance to TRY to slowly crawl out of there. Yes. He would have enough time to voulntary decloak and kill one or maybe two guys looking for him, but he'd be gone anyway unless he try to run for it and hide somewhere else. It certainly wouldn't make Stalkers MUCH more dangerous. I'd just let the more dedicated ones stay undetected for reasonably longer time and actually cause damage to enemy forces. They should be able to live to their proud name - "Stalkers". Remember that they are diving into the heart of the enemy territory with not much more than just a sidearm. Their main and only salvation is the ability to remain undetected and with Darklight it's a bit too tough. And it would be a good step forward IF we'd ever get more important hackable things in bases. Like shield-doors in some good spots which would make an assault easier but are locked by default (and the terminal controlling it shouldn't be right next to the door and certainly not outside! A stalker would have to make his way through the enemy-filled corridors) but can be to open to make an unexpected assault. If we'd ever see that, then Stalkers should have some utilities to remain undetected.
