Changes to EMP Grenade, Tank Mines, and Drifter Jumpjets

Personally I don't think Infiltrators will need to throw EMP at MANA turrets that much: if I see an Engineer with a MANA I usually sneak behind him and backstab him. Firing at the gunner is also very possible and it often forces the Engineer to leave.

Personally I think that Drifters should give no accuracy penalty when used. Players should be allowed to "skate" on the ground and fire at will. After all Light Assault soldiers have mobility as their first trait, but forcing them to chose between moving fast and firing is crap.

ESF changes:
Please try this: grab an ESF, climb, roll 90°, press 'nose down'. There is an incredible increase of turn speed. Is this a bug or will we have this on live soon? (sorry if I missed a note about it in former threads).

People just don't synchronize with EMP grenades fast enough to take opportunity of their effects most of the time... When I see how few "EMP assist xp" I get when I throw an EMP grenade on a group of enemies, I wonder if those changes will be enough to make me want to not keep my grenade for perched beacons instead.

That need to be tested, but I'm sceptical.

Excellent changes here.

I like the idea but binding it to space seems clunky and probably not reliable. Whenever you want to gain height you have to stop using your jets for a moment, probably falling slightly. I want to feel more control than that.

How about you drift when holding space and any directional key, but you gain height when you let go of all movement keys? Or tie it to shift, you can't sprint anyway.


I was thinking you could maybe improve the ground speed boost reliability too. Bumpy terrain and gentle falling towards the ground really messes that up. And it doesn't feel great even on flat terrain, especially since you jump first. How about:

Drifters no longer lose height when your feet are 1m or less off the ground (so maybe 2m to the center hitbox). Plus, they gain the speed boost at that height.

Why doesn't it drain Infiltrator energy? I don't think it should drain any classes ability energy, but if it is, then Infiltrators should definitely be included.

Also, why not disable implants briefly? Except EMP shielding. Say three seconds or so?

It already takes out a Sunderer's deploy shield, so yeah it should affect the other specials of vehicles like removing the shields or boost or cloak.

and int hat single useful situation for drifters, you can make it to all of the capture points with maxed out normal jump jets anyway XD

i do look forward to drifters being made useful though

You two, please inform yourselves instead of spreading wrong information.

- The EMP always drains your shield and de-cloaks you. It just recharges fast.
- The Sunderer's deployment shield does NOT get drained by an EMP.

The main problem with the EMP grenades is not how many things it affects, but the way they affect them: it's the only grenade that don't protect you, nor kill people, but just weaken the targets during a short amount of time.

- Explosive grenades:
They kill people. You don't need support for that, but just to throw them intelligently.

- Flash/concusion grenades:
They prevent people to retaliate efficiently at you. So you can, if you use them well, use them to deal alone with a greater amount of clustered people

- EMP grenades:
They don't kill people, nor prevent them to shoot back at you. The people the grenade hit are 100% able to kill you if you attack them alone. It means that if allied people don't just rush in after the EMP blow, they will litteraly do nothing: ennemies will have recovered like it it was nothing.

The time frame to take opportunity of it is in addition relatively short. Depleted shields come back in no time and the scrambled screen is barely a nuisance, it makes that in most situations, you will no get any EMP assist xp with them, because they will have recovered by the time an ally attack them.

This is even more true since you cannot throw it when allies are too close, or you will friendly fire them (they can't cover, since the EMP pass through obstacles)



In conclusion, take opportunity of the EMP against player is something quite hard to do. Using grenades on a regular basis, I found that I kill 3 times more people in average with standard grenades that I get EMP assist with EMP grenade.
The EMP grenade is, to sum it up, totaly unefficient against infantry because it relies on allies being really really fast to react... if they even react.

Actualy, the main use of EMP grenade is not against players, but against enemy motion spotters, beacons and mines. The recent changes are not going to change this imho. Disabling class abilities is still no more of use than disabling shields if no ally rush forward at the right time to take the opportunity, things that a huge majority of players won't do, because rushing in a pack of enemy is really dangerous, even if they are without shields.

I mainly play LA and the class I hate the most is infil. The fuel drain will just make it worse and is completely unneeded. They utilize their cloak to give them an advantage while fighting and I use my jets. And with similar skilled players it is an even match. The turret disable makes sense as it makes the infil more of a team player. But the fuel drain will just make the infil too OP IMO.

As a side note, could you guys please add some protection from bolt action head shots again. Based on the number of times it is a low BR player getting a head shot on a constantly moving player it shows me it is WAY too easy.

Really happy to see changes going through with HA shields, i play 90% infil and now a days mostly SMG cqc. Things shall be interesting and fun. Got that grenade bando maxed out, and I am already more than decent at using EMP nades to assist my abilities to be a good team player.

-Kiwi
56RD

So you're the kind of person who thinks red light cameras can be circumvented by flooring the pedal and going really really fast, right?

In fact, we should be able to carry different types of grenades at the same time, and thus toss an EMP and then a regular frag. We essentially need two or three different commands / keys.

I feel that EMP grenades should rather focus on mecanical things than infantry:
1- It's more logical due to their nature
2- Infiltrators has been asking for having a little use against vehicle since ages

A dream of mine is that EMP grenades would make the same effect than concussion grenades but on mechanical units, slowing them down. The infiltrator would not be able to kill that vehicle alone anyway, but sneaking to the enemy tank line to weaken them when they are fightning against allied tanks would certainly be appreciated by people.

As a person who primarily plays Infiltrator with EMPs pretty much all the time (since the very beginning of PS2, I might add), some of these additions seem a bit too much. For example, there's no need to destroy ammo packs. Also, "draining" abilities is a bit much. It would be more balanced just to prevent them from being used temporarily and have them stop abilities that are currently in use. I also feel like stopping the Medic tool is also too much. This might lead to Infil squads simply spamming EMPs with Bandolier on points to prevent revives. (Even as the CO for our Infil-centric division in the 666th, I think it's OP).

EMPs are very useful, for people who use them regularly. Hell, I have a Gold medal on them and I hope to get Auraxium in the next month or two. On a side note, an Auraxium-level EMP would be pretty dope.

I wonder whatever happened to that Armor-Piercing Ammo idea that was under the Infil certs in Beta but we couldn't use.

The problem with mines being more responsive is that the EOD Implant doesn't work...

I mean, the reason it'll drain, is because I think that is easiest for them to do. There are a bunch of variations on how to have them affect other players, so keeping it simple to start and tweaking it out might make more sense.

I vote no on the ammo packs too. And I agree on the medic tool. Just... They seem to want to have a reason for all the classes to have to wear an EMP shield, so medic would need one too. Losing their AOE heal ability is enough for me. Though there are people (like me) who run with a shield gen and not the healing aura. Lose of the placed shield gen is the most the EMP would affect me (minus losing personal shield). And thus not much reason for an EMP shield.

If they did what you suggest, and locked out abilities for some time, it could be interesting. Locking out the ability to place another shield gen after being hit with an emp could hamper things a little.

On the jumpjets, how come we can't activate them with another key (or can me?) I'd like to hit F with drifter and do other things. And then space to go higher while they are toggled on.

In one breath you declare the Infiltrator as the weakest class then turn around and call them SOE's golden child. LOL. ******** heavy assault player detected.

awwh, wrong and wrong im afraid, but dont let truth get in the way of a good story, please carry on xD