Cloaking - What can see me?

Discussion in 'Infiltrator' started by CoffeeBreak, Jun 1, 2015.

  1. CoffeeBreak

    I've been messing around with Stalker Cloaking and when stationary only about 75% can't see me. For instance, someone just walked up and shot me after I'd been perfectly still for about 5 min(half afk).

    During my time there about 30 enemies had run by. I did not shoot, reload, place a mine, Q spot, swivel around, uncloak/recloak, nothing. There were no motion sensors and the attacker did not use a Darklight Flashlight. I also was not in the direct path of travel to where they were all going.

    I was curious so I asked the person what gave me away, but BR100s are too good to take time to throw a noob some pointers. I did notice that I was his first kill at the location(killboard killing sprees changed color with me). I just want to know what special thing someone can use to spot me when I'm cloaked and perfectly still so I can avoid in the future.
  2. Voross

    Are you sure he didn't use a Darklight? There is currently a bug that causes you not to see the light from it.

    Other than that it's usually distortions that make me notice a stalker infiltrator. i.e. Displays on lab walls, medic regeneration shields, or simply the wall behind them. If the horizon is behind you it's also pretty easy do spot you. If you cap/hack something you should always leave the room or at least not sit in the corners because that's where they usually check first.
  3. CoffeeBreak


    I hadn't tried to cap/hack anything. I was kneeling in the corner of the building out of line of sight from their path of travel. So in this case, he had to intentionally run around the clutter in the room and come over to me. I was within 30m of their sunderer. Would Proximity Radar show a stationary cloaked person?
  4. Imp C Bravo

    Several things I've noticed.

    1. Got scanned by another infiltrator's beacon. The darts only catch you when you run, but the beacons work when you don't afaik.
    2. Darklight bug (I can't see it, but they are using it)
    3. Quite common -- sometimes I'll kill an infiltrator I didn't see thanks to either a.) my crosshair turning red or b.) it nudging itself to a spot on a while automatically (aim assist)
  5. CoffeeBreak



    I have seen my crosshairs turn red on a cloaked target before so that's probably a bug. In this case, he literally had to come over to me to be in line of sight.

    There anything special about VS? I play VS and NC. On the VS this has never happened. I've literally stood beside enemy sunderers during 96+ fights with enemies standing on top of me and not a shot fired my way. On the NC...one of these BR100 VS will usually find me. They are the top players on my server so I'll just have to be more careful I guess.
  6. Voross

    I'm not playing stalker infiltrator so I don't really know,sorry. But I'm sure our Lord and Savior CuteBeaver can help you.
  7. Imp C Bravo

    I would just say luck. You are sometimes lucky no one sways across you with their cross hair at just the right angle and speed to notice AA and/or lucky enough that no one though to look for an infil. Or unlucky enough for both of the above but opposite.
  8. Takoita

    I know for a fact that some infiltrators I've only noticed sitting cloaked because enemy collision suddenly decided to turn on for some reason.

    I kid you not, there was a small (somewhere around ten, I think) number of times when I was stopped from moving by what appeared to be empty space which showed hit markers and cloak shimmer when I shot it to check.
  9. MarkAntony

    well right now even being still and crouched is too visible. they screwed up the cloak and that is before you get into the bugs like the helmet and weapon staying in the most visible (sprinting) cloaked state...
  10. Plastikfrosch

    since one of the last updates its possible to spot cloaked infiltrators. They will not apear on the minimap neither will a dorito show up over theire head but the moment you Q-spam around and your avatars says something like "hostile cloaker spotted" you know the direction where you have to shoot.
    i already wrote a bugreport but the more people report that bug the more we can hope that they will fix it.
    • Up x 3
  11. ALTRego

    Too many bugs in the cloak game. They need to iron it out. Not just let the guys with uber-rigs and running ultra graphics get the drop. It has been this way for a very long time and will likely remain.
  12. Idiocy

    Huh, I'm playing on the lowest settings and since the new glassy cloak effect, I've been to see stealthed infiltrators perfectly fine.
    Even if you're fully crouched, if I'm withing 10 meters, I'll probably spot you, depending on the texture and brightness of the area you're hiding in. If you have a texturally smooth background, you're easy pickings. If you're sitting on a very chaotic looking, rocky surface, you might as well be a ghost.

    Not like back in the old days where it was basically a 99% transparency thing.
  13. Czarinov


    It was a 99% transparency for low-settings players. For high-settings players it was like you see cloakers now.
  14. Navron

    I ran past an enemy who was cloaked (I didn't see him cloak) but when I passed him at a certain angle, the shimmer caught my eye and I killed him. I felt kinda bad because he wasn't hiding against a wall or in a corner. He was just standing in the middle of nowhere.

    #TheStruggleIsReal
  15. CuteBeaver

    With higher battle rank players its not uncommon for them to "clear" a room. They do not leave anything to chance, and so I have to assume something tipped him off to check out that building otherwise he would not have been in there. (unless hes hacking - but i never ever like to assume those things because lets face it cloak is too buggy to start falsely reporting everyone and their grandmother every time something doesn't make sense on our ends.) What makes me suspect / have some doubts is that he didn't answer you. That tells me hes probably "that" kind of person.

    Its very possible he could have been tipped off by the broken "spot" mechanic. Like others have said maybe his cross-hairs turned red while passing over your hiding place. Its entirely possible you had a bugged cloak, where the head or weapons are glossy and not in its proper state. Honestly try not to let it frustrate you. I'v seen all sorts of weird stuff. I am convinced a small percentage are hacking but unless its really obvious your never going to know.

    Here is an example of hacking: You climb into a tree and start plinking people well above 20 from the ground (crossbow will not show as a dot on anyones mini map beyond a distance of 10 meters) and you look down to see a HA stabbing in the air underneath the tree branch trying to "kill" you on the mini map. I check for ESF / Flash radar, skys are clear and no flashes present. I am crouched and not moving cloaked and not visible. Clearly thats not right. So I move to another branch, and hes under my location. I kill him, move to a exterior wall tower that has a gravity lift. Partially take it up and settle on the ledge between the top floor and the bottom of the lift. Guess who knows my exact location on the map and comes back to stab the air underneath me. Clearly something is incredibly wrong there. For about a month straight this was a "thing" and more then a handful of experiences I can recall of people doing that. Suddenly it stopped after a few months. However in most cases its really hard to detect hacks like that.

    I'm going to suggest all stalkers keep outdoors, and possibly perch in higher locations until we get some bug fixes. The reason is you don't want to be in places people are going to search or clear . You need to be in places that are far too inconvenient to check with darklights (that we can't see anyway) to minimize your risks. This is a good time to use the crossbow or the new blackhand.
  16. Nurath

    Between Darklights and the possibility of dodgy graphics giving you away, I'd suggest using the cloak more like camouflage than invisibility.

    What that means is use the cloak but behave as if you don't have a cloak, but a ghillie suit instead.

    Yeah you can hide in vegetation and cover, and if you stay still you may not be seen, but you still got to be careful, and to chose when to move, and to move carefully.

    It's not going to be perfect but it should help a little.
  17. PlanetBound

    I

    Good points. Although I find that doing infil for a while makes me paranoid to move around when I using a different class.
  18. Steza

    Infiltrators can be spotted in multiple ways my favorite one is the environment such as on amerish if they are hiding in a grass bundle that moves the moving grass will be distorted. The tree branch thing I am one who is frequently paranoid of being shanked and will check the surrounding area. Tech plants if I see X percent of enemies on the map I'm going to check every possible area's for a enemy.

    Darklights are probably the big one since allies can see an enemy infiltrator if you shine it on them so if you're like me and equip it to a shotgun and run around to the right of the direction you're running is where the light will shine. Friendlies behind you might see that shiny colour and shoot it.

    Don't get frustrated with it just get creative, I like to make traps where I use Proximity mines around corners de-cloak and then re-cloak and run past the mines and de-cloak again. Normally the enemy will follow then boom they die and I go about my business.
  19. YusufHas123

    Not to be full of myself but I can usually pick up infils whetger they cloaked and crouched or not
  20. EV0_sentient_

    sometimes if you look around while crouched people will see your movement, technically you are still a blur, just a very hard to see blur,