Infiltrator Class is SEVERLY LACKING SINCE LAUNCH

p.s . I'm still the best inf ever, but this thread isn't about me....

Infils are the singularly most impactful class on their own. Drop a few infiltrators behind enemy lines and let them go to task disrupting so many things. Sure I wish other cloak options were available but meh we'll get there eventually.

I don't understand why you think Infiltrator is so bad. I'm mostly a engineer dude, but I play Infiltrator in certain cases and can get a ton of kills. You need to think of it like this - Infiltrator's are snipers, not spies. Snipers are only good in certain circumstances, but when they are, man they can do a lot of damage! And actually, I think Vanu's snipers need to be nerfed. God I HATE those rapid fire snipers rifles, they are ridiculously OP. Oh, and the cloak is just fine. It's annoying when infils go invisible, appear behind, and BAM BAM BAM shoot a whole round in your head.

By the way, I'm an NC guy, so I'm talking about infils from my NC perspective.

serell said- I don't understand why you think Infiltrator is so bad. I'm mostly a engineer dude, but I play Infiltrator in certain cases and can get a ton of kills. You need to think of it like this - Infiltrator's are snipers, not spies. Snipers are only good in certain circumstances, but when they are, man they can do a lot of damage! And actually, I think Vanu's snipers need to be nerfed. God I HATE those rapid fire snipers rifles, they are ridiculously OP. Oh, and the cloak is just fine. It's annoying when infils go invisible, appear behind, and BAM BAM BAM shoot a whole round in your head.

By the way, I'm an NC guy, so I'm talking about infils from my NC perspective.

EHHHH?

I only commented on this comment to comment that it isn't worth a comment.

but while I'm here I might as well repeat myself yet again.....

INFILTRATORS ARE NOT SNIPERS. IF THEY WERE PURE SNIPERS THEY WOULDN'T BE CALLED INFILTRATORS( they'd be called snipers).

THERE's THIS WHOLE ASPECT TO THE CLASS YOU FAIL TO UNDERSTAND,

NC ENGINEER DUDE, IT'S CALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLED.......wait for it........................its called............

- INFILTRATIONNNnnnnnnngggggggguuuughhhhh-

"INFILTRATORS ARE NOT SNIPERS. IF THEY WERE PURE SNIPERS THEY WOULDN'T BE CALLED INFILTRATORS( they'd be called snipers)."

Woah, calm down, dude...
I just thought it was a fancy name, y'know, because like every shooter game calls snipers recons. Maybe their name should be changed? They can't be BOTH awesome snipers and awesome spies, that would be OP. Right now they're great snipers with some nifty spy stuff.

Be more respectful. All I'm saying is, I get can a ton of kills as an NC infiltrator, and I actually think Vanu has OP sniper rifles. I'm just throwing my 2 cents in the discussion for the developers to see, and you're just bashing my opinion.

I would've posted sooner, but I felt obligated to read through everything that was posted in case there was something else that really needed to be addressed. In doing so I read quite a few suggestions which seemed like quite nice, while in other cases I read some things that I did not quite agree with. But I'll chalk this up to perhaps my perceptions and experiences when compared to others.

In this post I will talk about a few things which will pretty much be divided out so if you wish you can simply skip a section your not interested in reading, since some of my posts can get quite wordy (sorry I had to say it ) . The first thing I am going to speak about is my experience playing with PS2's take on the infiltrator, along with my experience and personal style in playing the role in other games so that I may provide a reference for my likes and dislikes. Next as you can surmise I will discuss what I like about this role, and what I believe works well. Following this, I will discuss what I think could be improved and why. Finally, I will make some suggestions as to what I would like to see and finish off by providing some of my own opinions which may or may not be biased as opinions tend to be.

To begin with, I participated in the PS2 beta from the tech-based testing stages onwards. I did not play, or test super often since I was usually quite busy but I got on and dabbled here and there trying to focus on breaking things/making strange things happen and generally testing. Because of this, most of my experience playing with the infiltrator class comes from playing these past few days as the game has gone live. Having done so, I've played the infiltrator in the sniper role, and to an extent as an infiltrator sneaking around to provide what support I could - in the way of disabling something, or working to help capture an objective or make doing so easier by creating a distraction in order to divert my enemies attention from their goal. Needless to say, I've found myself playing more the sniper role simply because I've yet to find a squad that needed this type of help, and I've only participated in a few invasions of bases that involved anything more than a rush to capture the base with anything more than I would consider brute force; which is frankly not my forté. This being said, I have had the opportunity to sneak in amid the chaos and get to work hacking terminals, turrets, and destroying generators. Again anything to help reach the main objective, or divert even some of an opposing force away from their main goal. In other games I enjoyed playing similar roles which include(d) some of the following: I played with the infiltrator class in Infantry Online (mostly EOL:RPG). The sneaking/long range role in Deus Ex (and Deus EX:HR) The Stealth Bomber pilot in Eve-Online. The Shade a, hidden/sneaking style type class in Anarchy Online, as well as the Fixer (a hybrid class that can provide support with things such as snares, do decent damage, but can also provide more support by healing and providing buffs), and the Nano Technician a long range high damage but low HP class (unless you consider the sphere of invulnerability nano ). Ranger, and Smuggler in SWG (both before and after the NGE). The recon class in Global Agenda. The Recon in Firefall. And finally the roles of sniper and infiltrator in Planet Side (1), and other similar roles in games that I really are relevant to this conversation. Now I must emphasize I am not professing to be any sort of "guru" Nor am I saying that I was the best of any player in the games that I played. But I do feel fairly confident that I did reach a decent level of understanding and proficiency in each class that I did play.

As can be noted, I did not list many FPS games. This being because I simply do not play many fps games! This being the case I will be the first to admit that I lack the twitch skills that those who dedicate their time to doing this seem to posses. Because of this, along with my desire to play my games in a more cerebral fashion (most of the time xD) I tend to play in a slightly more deliberate fashion. That is, unless it seems necessary at the time I will never blindly run into combat. Instead I will happily study the situation and approach my dealings with players in a more cerebral fashion. This can include making a test shot a distance similar to that a group of targets that I hope to hit so that I can understand how much bullet drop to expect when making a shot, and how this may confer an advantage. Other times I may involve using distractions to help dispatch a now occupied enemy (IE killing a heavy who is distracted or injured by running up to him and blasting him with the hand gun, or if at a slightly longer distance simply dispatching them using the sniper rifle. And finally I attempt to use the arsenal that I was given in a way that will be most advantageous to me. This includes for example, making the best use of the cloak when sneaking, or even hiding in what could be considered plain sight. (IE sitting in foliage using your cloak as you hear, or perceive enemies nearing your position, or even in a corner in an area with a lot of traffic.)

Having done all of this I've found that I've found quite a fondness for things which I as mentioned earlier that I will address. But I first wish to say that my experiences will only be related to having played the VS faction. This being because I like how this faction is in my opinion the one that best caters to my play style (the most flexible and thus open to a tactical play style) while also in my opinion also having in my opinion the best appearance. (see this for example: http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/293/8/5/stupid_sexy_vanu_by_peopleofunitedstates-d5ifbbm.png xD) The first being, is that I appreciate the versatility that is offered to the Recon class initially. This being by allowing them access to a cloak/cloak suit off the bat. This cloak suit as many have mentioned will not make someone invisible were they to stand right in front of you. But used at even a small distance, or when taking into account one's terrain it's use is multiplied. (I can't even begin to recall the number of times I've been able to hide from a group of people as close at 10 feet away (approximately), even camped, or runningor the vehicles and squads that run by simply because I used the cloak at the opportune times.) I also appreciate that they provide a handgun/blaster that used correctly can be quite devastating and can even kill a heavy before they have the chance to bring up their shield if done correctly. The rifle, is also in my opinion a tool which at moderate ranges can become quite useful as well. All in all these tools provide a good introduction into what can be done with the class in a way that will not overwhelm (and in my opinion doesn't really run the risk of underwhelming) the new player.

That being said, with the good; there are also some things that I'd rather see tweaked. Not to say that I *don't* like but that could perhaps use some help. For example, I have yet to actually use the knife in PS2. This being because this would require for me to walk right up to an enemy, decloak and to stab them... something that given the close proximity to the target becomes in my opinion too large of a risk given the limited damage of the knife. This being that I prefer to decloak a distance away from the person who I've caught unaware and just unload a few shots in to the back of their head. (Gives me more range to maneuver and even the opportunity to try to slip away or around a corner should things go sideways). The next thing that I would like to see is some sort of cert, or tweak that allows me to increase the time that I remain cloaked through reducing the amount of capacitor used, if only simply for the fact that it would be infinitely useful in those situations where I am pinned in a base that has just panicked and have people running around (or above me in the case of those grated floors in the bio labs) me every few seconds. Finally, and I am not sure how to implement this; I would like to see some way of indicating to the players that the rifle you do start out with is not representative of the rifles you experience as a recon. But this is not really a mechanic style issue and can be remedied by a simple guide, that could be player or staff written. Or if the staff REALLY felt like they needed to convey this... a simple tooltip indicating that.

As far as other things go, I would honestly not mind a cloak that slightly decreases the visibility even more so when standing still. Since this would do more to recommend that type of in close game play, similar to the one in PS1 which is something that has already been addressed in the thread. That being the case, I do want to correct the wrong-headed assumption that this cloak renders you completely invisible when standing still since there have been a HUGE number of times that I was detected simply because someone took the time to pay attention to that blur sitting in the corner, much in the same way that I killed an infiltrator who managed to get in and was just sitting in the corner with a very faint outline which I correctly suspected was an infiltrator. The only down side, is that because of the cloak a fair number of people ruined that element by turning the gamma on their monitors. A problem not easily remedied by anything other than that of making it so that players are not rendered or registered by the server when completely still; something I would rather not see happen. Finally I would also like to see hacking expounded upon. Because while we can hack a few items, which include terminals, generators (which many can do anyway) and turrets. I simply want to see MORE of that type of thing. And as mentioned by someone else, I would also love to see an advanced cert to also hack and lock people out of their vehicles.

All in all I do feel that the infiltrator role was given a very decent starting tool set. However given what it already *can* do, I feel that it could use some more fleshing out. But all in all this is not just a problem relegated to the infiltrator (poke around in the other forums!) so I feel in time with some work and love on SOE's behalf, things will definitely get better.

This thread has ran its course. Locking it down.