Cooldowns starting when they get destroyed rather than the instant you purchase them would work, too.
A tank should inspire fear in the hearts of infiltrators more so than any other infantry unit, and not look like an xp pinata.
A tank (or any vehicle really) should only inspire fear in the heart of an Infiltrator if it has a competent crew. What exactly is there to fear from a tanker mindlessly shelling TI Alloys or the Crown? What about a figuratively blind pilot should frighten a seasoned saboteur like a skilled Infiltrator? There should be an element of fear-like anxiety that would come naturally with a high risk/high reward maneuver like hacking a manned vehicle, but no more than that. An unskilled tanker should look like an xp pinata, just like any other target in this game that is unskilled.
You wouldn't be able to hack it if it was moving. Using the hacking tool requires you to stay in a certain proximity. When you use the hacking tool, you can't sprint so you would be unable to keep up, unless the vehicle was motionless. And if it's motionless, then they deserve to be hacked...
The Problem I see with that is Deployed vehicles (particulary prowlers and sundies) which are obviously unable to move immedietly even if they detect a infiltrator hacking them.
It is of course trivial to simply exit the vehicle and kill the offending Infiltrator in that circumstance. If getting out of your vehicle and dealing with the Infiltrator personally is not your cup of tea, hacking should also (if balanced correctly) take significantly more time than it would take to undeploy.
How to abuse. Alt account\friend on other faction pull sundie, hack sundie Free 400 resource vehicle while yours is still on CD. As long as vehicles have costs and timers there is NO way to balance being able to hack and steal them. so no thank you.
I think it'd be fair if an infiltrator could hack a vehicle (with or without someone in it) and have that vehicle lock and set a despawn timer (dunno what's a fair length, maybe base it on resource cost). The vehicle could be unlocked by an infiltrator of the side that owns the vehicle. Example: I come across an unattended Vanu sundy. I hack it, no vanu can spawn from it or get in it (neither can I). Timer starts. No one shows up for 10 mins, vehicle despawns. Alternatively, someone shows up to unlock it and I shoot their fool head off.
I'd argue the game should promote bold moves requiring cojones and skill like hacking, not that lock-on/remote control instagib from afar nonsense HAs and NGs participate in.
Really? Really? Alt account/friend on other faction pulls AT mines/C4, blows up crucial enemy Sunderer Free Sunderer kill, no effort As long as AT mines/C4 can blow up Sunderers there is NO way to balance being able to have AT mines/C4. so no thank you. Alt account/friend on other faction logs & checks map during big battles Free intel on enemy locations/Sunderer placement As long as map shows allied location/Sunderer placement there is NO way to balance being able to have a map. so no thank you. Alt account/friend logs on and sabotages generator generator while you stabilize them Free exp, no effort As long as you can get exp for sabotaging & stabilizing generators there is NO way to balance them. so no thank you. Alt account/friend logs on Engineer & repairs turrets while you blow them up Free exp, no effort As long as you can get Exp by repairing & blowing things up there is no way to balance Engineers. so no thank you. You see the pattern here? This is the kind of game we'd have if we balanced it around low life exploiters. Your reason is no excuse & frankly I'm surprised you would bring up something so ridiculous as a counter argument to Vehicle Hacking.
Alright... I'll give my two cents as well... Hacking a vehicle WOULD be nice and fine, but would need a really stupid/careless bunch of enemies. An Antimaterial rifle could be implemented that destroys a flash with one hit and immobilizes a Sunderer (no more driving, no deployment) at the first hit IF you hit the motorblock and does quite some damage. Maybe a fifth of the Sunderer's HP. The Sunderer CAN be repaired back into mobility, but for this he needs full repair. Another option would be to implement another tool, a laser marker. Lasermarking every vehicle on the ground or in the air for lock-on rocket launchers, who can lock onto the Infiltrator's laser lock-on. As long as you are locked by the laser, your flares won't help you. Still, the rockets can't evade objects between them and the target. The points for the destruction go for the rocket launcher, but the infiltrator gets the ususal assistance points. Such a laser marker could easily become the nemesis of the skies. Also, EMP mines to immobilize ground vehicles in a far range from 20 to 100 meter for 2 or 3 minutes. A real zerg-stopper, even if it only stops them. Should get rewarded on hit as well.
Although I love the idea of being able to hack a vehicle and jack it, I'm not sure if it is really balanced. I think hacking a vehicle causing it to 'short out' would be enough... i.e. completely diabled, unable to move or fire. It can only be reactivated by being fully 'repaired' by an engineer. This would give the vehicle driver a chance to get his vehicle back online, and also a chance for the infiltrator to kill the driver, or fir his mates to bomb the vehicle safely. This would be very simple to implement.
I am all for hacking vehicles, but maybe unoccupied vehicles only (not sunderer) as call me biased but the prowler with lockdown would be too easy. Yet another drawback to using the prowlers special. NC and VS dont get drawbacks with their sheild/burner. Prowler would have 2 drawbacks, being static and easy pickings for infiltrators.
Just coming up with ideas... That's ALWAYS a good thing, even if not every idea is good. So excuse me if I try to think outside the box unlike everyone else who seem keep chanting about hacking vehicles as the only option. What about the idea of EMP mines? Nothing's as bad as a zerg that stops rolling in the middle of nowhere.
As much as I disagree with jacking a hacked vehicle being unbalanced given what I've already said, I would be willing to compromise and get behind a lesser option like a complete disable that kicked the driver/passengers. Of course this would also have to be able to disable deployed Sunderers, but I think this should be obvious by now. I'm having a hard time understanding what the concern is about hacking deployed Sunderers. I understand that it is an important piece of equipment paramount to attacking (and oftentimes defending) a base, but this importance should also come with the understanding that you must protect it if you want it to remain secure. An Infiltrator hacking a Sunderer would at best take an uninterrupted 20-30 seconds while being completely visible & relatively defenseless. The initial approach to the vehicle would arguably be easier than the other classes, but once in range of the Sunderer the balance shifts in favor of the other classes who are able to destroy it far easier & quicker than an Infiltrator ever could. Vehicle Hacking is a difficult, situational, skill based anti-vehicle option that melds easily with the abilities the Infiltrator already has. It would not be the end all be all option of taking down armor simply because of how difficult it would be to pull off against an intelligent opponent. As for your concern about Prowlers let me counter with something I wrote a couple posts about yours...
They would be almost objectively worse compared to anti-tank mines, providing most likely no XP reward for their successful use and not coming even close to the "utility" of permanently obliterating a vehicle besides. Even in the rare cases where you would be targeting a mineguard-equipped vehicle that isn't a deployed Sunderer, you as an Infiltrator would be completely powerless to cause lasting harm to it or its driver. Nobody praises an idea for being new. It has to be valuable as well. Sniper rifles which damage tanks are highly abusable and nearly impossible to counter, and EMP devices have virtually no place in a game where destroying armor is as easy as it is right now. At best, I could see an EMP dart which allowed us to disable vehicles from a distance with no resource cost being convenient enough to justify taking over a rocket launcher, but even that's a stretch.
