Remember the EMP grenades from 2142? Totally disable vehicle for a few seconds. Used in a team, it would allow medics with C4 to take out tanks, working in a team with infiltrators. Though this is not "OP" at all, the way AV turrets and LoLaunchers are atm, the poor tank drivers would be even worse off....
I don't think anyone who plays an Infantry class feels sorry for tank drivers. Moreover, a tool which makes it much more convenient for other people to kill tanks would indeed be far worse than C4 on the Infiltrator.
Hacking was a lot of fun. If there was a thing that could make my day in PS1, it was a hacked BFR. Actualy these things like hacking will not be usefull until infils get back unlimited cloaking. Heck, ill even trade my main gun for unlimited cloak.
Agree with Astraka; half the fun of vehicle hacking in PS1 was getting a captured enemy tank back to your forces. It was like a trophy, and it also just felt good using their own weapons against them. Just making them turn into one of your tanks would take a lot of the fun away.
This is imho the problem: vehicles hacking is just perceived by players like a way to get a trophy and run across the battlefield driving ohter factions MBT (LOOK AT ME I HAVE A BLUE/YELLOW MAGRIDER). This noisy and very fancy way of harming has imho nothing to do with Infiltrators. Hacking should harm enemies in a more subtle and tricky way. Informatic viruses should make possible to do things like locking vehicles (driver can't enter the vehicle anymore), shut it down (you can enter but it doesn't move), disable weapons, slow it down, invert commands, make it very unresponsive etc.... Don't forget Infiltrator is that soldier that hits without being seen: enemy find their vehicles are blocked or less effective and they don't understand what's going on. That's the way further features for this class should be developed. I hope they will do something better than just copying hacking from PS1 and implement it straight as it is in PS2.
In my opinion, once you get into a vehicle you are no longer playing that class - you're piloting that vehicle. Doesn't matter that you aren't stealthy any more. Either way, don't see why it shouldn't be a choice left up to the infiltrator - deconstruct or go full throttle. I'm more than happy to be given different hacking options - perhaps the location you hack the vehicle from could decide what effect it has, with the more devasting effects being nearer the front of the tank and the weaker effects being near the rear. Alternatively, different hacking tools; fast tools that have weaker effects (like the ones you stated) and slow tools that have stronger effects (like taking control of the vehicle) - you would have to choose which one you wanted, knowing the chances of success vs. the strength of the effect is something you can control.
Specialized rounds instead of a anti-tank rifle. You would have a round that could damage armor, but you would have other options to choose from too, like EMP or spotting. You would buy them with infantry resources and have 5-10 on hand. Clip size of 1 when loaded, need to load a new clip or round after the shot.
Infiltrators shouldn't attack vehicles. Perhaps instead of a recon device we can have a laser pointer that houses missiles from HA or engineers, to wherever the laser is pointed to. But infiltrators can already take out tanks by lacking enemy turrets. Any more anti armour capability would be too much.
You're joking, right? Tell you what, I'll give up my ability to hack turrets for literally any other interaction with enemy vehicles.
Hacking enemy turrets is very powerful, but also very situational. Giving Infiltrators another situational means of attacking vehicles would not overpower them. Vehicle hacking is the perfect solution. It would take a lot of skill & luck to pull off maintaining the high skill cap of the class, and would be a situational answer to vehicles that meshes perfectly with the abilities the Infiltrators already possess. I can see where people are coming from when they say things like C4 or mines would be too much, simply because it would be very easy to pull off with a disproportionally high reward. Hacking would be entirely different in that regard. Even if the successful hack only auto-deconstructed the vehicle it would be far preferable to any explosive in my opinion.
I could maybe see that hacking a vehicle to maybe disable it for a short while, but I think we have to be very careful not to tip balance the other way. I don't think there is all that much wrong with infiltrators as they are right now.
Fair enough, but I think a lot of other people disagree. At the end of the day, putting in more options would not decrease your fun - but it would increase ours.
My emphasis. Yeah...I wouldn't give a rat's **** if I'd blown up an enemy AMS Sundy or deconstructed it, either. The only thing that matters is that I've removed it from the battlefield and the use of my enemy. Deconstructing an enemy AMS Sundy would a very powerful ability. Sure, you aren't racking up a bunch of kills from any passengers or bystanders but you're still potentially removing a lynch pin of an enemy force. Obviously other classes have ways to do the same - and that would be an argument for your suggestion but I think you should recognise just how important that could be. A decent INF is going to be a lot less conspicuous than an ESF or even an LA. More in line with Infiltrating would be getting into vacant gun positions, or locking out equipment dispensers. Edit: I think hacking vehicles could add an interesting dynamic, don't get me wrong. It would certainly allow for more disruption because the enemy now needs to leave one or two people guarding the Sundy...otherwise I'm going to pop round and do naughty things to it. In a way, locking people out or disabling things could be more powerful than simply damaging them. I can simply get out of a damaged tank and repair it. Would I need a friendly INF to come and unhack my tank though or drive it back to the spawn pad?
well besides the fact that infiltrators have no use in competitive play,because they are a class without a purpose then yes they are completely fine!
I am not trying to make Infiltrators overpowered in any sense, just trying to give us an option that while difficult to pull off would give a proportionally high reward - which seems to be the hallmark of the class. Guaranteed vehicle hacking would not come in to play as often as people fear even if the reward was substantial enough to try constantly (auto-decon, owner swap, total disable, etc). It is just too situational, and would require a lack of awareness from the enemy pilot that is borderline criminal. If you think about it Vehicle Hacking is a lesser measure when compared to giving us C4 or Tank Mines for example. Bear in mind I am not completely against a different means of interaction or a somewhat lesser reward, but I think it absolutely must be able to hamper the AMS spawning ability of a deployed Sunderer. Whether hacking vehicles simply disables it for a time, eliminates the vehicle altogether, or swaps ownership of it to the Infiltrator it must be able to do this. The importance of disabling a Sunderer is directly proportional to how important the Sunderer is to securing a base, this is the reason I think we need it. Balance it however you like, but a means of disabling an active AMS Sunderer is of paramount importance to all the classes. This is arguable, but only on the initial approach. An LA, Engineer, Medic, or Heavy Assault need only reach the Sunderer alive before being able to quickly blow it up. An Infiltrator would have an easier time getting to the Sunderer (again arguable), but having to stand visible & relatively defenseless for a significant period of time (20-30+ seconds) during the hacking procedure tips the balance back in favor of the other classes. Vehicle hacking (regardless of the result) is innately balanced by this fact.
Vehicle hacking empty vehicles isn't a bad thing, but incase of sunderers we'll deffinately need a return of the stealth buble for ams or other means of hiding your sunderer. Otherwise it will simply be too easy to deny the attacking side, spawns in smaller fights. (infact that could fix some of the issues with suicidal C4 troopers, in big fights the constant stream of spawners will act as some sort of defence, but also give away the sunderer, so big fights shouldn't be affected too much.)
I don't really feel you explained your reasoning well enough. Vehicle Hacking would require a cloaked AMS because of how easy hacking would be to perform against small groups but the instant death that comes from LAs, Engis, Medics, & HAs C4ing/Mining doesn't?
I guess I really didn't explain enougth, I meant it is BAD ENOUGHT with C4 kamikaze runners. If we allow more abilities to remove a spawnpoint without any prior warning, it will shift too much need for organising stuff towards the attackers compared to defenders. Improving the ability to hide the sunder, could be one of many ways to get around the issue, and might make alot of people less reserved towards the infiltrator hacking stuff. In planetside 1 it was a challange because people could place sentry turrets and because they did cloak. right now sunderers don't have that ability, and vehicle hacking is added, it just feels clunky to not let people hack sunders but everything else.
