I'm an Infiltrator primary. Always have been. But as of late, I'm having some trouble. When I'm fighting Vanu, I reap kills like rows of corn. Against the NC, not so much. Why? They have absolutely no trouble seeing me. It's not that they trace my shots. I'm good with re-locating. It's when I'm not moving, concealed, and not doing squat that they seems to see me so easily. I'll be on Hossin, in a bush, under a tree, at night, in the shadows, crouched, with stalker activated, never de-cloaked, not spotting, not shooting, just waiting. All is quiet for five minutes while I wait. No one even comes into the area. Then, some guy will either make a bee line for me, or come around behind me without a sound (inconsistent footsteps is another issue) and pop me as if I were standing atop a mountain peak at noon firing rockets. Not so much with Vanu, but constantly against NC. This leads me to one of two conclusions: A: The IOR (index of refraction) is too high for cloaked infiltrators who are not still and crouched, making it very easy to see on higher graphics settings (which it definitely true but may not be the cause of this issue). or B: There is an increase in NC players cheating. While I can't prove it, this one seems true to an extent. There must be some sort of hack that bypasses SOE's anti-cheat, allowing the user to see everyone's location. Now, this wouldn't really be noticed by most infantry, since it's highly plausible you were spotted. But as a infiltrator, on Hossin, in a bush, under a tree, at night, in the shadows, crouched, with stalker activated, never de-cloaked, not spotting, not shooting, just waiting, you cannot be spotted with [Q], and unless the player has darklight, it's really impossible to see. So it's very noticeable. I'm not exaggerating either. I have been in the exact stance I described for a period of time and someone with pop me as if they can see me plain as day. I'm not a bad infiltrator. I've been doing this since May, 2013 across several characters. This is recent. Not sure if it's the changes to the cloak, the fact that it's summer (you know who logs in at this time ) or what. I was just brushing it off, but not anymore. Something's up and needs attention.
Well I get being able to see an Infil when they're running. It's very easy overall and stupidly easy on high graphics settings (seriously. Better off not cloaking so at least you can shoot). To that, I say to SOE: please for the love of god lower the IOR for running and standing. The cloak is the one defense we have. But when I'm on Hossin, in a bush, under a tree, at night, in the shadows, crouched, with stalker activated, never de-cloaked, not spotting, not shooting, just waiting, I don't see how skill can help. An Infil who is cloaked, crouching and still in a lit room can be tricky to see even in broad daylight (never have a problem hiding there strangely). But on Hossin, in a bush, under a tree, at night, in the shadows, crouched, with stalker activated, never de-cloaked, not spotting, not shooting, just waiting? That's frigging impossible.
Funny that... I'm NC, sniper primary. It does not happen often, but one session, I was creeping around the extremities of a base. I could see from the mini map that there was little activity where I was. It was near an aircraft terminal and I was going to move in to hack it. But then I heard some activity and I stayed stock still, for quite a few minutes. So I was certain that I would not be showing up on any sensor or radar. Then this TR guy appeared on the aircraft platform, looked straight at me and killed me within a couple of hits. Took me by surprise, I just sat there and took the bullets and died. I was down in the brush on Hossin, and the aircraft platform was quite high up. Even if I had shown up on someone's minimap as a red dot, there was that much tree cover that I could have been anywhere, elevation wise. I've never questioned it really, until I saw this post just now. I have always put this sort of thing down to my lack of knowledge of certain aspect of this game, and that some peeps are time honoured vets.
I. can. see. you. http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/IRNV_Scope "On Hossin, in a bush, under a tree, at night, in the shadows, crouched, with stalker activated, never de-cloaked, not spotting, not shooting, just waiting", I can still see you shining bright. After nearly every of my deaths was caused by infils, I switched at least one weapon on every class to this accessory. It's funny to see infils sneaking slowly around, totally sure that noone has seen them, only to kill them before they can decloak. On the other hand, I can understand how frustrating that must be, sorry for that, bro :-(
Interesting. I run the game on Med-High settings. Maybe on Ultra the extra compositing effects make even still Infiltrators easily visible. I think SOE really ought to look into it. Might file a ticket to at least get their attention. For anyone else who has these issues and wants in on getting it investigated, reply here and let me know. I'll add your name in as a supporter.
The IRNV doesn't see cloaked players. I use it myself on my Armistice. As quoted on the page you linked: And you can't use it on a mag-shot, with which I am often killed with. Good theory though. I wish it were just that. It would make this whole thing much more simple. If you insist that you can still see infils with it, I'll test it and see for myself. Maybe SOE broke something. Again. Clarify?
If you're dying to the Magshot a lot, they're probably running darklight flashlight and checking in places they think infils would hide. Maybe the VS on your server suck and don't do the same.
Even with the IRNV scope, you would expect someone to have to look around first. Okay, there is always the chance, a bit of luck, that someone can just happen to look exactly where you are straight away. I sometimes do that too when I am sniping... I'm scoped out and something immediately catches my eye... scope in and headshot. But on this occasion, no looking around. It was though I had a large glowing spike pointing out my spot. It happened too quick. I remember thinking, in the cover I was in, I wouldn't even have to cloak, and to do so would have given me away anyway. I hadn't moved or shot any weapon. I saw the TR guy run on to the platform. I thought I had a good chance that he would miss me and get back to the fight. Instead, he looked down and shot me, without any hesitation. In fact, I'm pretty sure, now that I think of it, that he wasn't even ADS'ing at the time.
Well people with Ultra settings can see you if your moving around even by a little bit as they can see shimmers in the light from such movement. This has happened to me before as well, either I get spotted by an enemy using high graphical settings or an ally can spot them who uses high settings, had several conversations with my outfit about that and they tell me they can see infiltrators quite well. Personally It seems a bit unfair to those who play infiltrator and those with computers running at low settings, I myself run with low settings so I can't really tell if I can be seen unless I'm perfectly still and hope for the best. However I sort of taught myself 'how' to find an infiltrator which isn't at all too difficult, but I wouldn't notice it unless I hear certain sounds, terminals flashing, flipped turrets, and even a recon dart. After I look over at the map to be sure of the population percentage, if there is an amount that tells me there are enemies around I pull out my magshot, rebel, GD-22 or Spreadder, with darklight and begin to search around. If I get killed or if someone gets killed then I know they are lingering around, mines and deployed sensors tell me they are close, so I look around for the least obvious spots for an infiltrator to hide. From the infiltrators I fought in the past few days, they really can be either impatient or slip up and tell me they are around. However I can spend a few min trying to find a cloaker at times and to be certain that he/she is out of the base.
One thing to keep in mind is that people are different. Me and my wife have very similar machines and run identical settings. I can almost always spot an infiltrator and she has a lot of trouble seeing them. They aren't more visible to me, but the foggy movement catches my eye whenever it is in my field of view. Instantly. I also have a very good ability to locate things by sound. Short of that, I obsessively knife places that I think are good infiltrator spots. I've gotten lucky a couple of times doing that and might stop, just so I don't get accused of being a hacker. Knife empty air a hundred times and you'll catch an infiltrator once or twice. Of course, from their perspective it was just a random knife to the face. In short, yes there are some hackers. I've certainly seen some interesting things in my own relatively short time here. But I've also seen some things that made me yell hacker impulsively until I took a moment to consider the possibilities. For instance, had a guy suddenly appear behind me on the roof of one of the three story spawn rooms. He shot a couple of rounds, I spun and shot a few into him... then he vanished. Teleporter! No, actually a stupid LA that jumped down from a mountain, landed on the spawn room, and was forcibly undeployed before my eyes. Working as intended. A guy with no head killed me? Known bug. A corpse killed me with C4? Lag. That said, I've definitely seen blatant hacking as well. But first rule out IR/NV, cloak sound detection, radar blips, and random luck.
But isn't using the darklight flashlight pretty obvious? I mean, wouldn't we see that making its sweeps around an area?
Funny. I totally misread that as "totally visible". When I started using that sight, the number of infils I killed increased. Using the scope, my only thought was to shoot, but from now on I will switch to normal to check, if he is cloaked. Sometimes I wish, the ingame descriptions were better. And I miss the old certs screen.
It's your imagination, probably. I'm always amazed by people willing to believe that factions are actually that different, or that completely different kinds of people play different factions. All players are the same people, and the expression "NC has more cheaters" is absolutely baseless.
All those bonus checks we get allow us to get good PC's which can run higher graphics. More seriously, with graphics on high you can see a crouched infiltrator if you run right next to them, even in the scenario you have described. It's kind of hard to spot but once you get used to it you can spot them even if you only had a few milliseconds to see it. For guys who are bee-lining right to you from several meters out, I don't really have an explanation other than hacks. It's not something that can be attributed to a faction, since not all of them hacks, but I guess you could report them I guess?
As Andy said. I don't see many people using darklight. Unless it's not rendering the effects. Exact thing I use when Infil-hunting (my specialty). I'm very attentive of those things. I don't move hen there's a recon dart nearby, I make sure to stay silent, all of that. My main issue is when I'm not doing anything. When I should be, theoretically at least, undetectable. Same thing I do and avoid being the victim of. It's definitely too easy to see a moving Infil. SOE needs to tone down the IOR and make players use Darklight more (that's why it's there). Infiltrator shouldn't be an easy class, but right now it's too hard. Whether it's from hacking or from visibility. You can do everything right and still get boned.
On general NC is easier to shoot. Half of our weapons, trash saw and the likes, require us to be standing still to hit anything.
I totally agree with you but there is something going on with the NC and it's not, as someone mentioned, that they have better players. I play against NC on four different servers and in all I have the same problem, I just can't kill them easily and I die instantly to their shots. Do all four servers have so good players? maybe, but truth is that NC are a very very hard to faction to beat when in even numbers. Again, I'm one that doesn't believe that there are so many cheaters and I also believe that PS2 is a very balanced game, but these NC.... trouble me :/ oh btw. I hate infils with a passion. My eyes are somehow trained to spot them even if they make the slightest move (although they are 100% invisible if motionless), so yes, sometimes when I kill invisible infils it seems I cheat somehow but I surely don't.
