The Infiltrator Update: An Extreme Idea.

+1 to the OP.
With more fun things to do regarding stealth gameplay than just find new ways to kill enemies, I might actually play an Infiltrator as more than just a sniper.

Thanks for the support.

I really like a lot of this, some really good ideas in here.

Thanks for the support!

As someone who plays a lot more light assault than infiltrator, I completely agree with the ideas you put forward here.

I appreciate your understanding that both classes can each use some work and I find myself agreeing with the vision you have for each classes' roles - Infiltrator as an infiltrator/cloaker/saboteur and LA as a recon/lightly armed, mobile front-lines soldier.
Obviously simply switching the recon device from the infil to the LA won't complete either class, but its a step in the right direction.

I agree, that for the infiltrator class at least, knowing whether you've been detected by radar or not would be hugely useful, and I don't believe it would be game breaking. As for the current infiltrator weaknesses, I personally don't use a commisioner so it doesn't effect me in the slightest if Infiltrator health is normalised (ie I have no concerns about it being changed).
Once again, even though I don't play infiltrator a whole heap anymore, I totally agree that the cloak sound has waaaay to large a detection radius (someone said it was over 250m), so I think it would be entirely reasonable to make it only audible within 50m or even less.

You're entirely right that cloak visibility needs to be normalised for all graphics settings - its been an issue since day 1, that's just been reversed over time. I play on low graphics settings myself, and while I can notice infiltrators when I'm looking for them with some/many backgrounds/lighting ambience, in front of other textures, its almost impossible.

Yes, stalker cloak is underwhelming atm because it doesn't gain enough longevity or stealth improvement to justify its cost;
however it is my hope that, like with the ESF update weapons, the developers are aware of this and planning to improve it post-introduction good time.

Truth be told, this entire thread was rushed; I hadn't anticipated that they were going to spend so little time testing the class updates with us. My original impression was that these updates were going to be huge and literally shape our entire class based upon issues addressed by the community itself and fix the various bugs or underwhelming aspects mentioned. Instead...it just felt so rushed with little interaction with the community itself.

With that said, I'm extremely pleased to have received such positive feedback, with so very little negative. Having our cloaking sound reduced to 50m would be a godsend. As it stands, you can literally tell how significant an impact the cloaking sound has when all the sensor darts start showing up upon your radar upon cloaking or uncloaking. Visibility normalization of the cloaking device is something I thought they were going to go full out on in this update...drill the issue until it's where it needs to be. They did some changes, but I'm not sure how they transferred. I've been looking forward to someone with a high end computer doing some tests on all settings, with the flashlight, different terrains, etc.

While enjoying Stalker, I can't help but notice the extreme lack of mobility and I'd like to see them bump it up to the nice rounded number of 20 seconds. Granted, I don't yet have the device fully certified and I'm using a silenced beamer...so my thoughts might change when I get the Crossbow, but I doubt it. As it stands, it's as frustrating as it is fun...and I feel that even 20 seconds would leave this more of an ambush oriented cloaking device than anything else. That's not to say it's not viable...but it doesn't feel like it's where it needs to be.

Ultimately, it doesn't leave me with a sense that my Banshee Cloaking device concept doesn't have a place upon its inclusion...so I'll probably pitch that again along with everything else when I work on this entire concept further. I think that I have an interesting idea for a new Light Assault Jet Pack that I believe I touched upon long ago...not even sure. I theory craft way too much for my own good.

Anyway, thanks for the support!

We could get the Gate shield defuser as a tool. It would have the same mechanics as the vehicle ones, only having the cool down bar instead to let you know when you can use it again.
Besides, every other class can use it already with the cross bow, in that way its usefulness has already been taken from us.

Lol, instead they gave us the shaft and said good luck. The test server is WAY under used, and the Devs don't communicate with us.

Q spot marks you just as well as it marks the enemy, and means that you are in a good spot to get shot. LA are easy to see, they are the only thing flying or peaking over a roof.

Also this was already taken away from us by the Recon dart that every class can use as secondary.

That makes you useless, any engineer can keep an entire base covered with these things, 4 rounds in a clip with a fast firing cross bow?
This makes your stealth absolutely useless.

That is because almost everything else is better. Personally I use ammunition belt, 3 or 4 more mags is better than 10% increase run speed in my opinion.

A single infantry with a harasser can already do this. If it is empty. If anyone is home, infiltrators are easy to kill. One max could take down a whole squad of them if they came in through the shields.
Obviously this ability would have to be ineffective against SCU, but other than that this can be done with a harraser, why not give this class a similar certable mechanic. I am much more scared of a sundy or harraser because they can get max's and other much more threatening classes inside.
Put vehicle spawn locations outside of the shield, I am sick of people spawning them inside and playing peekaboo, make them have to at least spawn and drive around the corner to get it back in.

Those guys really piss me off. They should take their medic symbol off the map if the don't plan on reviving anyone. I can not tell you how many times I delay re-spawning because there is a medic dancing on my body, I call out in proxy, and they just ignore me. Soooo annoying.

No one on med-ultra needs the Light, we can see infiltrators just fine. Making the cloak almost useless against some one with a nicer gaming rig. (Personally I run this game on ultra rarely with below 60 fps usually only with a lot of explosions around me or smoke, I don't need the Dark light because Infiltrators are so easy to see. Just today I shot one who thought he was sneaking around the corner, I watched him, waited for him to stop moving aimed and shot him. He whispered to me asking me how I could see infiltrators that far away, because his rig was on lower settings, infiltrators were invisible to him)

Part of this idea is to make them more visible to low graphic users, and less visible to the higher settings. Your gaming rig should not give you a significant advantage in this situation.

If the above idea is implemented, the Dark light would be much more useful. I personally only use it on my secondary weapons, mostly at night. It can be useful in day time if they are in deepest cloak though.

There is a big gray area for those, where you are not sure if they see you or not. The edge is not clearly defined on the mini-map, and the mini-map is inaccurate often enough.

You need direct line of site for that. Most Sundies are hidden around corners, and you do not want to have to walk into view of a tank to find out if he knows you are there.

I'd much rather see it implemented as a suit slot or a passive perk of full certification into Advanced Hacking.

Had not thought of it being a max level perk. I like that idea. Not any inf could do it, only infiltrators that dumped a minimum of 681 certs into it.
Or they could add one additional level for the 1000 certs (total of 1681 certs) that gives more terminal hacking speed, but also the gate shield defuser ability.

been playng hide and seek for a while with the new cloak,but meh it's getting kinda boring with nothing important to do once inside a base

Instead, we got more ways to detect our fellow Infiltrators and render the radar trivial.

dont forget the crossbow can only OHK infiltrators i dont want to sound pathetic....but im starting to consider that there is some sort of cospiracy against us.