This is another rendition of the following thread: HERE In light of the Infiltrator update, as well as the recent changes to sniping in general, I thought it prudent to rewrite my thread once again in order to try advocating my personal ideals. As expressed within previously renditions, please read the entire thread before formulating an opinion; some of things I'm proposing will only make sense when you see the larger picture. Also, anything with the tag of (A possibility only) is something I believe will be very controversial, so if you disagree with it...that doesn't mean you have to disagree with everything else. Simply address that you disagree with that portion, why, and then move on. Truth be told, you can do this for any part of the thread...but you get the point. With that said, thank you in advance for taking the time to read through my excessive ranting, and without further ado... It's my opinion that this is one of the most important issues with the entire class; as it stands, the system is simply not lucrative...nor is it fleshed out enough to even matter. With the drastic reduction of Equipment Terminals, this problem has been rendered worse than ever before with only a glimmer of hope in sight. The upcoming energy bridges are a step in the right direction, so long as they can't be destroyed. However, if we want to make hacking a truly viable aspect of the game...we need much more than this. The entire system needs an overhaul, and I can only hope that the development team has been listening. Here are my thoughts towards what I believe would work. Make Hacking Important: Currently, we share our objectives with the Engineer; anything that can be hacked within the game is destructible and can then be repaired. This presents a lucrative source of experience for armor and infantry, even more so for the Engineers because they can destroy these objects and then repair them for additional experience. The few terminals and turrets not destroyed within the first few moments of a battle are quickly hacked by one or two Infiltrators...leaving everyone else without much to do in terms of hacking. This needs to change... We need more objects implemented into the game that change the course of battle and are also indestructable, giving Infiltrators a monopoly on the mechanics involved. Many have suggested a verity of possibilities and the development team themselves are going to be implementing these energy bridges within the future...a great step into the right direction, but only a step. - Blast Doors: Many have suggested the possibility of blast doors being implemented into the game that grant defending forces a quick escape route from a base that can be used to flank the enemy forces. This concept, however, was suggested under the pretense that Infiltrators could hack these blast doors and change the flow of battle by giving the assaulting forces an alternative route into the base. - Ammunition Towers: Suggested as an indirect method for Infiltrators to affect armor, this capability could potentially weaken an enemy siege by cutting off their source of ammunition back home. We're the class capable of slipping out when an enemy assault has our faction pinned down, and yet we currently have very little that we can accomplish when having done so. Instead, we become a mild annoyance for the zerg who's continuing to pound our forces into the Spawn Room. This might help change that. While these two concepts may not work, for whatever the reason, they serve as two exceptional examples for providing monopolized hacking objectives for Infiltrators that can potentially change the course of battle. Give us a true purpose behind enemy lines, a reason for our faction to call for infiltration and espionage. Advanced Hacking: Right now, there's really no justification to invest into Advanced Hacking. Taking the previous thoughts into consideration, I would like to see a drastic change done to the entire system in order to make this a more lucrative specialization and present a constant need for hackers by creating a sort of war within the war. Now, this might seem as though I'm weakening our capabilities, and I am to an extent, but for a very good purpose that will ultimately benefit us Infiltrators much, much, more. I might have actually set this up better in previous renditions of the thread, but here it goes! Tier 1: Temporary Scrambler Tier 2: Permanent Scrambler Tier 3: Personal Shield Diffuser * Tier 4: Temporary Faction Hack Tier 5: Permanent Faction Hack Note: Each tier increases hacking speed. Note: Each tier increases experience gained through hacking. Scrambler Effect: The weakest form of hacking, the scrambler simply fries the systems of equipment terminals, base turrets, energy bridges, etc... and locks everyone out of the device for the duration of the effect. The higher tiers of Advanced Hacking will naturally override this effect...making investment into Advanced Hacking a must for anyone who actually wants to develop their hacking abilities. Personal Shield Diffuser: (* Could be moved to Tier 5, if need be.) The Personal Shield Diffuser works by granting Infiltrators the ability to passively bypass shields that would otherwise restrict their progression. In my opinion, this ability would seal the deal on making Advanced Hacking worth certifying into by providing us with the ability to truly infiltrate enemy defenses. Furthermore, it lets us compliment Light Assault troopers through black ops missions...leaving them to take the high road while we take the low road, murdering our way to the middle! Spawn Room Shields: (A possibility only) Originally, I did not intend for the Personal Shield Diffuser to work with the Spawn Room shields. My opinion has wavered, however, after having taken a look through several threads detailing how defending forces turtle within these Spawn Rooms and could have potentially pushed the assaulting forces back if they were to have actually organized and gotten themselves out of the spawn room or redeployed at another base to pull armor to then flank the assaulting forces. Instead, they simply remain within the spawning room and engage the enemy from behind the shield trying to farm experience before the cap. It's possible that this idea could be used as a method of encouraging people to push out beyond the spawning rooms by providing at least one threat for those remaining inside. So long as the pain field remains, the ability for Infiltrators to bypass the spawning room shield and actually engage those inside could push people into mobilizing as soon as possible to avoid martyrs jumping in to take people out. Still, I am questionable on this and it should be tested thoroughly. Vehicle Hacking: (A possibility only) Personally, I believe that armor and aircraft are in a very awkwardly weak position right now due to the fact that they are balanced based upon the potential volume that can transpire within any one given area at a time. So, I'm inclined to say that they don't need any additional threats until this is addressed...but many amongst our class crave the ability to hack vehicles. So, if we get such a capability...vehicles and aircraft need to be buffed accordingly to compensate for the additional threat of Infiltrators. Anyway, hacking vehicles and aircraft would work exactly as described above in Advanced Hacking. Vehicles and Aircraft would receive an optional certification line to address hacking by providing them with a little defense. Each tier would increase the amount of time that it takes for an Infiltrator to effectively hack their vehicle and aircraft and also implement a very subtle warning system consisting of a small blinking dot near the corner of their HUD. This warning system, however, only activates near the end of the the hacking cycle, but advancements into this certification line will make this warning trigger faster. However... Every tier of Advanced Hacking taken by the enemy Infiltrator slightly decreases the benefits of this Anti-Hacking system. The time it takes to hack is decreased, and the warning indication triggers later near the end of the cycle. This system ultimately provides vehicles and aircraft with a good optional defense system against novice Infiltrators trying to hack into their vehicles, and a slight warning against expert hackers...which might save them if they're quick enough to respond. In Conclusion: With the exception of the controversial aspects, this is what I believe we need to make hacking a viable option for the Infiltrator. Further incorporation of indestructible hackable-objects, that change the course of battle, will ensure that Infiltrators are in constant need both in base defense and offense. Furthermore, the Personal Shield Diffuser ensures that we can actually infiltrate the defense systems of these bases and cause true psychological terror behind enemy lines. So concludes the hacking portion of this thread; you may now get a snack before we continue.
I like to imagine my personal ideal for the Infiltrator class as the triad of terror in terms of gameplay. Essentially, three different core playing styles that we can then delve between in order to cause a great deal of paranoia to the enemy forces. One facet of our class consists of long ranged sniping; assassins geared towards the eradication of high priority targets. These patient predators scan the battlefield for the most lucrative and threatening of targets, turning them into a plume of crimson giblets before they even have a chance to hinder our assaulting forces.One facet of our class consists of the more aggressive amongst us; wielding closer ranged rifles and sub machine guns to cause absolute chaos upon the battlefield. Zipping in and out of stealth, these efficient killers leave the opposition flustered and frustrated...always paranoid and confused about who whittled down their comrades.Both of these facets perform quite well right now...so long as Nanoweave remains out of the picture. I've heard rumors that it still provided protection against bolt-action rifle headshots in certain cases...but I've not yet encountered this, presumed, bug. With that said, what we're missing is our very namesake...infiltration and mechanics required for such. I've already detailed what I believe we need along the lines of hacking, now it's time to address our cloaking devices and what's potentially being provided to us within the update. Our current cloaking devices work exceptionally at range, but when we get into medium ranges...they become very inconsistent and situational. First, I'd like to address what they are supposed to do...render us difficult to distinguish so that we can flank enemy forces and engage unsuspecting targets. Now, the problem with this is that they have been unable to balance the visual graphic associated with cloaking since launch. Right now, it's overpowered on low settings and slightly underpowered on medium to ultra. We are virtually invisible on low settings, and this needs to be addressed because it's incredibly frustrating for our victims who use these graphical settings. It's my opinion, however, that we are a bit too visible on medium to ultra settings. My reasoning for this statement is that you will have high BR players instantly railing you even if you are at medium range and within their peripheral vision. Direct line of sight is understandably a position that we should be easier to distinguish...cloaking is meant to give us flanking power...but being easily distinguishable in the peripheral vision of the enemy makes our flanking abilities sub par...especially to high BR players who have adapted to the graphical effect. The entire reason for our cloaking device is to avoid enemy detection while we attempt to flank our victims; however...if we are clearly visible within everyone's peripheral vision, that completely defeats the ability to accomplish this. If we have to avoid every enemy soldier's field of view clear up to medium range, even in their peripheral vision, what's the difference between trying to sneak as a Heavy Assault and an Infiltrator? In both situations, you have to avoid the enemy's screen to remain unseen. Furthermore, the sound mechanic is far too loud right now and there are plenty of threads addressing this...so I won't extend my own with it. These are things that the development team might want to take into consideration with our current cloaking devices and the upcoming Stalker Cloak itself. This isn't the point though, because I believe that the Yautja cloaking effect will never provide an optimal infiltration cloak because people adapt to it visually and learn to track movement more efficiently. This is proven by the game Starcraft, which also uses the same type of graphical distinguishing for cloaked units. If you play the game long enough, your eyes will learn to pick up this graphical effect rather quickly and the way that Starcraft addresses this is through the fact that you need a detection unit before you can actually engage cloaked units...which obviously won't work in Planetside 2. Now, cloaking devices that use this effect work great for long ranged situations and can even do exceptional in medium ranged situations for our more aggressive Infiltrators simply because there's an abundance of players out there who have very poor situational awareness...especially during chaotic battles. For true infiltration, however, we need something that is not so inconsistent and can potentially expose you depending upon the very backdrop that your kneeling beside. So, what I'm about to propose is something that I believe can be far better balanced and bring back some of the psychological terror that the Infiltrator should cause and currently lacks well behind enemy lines. The Banshee Cloaking Device is designed to bring back the psychological terror which Infiltrators are supposed to cause, in accordance to the lore. Granting perpetual, and complete, invisibility even while moving, this device turns Infiltrators into ethereal forces of terror capable of traversing an entire base while remaining completely unseen...but not unheard. In compensation for the superior stealth capabilities, the Banshee Cloaking Device emits a constant very subtle sound that increases in intensity depending upon the Infiltrator's actions. If they're interacting with an object...this very subtle sound becomes an eerie tone of a moderate pitch capable of being noticed by those carefully listening for it. Furthermore, when they attack...this pitch increases to a downright bloodcurdling volume that should cause most to flinch at the very least...if not soil themselves. The Basics: - Restricts primary weapon. - Complete invisibility while stationary, walking, and sprinting. - Slight visibility while interacting with an object. (Generator, Turret, Terminal, etc...) - Temporary, and complete, visibility while attacking; cloaking re-engages automatically after a couple seconds when no longer attacking. - Emits a constant and very subtle sound while stationary, walking, and sprinting. - Emits a constant and subtle sound while interacting with an object. (Generator, Turret, Terminal, etc...) - Emits a downright unsettling and very loud sound upon attacking. - Attacking and interacting with objects can be done while cloaked, the above repercussions will engage automatically. This cloaking system is not bound to a key and runs completely automated. (A possibility only) - Anti-Infantry mines and grenades only trigger partial visibility and subtle sound emission. Important Balance Note: Scout Radar has been made more lucrative by the fact that it awards experience for successful detection of enemy targets. This means that it's much more likely to be used by the enemy and thus ping cloaked Infiltrators...giving enemy forces the ability to spot those using Banshee Cloaking, and every other form of cloaking for that matter, on the radar. Combined with Recon Darts, Recon Drones, and the new deployable Motion Sensor...I believe that our stealth capabilities have been drastically hindered and could use some superior cloaking devices to balance things out a bit. Come on guys, our stealth capabilities are being whittled away here...throw us a friggan bone. This would complete my "triad of terror" ideal for the Infiltrator by incorporating a very melee oriented infiltration facet of our class that's geared around assassination and espionage. I'm well aware that this type of stealth could provide extremely efficient assassination capabilities via the knife and pistol combination...but so what? Aside from the fact that our radar stealth capabilities are greatly threatened...this game is based around the concept of team oriented gameplay. Unless you're an Infiltrator, because we're sort of geared around lone wolf oriented behavior alongside the Light Assault, you should be traveling alongside comrades and organized squads to complete objectives and overcome the enemy opposition. Infiltrators using the Banshee Cloaking device, and potentially Stalker Cloaking, will greatly encourage players to stick together and become more organized. Those who straggle behind are opening themselves up to the risk of assassination...pushing them to mobilize with their allies and enforce that infantry bond that gets objectives accomplished. I like this sort of methodology because it gives players an easy counter to assassination by pushing them into actually playing the game as it's meant to be played... If you don't want to be sniped, simply keep yourself on the move... If you don't want to be gutted by the knife, stick together with your comrades and form organized squads... Doing both of these things makes your run and gun oriented players better at what they're supposed to do. It's good to be constantly mobile and on guard, and it's good to be organized with a group of your comrades because it makes completing objectives much more successful. If you learn to compensate for the danger of Infiltrators...you'll be a better player as a whole, not just against Infiltrators...but EVERYTHING. You'll learn not to stand still. You'll learn not to stray off alone. You'll learn to develop better situational awareness. All of these skills will make you a better player...and our presence pushes the other classes into doing just that. Banshee and Stalker cloaking will mold players into becoming more organized and encouraging them to stick together...which will then reward these individuals by making them a better team oriented player who's far more capable of getting mission objectives completed via an extremely effective squad of soldiers. Enemies will learn to listen more carefully when they're out on their own and then scramble towards allies if something sounds suspicious or quickly call in a method of radar detection so that they can open fire on the unsuspecting Infiltrator...they'll learn to communicate and work together, which is exactly what this game needs. I believe that it's been adequately proven that, just like Y2K and 2012, the Sniper Apocalypse is but a fanciful nightmare dwelling only within the nightmares of a few misguided soothsayers. So, how about we get a little something interesting along the lines for optional rail attachments for our sniper rifles? Bolt Attachment: This is currently an attachment being proposed by the development team. Great work...should be a nice addition to the bolt-action sniper rifles. IRNV Attachment: This attachment would provide our currently equipped scope with IRNV capabilities; it will also reduce our view through a sort of tunnel vision effect by blackening out the edges of our scope and thus narrowing the field of view even further. I think that's a fair enough concept, no? Rangefinder Attachment: This simple attachment would aid novice snipers by providing a built in rangefinder that automatically displays the precise range of whatever your cross hairs are on. Truth be told, they might as well just implement this by default to our scopes simply because we can already do this through the use of way points...but what the hell right? Now we have three lucrative attachment possibilities...one pretty controversial and one simply common sense oriented that probably should just be added to all scopes by default. Any additional attachment ideas that the development team could come up with would be awesome...perhaps the orbital strike capability could eventually be added to our rifles as a potential attachment? Who knows...I'm sure they can come up with idea. My thoughts on the update are scattered throughout the forums, but I was pretty vocal in regards to the empire specific bolt-action sniper rifles. I won't reiterate here simply because the concept is pretty controversial and I'd rather just keep the two separate. As for the Semi-Auto Sniper Rifle from Nanite Systems, I truly hope that this is geared around extreme stealth in terms of being very silent even without a suppressor attached...and only increased in its silent potential if you attach one. I can't really think of anything I'd want more for close ranged sniping than a silenced rifle...so I truly hope that's what they're thinking!Stalker Cloaking:Although I don't believe that the Stalker Cloaking device will be the ideal for infiltration...I'm looking forward to it as an ambush oriented cloaking device. From the way they make it sound, the mobility is going to be extremely limited, and with the Yautja cloaking effect, just as inconsistent in close ranges. For an infiltration oriented cloaking...that takes away your primary weapon...you want mobility and a better method of stealth in general so that you can get close enough to use that pistol and knife. I believe Banshee Cloaking would compliment Stalker very well, not replace...but compliment as an alternative option depending upon the situation.Stalker cloaking is going to be a great ambush oriented cloaking device...like a silent serpent waiting to strike.Recon Drone:While this seemingly adds yet another method of detecting Infiltrators, I'm looking forward to the Recon Drone. I can see it complimenting long ranged sniping rather well seeing as how the Recon Darts won't be of much use...and if you're way out, the Motion Sensor is unlikely to be all that useful either. I imagine this will be the go to tool for long ranged snipers in the future...and I'm excited to see what this thing can do.Motion Sensor:Truth be told, I'm not too thrilled by the promise of yet another detection tool that's undoubtedly going to work against us just as well as everyone else. Maybe they're implementing all these radar detection methods for an upcoming implant that nullifies them...but seriously, three different methods of doing the same thing? I understand that it's apparently going to provide us with more detailed intelligence...but I'm really not too interested in this tool.Adrenaline Pump:According to the Light Assault players, this suit slot is extremely lackluster and should be buffed. I'm inclined to trust their judgment as they've had access to it from the start. Would ask them how to go about doing this in their own personal opinion.Maybe thedrenaline Pump could provide each of our classes a unique little perk to differentiate us a bit in regards to this suite slot? - EMP Grenades need fixed. It would also be nice if they could make the controls of vehicles, aircraft, and MAX units sluggish. Of course, this is only if armor gets buffed within the future...as per my stance on vehicles and aircraft right now. - Decoy Grenades are absolutely worthless. We can bait with our Recon Darts due to the change in mechanics, so these either need to be made much more interesting...or replaced with something interesting. I've proposed a hallucination based grenade in the past, something that makes the target see infantry that isn't there, hear false voice commands, footsteps, etc, and even have false pings displayed on the mini-map. This would be a great addition to the class...but just a good fine tuned Decoy Grenade would be nice. Think that about covers my thoughts. Essentially, I want our infiltration capabilities brought up to par with our namesake...and a more melee oriented playing style through the Banshee and Stalker cloaking device...each providing us with a different method of going about the same thing. Stalker is ambush oriented... Banshee is very aggressive and mobile... Both cloaking devices would come in extreme handy and I personally feel that with all the detection capabilities coming out, they should be balanced enough through their mechanics and this combined fact.
If you enjoyed the read, thumbs up. Hopefully I've adequately expressed what I would like to see, but I tend to get a bit wiped out when I go this far with a thread. My sincerest apologies if I didn't present my ideas as well as I have in the past. Anyway, feel free to write your thoughts, both positive and negative, and I'll try be sure to write up another wall o text in reply. Thanks again to those who stuck it out for the full read, even if you want to burn me at the stake. <3 Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go suffocate myself with a pillow. Sweet dreams everyone.
Eh, I can't say I vehemently disagree with anything, though some points like the spawn room shield diffuser are a little controversial - I'd rather see some hackable macguffins inside bases which, when all are hacked, would turn the spawn shields off or turn the spawn itself off. I'm thinking if every facility had a sub-basement dug in down under the spawn shed with two hackable terminals, that Infiltrators could hack - Once hacked the facility would go completely offline, and force defenders away from the base, instead of people having to play "let's shoot spawn shields for 5 minutes" before the cap goes through. Access to the terminal room would be through a stairwell linked to the spawn room for the defenders (thinking 2 storey stairwell), while attackers can assault it from a different entry point in the base (linking the room with a number of corridors accessible from a separate building/area inside the base). This sounds suspeciously like how facilities worked in PS1 for a reason - it worked pretty damned well imo. Beyond cutting unnecessarily protracted fights short, it'll also add some tactical value to infiltrators insofar that a squad of infiltrators literally could sneak into the basement prior to an assault and almost immediately shut down the base, unless the defenders actually re-deployed in time to secure the next base down the line (and thus cut down on the value of spawn shield camping in an already lost base). Anyway, giving the thread a couple of thumbs in hopes it'll grab some attention from someone looking for some ideas for new and exciting stuff for Infiltrators.
Thanks for the support! In regards to your thoughts on the Personal Shield Diffuser permitting Infiltrators the ability to bypass the Spawning Room shields...yeah, I'm not sure that would fly with the majority either. Still, I wanted to propose the suggestion because I do believe that it might work and could perhaps warrant the justification of testing in the test server. As for your thoughts, I'm all for an abundance of things to do in terms of hacking. Still, I'm not sure that this would work...but keep in mind that I never played the original and don't have an adequate understanding of how the system initially worked to get a good sense of your suggestion so my points might be off. In a sense though, doesn't this just add an SCU? I'm not sure that this is going to address the problem because it's not really compelling the enemy to push out...if anything, it's giving them a chance to turtle longer because now they can more easily defend the SCU. If the Spawning Room shields go completely down...it's no different than when the SCU goes down in a large base and what we're trying to fix is people pushing out while those shields are still up...while they still have a chance. That's why I think that the Infiltrator alone having this capability might work. The shields remain up, they remain partially defended...but they now have a sense of paranoia pushed upon them by that single threat which can bypass these shields. They have a shot...but they know they can't just stick around in the Spawn Room and wait because that MIGHT get them killed now. It's that middle ground area that SHOULD trigger people's flight or fight response. They'll have a semblance of security within these Spawn Rooms...but they, hopefully, won't be too overly stressed out either. Now, like I said, I didn't play the original so the idea you present might work much better than I actually believe... I fully realize that giving the Personal Shield Diffuser the ability to bypass these shields is going to get a little flak, so I'm perfectly fine with it not being included but we really do need to solve the problem of an entire faction just hiding away behind the Spawn Shields until the cap...many of situations could have been turned if those people would have just mobilized and pushed out. You'll see a lot of your Youtube commentators saying the same thing...cursing their comrades for just sitting there and saying that they hate always being the first one out to lead the charge...or just die because everyone else hung back.
hah this post was much much shorter than I expected from you IRNV Attachment with the reduced field of view would make an interesting addition to the game. But I can already tell the amount of mindless QQ the general forums would get.
I got wore out. Yeah, I'm more than sure that the IRNV Attachment would get a fair share of complains from the run and gun oriented community...but hell, it's essentially the same type of counter-balance. The IRNV Scope for closer ranged weapons limits your range. The IRNV Attachment for sniper rifles would limit your field of view. The closer range oriented weapons are meant to function in that area while our rifles are meant to function at range...so the counter-balance is essentially the same mechanic. Thanks for the support!
Well, yes, the idea proposed would be a kind of "mini" SCU - the logic behind it is, that it would force defenders to act and get out of the spawn room (by heading into the sub basement and driving out the attackers) or face obliteration/spawn denial. If the defenders lack the resources to push out the attackers from the sub-basement (close quarters should mitigates the impact of a zerg, making it easier to defend), they should probably get forcibly evicted from the base and spawn elsewhere. Anyway, it's probably a suggestion which belongs more in base design suggestion rather than an infiltrator update features suggestion. The main gist is just giving infiltrators something to hack, that would make spawn room camping less attractive for the defenders and give infiltrators more things to do, which requires actual infiltration. It could also be something as "simple" as a number of hackable terminals, which, when flipped to your faction's control, would each add 10 seconds delay to the spawn timer on a given facility. These could then be re-flipped by the defenders to remove the penalty again. In any case, I don't think allowing infiltrators to get into spawn rooms would mean anything at all to someone determined to spawn camp - the infiltrator would get in, probably bust a head or two and get killed, after which someone inside the room switches to medic and revives the dead guys for bonus certs. At this point we are back to status quo of people not leaving the spawn rooms, as there is no real penalty involved.
Well, I'd be more than willing to see both concepts tried out in the test server. Like I said, I'm all for more things to hack...and if the system worked as well in Planetside 2 as it did in the original...cool. As for the Infiltrator being able to bypass these shields...I think that partial threat would push people out. Still, you could be right...might not do much to encourage anything at all, only testing would tell for both concepts!
Well, I tossed this onto the Reddit. If you like the ideas presented, go upvote before it's heavily assaulted. Get it? Get it?! I so punny!
This section in particular picked at my interests. I think your idea for a personal shield diffuser is a good one, there's a few little changes I'd suggest. 1: it would be a suit slot costing 500 or 1000 certification points. This way you are trading survivability (+bullet resistance or +shield recharge etc) for utility. 2: It would only be active while cloak is on, when the infiltrator goes through the gate. 3: it would drain or deactivate the cloak and deplete the energy reserves. With the stalker (or banshee) cloak, it would lock the cloak for 5 or 10 seconds. This would make it harder for an infiltrator to abuse the cloak by charging the enemy spawn room and dropping AI mines on the defenders. Permanent item hacking: Brilliant idea. If we can hack something that the enemy needs that a rocket or an AV turret can't 'fix' then we're an asset to our team. I'm a firm believer that it should be the enemy's defending infiltrator who should know how to fix the messes we created, not some guy who has a magic nanite repair gun. If SOE thinks this is too much redesign required, all they need to do is add the function to the existing ammo towers for a quick buff/fix which will make hacking more lucrative. I think that terminals shouldn't return to your faction's color once destroyed, rather you should require another infiltrator to turn it back. I also believe we should be able to hack the stumps when a hackable resource has been destroyed already. Scrambler? I don't so much like this idea, as it pretty much just promotes the enemy to blow up the terminal and have it repaired so they can use it again. Or alternatively this could just mean that new infiltrators will simply not use hacking at all. I think the current certification line is fine, but the applications need to be tweaked to make it more lucrative. Besides adding additional things to hack, what if the hacking speed also applied to overloading generators? What if it reduced the timers on generators by the % increase your hacking does? I think the current idea behind advanced hacking is good, but the increased speed doesn't help you do your job at all, just saves you a few seconds. Vehicle Hacking I wanted this when PS2 first came out, but the more I think of it, it seems like any form of vehicle hacking would be a bad idea with the game's current set-up. our 12s cloak is going to be seen right through by enemy tank drivers and it will result in an almost futile attempt at hacking any tank or harasser we run into (not to mention flashes). Maybe this will be more of a possibility with the stalker or banshee cloaking devices, but it's more likely we won't be the ones going against tanks as we'll still be the least effective countermeasure to vehicles in the open or inside a base (barring of course immediately outside of the base in front of the turrets. also, regarding 'the Banshee cloak' I feel this cloak would be too powerful if you simply remained invisible at all times. Maybe they should have your cloak drop when you fire your weapon or drop a mine and fade back to invisible over the course of 5 seconds (which will seem like an eternity to the cloaker). I suppose this just makes it another stalker cloak, but it was a thought.
Hmm... Personally, I believe it would be best placed at the end of our Advanced Hacking tier as a sort of reward for investment into the specialization. With that said, I wouldn't mind it as a one shot suit slot where you purchase it once and that's that...but the suit slots are usually items that let you certify into them for further advancement upon the efficiency...which wouldn't really work for this concept. It would have to be a one shot purchase...though, I suppose they could add it as a suit slot and play off your third point by allowing Infiltrators to certify into the suit slot to reduce the cooldown of the cloak deactivation. I'm apathetic on the ability only being effective while cloaked, don't mind one way or the other. I get your concern in regards to the Spawning Room shields and you're right in the belief that this might better balance that aspect. My concern is towards other areas where this might be used making the entire system much more lackluster due to shutting down the ability to cloak for a while. Again, it could work...I'm just unsure about how well it would perform as a suit slot. There's a lot of radar detection out there right now, especially now that Scout Radar has been made more lucrative. With the Recon Drone and, potentially, the Motion Sensor coming out...I think we're justified in getting some interesting mechanics back. Still, the most important thing is balance! So, whatever works best. Exactly, we need to monopolize hacking and get that war within the war which will make the entire system worth while and a constant presence within the base. The reason that I introduced the scrambler concept is two fold. If vehicle hacking is introduced, this ensures that people can't just easily switch to the Infiltrator and then run off to hack enemy vehicles without having actually invested into hacking...thus making a more balanced system. Truth be told, I should have mentioned that in the vehicle hacking section in order to make that possibility sound much more palatable for pilots. This ensures that there will be less hacking Infiltrators performing vehicle hacks...and those who didn't invest will simply temporarily scramble the vehicle rather than take it. The second reason behind this is that it simply justifies the introduction of an experience boost per tier of hacking. As for the hacking speed applying to overloading generators, I honestly have no idea... I have never invested in Advanced Hacking, I figured it already might do this...hah. You could be right, especially with all the various methods of radar detection coming out. Still, I'm pretty confident that they're going to eventually implement an implant that awards you better protection against these devices...and if you have the Banshee or Stalker cloaking, that should make it all possible. As I expressed previously, the changes made to advanced hacking with the whole scrambler concept make it more fair for the vehicle pilots themselves. It's going to be a very tricky thing to implement. Vehicles and aircraft are in an awkwardly weak place right now because they're balanced based upon the potential volume within any given area at one time...rather than independently. A tank is supposed to be a powerful vehicle...but when you can have an enemy pulling twenty or so tanks at any given time, you have to balance them based upon that potential volume...which makes balance awkward. ...in turn... All the radar detection capabilities coming out right now, and Scout Radar being made far more lucrative to use, leaves us Infiltrators in an awkward position where we're going to be hard pressed to remain off the radar and undetected. This means that hacking vehicles might end in a quick death no matter how far we invest into advanced hacking. It's going to be tricky to get this implemented and balanced for both sides. With the way I have it described, you already do become fully visible upon attacking via knife or pistol. I was imagining about a two second delay before you faded back into complete invisibility...but it's likely that they'll make this longer, as you suggest, and certification into the banshee cloaking device would decrease the amount of time it takes before you fade back into stealth. When it comes to proximity mines...I like the partial visibility idea to give a little more stealth applications with setting traps and the like. The Basics section within the Banshee Cloaking area details all that. Thanks for the support and constructive criticism! If you haven't already, upvote the Reddit post please.
Hello! First to tell you a bit of myself and how I fair in PS2: I am level 48, I play with the VS and I main as an aggressive Infiltrator, almost always solo. I thrive behind and inside the enemy line and I take pride in my infiltration skills, along with my quick reactions. The best thing there is as an Infiltrator is the Recon Darts. Information is your friend, nuff said. My main weapon has been, up until very recently, the Sirius SX12 (SMG), with which I have scored just over 2200 kills. Just this week I happened to find how awesome the Nyx VX31 (Scout Rifle) is as a close to mid range weapon for my kind of gameplay. I also, sometimes, play as a long range sniper. I have never, ever, felt that my cloak is weak, nor OP. Never ever have I felt that when I find and pursue an enemy infiltrator that his cloak is neither too good nor too bad. I sit with a good PC and play on Ultra. Sometimes I see and find the cloaked enemy, but sometimes I loose them. It's neither too easy nor too hard. For me, it is all about clever use of the terrain. That is the key for good cloaking. Also, if you happen to be able to pay some to get Station Cash, get a couple of camos and you gain quite a lot of help from that while not cloaked. Sure, it would be cool to have some more cloaks to play around with, but I think, as it is now, it really is neither OP nor weak. Just my 2 cents.
No time to read it but nice try. Though, from what I glanced at... Not really where SOE's head is at right now sadly.
Well, as I stated within that particular section, it's just something that the development team might want to look at. If the Banshee and Stalker cloak were both implemented into the mix...I'd honestly not care in the slightest bit about the current cloaking and it's mechanics. As it stands, however, I'm someone who's played Starcraft for the majority of his life and knows that the visual distortion effect is pretty easily adapted to. When you couple that with the extremely loud sound...you've been alerted to focus even more on this effect, if you have at least a semblance of situational awareness...which many don't. That's why I said it's not a problem now...you have a plethora of players who lack situational awareness and haven't yet adapted to the cloaking effect as I have via Starcraft. You do, however, have some high BR players that instantly take you out even if you're in their peripheral vision, kneeling and stationary in a location that they just run by, etc. ...but ultimately, I'm not looking for anything too drastic...just a slight reduction in visibility on medium to ultra and a toning down of the sound. It's something I'd like to see, so I lightly mentioned it before going on about Banshee and Stalker cloaking as better infiltration oriented cloaking devices. I have no doubt in my mind that Banshee and Stalker cloaking would be overpowered if they had access to a primary weapon...but in their current incarnations, I feel that they're fair and balanced...and would make a fun incorporation into our cloaking arsenal. We're getting Stalker, of course, but I feel this is going to be more ambush oriented and less mobile for true infiltration purposes. It's going to be something to lie in wait with...like a serpent waiting to strike. With Banshee...you are an active hunter. Probably not, but the more support it gains...the more likely they are to at least consider the ideas involved.
Fantastic post! I personally enjoy Sniping then CQC infiltrating so the new Snipers sound to be right up my alley. I want to see more options for CQC infiltrators as right now it's really only SMGs. I actually prefer using the low optics sniper rifles and using them for CQC it's quite fun. Anyways I agree with all of your ideas. This class needs more to it. I love the Infiltrator class the most.
I feel Infiltrators should also be able to hack into the SCU and shield generators faster if you upgrade the hacking cert line.
I disagree with you here about SMG only being the only option. Try out the Scout Rifles with 1x-2x scopes together with compensators and forward grip and you have a monster for close to medium range combat infiltration ops. I personally favor the semi auto scout over the automatic scout. Makes each hit count, but if you are doing the guerilla tactic you'll find that hitting the 2-4 quick shots isn't hard, and is all you need to get 1-3 kills and then zip out again. I really never understood how the VS Nyx worked, but as soon as I tried a 2x scope on it I found it to be better than my Sirius SMG, since it is versatile in all three, close, medium to long range combat.
