The following are my updated thoughts on our class and what should, and could, be done to it in order for us to truly shine as a solidified and fully fleshed out Planetside 2 class. Its long and I'm truly sorry, but please read through the entire thing...ultimately, the entire concept only comes together when you get the full picture. I got a little angry while making this thread for unrelated reasons, so I apologize if my thoughts aren't as well put near the end as I'd have liked. Enjoy. As it stands, there aren't nearly enough hackable objects within the game...let alone a lucrative system that makes this facet of the class both rewarding and enjoyable. If the (typically few) terminals and defense turrets haven't already been destroyed, it takes only one or two Infiltrators to effectively hack all available objects within any particular base. This leaves the entire system uninspired as well as unworthy of investing any certification points into Advanced Hacking. So, in my own personal opinion, the following tweaks, additions, and changes must be made. More Hackable Objects: The first, and most obvious, requirement for the system is to incorporate further objects for Infiltrators to hack. There's an abundance of ideas throughout the forums, primarily locked blast doors, but even munitions towers have been suggested as a possibility for hacking in light of our inability to affect vehicles in any given way. Personally, I believe both of these ideas are absolutely perfect and more than worthy for incorporation into the hacking system. - I can easily imagine blast doors strategically located throughout bases that, if hacked, would permit assaulting forces alternative and more lucrative pathways to infiltrate enemy compounds. For the defending forces, these alternate pathways would provide them further means to flank the enemy...at least until an enemy Infiltrator converted these pathways for their faction. - I can also imagine munitions towers becoming a hackable object that grants us the ability to indirectly influence vehicles. Imagine your base coming under heavy siege by an enemy convoy as infantry seek to establish their foothold using this constant bombardment as cover. Your faction, struggling to maintain their hold upon the compound, requests Infiltrators to head off towards the enemy base and secure their munitions tower to ensure that they can't resupply. In time, the enemy convoy finds themselves incapable of continuing that bombardment...granting your faction the break they need to push on forth and secure the facility. Indestructible Objects:Everything that can be hacked within the game can be destroyed and then repaired. More often than not, the enemy will simply destroy a hacked object and seek to repair it rather than calling in an Infiltrator to counter-hack the system because they gain experience for destroying and then repairing it. Engineers have more than enough things that they can repair within this game, it's about time that we have some Infiltrator exclusive objects that can not be destroyed but can only be hacked...providing defending and assaulting Infiltrators something to fight over and a NEED for hackers in general. Both Blast Doors and Munitions Towers offer up a lucrative set of objects that could be rendered invincible to destruction but ultimately hackable. This would be a great first step towards ensuring that Infiltrators are always needed within a base on both sides.Overhauled Hacking System:The entire system of hacking needs a complete overhaul to ensure that it's a constant threat to the security of a base throughout the duration of an enemy siege rather than just the first few moments. While this may initially seem like a nurf, the alteration of this system will ensure that Infiltrators are in constant need and that there's a greater chance of all Infiltrators within the area having an opportunity to partake in hacking on both sides of the battle.Advanced Hacking: Each tier that you certify into would increase the speed that you can effectively hack as well as the experience gained upon doing so. There you have it, a balanced system that could be applied to anything within the game that can be hacked...including vehicles if ever such comes to pass. When you compile everything above into one solidified system, you now have a lucrative hacking mechanic that essentially ensures that Infiltrators are always needed...be it as the defending or assaulting faction. . The Phase Disruption Shield is an idea focused around the concept that the Light Assault trooper is currently far better suited at the infiltration of enemy compounds than the Infiltrator itself. By including the Phase Disruption Shield, we now have a great boost to our infiltration capabilities that doesn't impede upon the way which the Light Assault troopers go about their own form. This makes the two classes compliment one another a great deal with the Light Assault taking the high road, and the Infiltrator taking the low rode. This encourages teamplay between two essentially lone wolf oriented classes...a special ops team, if you will. We've essentially got everything we need when it comes to stealth capabilities, save for an actual infiltration specific type of cloaking device. As it stands, Hunter Cloaking provides only moderate concealment within medium to close range...rendering it optimal for sniping. The same holds true for Nano-Armor cloaking, but what it lacks in concealment it makes up for in its ability to absorb damage...making it exceptional for your aggressive SMG play. The problem with these two types of cloaking is that the development team seems incapable of balancing it out between the various graphics settings. One update you'll have it working perfectly on low settings but terribly on high and the next these roles will be reversed, leaving your run and gun oriented players simply switching between their graphics settings to effectively reduce our ability to perform. This isn't always a problem...but I've even been killed while kneeling, stationary, and cloaked several times. Also, as an Infiltrator, I've rarely had any difficulty seeing another cloaked Infiltrator while on low graphics when they are within medium to close range. When you're sniping, Hunter Cloaking is more than adequate because you're at range...where this style of stealth works best. Now, Nano-Armor cloaking provides the same type of stealth, which is quite inadequate in medium to close ranges, but provides just enough to throw the enemy off while you reload your SMG. Furthermore, once the momentary confusion wears off...the spraying of bullets that they deliver is soaked up by this form of cloaking...ultimately making it an adequate choice for this particular style. Neither of these are adequate for infiltration purposes, which is why the development team has been working with Stalker Cloaking. From what we know thus far, their tweaks and alterations to the device has resulted in what appears to be the same type of stealth but perpetual at the cost of having depleted energy while moving. Due to the deep stealth mechanic while kneeling, this makes it sound like an effective ambush type of cloaking...but a bit subpar when it comes to infiltration itself. This is especially so when you consider the fact that this type of cloak is likely to restrict us to the knife and our secondary weapon. To truly benefit from the Stalker Cloaking device, we're going to have to remain kneeling and stationary until someone happens on by...then chase them down with the knife and pistol in an attempt to reduce the distance to an effective killing range for our knife or pistol...then unstealth and take them out. If anyone sees through our stealth while running, which happens pretty often, we're dead. It also won't be a cloaking device that really gives us the infiltration capabilities we need simply because of the poor stealth mechanic in general between graphics settings. Still, I'm not saying that it will be worthless...just that I see it as more of an ambush oriented cloaking device. All I'm saying is that I want something more, which is why I will once again pitch the Banshee Cloaking Device. Banshee Cloaking Device: The Banshee Cloaking Device is designed to bring back the 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 subtle sound that increases in intensity depending upon the Infiltrator's actions. If they're traversing terrain or interacting with an object...this subtle sound becomes an eerie tone of a moderate pitch capable of being noticed by those 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. Pros: Perpetual Stealth. Complete Invisibility while stationary and moving. Automatically deactivates upon attacking. Automatically reactivates after a few moments when no longer attacking. Cons: Constant subtle sound while stationary. Partial visibility while hacking and overloading generators. Constant moderate sound while moving, hacking, and overloading generators. Extremely loud sound upon attacking. Full visibility while attacking for a few moments until automatic reactivation comes into effect. Restricted to the Knife. (Possibly Pistols and Anti-Infantry Mines as well.) This would provide us with the type of stealth truly needed for infiltration purposes, one that's balanced upon all graphical settings no matter what changes they make to the game. Furthermore, if they do this right...an extremely terrifying audio effect will signify the death of one who fell behind the pack and opened themselves up to an Infiltrator's ability to take them out. No longer would players straggle behind their comrades out of fear towards what might become of them...being potentially gutted by a stealthy assassin. Balance: Balance comes in the form of a mechanic similar to sniping. While these superior stealth capabilities award us the ability to traverse the entire enemy compound unseen, we still have to wait for enemies to drift away from their companions to be of any significant threat. In a one on one situation, we'll excel...but beyond that we're extremely crippled with our poor choice in weapons. If someone is near enough to catch us in the act of an assassination...we're dead and if we didn't get that second slash of the knife or shot of the pistol off, we didn't score a kill either. Furthermore, the sound coupled with sensor darts will balance us out even further with Banshee Cloaking and the only thing needed to continue these balance tweaks is to augment the volume of the sound at these three actions rather than try to work on a cloaking mechanic that can't be effectively balanced on all graphical settings.
These are just the three general playing styles that I want to see for the Infiltrator. Two of the three are balanced by the time to kill methodology rather than the kill to death balance which run and gun folk are subjected to. Remember folks, time to kill is equivalent to kill to death because the only repercussions derived from dying are a loss of time. Time to kill balance mechanics work off time sinks that are incorporated into the playing style itself rather than caused by death alone. Ultimately, the same punishment faces both types of gameplay when they fail. This will be discussed later on, but I wanted to touch upon such before I continued..Harasser: (CQC Oriented)The Harassers are the awkward middle ground that we've never truly wanted but the development team gave us anyway. With the incorporation of the SMG into our arsenal, we've been given a strange run and gun oriented playing style that few amongst the class actually wanted...but seemed to make sense once the obvious limitations of sniping became apparent and the recent updates shown to be a bait and switch..Still, it's a sound playing style that can be a lot of fun even for those of us who don't enjoy twitch oriented gameplay...and so it remains a welcomed addition. For the most part, there's nothing wrong with our harassment capabilities and if this future update goes through...quickscoping will only make this style of play all the more superior..Personally, I don't want that...it's balanced right as it is. Quickscoping will actually make this playing style overpowered...which the development team and many of your run and gun oriented folk don't seem to mind...yet. They will though, when quickscoping becomes popular and they realize that these folk can now stealth atop of their ability to exploit this mechanic..Sniper: (Range Oriented).The single most unjustifiably hated and undervalued playing style in the entire game would be long ranged sniping. This playing style is imperative if you wish to include players who don't have adequate twitch response capabilities, and contrary to what your run and gun oriented community thinks...it's balanced. Those of us who call ourselves dedicated snipers came to this game under the belief that there was an adequate sniping system incorporated...and until Nanoweave's popularity, we believed that we had exactly that. Now, the entire playing style is threatened....I'm going to touch upon long ranged sniping below, but if you want an in depth understanding...please read this..- What do we do?.There is currently no other playing style better suited to the eradication of high priority targets. While your run and gun oriented players find themselves under the assumption that long ranged snipers do absolutely nothing to support their faction, I have proven this false several times over and have yet to receive any adequate counter argument. That HA attempting to rocket your allied armor was taken out by a sniper. That Engineer seeking to repair the base turrets was neutralized by a sniper. That Engineer manning the well placed AI or AV turret was taken out by a sniper. That Medic effectively keeping his allies resurrected while hiding behind a wall was taken out by a sniper. That smoldering tank never returned after it ducked behind the rocks because a sniper took out the Engineer who jumped out to repair. Now a LA can go in and finish the job. A long ranged sniper does all of these things, and with their superior field of view...they can cover the entire battlefield in a single sway of their scope. This means that they will see far more high priority targets and be able to neutralize them. The closer you are to the battlefield, the less you can see, and thus the fewer high threat targets you'll be able to take out..Run and gun oriented players don't understand what we do because they do not see it first hand. They don't know why the enemy forces have suddenly been whittled down when their Medics had previously been keeping them all alive and well. They don't know why that smoldering tank never came back after being fully repaired, they assume that every AI and AV turret was taken out by someone close in...never suspecting that a long ranged sniper took them out, and the Medic, and the Engineer trying to repair his tank all themselves because they could see ALL of these events and simply switch between them with a sway of the scope..This is what a GOOD long ranged sniper does for their faction, and it's completely and utterly undervalued. This may be due to the fact that the unstable FPS makes nailing those perfect headshots extremely difficult...especially in combination to the Nanoweave problem. I know, for a fact, that both of those factors have contributed heavily in me using the SMG for the majority of my Planetside 2 experience..Try nailing a headshot at any range when your framerate periodically plummets..- What balances us out?.One thing that you'll always hear those against sniping say is that there's no risk in sniping when an enemy has such difficulty engaging you in return. This is wrong..What is death in Planetside 2?.Death is a trivial occurrence that causes a massive time sink designed as a punishment for failure. Death itself is not the punishment, the time lost is. While run and gun oriented players have this threat, the time sinks for a sniper are literally built into our entire system.. It takes time to establish an adequate sniping position. It takes time to re-chamber a round. It takes time until our scope stabilization mechanic has refreshed. .The most important time sink of all, it takes time to wait for an enemy to fall stationary and provide us with the perfect opportunity to nail that perfect headshot. If they move even slightly in one direction or another, we blow our shot and this is essentially a death..The wasted time equates to the amount of time a run and gun oriented player loses per death. We have to keep our kills per minute on par with an average run and gun oriented player's kill to death ratio in order to be considered a decent sniper. The way that you ensure balance between long ranged snipers and run and gun oriented players is maintained is by comparing the two's experience gain within a specific amount of time..If they are essentially comparable, then both playing styles are balanced because they are obtaining about the same experience gain per minute. THAT is balance, stop harping on the fact that a long ranged sniper dies less because it doesn't matter how often they are dying if they are gaining far less experience than you are. If they are gaining the same amount, it is balanced..- What challenges does Long Ranged Sniping have?.Long ranged sniping is not based upon twitch mechanics. While your run and gun players require superior twitch response times and situational awareness, long ranged snipers require a great deal of intelligence, time management skills, and precision shooting..Both playing styles are challenging, and if anyone wishes to dispute this...show your perfected long ranged sniping video that demonstrates your kills per minute and how they exceed your experience gain with a run and gun oriented class. Unless you can do this, just stop..- What happens if this playing style no longer exists?.If this playing style doesn't exist, every individual who has inadequate twitch response has to stop playing. Many of us don't like run and gun oriented gameplay, even if we do have the twitch response required for the playing style. So, to take out this playing style leaves us with nothing we enjoy...no other class has anything similar to the long ranged sniping playing style. The rest are, literally, based around twitch mechanics entirely.This is not good business, and it hurts the game's population count...which already has problems. Also, before anyone says good riddance because they don't even see us...many of us still dabble in other fields despite our favoritism in long ranged sniping. I, myself, play as a MAX and use the SMG all the time right now simply because of my horrible framerate. Even with sniping...I'll still occasionally shift towards one of these areas just to play around and have a change of pace..None of these alternate aspects, however, equate to the enjoyment I have being a long ranged sniper...which is why my current playing duration is so terribly low. An inadequate computer coupled with the poor optimization of the game has left me forced into SMG play...something that I grow tired of quite quickly. If long ranged sniping vanishes...my fleeting enjoyment of these alternatives won't outweigh the fact that I no longer have my preferred playing style...and this is how it is for a LOT of people..Assassin: (Melee Oriented).The last playing style is what I'd like to see incorporated into the Infiltrator, one that's very similar to the long ranged sniper in methodology...but within the exact opposite range of effectiveness. The Banshee Cloaking Device suggested above would bring in a aspect of Infiltration focused around the time to kill methodology. Limited to just the knife, or pistol, you would have to choose your targets wisely...or risk death and that massive time loss that run and gun oriented players suffer from. You would, essentially, be playing an assassin...seeking out straggling targets who strayed away from their comrades...and eradicate them only to slop off before anyone could come to investigate the noise. You would become the ever present threat to going alone and literally enforce team oriented gameplay by punishing lone wolves who aren't Infiltrators..Furthermore, and most importantly, you would be a true Infiltrator capable of delving beyond enemy lines and effectively damaging the security of any base. If hacking was changed, as suggested above, and we had this type of playing style...the entire class would finally be complete in my eyes and solidified into a very enjoyable balanced class..Not always balanced like a run and gun oriented player...but balanced in a way that ensures that experience gain is equivalent to such...which IS balance rather than pseudo balance based upon frustration. Addressed above and in detail here Many have suggested a range finding device, and I agree. There's a lot that you could do with this concept, but you can find that on other threads. It would be nice if we had a suit slot that lessened prominently we displayed on radar. Sensor darts are a obvious counter to this...and ultimately what would balance the suit out and increase our necessity in base situations. Again, things that make our faction truly need us is a good thing...and sensor darts being required to nullify the effects of a suit slot would do just that. With the way that darts are now designed, Infiltrators would have to actively avoid them to maintain their suit slot's ability...otherwise risk a slight to nearly full nullification of it altogether.
Sorry for all the "." used as line breaks, for some reason the forums glitch out a bit when you write in bulk and essentially try to mash everything together...I have no idea why or how to effectively fix it without just putting a "." between each paragraph. P.S. This is all a revision of the following thread located here.
Amazing post, put it on reddit if you haven't already. I would like to point out that there is a current third possibility for an infiltrator to play as: the recon. This playstyle seems to be the focus of the infiltrator update, as they plan on adding recon drones and motion sensors. It is essentially the support version of infiltrator. To help flesh out this role, I would like to see silent spotting and other abilities to help relay information to your team. One thing I have seen suggested is a suit slot that allows for explosives to be seen on the HUD. I would also like to see the harasser role augmented with more chaos causing things (fixing decoy grenades and hologram generators in the form of mines come to mind, a suit slot that prevents from showing up on radar. Essentially, there would be 4 playstyle that would be laid out with obvious utilities and weapons etc. to ise for that role, but you are free to mix and match. This would give the class a lot of diversity. Here's a list of suggested certifications that I think should be added: Utility: stationary radar: lasts until destroyed, shows all enemies, even those stationary. Hologram generator: creates a stationary hologram of a heavy assault that lasts 30 seconds or until shot. Shimmers every 5-10 seconds. Tools: recon drone: just as SOE intends Radar jammer: shoots a dart that jams enemy radar for 45 seconds Range finder: finds the range of a given target Passive abilities: silent spotting: spots targets without making any noise, replaces cloak. Revamp hacking: just like OP said, more things to hack, higher tiers of hacking give more benefits Weapons: upgraded knife: does more damage at the cost of having to be drawn like any other weapon, one hit kills to the back and from above on non nanoweave targets New rifles: faction specific snipers and make them do whatever SOE was wanting them to do. Suit slot: EOD HUD: explosives glow red on the HUD and can be spotted through walls Stealth suit: stay off of radar always Cloaks: Banshee: like Op said Stalker: like SOE wants Grenade: fix current grenades, decoy lasts longer and shows on map, emp actually drains energy for all classes Smoke grenades: they're smoke grenades Obviously these items should not be added all at once but rather through multiple infiltrator updates. One on schedule and should fix current bugs and flesh out scout class, do another one after all other classes get updates and all scheduled updates are done, assuming all classes will get another round of updates later on. I'll make a list of load-outs using both current and suggested items: Sniper: Passive ability: silent spotting Weapon: rifle Utility: med kits Suit slot: ammo Cloak: hunter Grenade: frag Tool: range finder Harasser: passive ability: hacking Weapon: smg Utility: mines Suit slot: nanoweave Cloak: nano armor Grenade: (choice of the four) Tool: detect device. Hacker: passive ability: hacking Utility: hologram generator Weapon: pistol Suit slot: (choice) Cloak: stalker Grenade: smoke Tool: radar jammer Scout: passive ability: silent spotting Utility: motion sensors Suit slot: EOD detector (glowing explosives) / stealth suit Weapon: scout rifle Cloak: scout's cloak Grenade: choice of four Tool: recon drone Assassin: passive ability: silent spotting Utility: med kits Suit slot: stealth suit Weapon: upgraded knife Cloak: banshee cloak Grenade: EMP Tool: radar jammer Well, theses are my suggestions, you would be able to use the specific loadouts or mix and match them to make a hybrid. Please excuse the awful spelling/ formatting, on a mobile phone and will fix it ASAP.
Some great ideas! My thought process began to bog down near the end of my post, and you'll start to see where I cut corners by linking to other threads where I've addressed various issues. With that said, if Banshee Cloaking was ever incorporated into the game...I doubt that we would ever get a OHK melee attack simply due to the fact that people would perceive this as exceedingly overpowered, despite the fact that we still have to wait for our victims to make themselves a target. With that said, a recon playing style would definitely be interesting...the spy, so to speak. I was quite interested in the Recon Drone up until hearing about our upcoming limitations to sniping. Long ranged sniping would have been the best suited playing style for using the recon drone because of the distance you're at. Since we're going to be manually piloting these little things, we're going to need to be protected...and long ranged snipers just seem like the logical choice for this device. Now, however, we're brought in closer and far more exposed. I'm pretty sure we're getting a deployable radar jammer, or so we were last they spoke about the possibilities of our class. I can see a Holographic mine presenting some extremely lucrative situations...and truly agree with you when you say that the "Harasser" playing style needs more chaos. Those mines and fixed Decoy Grenades would do just that without making the playing style overpowered like effectively encouraging quickscoping would do.
I am all for this, one hundred and ten percent. Though, the knife is not effective enough in this game to be a primary option, so pistols or a knife as a slot, with different damages and speeds with left and right click, must be taken into consideration.
The knife kills in two hits, it should be adequate enough if we have the element of surprise. Though, I must admit, I'd like a dedicated melee weapon that can be wielded over the quick knife. It doesn't need to deal more damage, so long as it's more reliable than the quick knife. If it's shown that we need more...then we can get a OHK melee weapon.
I'm only saying that a balance of TtP, Time to Perform, would warrant a higher damage, 100%, and a 50% quick strike. In general, I've been knifed once, and then turned right to the guy and popped a cap in his face, and I know I'm not alone among the many who are able to react quickly and accordingly. Thus, if a knife is permitted to be equipped, right and left mouse would function perfectly for the above. EDIT: By the way, I seriously don't know why SOE hasn't outright accepted any of your ideas for the class, they are truly brilliant.
Understandable, and I know I'd much rather have a knife or some sort of melee weapon that could be equipped. They did, originally, have knives with a secondary OHK mode...they just didn't bring them on through to Planetside 2. I can't say that I wouldn't love to see that happen, that's for sure. That aside, perhaps they'll take a look at this and the other various linked threads and consider doing just that. They are, however, all with a run and gun oriented mentality as far as I know...and I have a hard enough time convincing the run and gun oriented players, let alone the actual development team. Cross your fingers.
I....I forgot the pain you inflict me with these eye bleeding posts Do I really have to read it all ..... Please....no...no more. Idk if I can make it >_<
Okay okay I'll read it jeez -_- ... One thing that made me lol was at the start of thread the "Enjoy" -_-.....not sure if srs.
Partially, I'm almost always partially serious. Partially. With that said, it would have been much longer and more detailed had I not gotten into an argument with the roommate.
CAUTION: THIS POST WAS MADE AS LONG AS POSSIBLE FOR THE OP. IF NEEDED I SHALL POST ONE TWICE AS LONG. :> Now here is my 20 certs .... enjoy you cheeky little **** You know I wish you were a developer of this class .... most there do not even know this class exist. Infiltrators - sniper rifles..... wait what? I though the definition of infiltration was... and sniping is... what ? Either way I took this class duw to sniper rifle ; as I never really played an fps let alone snipe. Though I agree with the hacking, as it stands it is near useless for the bigger picture. So making hacking a versatile thing would be a great idea. Just one thing before I move to other points. Infiltrators can essentially win alerts for your faction. Well win might be wrong word. Not lose a win of an alert is more accurate. Already several times in a huge biolab alert zerg, there were two sundies below the air platforms. No one could get to them. Tr wwre pushing hard. So what do you do? Kamikaze squad cleans the mess. By destroying them with flash c4, the time before they got another sundies there, it gave vs forces enough time to push them to their portal rooms. So with clever use of game mechanics essentially you can make Infiltrators a key class for tactical play. You know about the cloak..... I don't even f*cking know anymore man :/ I'll give a couple examples. When I use cloak, to aid me move through terrain I almost never get spotted. Though when high BR player comes in, it's almost like you are completely visible. Indoors cloak is 99% useless almost if player is not blind. Only thing you do by cloaking inside a corridor for example is cause yournself a delay on weapon shot. This sort of stuff seems like cloak works due to bad awareness of other players....but a lot of time it's not the case. Cloak seems - from the receiving end also - to simply confuse your opponents at those crucial half a second moments where that 0.5s will decide who kills who. That cloak - in dark environmental situations especially has proved to be the reason why 40 of my bullets usually kill 30+ people before I gotta redeploy for ammo. So cloak works and it doesn't. It's a huge big load of a paradox. But that said where m44v made a video about cloak in closed in, silent locations, I am acquiring a lot of footage where I simply find the infi due to noise / easy visibility in a midst of zergs... But that cloak, your suggestion. Hah I like it. Though I would use it just for the purpose of scaring people and laughing at their reactions. Imo the constant cloaked sound would - for me personally - break my play. Where I need not to be noticed gwtting to point A. With this cloak they will simply be awsre of me before I go anywhere close. But this is just personal preference. This sort of mechanic could be extremely beneficial in large fights where noise is not that of an issue for cloak. Long range sniping. Now people who dispute this...by calling it cheap. Either you are a god mode sniper and I shall worship you for years to come, or you are that one br100 who used heavy 99% of the time and loged infiltrator once and killed a br9 stationary target 100m away and called that long range. Most likely the latter.... I make videos for fun who ever watched them - and as you may notice there is very little long range sniping. This is not because I don't play it - matter of fact it's the most part of the game for me - I simply find it boring for edditing. When VS do not have the south eastern WG, you will find me on those rocks killing the poor bastar*s who think they can use a flash from WG... THOUGH headshots of a flash on 300m are RARE, double tap kills are quite common for me. And it took me days upon days just sitting there waiting for practice targets to get a complete hang of long range - moving target mechanics. That said (exclude having fun argument in here ) I think that long range sniping - 250m to 300m - foes ALMOST nothing to the over all battle. Due to the fact that those ranges take skill to shoot, a sharp mind to position your self, awareness to not get flanked etc. All that and you have to focus on killing. Sure many snipers have nailed it, but simply put it, you kill a target, line up for another, by the time your bullet hits the next target, due to range - most likely the first target is ressed. But that is the majority at least from my experience. At times, taking out those retar*s on AV turrets in the dozens on hills does help your empire tanks, but most of them have nano anyway. QCQ infiltrators. What can I say... why are you bothering to play and nerfing yourself by choosing HEAVY ASSULT. Infiltrators can kick their ***
The knife thing could have a charged up 1 hit kill, Hold Right click to wind up for a big downward stab that also slows you movement while held. Primary fire would be a wide slash that hit in a wider area then the quick stab and the quick stab would still be a small left handed knife stab. You could slash stab people for a semi reliable fast kill like the commissioner combo or one harder to pull off guaranteed kill stab.
Could work... I was humoring the thought of a weaponized buzzsaw gauntlet myself, or perhaps two in the case of a OHK capability. Slash with one to deliver half the damage that you could deal while using both simultaneously. I kind of like the sadist mentality behind taking people down with melee weapons, and a buzzsaw would be quite sinister. Still, whatever works. I would adore OHK capability at melee, it's the only alternative playing style that might keep me around if this sniping bs goes through.
Remember the actual knives we have already are pretty unique, The TR have a chainsaw knife, the NC Have a knife that uses magnets to attract the knife to stab down through metal armour brutally fast and the VS have a hot plasma blade that cuts like you were made of butter.
I'm well aware, I'm just particularly fond of a more brutal and sadistic pair of buzzsaw gauntlets. With that said, they could easily just make the current knives a dedicated option that you can switch to and add that secondary mode like they did in PS1.
I think I love your mind. The post is formidably written and thoroughly thought out. The hacking tiers sound excellent, I reckon they would spice hacking things up whilst making it more useful in the process. As it is now I usually switch to heavy assault halfway through an attack because there's simply no more for me to do as an infiltrator, other than spamming recon darts everywhere and running after stragglers. Your cloak idea is making me happy on the inside. I've always dearly loved stealth play and it'll be interesting to utilize sound as a mechanic in that manner, I've always been fond of mechanics that affect the human player, rather than their character. And paired with a proper way to succesfully assassinate someone it's going to make infiltrators a frightening force to be reckoned with. I'd even reckon making you able to kill people with the knife in one stab wouldn't be too overpowered, as long as it's done from behind. To smooth out the balancing the "backstab" could be made into a slightly slower attack instead of an instant slash, since you'll have to make sure you plunge the knife into the right spot with adequate force and all. And once again I support your passion for long ranged sniping.
