[Suggestion] What the community asks the most for infiltrators

Hello Planetside2 Infiltrators!

I’m making this thread to try to light up the biggest wishes of the community concerning our beloved class.

If you think I forgot something, Please, feel free to provide a link to Big posts about a wish to allow people to jump to them easier than now.

that could also avoid double-triple threads with the same rants/wishes and could get the attention of SOE devs (Thinking to Luperza first)

So what I noted about more redundant wishes :

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About the weapons :

- Ability to 1HS Kill hostiles at a long distance

- Giving some Anti-vehicle weapon (could also be a tool), or a mean to deal with vehicles

- Maybe giving a little more attachments for sniper rifles

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About the Gameplay :

- Giving infiltrators more incentives to have an impact on the battle (more various hacking / virus implantation …)

- Giving infils a better cloaking system for being less likely to be spotted when close to ennemies

- Reworking the turret/terminal hack system to remove the XP gap

- Adding more support tools as the radar jammer / other recon tools …

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My own suggestions about those points are the following.

Warning, there is a lot of text down there, don't loose your mind

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About the 1HS Kill snipers : (All values are random, just to illustrate)

Creating a new ammunition with an unique mechanic allowing Long range snipers to perform better.

This would be an attachment available for higher tier snipers (V10 and parallax for VS, I don’t know equivalents for other factions) giving the following :

• Change in damage degradation : The bullets would perform in a very different way, as they would accelerate for the 100 meters after having been shot (only lore).

To illustrate that, The 0m damage would be, let’s say 700 and would increase by 1 hp per meter do go to 800 at 100 meters (linear).

Then, It would decrease at, let’s say 1.3 HP per meter, meaning : 670 @ 200m - 540 @ 300 etc...
that would allow a longer-range niche for snipers with the drawback of reducing efficiency at shorter range.

• Reduce Magazine size to 2 rounds, keep the same ammo pool
• increase rechamber time by 20%
• increase reload time by 25%
• increase muzzle flash and radar signature distance (sound) by 15% when firing

With those changes, dedicated snipers could choose to stay far from the fight while being able to deal, even with higher ranks of NW armor, with key targets.

Note that bullet speed would not change and it would be more difficult to hit moving targets without practice, what good infiltrators already have.


About the ability to attack / sabotage vehicles :

I belive giving infiltrators a weapon able to damage vehicles is not a good and interesting idea if we want to have a saboter gameplay type.

I was thinking about giving a very risky but rewarding manner to deal with vehicles by giving a tool replacing recon darts :

nano cutter :

This nano-cutter looks like a repair tool but will be used by infiltrators to vaporize the tanks and vehicles armor and making their systems burn.

• It would use the same mechanic as the repair tool wllowing to use it only if facing a vehicle and being close to it.

• This will deal very little damage (10-20 HP per second) and will reward the infil by a small amount of XP/tick (5-6 xp).

• The way it’s cool is that it will set the ennemy vehicle on fire after 2 consecutive seconds beaming its armor. fire will deal slow Damage over time, like actual values, and will slow down the vehicle, reducing his survivability and forcing the pilot to get out to repair (where he could be shot by the infiltrator)

• When a vehicle is kill-assisted with the cutter, it will reward the infiltrator of 100 XP (arbitrary), giving this tool a high risk / high reward behaviour.

• Will be able to ba used on every vehicle in ennemies factions, not on yours.

• Could also cause interferences on the pilot’s screen showing him he’s sabotaged.

• Proxi radar and emergency fire stopping system would be more usefull.

• Certing it would increase the speed to set a vehicle on fire, would decrease overheating speed and increase range.

• The sound of this device could be like an electric sparking sound loud enough to be heard by a driver.


About sniper Attachments :

• Giving an adjustable / switchable zoom of 6x / 12x

• giving a canon stabilizer to reduce weapon sway but also reduce the speed when carried and increase its equip time.

About cloaking and stealth in general :

The actual cloaks are fine, IMO, on a sniper’s perspective. However, they are not made to infiltrate bases, as they are too loudy / too visible.

My idea would not be to create a new ability slot, but a new suit slot :

Stalker armor :

This brand-new suit has been made for infiltrators whose mission is entering into ennemy bases without being noticed, and sabotage their installations from the inside.

It would give several benefits and would have drawbacks, only countered by your skills. It would also provide the same damage protection as the default uncerted armor

• Give the infiltrator’s camo a greater efficiency :
  • 10% less visible while cloaked, to at least avoid to be spotted if an ennemy looks briefly in your direction while standing still
  • 50% reduction in sound made while cloaking,
  • reducing by 10% every other sound (walking/running)

• Give the infiltrator a better radar protection :
  • Reduce by X% per level the spotting distance of all scout / proxy radar systems, except recon darts
  • (200m -> 170m / 100m -> 85m / 50m -> 42m etc … with a 15% reduction)

• Give the infiltrator a better tracking protection :
  • X % reduction per level, of the time the infiltrator will be displayed on the minimap when spotted by an ennemy soldier


About the XP gap when hacking turrets / terminals :

Make the mechanic a little more detailed :

• Hacking an ennemy system will harm its internal circuits resulting in a 10% of total hp damage on turrets and 15% damage on terminals.

• If an ennemy device has 40% or less hp left, the internal systems will not respond to your hacking at an optimal rate :

It will turn the device to neutral for 30 seconds, then, will get it back to its original faction owner (even if you were the last to hack it).

• You’ll get XP everytime you manage to hack an ennemy device and turn it into your faction.

• Neutralizing an ennemy device will give no XP but will deny both the ability to repair and to use it during its neutral state.

That would give more incentives to infiltrators and would avoid exploit of Hack-counterhack to XP-grind.
Then, it would also weaken ennemy defenses if they are counter hacked as 2 hacks would have already done 20% of total HP of a turret and 30% of total HP of a terminal

I think it would be nice that infiltrators could recieve a little amount of XP if a friendly scores kills from a hacked turret.



About the tools the infiltrator can use :

• I’m thinking about the jamming device many people requested :

• • Keep the same mechanic as a recon dart, but in the effect zone, disable the minimap radar. At a higher level, it could also mess up with the HUD by randomly disabling / re-enabling some icons or creating like an EMP nade effect.
  • Kills of units and vehicles inside the jammer’s zone would result in a small xp reward for the infiltrator.

• We could also get a small air scouting robot, helicopter-like with about the same mechanics as the phoenix, with no ability to harm people and eventually carrying an EMP charge which could be detonated by the infiltrator.

• • This device could cert in a proximity radar, better autonomy (increasing the distance it can go from the infiltrator), EMP detonation, and maybe IR / Thermal optics.
  • It would replace the current recon tool and an infiltrator could only carry one of those, resupplyed by terminals only.
  • the device would be destroyed if the infiltrator leaves the camera view or we could make it behave like a vehicle, allowing it to stay in the same place while it’s not destroyed
  • The device would be destroyed if it goes too far from the infiltrator

• I was also thinking about a personal jammer allowing to protect the neighbouring teammates from being detected :
• It would consist on another ability slot, not cloaking the infiltrator, but preventing radar detection in the neighbouring area

• • This camo would generate a sphere of No-detection to all radars / spotting systems excepted recon tool device.
  • certing it would both increase the AOE and the duration
  • The above stalker armor would have no effect on this device

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I hope you will enjoy the proposed changes and will grow up other amazing ideas.

remember, the numbers are only to better illustrate the behaviour of the various mechanics I am proposing, don’t base your opinion on them.

See ya on the battle field (or not, if you sneak past me ^^)

SO MANY COLORS!

Good ideas though, +1

Well, did the colours make the reading more pleasant?

My goal was to make your attention up. With so many colours, you're becoming less bored over the reading

Hacking unoccupied vehicles is missing on the list

Swatting those drivers and standing there, looking at their heavy certed machine of destruction and not being able to do nothing with it boggles my mind.

Hahaha, yes. I did like the colors.

maybe a little bump?

I'd like to see more hacking options on consoles.

Alternatives to just flipping it to your faction:

• Ammo Hack - When an enemy uses the terminal to resupply it only refills his ammo pool by half a clip / half total grenades/mines/C4
• Switch hack - Enemies who want to switch to another class have a 50% chance to end up with the wrong class (doesn't work for infiltrator, they need to be able to unhack it once it is noticed)
• Vehicle Ammo Hack - Vehicles pulled from this terminal only have 20 - 50% of their total ammo (it can be refilled to normal capacity)
• Vehicle Bug Hack - Vehicles pulled from this terminal show up on the enemies radar from further away, lock-on time is reduced.

(Optional) To give a fair warning to the people who fell victim to those heinous hacks, let their arms attach the wrong way, so their team mates can notice what's going on and warn them / rehack the terminal:

I was going to object to Infils being able to do things directly to vehicles, since they're supposed to do anti-infantry duty, but then I realized, yeah, there aren't enough for infils to do. However, I don't like the idea of the destroy tool for Infils. It seems too direct to call it "hacking." It seems more like an engineer tool, that simply destroys vehicles. What I would rather have for infiltrators, which would make it still interesting, is a sort of vehicle jamming device, that would make a vehicle less effective for... let's say 30 seconds, upgradable to 2 minutes (cert tree 30/30 seconds 50/45 seconds 100/1 minute 200/1 minute 30 seconds 1000/2 minutes and think of it like the Flak armor cert tree, where greatly increased effectiveness comes at the cost of HOLY S*** THAT'S A LOT OF CERTS)
This vehicle jamming tool might make the turning radius of the turret slower, bring the third person camera in closer, make the tank travel slower, reduce reverse speed, or any of the above depending on the cert level. This, I feel, would let the infiltrator fulfill more of a "hacking" role on tanks in battle, with high risk/high reward, especially since this is really only useful in tank battles. Everywhere else, the tank driver will simply be annoyed for a few minutes, and then the effect will wear off. As a tank driver myself, this would add an interesting element to my gameplay.

You listed no downsides for stalker cloaking besides it having default armor values, which is the same as the default cloak. What's the point of a cloak that is a straight upgrade to the default? Give it some downsides, and make it a side-grade.

I actually really like the idea of the cutter- even if all it did was light the vehicle on fire, that'd be worthwhile- it'd give you something to do to low-health vehicles, let you distract engineers from combat, and force pilots out of their tanks.

Heck, make it a grenade replacement- and Incindiary Charge.

AV, by a long shot. The only other thing I'd like is higher muzzle velocity on Sniper and Scout Rifles.

Most asked for thing: The class update.

I miss PS1 days when I could sneak up on a enemy vehicle and hack the enemy out of his own tank and take it as my own, and blow him away with it. =) Gooood times.

OR sneak up on their ems, take it and run over everyone who is in the weapons menu and then roll it off a cliff.. and let the enemy scatter like roaches and get killed by your faction. Hehehe.

That's because it's not a cloak, it's a suit slot.

It will buff your cloak but will force you to be more carefull as it replaces your nanoweave / flak armor slot

Is it clear enough or do you want I detail a little more?

Ah, I understand now. I still don't quite support it, as it seems a little too powerful. Maybe something more to balance it, such as faster cloak drain (only slightly) or a *slight* armor debuff.

Well, that was just about giving a general behaviour of the thing, but yes, it could get a slight armor debuff or cloak faster drain to give more options to balance it.

More a mechanic has basic variables, the easier it is to balance it as the Devs can tune a little all the various variables to get the perfect adjusting...


Out of topic : We're having a doctors' discussion my dear colleague

Hmm, yes, Quite, my Esteemed peer.

I Do think that the Infils need more options, and I'm glad you agree that the Stalker cloaking should be more than a straight buff, and ultimately, balance is up to the RNG gods devs to figure out, and I trust they'll do it justice, hopefully in a more timely manner than the ZOE max
There is a sort of Godwin's law sort of thing in the Forums that the longer a conversation goes on, the higher the chance the ZOE will be brought up. Anyway, I think that the depth an Anti-Vehicle infiltrator could bring to the game would be interesting.

In PS1, wasn't there a sort of virus infiltrators could infect a vehicle with? It would travel from vehicle to vehicle if they were in close proximity and disable them. (I may be thinking of a different game.)

I like some of the ideas, but I surely do not like the damage dropping down so much at 300 meters. That is pretty much the sweet spot for me on the RAMS .50

Just to clear it a bit more, I told not to focus on raw values I put in my explanations, they are given as examples to better illustrate the proposed mechanics

This is a quick rundown of the changes I'd like to see for the Infiltrator class, already listed them on the Roadmap thread.

• Less glow on Infiltrator outfits
• Reduction in cloak noise
• Option to fire from cloak (not really necessary, just a playstyle preference for me)
• Reevaluate Infiltrators having 100 less shields than any other class, is it really necessary?
• IF we don't get shields buffed to the norm for every other class, consider a small buff to sprinting speed
• Counters for evading radar (suit slot, implants, radar jamming darts, something!)
• More sniper rifle attachments that provide useful benefits, remove the useless ones
• Give us something to do against vehicles. Hacking, Sabotage, Damage, anything!
• Additional cloak options (stalker cloak?) to fit different playstyles. Maybe buff nano-armor cloak. Anyone even use it?