PlanetSide Universe - View Single Post - Heavy Cloaker Revamped
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Old 2011-08-11, 05:22 AM   [Ignore Me] #30
exLupo
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Re: Heavy Cloaker Revamped


I think the point of this armor is to give something more combat viable for players who have spent all of their time deep speccing into infil. Unlike a tank or air specialist, an infil specialist is still infantry. The proposal is to give something to infil specialists so they have an answer in case they are in a situation where their specialization has been, essentially, turned off. Granted, this happens to tank and air when the fight moves inside but that's a case of vehicle vs indoors whereas infil is infantry vs indoors.

Essentially an Agile+ carrot to help deep infil players join squads in combat while still being true to the "infiltration" theme. Additionally, this would possibly provide a unique niche, letting this combat viable unit slip past and disable automated defenses and then, unlike cloakers in PS1, continue on to engage the enemy with their squad.

Like all things with a game in development, you need to ask two questions. 1) Does this solve a problem. 2) How well (poorly to overpowered) does this solve the problem.

1) The problem as perceived by the solution creator: Deep infil speccers, using the PS1 model, would be the only infantry unit that would have to build a whole separate spec to participate in general infantry actions.
2) The evaluation: Removing invisibility and creating Agile+Sensor Shield doesn't sound OP up front. They'd be between as useful to vastly more useful than a tank or air specced unit using basic off-spec gear.

Also consider other games. MW, MAG and PS1, off the top of my head, have support for radar invisibility so there is a desired niche for such an ability. Placing that ability in a tree dedicated to infiltration, one that traditionally has problems meshing with force-oriented situations, seems a fairly natural and elegant solution.

A similar example exists in TF2. The Spy unit traditionally was turned off by heavy fire chokepoints. Valve implemented the Dead Ringer which totally changes the Spy's playstyle, allowing them to bypass those chokepoints and keep functioning where, previously, they would have lost all purpose. The end goal there seems to be the same as it is here. Let specialists who are still operating in their intended area continue to do so without having to start over from scratch.

Can that Spy change to solder on his next death? Sure. Does he have to since the DR was implemented? No. The Spy player can keep doing what they enjoy and have practiced in (see: spent time skilling up for) instead of having to spend 2x the amount of time every other infantry does just to stick with their infantry squad.

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Personal note. Since the implementation of the Interlink, there has never been a good time for an infil to move with a squad. Your options, before cert proliferation, were to shrug as your buddies ran in, pick up agile and a suppressor or respec. Most people ultimately took the third option. This suggestion provides an option that doesn't involve giving up.
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Last edited by exLupo; 2011-08-11 at 05:29 AM.
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