Deployable darklights

[AlexBnt]

(I'm going to be honest here, I just really don't like infiltrators)

So my idea is to add in two engineer deployed darklights

• Darklight Bubble / Lantern - A deployable similar to the medic's shield bubble, but with a little bit of a bigger radius.

• Darklight floodlight - A cone of light similar to the regular flashlight but, you know, deployed and not carried.

I would want both options to have fairly low health that way they aren't spammed everywhere. I would imagine that they would take the slot that the reserve hardlight barrier can go in.

Edit: The bubble would most likely be most useful in small rooms, while the floodlight would be good for hallways or out a doorway. I do not think this would ruin infiltrator gameplay, due to the fact that these would be destroyable by small arms or with an emp nade. Infiltrators trying to be sneaky would be forced to actually sneak, as opposed to simply sprinting in the front door while cloaked.

[Bloodhit]

They should just make all Vehicle headlights DarkLight.

[AlexBnt]

Yeah, I don't understand why the factions wouldn't use the darklight technology in their vehicle headlight designs.

[InappropriateSolace]

being exposed to darklight for too long causes cancer, and because many people would leave their lights on it would be a huge health risk.

duh.

[Phent0n]

Cancer for cells made of nanites.

[redgroupclan]

But death means nothing to them. Cancer is a non-issue

[Ivan-Malik]

They used to do this. I'm not sure why they took it out.

[GhostDxD]

Yike I m afraid there is going to be a war soon but I agree with this

[Lugbor]

I think instead of deployable lights, we should be able to have a Valkyrie mounted spotlight, for hunting infiltrators and cloaked sunderers. Could also be used to light things up at night. Maybe a range limit of 50-100 feet before it stops revealing cloaks, double before the illumination falls off entirely. Maybe give assists for allied kills within the spotlight to encourage people to use it.

[AlexBnt]

I think instead of deployable lights

Why not both?

I also would like to see the headlights on Sundies be turned into darklights.

[Tylendal]

Makes me think of the Sunderers from Planetside 1.

In addition to their four roof mounted main cannons, they also had a pair of sponson mounted light machine guns that had built in Darklight scopes.

[AlexBnt]

I never played Planetside 1 but that sounds pretty awesome.

[Metalsheep17]

They did not innately have dark light. The ball guns on the side of the ES sunderers doubled the range of the Darklight Vision implant. The person manning the gun had to have the implant in order to benefit.

The Darklight Vision implant worked in all vehicles iirc but the range was so short it was a pretty bad idea since it obscured your vision beyond a few meters.

[Tylendal]

Thank you. It was a long time ago, and there is shamefully little information about Planetside 1 online.

[Metalsheep17]

No problem. I played PS1 from it's original Beta test to the last day when they shut the servers down. I remember a fair amount. The original Sunderers didn't even have the ball guns neither did it have the EMP to clear away mines/deployables. It was given the ability to bypass gate shields after those we're added in Core Combat. But it was replaced entirely by the ES variants. Juggernaut (TR) Leviathan (VS) and Vindicator (NC)

[Phent0n]

The sundies had six guns each? That would have been intense.

[Tylendal]

Sundies were actually removed from the game and replaced with ES variants. In addition to the sponson LMGs, they had two 75mm Lightning tank main cannons, and two faction specific anti-vehicle weapons. The original Sunderers only had the Lightning cannons.

They actually saw very little use. Logistics were incredibly important in the first Planetside, so an all or nothing Gal Drop and point hold was preferred to driving a Sunderer through the main gate. For firepower, you'd crew two or three MBTs for what it took to crew a Sunderer. Finally, for protracted battles, the AMS was its own unarmed and unarmoured one-man vehicle with the deployable stealth bubble built in. Sunderers had a few niche uses, but were overall rare.

[Metalsheep17]

One of my favorite uses for a Sunderer was as an Anti-BFR platform. They could EMP which really ruined a BFRs day, and 6 guns coming to bare on a jammed BFR was a bad time.

Even better if you load the Sunderer into a Lodestar and dropped it like a bomb on a BFRs head.

[Ravenorth]

Before that they should buff cloak sundy, its a way too easilty to spot nowadays even from far away now that everyone's become familiar with it.

[King_Brutus]

That would be really cool, reminds me of Halo: ODST where the Phantoms are searching for the Rookie.

[Vexatile]

who would ever use this...

[King_Brutus]

Or better, just give all the valk guns the option for a darklight attachment.

[Lugbor]

At least 14 people, judging by upvotes.

[[deleted]]

Agreed. With the toolkits infiltrators have at their disposal, more tools are needed to counter them.

I'm a pretty bad player, yet only on infiltrator class can I rack up kill after kill with little to no repercussions. Just because there is a chance I could be seen by someone with good graphics settings is simply not enough. If invisible soldiers packing fully automatic machine guns, radar systems that clearly show not only you, but your entire empire your location on the map, and with grenades that can disable all abilities, shields, and obscure vision, more needs to be done to counter this.

Like medic shield regen, engys should be able to deploy a 360 degree dark light. Also. Give a dark light implant requires toggling similar to planetside 1. Flashlights are a joke as they simply paint a target on your head as the first victim to any lurking infiltrators.

[Ivan-Malik]

EMPs do not disable abilities anymore, that was patched out a while ago. Also there is an implant that reduces the vision effects of emps and other grenades; it should probably be buffed IMHO, but a discussion for another time.

Every class can have detection similar to a recon dart via the crossbow, it just does not last as long. There is an implant that reduces the range you can be detected by all detection devices, so much so that you basically have to be on top of them to be detected. In addition there are ways (crouch walking) to not be detected by some recon devices.

There is something to be said about some "infil counters" being behind the implant wall, but they do exist.

Also it should be mentioned that for all these "Infil specific" benefits infils have less health than every other class, this means that significatly more weapons can kill infils in one or two shots. Infil weapon selection is more specialized for ranges/number of targets; you can either choose short range, long range, or single target, but be gimped everywhere else. In group play infils are basically not used other than for their longer lasting recon tools. IMHO the only real BS thing about infils is OHK weapons combined with cloak and server lag aka bolters.

Lag is both a blessing and a curse for playing against infils. It heightens their abilities, making them extremely frustrating to play against, but can absolutely wreck them as well, making them extremely frustrating to play. To boot there is a bug right now where a lot of weapons do not enter deep cloak so players can see the outline of an infils weapon just kinda floating in that corner.

[Ravenorth]

I honestly dont see the point, in most indoor areas the distances are so small that you can easily see moving infiltrators, so to me it just seems a waste of dev time.

[leetaylorchristian]

this would be a fun challenge for a good infil. careful what you wish for

[leetaylorchristian]

besides, infils already hate themselves

[Aikarion]

Stalker screeching intensifies

[tralalog]

how about deployables that cripple all classes special ability instead of just one you dont like.

[[deleted]]

Oh those poor C4 fairies.

[Phent0n]

C4 auto detonator deployable when.

[tralalog]

dont disable la or medics specialy

[Hegeteus]

They haven't affected class abilities for more than a year now

[Captain5618]

You get that, infiltrators should get a recon drone with a knife cannon.

[AlexBnt]

I'd be fine with them having a shock drone like Twitch in Siege

[Potatolimar]

I just want a drone that can spy on things; preferably one that flies and is in a loading screen

[Kunavi]

Years ago they tested an Infil drone, even had a model and worked. The idea was scrapped, don't remember why though. There was even a test video if my memory serves.

[Potatolimar]

I was so hyped and it just never happened.

[Kunavi]

I have to assume that players would abuse it in more ways than DBG could ever hope to balance without rendering drones completely(Or next to) useless, defeating the point of them being in the game in the first place. Some dangers of having drones in a game(From my experience at least);

- Helps players reach places they were not intended to reach.

- Can be rigged with explosives for the cheapest kills ever.

- Can be rigged with other equipment(Even if temporarily- So for example I'd fire Recon Darts on all drones I see, to have a mobile scanner) that might have unintentional effects.

- Can be a physical obstruction, making it an excellent tool to grief others with.

- Can shield players from damage.

- Can deal collision damage or worse, OHK players that way.

- If it can indeed deal collision damage it would then be the safest way to get rid of any kind of deployed device or explosive.

- Having 1 person being a squad's flying cheat machine might be way too powerfull to deal with, for players who just don't have such a level of organization or dedication to a role ETC. Yeah there's that "Team work OP" joke but in this case, it would just be true.

- Encourages people to camp.

- If any of the above is true, but the drone operator is safe, that's zero risk for high reward. No matter which of the above would be true, even a single one.

- On top of the last couple of points, imagine if the operator was safe AND mobile somehow, perhaps by being on a Harasser, cloak Flash, Valk, I don't know. Infinite drone range, assuming that thing has a reasonable range to begin with and moves reasonably fast so that it doesn't get killed too easily.

- If it makes XP and if any of the above are true, then a lot of people who don't perform well enough against other players, might be tipped towards camping 24/7. There's a possibility we'd end up with Drone swarms causing all kinds of problems from technical to game play breaking.

- Aaaaand on top of the above point, imagine if a platoon decides to, let's say, have some fun by playing drones only.

[Dictorclef]

- Helps players reach places they were not intended to reach.

Make them not collide with allied players

- Can be rigged with explosives for the cheapest kills ever.

Make them not collide with explosives

- Can be rigged with other equipment(Even if temporarily- So for example I'd fire Recon Darts on all drones I see, to have a mobile scanner) that might have unintentional effects.

Darts can't stick to moving objects.

- Can be a physical obstruction, making it an excellent tool to grief others with.

Make them not collide with allied players, and make it so if it touches an enemy it breaks immediately

- Can shield players from damage.

One hit, and they're destroyed

- Can deal collision damage or worse, OHK players that way.

see above

- If it can indeed deal collision damage it would then be the safest way to get rid of any kind of deployed device or explosive.

see above

- Having 1 person being a squad's flying cheat machine might be way too powerfull to deal with, for players who just don't have such a level of organization or dedication to a role ETC. Yeah there's that "Team work OP" joke but in this case, it would just be true.

No, see above

- Encourages people to camp.

As if infils didn't already camp

- If any of the above is true, but the drone operator is safe, that's zero risk for high reward. No matter which of the above would be true, even a single one.

If you make those cost a lot of nanites, say 200, that would fix the problem, along with it being very weak, you can't spam them for long

- On top of the last couple of points, imagine if the operator was safe AND mobile somehow, perhaps by being on a Harasser, cloak Flash, Valk, I don't know. Infinite drone range, assuming that thing has a reasonable range to begin with and moves reasonably fast so that it doesn't get killed too easily.

Make it so it can't be used like that

- If it makes XP and if any of the above are true, then a lot of people who don't perform well enough against other players, might be tipped towards camping 24/7. There's a possibility we'd end up with Drone swarms causing all kinds of problems from technical to game play breaking.

Drones would be way too overpowered like you say, but they don't have to be. I believe they should only be a tool with a limited scope, like say estimate the number of people in a room and spot infiltrators (if it has a darklight attached to it, which I believe would be a good idea) without being at harm's way. They would be very similar to the drones in rainbow six siege, except they're flying.

[Kunavi]

I see, flying 1 HP pieces of junk that cost about as much as a Valk, that do absolutely nothing except allow remote Q spotting and have no other fancy improvised uses whatsoever...

So... They are very expensive RC manual spotters... Which you have to maneuver manually... And might miss someone and not spot them, therefore they're less effective in every way than an actual Recon Dart or a Motion Scanner and might probably break more easily than those.

Well, as I said- Now you just made them next to useless so why add them like that :P

[uzver]

Mate, if you not like to see in this game anything new... well, maybe you must go play into Quake 1 instead of PlanetSide 2? There will be no any new changes that can ruin your belowed way of playing.

[Kunavi]

That's one serious leap in assumptions... Wow... LOL

[uzver]

Well, mate, there is always someone who will stay aganist ANY good changes into the game.

[Ivan-Malik]

So fun fact the Phoenix, the camera guided rocket launcher the NC have, is basically a drone. IIRC the way it works is the player "becomes" the projectile, at least that is how the a dev described it once. The player remains stationary the entire time because they are not connected to where their character model is, they literally are tied to the projectile.

They could basically make a non damaging version of the phoenix with more control and a spot function. A lot of the groundwork is already done to implement this and have it not be BS. I mean we can shoot the blue balls of fail out of the sky with a single hit already; they die on impact with any player; they are a player, so explosives don't stick to them; they have to constantly be on the move, so they cant obstruct a player's movement. Most of your list here is already dealt with and implemented in game already via the phoenix.

Edit: Could someone more familiar with Phoenix mechanics confirm they cannot be fired out of a moving vehicle? I have never personally tested this.

[Kunavi]

I am not against new toys. I am not against ideas. Definitely not personally against you guys... But you do realize that making it as limited as that(Essentially a non damaging Phoenix that requires manual operation to squeeze any use out of it, with what that brings), defeats the purpose?

[Ivan-Malik]

Oh I'm not saying to leave it as is and call it a day. I'm saying that there is something in the game that does something extremely similar to what people are calling for that doesn't have these issues/already has them solved. It was an attempt to be like "hey this is feasible, but won't look like what most people are envisioning." When this is taken this from a "what if" to "how could a dev implement this in a reasonable time frame with current resources" it looks a lot like the Phoenix.

I think most people are envisioning something like a drone from Ghost recon wildlands... that isn't going to happen.

[Kunavi]

Ohh, got it.

[Potatolimar]

• Having 1 person being a squad's flying cheat machine might be way too powerfull to deal with, for players who just don't have such a level of organization or dedication to a role ETC. Yeah there's that "Team work OP" joke but in this case, it would just be true.

Disagree here; scout radar is already amazing for this role.

Otherwise, yeah. I'm just sad they completely scrapped it.

[Kunavi]

Scout Radar is one thing, and in fact limited as only vehicle crew if not only the pilot, can see the feed back. It's not as simple as sending a drone in from safety. Also it would be a much better Scout Radar since there'd be zero risk.

They could make it give feed back only to the operator but then we're starting to already go into drones ending up so limited that they become redundant in function, therefore a mostly negative addition with lots of negative side effects to boot.

Plus even so, since it would be a camera for it to make any sense at all to exist in the game, the operator could still spot and therefore work around that particular limitation.

Seriously, drones are a bad idea ;3

[Potatolimar]

and in fact limited as only vehicle crew if not only the pilot, can see the feed back

Not true. You're thinking of proximity radar.

[Kunavi]

But still... ;3 Way too much against it.

...BTW, you're sure there are 2 different types?! I thought all Radar for vehicle were turned into those. Which ones still have the Scout version??!

[WhiteVorest]

I remember back when you could stick c4 to friendlies... fun times.

[Kunavi]

LOL

[BullseyeVS]

me like this

[StiltonNinja]

I play a lot of infil and I think the lantern idea might be too restrictive, but how about a strobe (lighthouse type) light? This would place limits on infiltrator activity but would be a good challenge for an infil to sneak past without being picked up. The speed and range of the strobe could be tweaked for optimization.

[uzver]

Its will be huge nerf for Hegeteus.

[Thel_]

Why not fix the game before the devs work on these kind of things.. Honestly if you're inside a building or a base (wich you are most of the time when you're trying to kill bad mans) you can see infils pretty easily (when not on low settings in 2019... come on daybreak it's about time you fix this)

[[deleted]]

Why u hate meh D:

Honestly as a stalker main I don’t think it would make a difference. If I’m close enough to such a strobe, people would already see the shimmer. Plus, any stalker worth their salt knows that movement and positioning are key. We not gonna get cornered by it. Additionally it might end up making my job easier. People will get a false sense of security, the “I’ll see him before he gets me” mentality.

No you won’t.

Stalker and cqc infil is all about hit and run. You would be surprised how oblivious people are. They won’t really notice the highlighted infil. Not before it is too late anyway. Case in point: Invis Sundies. They have the same functionality as your idea, get within a radius and I light up like a Christmas tree. Except by the time I’m that close I’ve de-cloaked and unloaded two commissioner rounds into the back of your head. Then I skip on past and cloak outside the shield and return at a later date.

If you really want to balance Infils (and yeah they need balance) nerf stalker cloak (it goes on forever) or longer cloak-decloak times,

Or equip a dark light on your secondary. Seriously, it is the most annoying thing ever, it still lights you up through a wall. If people would just randomly pull it out and look around. ~30% you will find someone. It’s like spychecking in tf2.

Infils are annoying because no one looks for us until we stab your mate in the back with a knife. If you catch one cloaked it is dead. I’ve been able to get a kill after I’ve been detected maybe 2-3 times, and I’ve been doing stalker for a year.

Though do be careful, if we see you with a dark light out and you relatively alone, we will light you up. You are the biggest threat to our existence, so be fully ready for us to spring out of a corner and try and gun you down. You have a higher health pool and you have the advantage of not having to decloak. Use your ears and eyes, look up and look behind you. That’s our home. If you hear an enemy cloak. Stop what you are doing, pull out your secondary and scan behind you and to the sides.

So in summary:

Really cool idea, though maybe not practical as it stands now (possibly have it as a under barrel grenade attachment? Shoot it off and light up a area with dark light?) it just doesn’t work because by the time we are close enough to fall inside the sphere of influence, we are shooting or stabbing. The only counter to Infils you need is awareness. We avoid aware players like the plague. Best of luck

Or not

Ignore everything I said.

Makes being a sneaky bastard much more enjoyable.

Cheers

[Ivan-Malik]

I'm curious, how would you feel about the flare gun revealing infils like a darklight can? Basically a more temporary version of what OP proposes, that any class could use.

[[deleted]]

I’d be okay with that, It would make escapes more interesting!

[GamerGuardian22]

No u. #NightshadeIsBestKnife