Nova Knife
Seituoda Taskforce Command
Caldari State
2251
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Posted - 2014.01.13 22:54:00 -
[1] - Quote
Brokerib wrote:
Neither you, nor anyone else calling for a nerf, has been able to provide solid reasoning for why firing from cloak is so bad that it should be considered broken, or breaks the game. Until you provide actual reasoning for it, its not a fact, it's your opinion.
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I'll jump in here and try to break this down, then.
The CPM is unanimous that cloaks as currently described are poor for balance and the overall health of the game.
What constitutes fair balance, though? Should everything have the exact same stats and be able to kill everything equally? Not at all.
In this instance... "Fair" in an FPS game constitutes a player having the ability of being aware how they died, and being able to learn and adapt so as not to die the same way again. Knowing who killed them and how is an important tool, as well is knowing how they could've avoided it.
In the case of someone sneaking up behind someone, they are taking advantage of their own situational awareness while using the lack thereof in their victim. The victim can then take from that death "Maybe I should've been looking around more as I ran along the map" In this sense, melee and 'stealth' builds are completely fair, as a friendly teammate spotting or just better situational awareness can prevent all but the sneakiest of sneakers.
In regards to the hot button point of firing while cloaked : There is nothing wrong with being able to fire on an unaware enemy. To say otherwise might as well be saying everyone should be on their enemies' maps all the time because "stealth is OP" (lol)
However, (IMO) fairness dictates that anyone about to take an offensive position should also be vulnerable to counterattack at that same time. The cloak somewhat (though not completely) invalidates this point, as it provides a measure of safety both before (and after, if activated after firing rather than before) that prevents this opportunity except in the rarest of cases.
It is the CPM's position that cloaks should be a tool used to escape, evade, and outmaneuver an enemy force, rather than a tool to be used actively in combat. We feel that this style of cloaking would maintain or even improve the pace of the game, and go a long way towards eliminating redline situations.
Building on that last point, brings me to the second point of dispute among the CPM (Not unanimously agreed) The shimmer effect should only be present or "super visible" when one is sprinting. To do otherwise (Killzone 3 cloaking) only encourages campy, slow-paced playstyles as those are the only ways to use a cloak to maximum effect. This would result in cloaked players generally hovering around single objectives or spawn points, waiting for something to do instead of encouraging cloaked players to be highly mobile gameplay drivers who give OTHER players something to do.
I will happily discuss any of these points with anyone who feels they have a reasonable argument against them. For added reference, I will paste the following from an internal CPM thread regarding my own views on the overal goals and "Should/ Should nots" of cloaks.
Nova Knife wrote:Basic goal of cloaks should ultimately be to escape, evade, or maneuver into superior position. They should not be a direct tool to be used in active combat, but rather one of mobility. To achieve this, the cloaks should
- Be an equipment that must be held in one's hands to remain active
- Have a very audible and recognizable sound when first engaged and when disengaged
- Have a minimum 20 second cooldown that begins upon deactivation (Increased duration if forcibly decloaked by enemy fire or otherwise taking damage)
- No maximum active duration
- Affect speed. Non-Scout suits should move at roughly a 25% decrease to speed.
- Create very small, yet visible distortion around the cloaked player (not a perfect 'human' outline). Only amplifies to become super visible when sprinting
- Be directly countered by scanners depending on range and precision. Assuming equal values, at short (30m or less) range the scanner should beat the cloak. At long ranges the cloak should beat the scan.
- Disable Melee, or carry a steep (minimum 90%) penalty to melee damage while carried.
- When used on an air vehicle, all weapons and other modules should be disabled and prevented from being activated for the duration of the cloak and for an additional (minimum 15s) timer afterwards. (Higher tiers of cloaks can reduce delay)
- When used on an air vehicle, flying below a certain altitude should immediately decloak the vehicle.
- Provide points to a cloaked player if they evade a scan, conversely provide points to a scanner if they reveal a cloaked player to their team. (Scanned players should not be decloaked, but highlighted visually with a much greater distortion than usual which would be visible to players on both teams)
Or at the very least, the cloaks SHOULD NOT
- Allow a player to equip, aim, or fire a weapon while activated
- Allow a player to regenerate armor or shields, or receive any remote effects while cloak is active and for a short duration after becoming visible
- Be limited to only a certain class of suit or have abnormally high fitting requirements. All suits should be able to cloak, effectiveness with a cloak should be determined by speed stats and scan profiles.
- Be accessible to any ground vehicles. None of the ground vehicles currently in the game would contribute positively to gameplay if allowed to cloak.
- Have visual distortion based on regular movement speed. (See Killzone 3 cloaks for reference on how to /not/ do cloaks) Cloaks which encourage standing still for maximum effect only lead to campy, unfun playstyles. Players should be encouraged to move around while cloaking to aid their team.
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