ReachCast Community Question #74 - "Do you like the Stalker Cloak or not?"

[Deringer]

This week's ReachCast Community question, in honor of Mustarde being on last week's show, is ...

"Do you like Stalker Cloak or not?"

As always, respond here or e-mail us at [email protected] or call us at (415)787-3224!

[bpostal]

I suppose that would depend on whether or not I'm using it at the moment.

[HereticusXZ]

I absolutely love the Stalker Cloak, and here' why...

PS1 was famous for having all these different methods and mechanics for "Spec-Ops" styled infiltration and sabotage.

PS2 the closest you got to that degree of Spec-Ops was the old HEX system where you could be sabotaging a facility, nocking out generators, and waiting on the cap point for adjacency to be secured... all of it 2 HEX' or more ahead of the main force.

As much as I love the Lattice, it removed that limited Spec-Ops option all together, you couldn't sabotage generators without adjacency. Quite literally the only thing you can do is hack terminals and turrets. Beyond the Tech-Plants Gunbridge or spawning a Sunderer for a opportunity to flank the enemy defense.... that really doesn't have much significance or impact.


-WITH- the Stalker Cloak this greatly improves the potential for Spec-Ops playstyles. Planetside 2 still lacks core mechanics for spec-ops but unlimited stealth at the cost of a disabled primary weapon in the form of Stalker is a step in the right direction.


Example:
In the eastern most lattice lane of new Amerish there's a underground facility called Subterranean Nanite Analysis. The Spawn for this facility is 5 levels underground, the objective point is 3 levels underground. The two top levels are protected by shield generators.

On my server this facility was being held by arguably the top-rated NC outfit on our Server against a superior-larger VS force. TR had adjacency up north but for the most part were ignoring the lane for other fights, the VS had adjacency down South out of Xelas, the NC had been turtling and holding this lane every sense there continent cap 8 or so hours earlier.

As a TR infiltrator I took advantage of Stalker and followed on the heels of the VS attack into the facility, Letting the VS open the doors long enough for me to sneak in. I was able to infiltrate (with a tremendous amount of patience) all the way to the Objective Point room on the third level down, then waited for the NC to break the VS attack and chase them off.

Once the NC had re-secured the base, repaired everything and were moving out, I captured the control point behind them (It's a 3 minute timer). I was nearly able to capture the base, getting it down to the last 60 seconds before a sweep team got me with Darklight hiding under the stairwell.

The fact that I could do this is a game-changer to me. Stalker feels like a mini-game in PS2 of hide & seek, avoid the dark lights. You really have fun as you get into the psychology of where people would think the obvious hiding place is.

I cannot wait to see what other options are added to further compliment a "Spec-Ops" style of gameplay!

TL/DR: I love Stalker because it compliments another style of gameplay that was previously overlooked or even ignored. The ability to Stalker-Lock a objective point crippling a factions ability to advance in a Lattice Lane. Adding the need to have Darklight Room-Sweeps compliment your squad charge. I love having Insurgency be a option used to disrupt a enemy force and having the need for counter-insurgency tactics over the usual run and gun firefights we've had over the last year.

[synkrotron]

Thanks for sharing your experiences so far Hereticus. An inspiration for sure :)

As for the question in the OP, I've not used the Stalker Cloak yet, but it sure sounds a whole load of fun :D

[camycamera]

hell yes. it helped me finally araxium my beloved repeater. now i can finally move on to other pistols like the commissioner :D

[almalino]

I like it. It is not OP but very welcome change to the play style. Slow and methodical infiltration.

[Heavygain]

I loves it, I get to play metal gear solid while everyone runs through the meat-grinder.

[ringring]

I have never used and probably won't but I welcome it's introduction.

[Emperor Newt]

I like it. Sadly I rarely see people using it "effectively".
Most people only seem to use it to sit in bushes around Sundis and insta-combo-kill BR<10s.

[Stardouser]

Regular cloak should have functioned like this, without giving up primary weapon. Make cloak function well enough that infiltrators can infiltrate and not just hide between snipe shots.

[Obstruction]

i'm using for a personal quest.

i'm going to get auraxium with my repeater only through killing people that repair and camp in AA turrets.

[ZephyrBurst]

I like it. Sadly I rarely see people using it "effectively".

If you see them, they're not using it effectively.

[Boildown]

No, because I dislike any stealth class in any game. And the only way to find some infiltrators now is with scout radar (which is why I now run scout radar practically at all times). Why every game needs to gift "invisibility" to some class is beyond me, it always leads to unbalanced situations.

I'd rather have infiltrators be able to equip disguises from tapped-out enemy corpses ala Wolfenstein: Enemy Territories than make it so that you have to leave a squad behind every time you move your platoon forward to fend off the inevitable ghost capping squad that you can never completely kill off. Its annoying and tiresome and it isn't fun gameplay on either end.

[Ohaunlaim]

They aren't too bad. A bit annoying but all you need to do is have two guys cloaker hunt until the next base begins its hack. After that the cloakers have nothing to do and you can leave them be.

I would sure like the dark light flashlight to have a bit more range though. 12 meters is abysmally short. Even 20 meters would allow me to go into a room and sweep it without running around the whole darn thing. 25 meters even better. Would also make the flashlights more useful in dark situations.

[Binkley]

1) Fight.
2) Capture base and move on down the road.
3) Fight at next base.
4) Notice previously capped base behind you is being "re-taken" (I put this in quotes as they have no real chance of taking it).
5) Go back to previous base, flip the point back and make half-hearted search for douche bag stalker who is hiding with no intention of engaging.
6) goto 3

Yeah, adds a lot to the game.

[Rahabib]

They aren't too bad. A bit annoying but all you need to do is have two guys cloaker hunt until the next base begins its hack. After that the cloakers have nothing to do and you can leave them be.

I would sure like the dark light flashlight to have a bit more range though. 12 meters is abysmally short. Even 20 meters would allow me to go into a room and sweep it without running around the whole darn thing. 25 meters even better. Would also make the flashlights more useful in dark situations.

agreed. the flashlights are so situational, that they could use a bit of a buff since very few use them.