Infiltrator == schizo class?

[Figment]

Thread from june 2012, bumped in october 2012, take that into account while reading the first 6 pages!

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The infiltrator is a bit of a unique class in PS2 in that it does not seem to have a very defined role.

Traditionally the infil could be split into:

Infiltrator - stealth spec ops inside enemy buildings, prepping bases for assaults by friendlies as well as scouting. Very non-combative and supportive.

Cloaked assassin - infil that focuses on picking off the weak and wounded, taking out snipers and isolated targets. In PS2 apparently we get the sniper role as well.

Saboteur - disrupting enemy supply lines, draining bases, destroying equipment and one of the most fun and important things: stealing enemy vehicles (ams, gal, tanks). This last bit will be missed in PS2 As far as I know.

The roles above were enhanced by the ACE in all its versatility and the cloaked AMS. These two things seemed to have largely gone missing with engineering class and Galaxy monopolising these roles.

In return, this traditionally close range unit gaines sniper role capacity.


The character of the infil seems to have changed drastically and I personally feel its options - especially with the lack of ams is sorely diminished (spawnpoint that is very needed for cloakers what with low survivability and risky positioning).

Many players who did not infil may not see the problem or enormous impact this will have, but I feel as if the infil class has both been overnerfed and lost appeal with the changes in engineering, scavenging and hacking vehicles, as well as lacking the support of the ams. At the same time I'm afraid of the infil being buffed with weapons, range and firepower it does not need nor needs to have.

What I see happening is the focus of the infil class moving heavily to the cloaker killwhore assassin type. Most my fun was in the other two, even if that got me few kills and many deaths. This might be due to devs seeing action and personal kills as most fun, like how they felt driving was boring without consulting me or anyone else on that. Basically, I fear catering to those who want non stop action may result in the careful, covert ops being largely overlooked or at least misrepresented somewhat.

I really miss some basic tools to do the type of thing I loved doing in PS. To me, that feels like 'dumbing down' or at least reducing my options. I mean, it's more like sniping got more options, infil did not, as sniping was already possible, just moved to another suit with temp cloaking.