Jacking

Madcow · 2003-10-14, 06:15 PM

There is a main flaw in jacking vehicles that bothers me (and hampers gameplay a little in my opinion). You can steal an enemies vehicle from them if you're lucky and they're not paying attention, but unless you have the proper cert there's often little use to it. Sure, it's fun to man the gun in their tank waiting for them to come back to it but those situations are few and far between. It's also fun to jack a Galaxy right after it's unloaded, but is it useful? Seldom. Probably the most fun I have jacking something I can't drive is sneaking into an enemy held courtyard and jacking a vehicle and not getting into it, watching all the lemmings falling all over each other trying to kill the red dot on their HUD.
I end up certing in the things I jack most often (AMS, Medium Tank, Assault Buggy) just for the joy of driving off with somebody's ride. There is no way to cert in everything though, and the occasions where you're able to jack a vehicle and do nothing with it are pretty anticlimactic. Chances are pretty good they'll just hack it back after they find you, and you've essentially done nothing.
What I propose is this: All enemy vehicles can be jacked and it works the way it works now. The only difference is that if you don't have the proper certification you are able to drive the vehicle but unable to use the vehicle to it's full effectiveness. Perhaps 75% power is the maximum and the handling is slightly poorer. I think this adds a new element to the game without really hurting anything. I'm still going to keep my medium tank cert to be as effective as possible with your Vanguard when I steal it and run you over with it, but if I happen to catch you napping while you're fixing your Lightning you have a little more to lose.
It's also a little more realistic. I'd like to think if I stole your jeep I'd be able to figure out how to get it started.

Kikinchikin · 2003-10-14, 06:19 PM

Great idea!

bryan25 · 2003-10-14, 06:35 PM

What is really fun is if your an Infil and u hack somones vehicle then deploy some boomers(goto have CE of course) around the vehicle. Then when they come back(they come back 90% of the time cuzz they see it on radar), Blow em up. If its not too big of a vihicle wait till they get in and then blow em up for more XP.

Cauldron Borne · 2003-10-14, 09:10 PM

I just deconstruct 'em. Nothin better than jacking an AMS right under 20-30 guy's noses and decon.ing it right there... hehe I'm sick that way...

Also what's fun is placing a mine right next to the driver's seat. no need to hack. Or you can hack it, place a mine, and ride over it. The guy who hack's it back will be in for a suprise thats likely to kill him and/or dammage his ride.

Happy lil Elf · 2003-10-14, 09:15 PM

I just deconstruct 'em. Nothin better than jacking an AMS right under 20-30 guy's noses and decon.ing it right there... hehe I'm sick that way...

Yes there is. Jacking an enemy AMS under 20 guys noses then plowing them down with it

Cauldron Borne · 2003-10-14, 09:20 PM

Oops, forgot about that...

I'm not AMS cert'd. oh well...*dreams

NewCong. Marine · 2003-10-14, 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by Happy lil' Elf

Yes there is. Jacking an enemy AMS under 20 guys noses then plowing them down with it

Youre a monster.

SandTrout · 2003-10-15, 01:33 AM

Originally Posted by Happy lil' Elf

Yes there is. Jacking an enemy AMS under 20 guys noses then plowing them down with it

Indeed, was the most gratifying thing to do in an infil suit IMO.

Doppler · 2003-10-15, 07:53 AM

Whould you be willing to have the cost of advanced hacking raised to say. 15 points to compensate for this? Considering thats what one whould need to duplicate this feet thorugh cert points (more actualy but i'm giving you a discount because you only want them at 70% effectiveness) Basicly it's a balance issue that whould make advanced hacking signifigantly more powerfull then all other support certs, and it already is arguably the best of the bunch.

TheRagingGerbil · 2003-10-15, 09:45 AM

Last night two squad mates and I jacked a TR prowler out of a courtyard of a base they just took from us on Searhus. I hopped in the main gun and destroyed their AMS, a harrasser, two reavers, and countless troops. We then drove out of the courtyard and headed north towards another of their bases. On the way we destroyed two more AMS's, a lightning, and ran over about a squad or two worths of troops who were trying to cross a bridge.

We finally ran out of ammo and were reduced to simple mowing. Jesica finally came along in her reaver and dispatched us appropriately. Such wicked fun.

Madcow · 2003-10-15, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by Doppler

Whould you be willing to have the cost of advanced hacking raised to say. 15 points to compensate for this? Considering thats what one whould need to duplicate this feet thorugh cert points (more actualy but i'm giving you a discount because you only want them at 70% effectiveness) Basicly it's a balance issue that whould make advanced hacking signifigantly more powerfull then all other support certs, and it already is arguably the best of the bunch.

I wouldn't much care if they raised it (or even added a jacking cert that you had to get on top of normal hacking). A 15 point cert for what would essentially be lame duck vehicles isn't really feasible, but of course you know that. As I already mentioned, I'd still be keeping vehicle certs for the vehicles that I enjoy driving and want to keep alive for extended periods. Are you suggesting that I should then get a discount on those certs since I've already paid for 70% of them? 1 point vehicle certs?
Additionally, as was already mentioned by Gerbil, empire specific vehicles can't be reloaded. I've continued to have fun with a Magrider after it's out of ammo, but it's a lot more fun with ammo. So I'm paying for certs in a vehicle that I can't get ammo for?
I personally don't get the argument that it's improving what is arguably the best of the support certs. Work on the other ones, too. I personally think Combat Engineering is more fun than my Advance Hacking cert, but I certainly think Advanced Medics need major loving.

Nitsch · 2003-10-15, 11:38 AM

I think jacking is powerful enough as is. It basicly allows an Inf to destroy any vehcile without firing a shot. It's the quickest way to take down an AMS.

I actually had a jacking set up for a while where all i had was inf suit, adv hacking and a bunch of different vehcile types. If you chose tank cert, ams and reaver (you can get all those certs at br15) you have covered about 75% of the vehicles you come across.

Doppler · 2003-10-15, 12:10 PM

I dont doubt that the ammo issue is a lame one (havning run into it myself numerous times with both infantry weapons and vehicles) however your idea strikes me as both hard to implement and potentialy overpowerring. Vehicles are how they are now because of the balance issue, this has been said by the devs and in previous threads that this self same issue has been brought up. To allow someone to subvert that simply because they get advanced hacking whould be silly. You can instantly destroy any vehicle that you have hacked, or allow someone else in your empire to use it, isnt this good enough?

Madcow · 2003-10-15, 12:16 PM

You come across Reavers? Wow. I think I've jacked one of those ever. I have AMS, Medium Tank and will sometimes sub in a third one. I like the buggies but you don't see too many of them.
The repair/rearm pods at the bases can also work against jackers. Magriders were always the easiest to swipe because there were many times a driver and no gunner, and as soon as the driver took off to repair you knew you could take it out from under his nose.
I've jacked a lot of AMSs and it's a lot more fun to steal it and run people over with it than it is to deconstruct it, but deconstructing is pretty effective. I'm just looking for something more along the lines of humiliating than effective. If you leave your Harrasser unattended and it gets jacked and runs you over, that's humiliating. If I jack a Harrasser and am unable to drive it I can still be effective, but it just lacks the style.

Nitsch · 2003-10-15, 02:30 PM

I jack reavers all the time. People love to park them on the rearm pads when they either go in to ghost hack or leaving them sitting around with the zerg for the CC capture to finish.

I love sneaking in the middle of Zergs waiting on caps. Most the time they aren't paying attention or are AFK. It's the best time to hack a vehicle and cause some chaos.