Edit sensor so sensor area includes repeater area. Spotlight Damage 13 BTS failure = targeted state. I'd also like to see some of the program variety of N3 come back, either with new programs or by more liberal application of special program mods on profiles. I'm way happier with crits as they are now, even if I had an Asawira AP spitty turn an untouched Joan in cover into a sort of greasy smear in a single order (6 saves fail 4) also a 1.25% chance. At least it makes for a memorable occasion. for every thing I've lost to extra saves I've run into two or three sandbags which refuse to be removed by my chosen bullet hose anymore.
Might as well just put the damn sniffers back in at that rate rather than over buffing some profiles with repeaters that really don't need it such as Vostoks, Jeong, or Morans.
No. God no. No no no! Noooooooooooooooooo! (There's a HUGE discrepancy between what factions can spread a sensor area and what factions can't, though it's much worse than for hacking due to how sensor and camouflage works. Setting sensor area to repeater area essentially eliminates the biggest weakness that factions with good repeater coverage has. Basically, it would stop JSA from working at all versus all forms of Nomads, Contact Force, Combined, Hassassins, and it would be very difficult to play JSA against all forms of Pan-O, White Banner and Yu Jing. It would also eliminate the primary approach vector for dealing with the Nomads And Pals group for a fairly large swath of factions, including all forms of Ariadna. Basically, as far as changes go, with this one we might as well remove half of the sectorials from the game as they would no longer be able to compete. For real. I'm not even exaggerating)
Hacking needs another look. Nomad hacking is too good, and it's still not interactive enough. KHDs still need a buff. Fireteams should, imo, be stripped down to be much more restrictive. I'm sure CB's marketing will cry because they sell things based on whether or not they're wildcards, but for the good of the game it needs to happen. Shock immunity should be pulled off most things that have it, but Shock should be pulled off of most weapons- SMGs shouldn't have Shock, for example. (Or AP, for that matter.) Make Shock a tool you use for hunting NWI/Dogged troops that you have to pay points for.
Yeah but I'm a Tohaa player, so I'm biased. Plus without Nullifiers protecting actually hackable things like Ectros/Kiel-Saan/Gorgos gets really dicey. Doesn't help that we are one of only 2 factions (the other being Ariadna) that has no access to Firewall mods of any kind (no EVO hacker), and with only 1 HD and 1 KHD in the faction it's almost impossible to put up any meaningful fight against even mid-tier hacking threats. Not to mention things like Pitcher -> Spotlight -> Missiles, which is a threat to absolutely everything. You don't even have to make them blanket "no hacking allowed" zones like they were in N3. Just have them apply Firewall (-3) to everything. Gives things much-needed protection and lets solo hackers compete with things like Jazz sitting in a Core link. Maybe even make them apply Firewall (-6) but then you REALLY have to be careful who you give them to.
I'm not saying this is a bad idea, but I kind of agree with CB's decision to remove Sniffers as they were kind of an order sink not good for much. Considering how anything sensor-remote-ish that isn't pi-well seems like it's on UNESCO's endangered species list, I do think they could do with a tiny buff and get something that's a bit better than an N3 sniffer. Maybe a Sniffer with a Contender's range band? Also, considering what hacking looks like at the moment, Nullifiers probably wouldn't be a bad thing if dispersed among factions intelligently (as in; do not give it to any faction with Pitchers).
I liked them in N3 SAA. Run a Fugazi up a 6-6, drop a sniffer, reveal a bunch of camo including their camo sniper. Apply TAG to revealed sniper. Didn't take many orders. Opponent was better off just revealing to shoot the Fugazi on its way up, but then you're spending even fewer orders to remove the sniper and all you lose is a Fugazi. If anything I'd say sniffers were maybe too good, at least for the faction that's always bringing 3x sniffer bot and cheap Sensor anyway.
I think used intelligently they (along with Sat-lock) were great. If set up properly you could create areas that were dicey for camo infiltrators to enter.
I definitely miss them in ISS. Kanren with Sniffer + WIP 14 Crane Sensor felt extremely gratifying in certain matchups.
I used them extensively in N3 as well, but most of the time the set up and utility was quite low for the investment. Almost never got a Sniper doing this, but did catch a Shinobu or two until my opponents started getting wise to this tactic - which did have a few beneficial effects on their setup choices and ARO pieces. Sat-Lock was also very high investment strategy, more quaint than good. But... bring it back intelligently and it's a different matter. It needs a nudge in the right direction is what I'm saying ;) (Funnily enough, I never got the Kanren sniffer to work. Mostly because Kanren on their own are quite terrible units and they really need extra utility of specialist skills and MadTraps to be worth even considering, IMO)
They saw use in my meta, I personally used them. Kanren and Chaiyi. Local Nomads also made use of them.
They'd need an offset for fewer available orders these days. Simple fix? Make them like a Pitcher, able to be shot out a distance as well as placed. Would improve order efficiency.
I kind of have a feeling people, and not just you, stopped reading my post half-way through the first paragraph. And no, they dont' really need to compensate for the order economy. The order economy calculation hasn't changed because the rules haven't changed to a significant degree. You still need to allow this game to tick at 20 orders as much as 10 orders, because players are given that choice and told it is valid. The issue has always been where CB has put abilities and that CB's points system is punishing expensive units (and still is, after N4's flat discount that seems based on cost rather than abilities). So maybe not put key abilities like this on cheap units that people get for orders.
Nullifiers were a cool piece of tech, and useful for Tohaa and their almost inexistent hacking capabilities, I'd love to see them back.
Arguably, in N3 it was barely useful for Tohaa because much like Ariadna they didn't have much to protect from hacking as their hackable stuff wasn't good enough to protect ;) Still, think Nullifiers as a game mechanic is a good tool to address the Spotlight and Pitcher spamming that's going on. E.g. replace Kanren mines with Nullifiers and it'd potentially work wonders for both the Kanren as a unit and for ISS as a faction. Ditto Shikami. Just... keep it the hell away from Nomads, Haqq, most of NA2, and Combined.
Sniffers weren't used by many in N3 because of the order to deploy (though those that did use them tended to find them useful). They could make them more useful and intuitive (instead of just deleting them) by making them more analogous to Repeaters i.e: - Sniffer on a profile works like a repeater on a profile for sensor (i.e., you don't need to deploy it to use it) - Deployable Sniffers work like old sniffers (similar to Deployable Repeaters for hacking) - Snitchers (Pitchers for Sniffers) work like Pitchers for Sensor (you can fire them at range to a point) These options and different access to them could make an interesting, faction access dependent counter to camo (and interesting RPS with Heavy troops < Hacking < Camo < Sensor < Heavy troops). Camo has always been very strong in Infinity somewhat due to a lack of this IMHO. Delete Deactivator instead.
I'd just slap Sensor on old Sniffer profiles, and allow a Sensor Entire Order Skill to activate any number of models. Still a bit too much of a rules exception for my taste, but it would probably still be quicker and more intuitive than writing Sniffers back in.
