disk type objective

[InvisibleMan999]

Here an idea:

What if there was no message when a disk was originally stolen?

You still appear on radar when moving fast, but there was no message telling the mercs to look out for you.

That'd actually add a bit of stealth to it, since the mercs wouldn't necessarily know a spy had the disc. And that would really detract the amount of camping.

[Farley4Fan]

Interesting, but maybe a visual change on the drop offs would be good then right?  Like if you walked by a drop off and maybe a light on it is on or something, or the disc tray is open, then you'd know a spy has a disc.  Especially if you have a blip on your radar.

[InvisibleMan999]

Interesting, but maybe a visual change on the drop offs would be good then right?  Like if you walked by a drop off and maybe a light on it is on or something, or the disc tray is open, then you'd know a spy has a disc.  Especially if you have a blip on your radar.

Not the drop off point, buit the pickup point should have some visual indication that a disc has been taken. This forces mercs to patrol the whole map instead of just guarding drop offs and makes full stealth disk drops a lot easier.

[Westfall]

Interesting, but maybe a visual change on the drop offs would be good then right?  Like if you walked by a drop off and maybe a light on it is on or something, or the disc tray is open, then you'd know a spy has a disc.  Especially if you have a blip on your radar.

Not the drop off point, buit the pickup point should have some visual indication that a disc has been taken. This forces mercs to patrol the whole map instead of just guarding drop offs and makes full stealth disk drops a lot easier.

I say drop off should be lit too. How often do you check drop off points when you know a disk hasn't been stolen?

[InvisibleMan999]

I say drop off should be lit too. How often do you check drop off points when you know a disk hasn't been stolen?

Well depends on the level, which is one reason that I think we may not want to illuminate drop off points.

Sometimes the drop off is in plain sight, like pirates on aqua or the museum cafe drops, in which case you can just happen to notice it while you're patrolling something else.

Also the main reason mercs don't patrol drop offs now is that they know when the disc was taken, so there was no reason to. Mercs would periodically check drop off points if they weren't aware the disc was taken, especially after a good amount of time passed and things were all quiet.

Since sneaking away on slow speed takes so long anyway, personally I'd say just have the pickup points have signs of intrusion, because that accomplishes the goal of widening the merc's patrol route if he wants to stay informed. 

[Gawain]

i think you should have to give away your position when taking the disk, just like every other objective. the ct disk obj is really fine (except the lack of slow-climb), the only other fix it really needs is better implementation in the map layout. after thinking about if for quite a while i come to the conclusion that every drastic change would be bad, the only change not hurting gameplay balance would be allowing the spies to switch the disk.

[InvisibleMan999]

i think you should have to give away your position when taking the disk, just like every other objective.

There's a difference though. The other objectives are immediate threats when you accomplish them, where the disk is simply an indicator that says "I'm going to one of the drop off points, and now I'm crippled because you see me on radar if I move fast."

The disk pick-up warning is more akin to a warning that let you know 30 seconds in advance that someone was coming to hack a given terminal.

I mean, you keep saying you can stealth the disk, but I've been playing this game since it came out (both on PC and xbox) and I can count on one hand the number of times someone has successfully stealthed a disk. I mean, the fact is that it's pretty hard to sneak by a good merc in the first place. It's even worse when the merc knows exactly where you're going and you can't move faster than slowest speed at any time or you're instantly on radar.

That's very hard to do. Hell, it'd be hard to get to an objective going purely slowest speed even if the mercs didn't know where I was going.

[Gawain]

you seem to forget that once you reach the "objective" = drop zone (to use your metaphora), you press a button and have accomplished it instantly.

[Succubus Dryad Of The Undying Comet]

you seem to forget that once you reach the "objective" = drop zone (to use your metaphora), you press a button and have accomplished it instantly.

Not. It takes a part of a second to actually put the disk in the case.
And... how about making the objective a suitcase, that would make the spy slower and less manouverable?

[BurningDeath]

you seem to forget that once you reach the "objective" = drop zone (to use your metaphora), you press a button and have accomplished it instantly.

yeah .. but how does that matter? You still have to take the disc and bring it to the dropoff zone. I think it'd be much more interesting if the disc obj. did not have a special message saying it was taken. Maybe some kind of a visual sign, like a green light turning red, which can be seen from a longer distance.

[Kurbutti]

Doesn't really make a difference whether the player sees the text or not if there's another way to know if the disc has been taken.

I'm not a fan of this idea either... I'd want PS to stay withing the original concept of the game where interacting with objectives always cause an alarm. The methods required to accomplish the objectives should allow room for both stealth and aggressive playstyles. There's really no need to change the way it works now. Map makers just need to think accurately whether or not they want mercs to be able to guard the drop off points.

[Westfall]

What needs an absolute change is when you're dropping the disk. There have been countless times I've placed it in the drop-off (and you actually watch the spy do it) but you get shot and it automatically pops back on to you. I'm sorry, but thats a piece of shit. Same thing with hacking a terminal and seeing 0:00. gtfo

[Farley4Fan]

I agree.  It shouldn't take an extra second to hack 0 seconds down.  Or an inch further into the drive when it's all the way in the drop off console.  But that may be a glitch, or for balance.

[Succubus Dryad Of The Undying Comet]

NO! They did it WRONG!
And the PS team needs to do it RIGHT!
That's about everything there is to say.

[Cyntrox]

What needs an absolute change is when you're dropping the disk. There have been countless times I've placed it in the drop-off (and you actually watch the spy do it) but you get shot and it automatically pops back on to you. I'm sorry, but thats a piece of shit. Same thing with hacking a terminal and seeing 0:00. gtfo

Actually, it is probably meant to be that way... So that you can't just shock a merc guarding the drop-off then rush in and deliver the disk without him being able to do anything about it.