balancing of sticky cams

[InvisibleMan999]

Snares aren't meant to trick a merc into thinking you are somewhere else; they are meant to cover your own movement so that he doesn't know where you are.

Right, it's one reason I suggested the distraction cam tool. So you've got a remote sound maker that actually might fool the mercs into thinking you're somewhere else. Maybe it could even be preloaded with a bunch of sounds that you could make at will, like sticky cam launch, spy footstep, gun being drawn, spy grenade explosion, etc.

The drawback would be that unlike an alarm snare it really doesn't cover your movement, since it only makes noise when you actively tell it to through camera view.

[Spekkio]

Cams would be too good then. However, giving snares a dual ability is not a bad idea.

[InvisibleMan999]

Cams would be too good then. However, giving snares a dual ability is not a bad idea.

Well I was suggesting it as a new type of cam. Instead of throwing gas, it makes noises (and probably doesn't make any sound when you turn it).

So it's a recon/distraction cam as opposed to a gas cam. They can still look the same graphically so the designers wouldn't have to put much effort into implementing it.

[Spekkio]

I don't think people would take such a gadget. It overlaps with two gadgets that do their functions better.

[Gawain]

hbs and spy bullets (and thermal vision) are enough recon gadgets. snares would be more popular with the more gently pt firing sound, with a little lower rate of making noises and maybe with camo and sticky cam sounds. 5 slots would make perfect sense, too.

[InvisibleMan999]

I don't think people would take such a gadget. It overlaps with two gadgets that do their functions better.

I dunno, I think if it were implemented right, I may want to take it. Unlike an alarm snare it may actually be a distraction that can lure the merc away to a region that you're no longer at. So you can place one and then make some sounds to draw the merc. The fact that you'd get to control what sounds it makes and when would make it a pretty powerful distraction tool, and ultimately unpredictable. I doubt it'd be a gadget for everyone, but it's certainly something I'd think about taking, especially with 5 gadget slots.

[Gawain]

in which way should this gadget improve gameplay? it makes it nearly impossible to tell the authenticity of a noise for the mercs and gives spies some form of camnet they are not supposed to have. it would be a tool very hard to master (and balance) with almost no new balanced abilities. with 5 gadget slots, you can simply take sticky cams/hbs/spy bullets + snares to get a more balanced effect.
there are few people that take snares or camo atm, so we should start boosting those and adding a 5th gadget slot. there are also very few people that use sticky cams as a recon tool (kinda handy placed behind river mall sign, factory main hall, club corridors etc). i can simpy see no need for a network-distraction-cam.

[InvisibleMan999]

in which way should this gadget improve gameplay? it makes it nearly impossible to tell the authenticity of a noise for the mercs and gives spies some form of camnet they are not supposed to have.

It's a diversion as stated before. Yeah, it makes the mercs question the authenticity of any noise they hear. That's the point.

Basically it's another tool for the stealthy spy, who wants a means to avoid rather than confront the mercs. It's really nothing more than the equivalent of having your partner wait somewhere and make noise at a predesignated time, so I don't see it as being all that powerful. It's definitely something i'd use though. I'd really forsee the camnet feature being all that useful honestly, Mostly that's just there to see if the merc responded to your diversion, not as muhc of a scouting thing. Setting up a camera network is hardly all that valuable to a spy, not whne heartbeat and spybullets do that job better.

The main purpose of the diversion cam is to make noise and draw off a merc. I think it would really improve the "mind games" aspect of the game, since it's yet another trick you can pull on an experienced merc. I personally love playing mind games with my opponents. I'm the kind of spy who will go to the disk drop off door in Aqua and hack that so the mercs think I'm hacking office and then hit pirates when they're hopefully out of position.

[Gawain]

no good merc team would leave their position in this situation.

a gadget that makes more authentic noises than snares is just lame so that no merc would trust his sound reticule anymore; furthermore it wouln't be able to cover your own noises at all. snares with a more gentle firing noise are just fine.

maybe giving sticky cams some network ability would be ok if underused gadgets get a stronger boost. maybe we should allow one cam to be toggled to "surveillance cam" so that it stays (maybe even a small video window). but there's no real need for all of that; don't fix what is not broken.

[InvisibleMan999]

no good merc team would leave their position in this situation.

a gadget that makes more authentic noises than snares is just lame so that no merc would trust his sound reticule anymore; furthermore it wouln't be able to cover your own noises at all. snares with a more gentle firing noise are just fine.

Well causing him to doubt the reticule is also a side effect of the gadget benefit. As far as covering your own noise, that's how this gadget is weaker than alarm snares. The distraction cams are for a spy who is going to be quiet and makes noise elsewhere, also causing mercs to doubt their reticules. The alarm snare is for spies who want to make a lot of noise and have something cover it up. While both are sound based, they each do their work in a different manner.

There are some tasks to which the snare is better and some to which the distraction cam is better. Snares effectively scramble the reticule so it's not very useful anymore. The distaction cam causes mercs to doubt the reticule sometimes, but also doesn't cover up the spy's natural sounds like snares do. So beating the distraction cam is a mind game, is the sound you heard really the spy or is it just the cam? Keep in mind that D-cams would have to be placed. so it's not like you can just start making noise on the other side of the level without at least being there at some point during your life. Further you'd probably have to place them on ground level, as opposed to a vent, becuase a sound from above may obviously be only a distraction.

Now I don't know if distraction cams would be overpowered or not, but I can certainly say they wouldn't be useless.  I think they'd be a nice addition to the stealthy spies arsenal.

I strongly suggest not adding any more functionality to existing sticky cams. They're just too good as it is and honestly I don't see the network cam being something people would use much anyway.

[Gawain]

the point is, good spies won't make noises that ping the reticule besides firing stuff or going aggro (then it's pretty clear where they are) anyways, so snares are much better covering the really gentle noise of using hbs or crouching in vents or really running around the map. the already existing network feature of the cam is also kinda underused even by good players.

[InvisibleMan999]

the point is, good spies won't make noises that ping the reticule besides firing stuff or going aggro (then it's pretty clear where they are) anyways, so snares are much better covering the really gentle noise of using hbs or crouching in vents or really running around the map. the already existing network feature of the cam is also kinda underused even by good players.

Well which would be why the cam can make various other sounds that don't necessarily poing the reticule. Stuff like the Spy gun firing or the Spy grenade going off/being launched.

[Spekkio]

The point is, combining gadget functions is not a good thing. Hey, why don't we make a chaff/flash grenade. When it blows, it lets off a flash that is weaker than an ordinary flash, and the chaff has a lower radius and shorter duration. Wouldn't that be cool?

No, it wouldn't. Stop trying to cross gadgets.

[Gawain]

Well which would be why the cam can make various other sounds that don't necessarily poing the reticule. Stuff like the Spy gun firing or the Spy grenade going off/being launched.

snares should do that, too.
crossing gadgets sux.

[InvisibleMan999]

The point is, combining gadget functions is not a good thing. Hey, why don't we make a chaff/flash grenade. When it blows, it lets off a flash that is weaker than an ordinary flash, and the chaff has a lower radius and shorter duration. Wouldn't that be cool?

No, it wouldn't. Stop trying to cross gadgets.

Its not crossing gadgets.

This cam doesn't knock people out. It doesn't shoot gas, so its not a cross of anything.

Yeah it functions as a camera, but seriously, who cares, we use stickies to KO mercs, not to see into areas. In fact they're terrible as a recon device because they make so much noise. I still remember the fools who try to see into tech using stickies on aqua before dropping from the vent. The sticky sound is obvious that it basically alerts the merc and says "I'm in the vent, come kill me."

And as far as alarm snares go, this thing produces sounds to draw mercs, while alarm snares produce white noise to cover your movement. Again two different functions, much like HBS versus spybullets. They both do similar things, just in different enough ways that they warrant a new gadget.