Nullifier Crewman Stealth change

[Zandermanith222]

I personally don't have much of an issue with Nullifiers. Except when they appear in swarms, but often times that's only during the later part of Fissure Missions now that I don't have to run the Void all the time.

In Stealth (Or really at any point), Nullifiers can't be killed by any kind of long range attacks, unless you tear down their shield first. And often times they have other units nearby them, so melee isn't always the easiest choice. Though what if Nullifiers only projected their shield when they're alerted? I mean, Arctic Eximus units do that, maybe Nullifiers wanna save power when there's no danger around! Maybe they wanna save themselves the eye strain of looking at that nullifier bubble during their entire patrol shift!

It would make taking nullifiers out in Stealth easier than otherwise. Plus I think it'd be kinda neat looking if upon noticing you, they did a quick gesture and caused their shield to appear and expand to full size~

It's not a big change, but I think it'd be a pleasant one. Besides, at this point it's pretty clear DE doesn't wanna budge regarding Nullifiers in firefights.

Edited August 5, 2016 by Zandermanith222

[VKhaun]

Why do you say they can't be killed by long range attacks / stealth? I shoot them in Spy all the time. They never react to the shield taking damage. They react to noise if you use a weapon that's not silent but that's normal for stealth. I haven't done it for a while but last I tried you could also melee the edge of the globe to make it shrink. I'm pretty sure they fixed the glaive trick though.

Not deploying the shield unless alerted is probably common sense and I want to agree with you, but keep in mind nullifiers are also pretty much the squishiest mob in the game except infested parasites. I think they're squishier than some drones even. If they get nerfed so the shield isn't deployed on spawn DE would probably heavily buff their EHP to give them some chance to actually deploy it. I admit I'm assuming here, but it tracks and I don't like the potential for such a trade off.

Edited August 5, 2016 by VKhaun

[Zandermanith222]

5 minutes ago, VKhaun said:

Why do you say they can't be killed by long range attacks / stealth? I shoot them in Spy all the time. They never react to the shield taking damage. They react to noise if you use a weapon that's not silent but that's normal for stealth.

Not deploying the shield unless alerted is probably common sense and I want to agree with you, but keep in mind nullifiers are also pretty much the squishiest mob in the game next to parasites. I think they're squishier than some drones even. If they get nerfed so the shield isn't deployed on spawn DE would probably heavily buff their EHP to give them some chance to actually deploy it. I admit I'm assuming here, but it tracks and I don't like the potential for such a trade off.

Well like I said, they're basically immune to long ranged stealth attacks until their shield is down, since they don't notice shield damage, it's honestly not a big problem in the slightest. You do have a good point there though. If DE did make such a change, there probably would be some kinda (sometimes unlisted) compensation, as they tend to do with a lot of the changes they make. Really this idea, in my mind anyway, isn't really mean't to "fix" anything, I just think it's a neat idea is all!

Edited August 5, 2016 by Zandermanith222

[Cortanis]

2 hours ago, VKhaun said:

 They never react to the shield taking damage. They react to noise if you use a weapon that's not silent but that's normal for stealth.

This has clearly changed. I recently picked up Rak Ballistica as a pet project on putting up a good build and forma job on it. It's silent by default, but every time I shoot the bubble or take it out with the non charged shot, takes two volleys btw, the bubble boy is alerted and starts running for cover. Doesn't matter if I'm shooting at him or at the bubble over him.

[VKhaun]

48 minutes ago, Cortanis said:

This has clearly changed. I recently picked up Rak Ballistica as a pet project on putting up a good build and forma job on it. It's silent by default, but every time I shoot the bubble or take it out with the non charged shot, takes two volleys btw, the bubble boy is alerted and starts running for cover. Doesn't matter if I'm shooting at him or at the bubble over him.

IIRC projectiles like arrows and bolts make a sound when they hit walls and objects, a second noise separate from the weapon itself which is silent or silenced by a mod. The wiki makes notes about this on some weapon pages like "enemies will notice missed arrows" on Paris's page, but not on all weapon pages.

The bubble may be like a wall or object and create a short range noise when hit by a projectile. Try to aim high or aim wide and fire enough right away to pop it before it shrinks much. See if that works better.

[Xzorn]

I thought maybe someone else noticed they were made more aggressive recently. Running faster and not immediately backing off when the bubble takes damage.

They run straight for you when you're stealth and often don't back off even when the bubble is down.

[Cortanis]

3 hours ago, VKhaun said:

The bubble may be like a wall or object and create a short range noise when hit by a projectile. Try to aim high or aim wide and fire enough right away to pop it before it shrinks much. See if that works better.

I already do that. Usually I'm firing at a decent enough range that I'm not even allowing them to get close to me and when I'm fireing, it's usually at almost the top of the bubble. I've been running with gunslinger on the thing, so I can empty out the thing super fast. Still, it only takes two volleys to take the bubble out totally and I can do so almost instantly. If you've got Rak Ballistica, try it out yourself.

[(PSN)Lord_Gremlin]

5 hours ago, Cortanis said:

This has clearly changed. I recently picked up Rak Ballistica as a pet project on putting up a good build and forma job on it. It's silent by default, but every time I shoot the bubble or take it out with the non charged shot, takes two volleys btw, the bubble boy is alerted and starts running for cover. Doesn't matter if I'm shooting at him or at the bubble over him.

No, rakta ballistica has been bugged for ages. Burst fire mode has been patched to not break ivara prowl etc. but it's still not silent and will alert everyone. Just like silenced dual toxocyst alerts whole level if you trigger headshot buff. Glad to see ancient bug still not fixed.

7 hours ago, VKhaun said:

Why do you say they can't be killed by long range attacks / stealth? I shoot them in Spy all the time. They never react to the shield taking damage. They react to noise if you use a weapon that's not silent but that's normal for stealth. I haven't done it for a while but last I tried you could also melee the edge of the globe to make it shrink. I'm pretty sure they fixed the glaive trick though.

Not deploying the shield unless alerted is probably common sense and I want to agree with you, but keep in mind nullifiers are also pretty much the squishiest mob in the game except infested parasites. I think they're squishier than some drones even. If they get nerfed so the shield isn't deployed on spawn DE would probably heavily buff their EHP to give them some chance to actually deploy it. I admit I'm assuming here, but it tracks and I don't like the potential for such a trade off.

Assuming they deploy shield as woon as they are not fully unalerted in all non stealth missions they will spawn with bubble on, so change is unnecessary.