Talk:Helios Sentinel/@comment-46.177.108.217-20140412155555

The scanning on this thing is simply.... useles... simply useless.

Tried it out to see how it goes during fast paced combat... ODD, up to 20 waves both times... It scanned 1 Ancient and 2 runners (whetever they are called).... 3 scans? From 2x 20 waves of enemies of 600+ totaling to 1200 enemies? Oh, and it also wasted something like 30 scans to do that... So that would be something like 1 scan every 10 failed attempts every 400+ enemies... I am guessing the harder levels and different factions will create a larger result as enemies would live longer, infested are not exactly there for any more than a couple swings... But even so it seems way too little. Tried it on other stages too, and it was really pointless.

What makes it truly useless is the way it scans enemies even when you are doing stages slower/stealth... The range sucks. At times it finds-loses-finds-loses-finds-loses the target and makes it a pain to even start scanning a single enemy. Your crosshair, although a good idea to force scan what you want, backfires as it can interupt previous scan (had it bounce from one enemy to the other back and forth) and the worst part of all.... It takes 5 almost 6 seconds to scan the target.... Seriously? 5-6 seconds?

On the same level I pulled out my proper scanner and scanned the rest of the ship in half a minute with not difficulty whatsoever.

Not to mention you need to face the target it is scanning, so you interupt it by actually doing what the sentinel was meant to allow you to do in the first place (move and look around). If I am supposed to stand still, face the target, get closer than usual, try not to move or aim at anything else and also wait almost 2 to 3 times as long for each scan then what is the purpose of it???

Being able to have a weapon equiped to attack or block is the only upside. This would have been ok, if the scanner actually scanned anything. Basically, all it does is make a more difficult scanning process for you and the upside is that you are more "ready" to attack back if they see you, which they are twice as like now since it takes twice as long. o.O

Proposal for fixes?

1) Faster scanning of course. 4 seconds max.

2) as soon as a target is locked for scanning, finish the scan no matter what direction you face.

3) Only interupt the scanning if the target that is being scanned is an object and you aim on an enemy.

4) multiple scan que. Maybe up to 3 maximum. Hence, an enemy being scanned is not interupted by aiming at another enemy, and a maximum que could control this to how many you can have locked. Each next target locked starts scanning when it is locked, not when the first enemy is scanned. Hence, simultaneous scanning. To balance this out, every additional scan can then go into adding more time to the scanning of that target. (e.g, 1st target 4sec, 2nd target 6sec, 3rd target 8sec).

5) Ongoing que balance. Once 1 enemy has been scanned from the 3 locked target, the scanner can go on into loocking on onto another enemy. It does not start the scan until all 3 previous scans are finished or interupted (by killing the enemy) and the locking continue to 3 more targets. Targets can also be dropped from que when out of range. Example of this= 3 targets locked, 1st target scanned at 4sec, new target locked, 2nd scanned at 6sec new target locked. 3rd at 8sec new target locked and all new 3 locked targets start being scanned (if less targets around obviously it works acordingly.

Basically, you are simply creating stability on the scan itself rather than have it being interupted like crazy when you have multiple enemies around... Going invisible with Ash or Loki for example, having something like 10 enemies around you, and the sentinel not being able to scan at least 1 target is simply ridiculous.

Meanwhile the time needed is decreased (because again, this is ridiculous, we scan faster with our normal scanner. I can get Loki, go invisible and simply scan the crap out of anyone and anything and in half the time!!!) but it is not made too easy. It still has enough time to make it hard to catch multiple targets as they are likely to be killed off the same way they are now, but increases the chances of at least 1 target being finished every now and then.

The distance after such changes is the only thing that remains to be small and unchanged, but that is ok as it becomes more tactical this way as it should be. For range and full stealth, you use your proper scanner (thus there is also a purpose to still have a scanner), for close combat, have this thing fly around and attempt in scanning something from your field. The scanning must be dificult, I agree, you don't want to be able to scan the entire content of a faction my simply playing one survival or defence mission. But you should see better results than what you see now. The way it is at the moment is WAY too difficult.

The numbers above are obviously assumptions and if they ever did something like this it would need a lot of balancing, but the point to the opinions given is not the numbers, but the theory behind each change itself.

This sentinel really needs to be tweaked to actualy be in any way functional. 1200+ enemies, and 3 scans.... This is ridiculous. Making the scanner lock on randomly to targets and scan them regardless of what you face and aim at alone can fix most of this. That is how broken it is. I simply went into giving some ideas for extra changes to balance it out even more.