There are a ton of arguments floating around Promethean Vision and if it’s OP or not. And from all the gameplay videos that have come out, it looks like it’s on the “verge” of being OP, but not quite there. However, since most of us haven’t played the game, and the people who did get to, only got a limited amount of time to do so, it is way too early to deem anything OP or UP. I mean a game mechanic could go for months or even years before someone figures out an exploit for it and suddenly it’s a game breaker.
Promethean Vision definitely looks like it’ll be the most used AA, much like sprint was in Reach. It seems like the overall most useful in any situation AA to have. I mean why equip the Hardlight Shield to protect yourself against someone using the Rocket Launcher, when you could just flip on Promethean Vision and stay away from them completely? Why use Hologram to hopefully fool a Promethean Vision user when you could just be using Promethean Vision to counter theirs back? Now, Promethean Vision while not looking too OP, could still use a bit of toning down in my personal opinion. And one of the ways I think it could be toned down, but still be effective, is use “pulses” instead of relaying information in real time.
Let me explain. Instead of just showing the people within range moving in real time through walls, what direction they’re going, if they’re currently shooting, switching weapons, etc., it’ll send out a “pulse” and take a “snapshot” of whatever activity they’re currently in. Now this pulse will be sent out every 1.5-2 seconds while Promethean Vision is activated. Instead of seeing exactly what they’re doing, you’ll only get a snapshot of they’re last position and activity they were engaged in when the pulse last hit them. If they were in the act of throwing a grenade when the pulse hits them, you’ll see a snapshot of whatever point in the grenade throwing animation they were in. If they were currently being shot from a man cannon, you’d see whatever position they were in the air when the pulse last hit them.
Now you don’t know 100% where an enemy is going and what they’re doing. An opponent you just saw moving at you through a wall with a BR equipped, could suddenly have a rocket launcher pointed at you when the next pulse passes over them. You don’t get to watch them switch weapons in real time and can’t just run away before they have a chance to shoot. Now there’s a little faith thrown into the mix. An opponent you saw running towards you through the wall, could suddenly have back tracked and gone a completely different direction when the pulse hits them next. You can no longer wait around that wall with a Sword and know exactly when the opponent is going to be turning the corner. It gives the people being watched by Promethean Vision a chance to mix things up and not be so predictable.
So there it is, my 2 cents on balancing Promethean Vision from the gameplay I’ve seen. I think I’m on to something here, but without actually being able to playtest such a change, it could just turn out to gimp and make it useless. I think every AA should have their uses, but there will almost always be 1 that’s just a little more useful most of the time then others. But that 1 AA shouldn’t dominate the others ALL of the time.
