New Sapper Idea: Cloak Regeneration

So instead of having a sapper that damages or disables engi buildings, why not have a sapper that "saps" cloak from them? There are so many ways to balance this (they don't do damage, they might or might not alert the engi, or the sapper might drain metal from a dispenser, charge from a teleporter, and ammo from a sentry, or the Spy might have to stay within a certain radius for the recharge to work.

This sapper alternative is meant to cater towards players who want to focus on attacking the enemy players instead of sentry nests (or whatever), or to help spies who need some cloak to progress further into the enemy territory (and can perhaps help deprive an engi of his metal if you sapped his dispenser with it).

Thoughts?

I think a really fun weapon would be one that cloaks the engy's buildings so he can't see them. Imagine the lulz as the engy stumbles around trying to remember where his buildings were so he can knock them off!

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The problem with that is that any good engineer would know exactly where his buildings were anyway, it's not like they move.

No new sapper, sapper should be removed from the game.  All it does is encourage one class to go directly at another, also forces the engineer to camp.  Give him another weapon. He needs to be better in the flanking role instead of being able to walk around cloaked all the time.  Theres a limit on it for a reason, 10 seconds and you can do whatever you want to.  If at any point you're waiting for it to recharge then you've done something wrong.  The spy isnt meant to camp or to hide, once cloak wears off stop screwing around and actually do something.

Anything can be balanced based on damage, reload and other things.  You could balance an instat kill minigun if you really wanted to.  So don't add that as a way the weapon could be legitimate.

What, then? I can't think of anything. I'm not creative.

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So then a sapper that simply recharges your cloak while you stand near that building "sapping" it, without doing any harm to it, wouldn't force an Engi to camp. I think you're pretty much right about sappers forcing engis to camp, but the problem is also rooted in sentry repair rate. If you just left a sentry alone, even a scout could take it out. So that's more of an engi design problem than just the sapper.

I kind of agree with Chro about the whole 'targets a single class' thing, but it's fun to ponder anyway.

One flaw I see with your idea  stabby is it doesn't really make 'sense' that you could put the sappers on then be far away and gain cloak. What do you think of this:

Siphoner:

A weapon that functions similar to how a sapper does as it only affects buildings. Instead of a sapper being placed the building as you hold down Mouse1 the building's "power" (Ammo / Teleporter charge / etc) will be drained and your cloak will be replenished. Dispensers and teleporters fully siphoned will not recharge unless an Engineer fills them up again. The Engineer will not be alerted to the spy but can look at the UI to see if it's happening.

It's very similar to yours but I think this one is a lot more intuitive. It is still decent at hindering an Engineer's defenses but is not as effective as a sapper at removing those defenses. It merely makes them dysfunctional.

Edit: Also it would be sneaky if an enemy is looking at you while you pretend to heal at a dispenser but you are actually siphoning from it. The players would not actually know you are doing anything unlike if you were sapping.

If i was pro-cloak spy, then i wouldn't like this idea.  So my cloak runs out, now i have to run to a sentry by enemy defenses to get my cloak back up.  Not only that but when a spy places a sapper the animation will show, giving him away to anyone looking. But i'm not pro-cloak spy, i don't think spies should be running around all the time cloaked.  After they are behind lines then they should kill, immediately. The problem with spy is that they sit around too much, they think they should be ninjas or some stupid shit.  This isn't a stealth game, the point is to kill people.  You have more than enough right now in the cloak and disguise department to kill efficiently. 

Engineers have to camp because of disguises and spies more than anything, the entire thing needs to be removed.  Repairing it is another, but smaller factor.

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If Sappers were removed, then the sentry gun would also need to be reworked. But if the sapper were to be removed entirely, what would then take it's place? Is there something you could think of to help a Spy do what it should be doing? Because without something in return, removing sappers would be an across the board nerf for the Spy.

Replace is with a weapon you use on anyone, sentries don't need to be reworked because enough things counter them right now as it is.