Ok people most of the information is from Horses Compendium. http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1082745-brink-info-compendium/
This is what have have heard from the devs and might not be official in the end. You have been warned.

Operative is one of the four classes in Brink. Hack enemy defenses and sentry guns, provide battlefield intelligence, and sneak behind enemy lines.

Operatives can:

Hack enemy defenses, comms, and sentry guns.

Spot enemy mines

Disguise as the enemy. You take on your victims clothes and physique.
(more info on disguises) - the intention is that unless you're the person who is actually the victim of a disguise, there's no in game indication at all that the disguised guy is not who he seems. So you really have to rely on watching his behavior.
you cannot be in the field of view of anyone else in order to take a disguise.
you cannot fire any weapons, or you lose your disguise.

Interrogating enemies that will gain access to a 'radar' ability, which will display enemy players for a duration on your map, it lasts for 10 seconds (liable to change).

Not able to buff teammates

Can see enemy operatives (we are not sure exactly how this works)

Can firewall Command Posts to make it harder to capture

Have sticky grenades and possibly smoke grenades.

Have an ability to use a homing device and track enemies.

What do think the operative should have? (abilities,items etc)

Please note I intend to make one of these for each class and update as information becomes available in order to encourage discussion.

Please note that no class is a ninja. :ninja:

Smoke grenades are likely. Covert Ops in this developer's last two games had smoke grenades, which were in unlimited supply but had to recharge after you threw them.

I think they've elaborated a bit on how hacking will work, too. The Operative attaches a device to the object he wants to hack, and while that device is attached, he can use his PDA to hack it wirelessly. The farther he goes from the object, though, the slower his hacking progress is. Engineers can destroy the hacking receiver, stopping the Operative from continuing to hack the object. If you hack a sentry gun, supposedly you gain first-person control over it.

there are too many people playing opeative and engineer. operatives are not ninjas

No one has even played the game yet. Can we keep this on discussion on topic.

I just remember that Operatives can firewall their Command Posts in order to make them harder to hack. Which makes up wonder are Operatives the only ones who can hack Command Points? Also what kind of objectives are hackable?

operatives can hack. engineers can re-hack turrets if they have been hacked by an operative i think.

how will it make it harder to hack. will it just make it longer?

like they mentioned in an article:

"the operative can hack things, but it's the engineer who can destroy the hack box that's on the objective. "

So if an operative were to hack a turret before the Engineer could remove the Hack box would he be able to set another one? Also I think the enemy operative would have to hack it back in order for the team to reacquire it.

it will probably depend on which team set up the turret. engineers cant hack enemy turrets but if the turret was on their team then they can re-claim it. im not sure if the operatives can also destroy the hack box on their own teams turrets

Depends on the type of objective, of course. If it's just an Engineer sentry that's being hacked, once the box is off the Operative won't be able to control it anymore, though it may require additional repair to restore to mint condition. If it's a main story objective, then there'll be no way to "hack it back"; main objectives, once complete, are complete for good. If it's an optional environment objective, like hacking a back door? I dunno, maybe an Operative can hack it back to normal.

I think operatives hack and engineers destroy hack boxes. I don't think operatives should be able to destroy other operatives hack boxes.



Rehack a door shut makes enough sense.

there shouldnt be a hack box on command posts. thats just too easy to rehack

In ET, they had faction specific doors, Like a door that only lets Security team members in. In ET, the operative could disguise and the door would open for them.

That's interesting but there shouldn't be too many. Else everyone would only be using their team friendly paths.

I think the faction-specific doors were only at very important objective barriers. There would be walls that one team literally couldn't get past in any way until they completed an objective, and the other team needed a way to get from one side to the other. In active combat spaces, you're not likely to see many faction filters.

*Turrets hacked by the enemy, become property of the enemy - http://gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2010/02/16/interview-richard-ham-creative-director-of-splash-damage-brink-multiplayer-customization-and-a-new-era-in-online-gaming.aspx
- I would assume that friendly operatives would be able to firewall these turrets, in the same way they would Command Posts.

Maybe but I hope so. Anything to make the enemies life more miserable. Think about an Engineer who spec'd to have an awesome turret but it gets hacked early on in the game and now its defending the CP they once had and he can't make another one. I for one will firewall anything and everything everything I can get my greedy operative hands on.

I like the way BRINK is taking the operative. He is not supposed to be the one doing all the killing unlike in some other games (TF2). His job is to support the team. I just hope they don't change their mind and make him a backstabbing scumbag

In all fairness backstabbing is extremely useful in the right timing. As a TF2 player backstabbing a Medic who has an Ubercharge saves your team a whole lot of grief and then he backstabs the heavy for good measure.

They're really trying to make ALL the classes team based, to avoid a cluster[censored] of players running around doing their own thing.

Well, it's not like the enemy Operative gets to control the turret indefinitely. I'm fairly sure they've said the Operative gets first-person control, which would obviously mean you can hunt down and kill him to stop the turret killing your team. A smart Operative will likely use the turret for just a few seconds, getting some surprise kills on the enemy, and then leave the turret disabled and continue on his merry way.

In any case, an Engineer has the ability to have one turret active at any given time, so if the enemy Operative were somehow able to permanently wrest it from his control, he will be able to build a new one. Having a turret out is part of what an Engineer is; permanently blocking him from building a new one would be like blocking the Operative being able to disguise or blocking the Medic being able to revive teammates. Not gonna happen.

As long as turret is disabled or destroyed it works for but again I still really disagree with the FP control. Also how do you sneak into their base hack the turret then magically disappear somewhere else to take control of the turret.

Maybe the Engineer can make his turret self destruct if it gets hacked. As for long periods of operatives control it gives the Engineer more incentive to retake his sentry.

Well, the way they've said hacking works is that you attach a wi-fi device to the sentry, and then you can wander around using your PDA to hack it wirelessly. So you can be crouched in a corner already when the hacking is complete.

The farther away you go, though, the slower you'll hack. Signal strength, and packet loss, and all that.

yes, remote hacking = slower hacking the farther away you are. You also emit a "beeping" noise when you remote hack, so nearby players will hear you.

Wi-fi hmm. So you plant then hide? I thought you would have to get within a certain distant but that is better. That begs the question will the Engineer know about the Wi-fi device before or after you start to hack? I'd say after but something should appear on the hackable object so an very observant engineer might pre-emp the OP. Also could you provide the source?