Ok after some thinking... Im for removing the scout entirely from the game. To be honest, the scout has no use ingame. Spotting behind enemy lines is not needed. Intelligence can be gathered by any class. Theres no real room for a class that is focused on getting informations. Giving/buff his abilitys would not change anything. You cant make those abilitys extra strong because than you would make the other classes obsolete. The focus of empires should be on teamplay but the scout is a rambo class and you cant change that because its build arround being alone behind enemy lines. The scout is the only class on field that gets his allys into trouble if more than 3 out of a 15 person team play that class. You are not screwed if your team consists of 33% rifleman or grenadier. So if you dont want to restrict a class to specific numbers per team you have to ensure that more than 10% of one class played on one side is not a road to failure. Empires is all about attacking, beeing aggressive and getting territory. A sneaky, slow and passive class doesnt really fit into the game. Slow in therms of "getting behind the enemy lines takes alot of time". I dont have any problems with the scoped rifle, give it to the rifleman if you are in need of such a gun. So I think removing a class that only hinders the gameplay as it is would be the best solution. Entirely without replacement. Shure there are some nice situations in which a scout shines. Like stunsticky the cv if you are doing an apc rush or sabbotaging the enemy base one minute bevor your tanks roll in but that happens so rare on a public server that it doesnt justify a whole class. And you have to balance the game for the majority. EDIT: Pleace answer rational and with logic I didnt post that because i hate scouts and want to piss every scout player. Oh and I dont have a inferiority complex because scouts own me so often.
I've said merge with riflemen give rifles sabotage, reduce dmg on siesmics so its actually somewhat useful and get rid of sticky stuns and let rifle take 2 types of nades but less of each. Or maybe remove siesmics. Meh. anyways yeah...
Unfortunately, I always felt there was an area that should be filled by the scout. Infiltration/saboutage is always something done in wars, and it adds a hint of danger keeping enemies on their toes. It also offers a way out for long sieges and standoffs. IMO I think we do need a scout in there, but we just need to rethink how the class works...I haven't been coming up with much lately, but I still think we need to do something with it, rather than throwing it away. Maybe we need to turn it more into an agent than a sniper...if that means anything, which it probably doesn't
Well, it IS needed, but the fact remains that any class as well as the commander can do this. There are ways to use the scout away from or on your front in the spirit of teamwork. Disabling turrets with hide/sab or conk nades and have engies take them, bust enemy buildings with sab and engies, assist or kill vulnerable engies building turrets... that's all I can think of for now. I REALLY agree with this one. The NF heavy gun is essentially the same as the scout rifle in theory. Why not just make it so that if you took the Accuracy skill as a rifleman it would increase the accuracy of the heavy gun to the same as the scout rifle? You can give or take the scope itself, honestly. Maybe the scope could be a skill or an equipment slot...
*sigh* young minds. NF heavy works similar to a carbine, ranged rifle is more bolt action and was further aiming.
You realize a carbine is just generally a shorter version of the main battle rifle used by a country. It has nothing to do with the type of action/automation system used in the weapon or caliber. The term originated from when calvary would cut down their muskets so they would be easier to use on horseback.
Disabling turrets: Engineer: Build wall and nadspam it Rifleman: Nadespam it Gren: Mortar it A single engineer kills a building faster than a scout sabotages it. Killing vulnerable engies? A engineer only needs to build a wall to cover from scouts. Every class can kill "vulnerable engies" no need for a scout.
Meh.. I had my best game today. . 1vs1 and he told me not to attack his base. Couldn't resist it so I sabotaged all of his 30 turrets And about the scoped rifle, yea. Yea, yes.
I am for taking the scoped rifle out or make it as weak on long distances as it was in 1.07 OR make it a weak autosniper rifle that needs 2-3 headshots or 8-12 shots somewhere else to kill someone.
you aitch about the scout not fitting. HOW DOES THE SCOUT RIFLE? I have a HUGE problem with it. Its useless! Never have won a game with it.
I did. By sniping the rushing enemy comm the moment he got out of his CV The ranged rifle is amazingly useful while unscoped too, during an assault on their nearly destroyed rax I shot a fuckton of guys without the scope from medium to long range. >_> That's why I wouldn't mind a carbine with similar accuracy.
Okay, this is a repost from another forum, but I feel that it adequately explains the role of the scout: So yeah.
i agree with op. @Androc's quote sure, a scout can spot the enemy movements and keeps the team up to date... BUT no one is doing this AND there is no need to be a scout to spot an enemy vehicle or forces! a engineer can stand ontop of a building too and keep his team up to date.
Ive played a bit yesterday as scout. Was fun, most time as sneaky sneaky smg2 hide scout but the problem was, almost the whole time i felt a bit useless. I always thought, man I could do so much if had taken another class. But thats not the real problem in my oppinion. You scout around, having fun behind enemy lines and during you sneak around you hear all those "main base under attack" "we need help north" messages. But you cant help because it takes so long to get behind enemy lines that you have no chance to help them. Shure you can killspawn but than you wasted 5-10 minutes.
So, make the scout faster, and give him more things to do behind enemy lines. Let him kill quickly, but only really on unsuspecting enemies, basically a sniper in the true meaning of the word, which is someone who fires from cover. I'm not suggest him becoming a long range killer, but rather someone who kills while concealed and then gets away. He can't kill lots of people but he can kill people before they reach the fight, and when they don't suspect it. In doing so he does help his team because every enemy who doesn't make it to the front or who is tied up trying to find him, is one less enemy his team has to fight. So you can help your base or your beleaguered northern front, but you don't have to be there to do it. A scout like that would be dangerous to infantry, but would have to avoid tanks like the plague, one tank shelling his position could kill him, so he must remain undetected and mobile. He can't do anything against tanks like the rifleman can.