Future of the scout and what I think some people misunderstand.

Fortunately, it doesn't works that way in Empires.

 

Only 25 kills as a scout at the end? A good rifleman can get up to 60+ or so camping outside bases and spamming nades.

Scouts are good if they plan on disabling a base before an assault. Conc grens and sapping do a good job of that. Hope you don't remove the sticky stuns

 

That would streamline the game quite a bit. I Like.

Who really wants to run/drive a million miles to the nearest bunker, or killspawn, to get a calculator or rifle... the ability to do it anywhere makes the game less frustrating for infantry. Allows them to pull out sniper rifles to hit those sniper-targets, and go back to rifleman/engineer... well actually their would be no need for class names... just different equipment is only way to define each class right now so if a rifleman/sniper could select a calculator as part of his kit, then we don't call him a engineer or sniper despite being capable of both roles... lets just call him infantry and be done with the class racism.

We should implement this system ASAP because it smooths out all the wrinkles with infantry and paves the way to aircraft. I don't want to see the next version of this game to be identical to this one + a scout-sniper that only has a shotgun/baseball-bat? as the only defining difference.

 

You dont get it, or do you want to provoke?

 

this would take millions and millions of hours to balance and implement, but it would probably be worth it

maybe even something like this:

remove the current skill system thingy, and as you gain ranks you can get more stuff, such as either having the ability to dual wield shotgun pistols, or carrying the RPG launcher and a heavy machine gun at the same time

also, I want Mr. T to give me a pony

 

What about the commander? How will he know what role each guy can play out without the class system?

The class system is fine, keep it.

 

Anyone can play any role, at any time, just not at the same time.

That's the point.

 

I hate the idea of physical rewards for higher scoring players like dual pistols or weapons upgrades. If one squad is better and works as a team, it should be able to win a battle against a less coordinated squad without any physical advantages such as better weapons. Now maybe higher scoring players can be given precedence when it comes to vehicles and the like, but there should be no system that will only make it harder for players at the bottom of the scoreboard, even when they're already having trouble. Now games really will be decided in just the first few minutes.

And also, Mr. T would NEVER give you one of his ponies.

 

this is the single most important factor in implementing one isngle customizable class, the comm hastn a clue how to manage his team then. It ismply will not work. Comm needs to be able to see at a glance what player is doing what so he can dish out orders straight away instead of chekcing who has a calc, who has a rifle etc... it wouldnt work well imo.

 

The commander often doesn't have a clue which class the player under her eyes is to begin with, unless the player is a BE engineer. I think some icons could be helpful.

 

Doesnt take a minute to repair the damage done by an engineer with repair upgrade, so it would either have to be a scout constantly sabbing it for and during the assault, or a very well organised team.

 

WARNING: LOADS OF TEXT.

If looking for scout improvement suggestions skip down until after the line

I think everyone is in agreement that the Scout is in need of an upgrade. The developers are working on it, but we can still try to break down what the problem is with the current version.

Most people seem to enjoy being the lone wolf hero in a game, one that uses stealth and cunning to take out the enemy at a distance and at insurmountable odds he single handed takes out large number of enemies without dying a single time. That's what's fun when playing a game right? Being a virtually unstoppable killing machine with a high k/d ratio. The adrenaline surge of a successful infiltration with enemies running past a few centimeters is pretty addicting as well.

One problem is choice; when you let people choose, many will choose the scout because of the above reasons and it leads to a bunch of problems that plague the game. Having a large amount of scouts in the team leaves the base open for attack because everyone is hidden somewhere with a sniper rifle. As a scout army there's no way to stop a tank rush. And killing a few enemy riflemen and engineers is gonna do little to win the round when the heavy's come rolling.

A scout might make a difference if he manages to snipe an engineer that is occupied with building a vehicle factory or a ninja rax far away from the closest spawn point. But that doesn't happen often does it? Not often enough enough to justify having half the team playing as scouts. Besides any other class would be just as good in this case as it would be on your side of the frontline.

Now, on some maps, having a scout can be a good thing. Think a ninja rax on crossroads. I've many times been a scout that built that very rax and thus pretty much stood for a large amount of the work need to win the round. During an assault having a few scouts running around sabotaging buildings will help taking them down quicker but it is still not what being a scout should be about.

There is still a problem and it can be simplified; too many scouts, not doing what they are meant to do, equals failure for the team.

So how can we alleviate this problem?

Removing the sniper rifle is a good start. More people are interested in sniping, than in infiltration and recon, so this will certainly cut down on the amount of scouts.

This however leads to another problem; there's not that much incentive left to be a scout any more, is there? The pay off of infiltration into an enemy base is small considering the amount of time spent getting there versus the damage you can do. If you sabotage a building in the enemy base it will be repaired in no time because of the purple smoke. It will also alert the enemy to your presence and they will come looking for you. Sure you can hide out in the VF and sabotage it 10 times in a row but in the big picture it will not help your team much, especially when there's a repair pad around.

So what do we do to fix the second problem? We need less scouts but they have to be more useful. These are the goals and I think everyone can agree with them.

The role of the scout is to scout, sabotage and occasionally set up a forward spawn point . Apart from the spawn point this is pretty much the main role of many special forces units in the world and I think the scout should be taken in this direction.

Imagine when maps are 16 times bigger than what they are now. In this case having 2-3 scouts spread out over the map to find hidden enemy bases could be a good idea. On large maps like these a scout without a sniper rifle will be forced to go deep behind enemy lines, otherwise he is mostly out of a job or no fun to use.

However, another problems appears. Woo, lots of problems here.

A scout behind enemy lines is always in danger and have a high risk of being spotted during sabotage. Just laying around and spotting enemies is mostly useless if no one is around to deal with them. When spotted, self defense will in 99% of the cases reveal your position. And once you are dead you may have to redo 15 minutes of sneaking to get back to were you were and in the mean time everyone is bitching at you because "you're not helping the team!!"

So lets make a summary at this point;

Scouts without sniper rifles will force people to use it offensively. Offensive recon and sabotage is the main job of the scout. Lack of sniper rifle will also cut down on the amount of scouts. This in turn leads problems because the sabotage skill is not remotely useful when in an enemy base and the rest of the scout weapons are weak. Self defense near an enemy base will also mean certain death when the guy you killed now know where you are. And he will come back for you. Dying in turn also means you might have to redo a lot of painstaking sneaking which will make you tired of playing as a scout because there's no reward. Thus eventually the scout turns into a dead class because everyone thinks the class sucks.

Now lets continue

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How to make a sniper-less scout fun but challenging whilst not making him overpowered and at the same time get rewarded for the hard work of infiltration?

Since the scout is a class in the game there's only two things that can be done to improve him: better weapons and more gear.

First suggestion; a short range, 2-3 shot kill, silenced by default, SMG. Effective range 20 meters or so, after that damage decrease drastically or the spread is too large to mow down incoming soldiers. Good for self defense behind enemy lines, and it should have little recoil. Shotgun's while somewhat cool are a weapons only useful for close indoor combat whilst backed up by other people with SMG's. So sadly I have to vote no against shotguns for the scout

Second suggestion; more stamina by default compared to other classes and a higher sprinting speed. This will aid in the ability to quickly get away once you have killed the guy who spotted you. We are not talking about double the speed here, maybe an increase of 5-10%. But perhaps twice the amount of stamina might be a good idea?

Going into hide should also remove the targeting diamond the commander or someone else has placed on you while you were visible.

More equipment so you can customize your scout role better:

A sticky that acts like a small beacon and radar. It doesn't beep but it has a small blinking light. You throw it on a building or a vehicle and it will detect enemy structures, vehicles and infantry within a 20-30 meter radius. It will remain there until spotted by an engineer and removed. Limit this weapon to say, two per scout. I'll leave the name up to someone else. This grenade could also possibly act as an aiming beacon for extreme long range artillery shells on 16x maps and for pilots in airplanes as targets to lock on to. Also it would let the commander see the type of vehicle and structure it is attached to.

More equipment; an EMP sticky nade. Same as the beacon, it blinks but doesn't beep. You can carry 3-4 of them and you attach them to structures and vehicles. With a remote trigger you can set off all 4 at once, dealing instant awesome EMP sabotage. Will affect buildings as normal sabotage whilst vehicles will overheat. This can be used to take down a bunch of ML's at once at the moment your army decides to assault. If you die before setting them off they simply disappear to avoid mass deployment.

Even more new equipment: What about a deployable EMP mine that you can use to temporarily block a road with, while you are sabotaging buildings further up? Many times I've been spotted while sabotaging a building, and after killing the guy who saw me a vehicle will be dispatched to neutralize me which pretty much always ends in death. Would be nice to have some defense against situations like these. If no one came while you did your job you can go and pick up the mine for re use later.

Another addition. A small hand held computer which, when used for a few seconds on the enemy commander vehicle, will reveal his research tree and what he is currently researching.

You could mix these in two different slots or so. They are mostly thought out in order to provide more defense for the scout whilst he is preforming his job. None of them will make the scout a Rambo-like terminator one-man-army killing machine. They would simply make him better at recon, sabotage and self defense.

 

tl;dr

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So let's therefore then make the scout class ENTIRELY useless.
k.

If you want to make it interesting, give the scout the handheld computer suggested above, and remove the "E TO SAB" ability. Make the computer do so, or some other tool of some sort, so you can't sab and shoot like I do. Sab a turret from above while shooting the guy next to you in the face.