In the end of the day you have a class that pretends to be a engineer and failing at that, so the question remains, why not simply play as a engineer instead and get all the juicy stuff engies gets such as heal/ammo/build/revive/cameras etc etc...
You don't have to press any buttons; it just happens. Totally agree scout must not be a failed engi. Should excel at close range combat, abushes, anti-camping and information (mobile radar, discovering research) as well as de-information (hiding friendlies from enemy com). Engi is workable at all ranges, building (as well as anti-building), heal/repair/resupply. Also, chris said engi has better weaponry. The only thing they'll be better at is mid-long range where they are able to pop the SMG slowly.
I don't know if it already works this way, but one thing that would make a scout a huge asset to a team, and squad more specifically is if enhanced senses showed the entire squad enemy positions.
Why not just play engineer all the time? Classes don't need to be radically different. Scout ammo does the same overall function, but differently. By your logic, you might as well use just one gun since that's all you need! Since you know, we can have only ONE SUPPORT CLASS! Variety, options, and versatility.
You should be rifleman because they have better guns than the engineer, you shouldn't be grenadier at the moment because they aren't very useful except as vehicle drivers with defusal and also subsequently as minelayers. You shouldn't be scout, and you still shouldn't be scout if scouts are given a very bad form of the engineer ammo box, because the engineer can do it better and many other things, so you should just be engineer. So in summary there is no reason not to always play engineer unless you have to kill engineers and don't have a tank, in which case you should be rifleman using the carbine because the other guns aren't as good. The only way everyone would tell you otherwise is if they're mad or extremely bored, and 'you should play this class only if you get very bored with the other classes' is not a brilliant advertising strategy.
Correction: SMG 2 has perfect accuracy if you shoot 1 bullet at a time. Thus, it's most times possible to take out enemy rofflemen from great distances, much further away than they are effective without accuracy upgrade, unless they are a decent roffleman
Carbine and HR have near perfect accuracy if you mash the fire button repeatedly and they don't have the abysmal falloff. Why you wouldn't be using accuracy upgrade is beyond me. I don't think I've ever died as a result of someone trying to snipe with the SMG2. In fact I can't actually remember the last time I died as a result of SMG2 full stop apart from that one time where I got out of a tank with one health and someone sprayed an SMG at me.
My point is that you could probably do it a lot better with a better gun, like the carbine or HR. Along with dig in and accuracy and all that jazz, riflemen definitely have better combat expanison abilities than engineers.
I can't remember what the point of this discussion was anymore ah, 4th class role. So far, the 3 main classes provide base building, anti infantry combat, anti tank combat. That only leaves forward support left as not defined by a certain class. my thoughts: Turn engineer into a rear support class. Building bases and healing people. Scouts should be turned into a front line support class. Provide ammo mainly. List what things you need in the back lines to support the commander,and what things you need on the front lines supporting your infantry units, and give those things to 2 separate classes.
Scout Grenadier-Rifleman Scout-Engineer Engineer Sort of the structure for one's forces I'd like to see with top being in front.
I would argue that it should be more like Scout Rifleman-Grenadier Engineer-Scout Engineer My point merely is, there is a significant difference between leading a group on point and being significantly ahead of the group to warn them. Really, the debate seems to be between the two ideas.
My structure is just general, since engineers can hold the rear, anywhere up to your main base even. Distances aren't really defined, but scouts can either be ahead close or ahead distant. I feel the scout should be able to do both, support, in lieu of an engineer in some instances.
And this is how it is: Commander targets Rifleman-Grenadier Engineer Scout Because they can still snipe from base.
What you'll get regardless of how you assign abilities is: 1st person to spawn 2nd person to spawn 3rd person to spawn retard who doesn't know what he's doing engineer repairing the rax So 'they should work like this' isn't terribly relevant. All you can really do is control what people do once the fighting starts, which will mostly consist of 'hide behind walls' in any case but could include things like 'take potshots with a rifle' or 'rush with a close range gun' as well as 'drop ammo crates and heal people'