Read your argument, and still disagree. Scouts purpose is to sneak around, get behind enemy lines, spot enemies, etc. Their eHP is extremely low meaning they are far from an ideal choice for combat, so why do they need two weapons (a light and a sidearm)? Ditch the sidearm in exchange for a second equipment and the scout will be able to not only sneak behind enemy lines, but do something while he's back there.

What equipment would function favorably for this?
-Active Scanner to scan point out enemies to teammates while you're in their territory
-Uplinks to spawn your teammates in behind enemy lines
-Nanohives so after teammates spawns in behind enemy lines they have something to keep them going
-Remote explosives to set traps behind enemy lines
-Cloak (confirmed equipment in the future) self explanatory
-Deployable shield (confirmed equipment in the future) to provide cover while hacking an objective behind lines

There's a lot of choices of equipment that would compliment the scout's ability to sneak around, a lot more so then having a second weapon. Also CCP has stated they are looking into redoing all the suit bonuses, so there's no telling what each bonus will be now.

I enjoyed the B-series when it existed, no sidearm, two equipment slots also a strangely high melee damage. Worked like a charm for me, but I don't think that I would want it back today.

I put my hopes on that they'll fix and balance scouts properly when the racials comes into play.

Would cloaking count as non-competitive?

I'd say make personal full cloaking scout-exclusive, and everyone else needs some kind of cloak-hive, or shield-bubble-cloak-hive, or a directional cloaking device (like this 0:40).

And to satisfy those who want 'invisible heavies', make the personal cloaks available for all, but give scouts an 80% fitting bonus (+40% at level 1, then +10% for the next four levels) on a piece of equipment that consumes something like 80CPU (hence for scouts its reduced to 16CPU at level 5 of their dropsuit skill)

Active scanners don't give away your position. Being told your scanned doesn't mean the enemy knows where you are.
A scout can easily fit uplinks, not sure what the problem is. A scout doesn't need proto uplinks either, just standard ones to get people into position is all.

What is a sniper scout? If you are sniping, you aren't scouting. When I said use nanohives, I mean preemptively place nanohives around your uplinks for your teammates.

If cloaks come as a fitting option for infantry, it's going to be an equipment slot. Makes no sense for it to be a module as that gives you no way to turn it on and off.

Obviously you haven't played as a scout much. When I get behind enemy lines and go to hack a key objective, I can't tell you how often I would of loved something to protect my back from snipers watching over or an infantry running back to stop me. Sure it gives away my position, but so does the giant flashing letter or warning across the screen that says I'm hacking a CRU. When you go in to hack something, you pretty much accept that the enemy are going to know you're there. You hack then GTFO. The shield can provide you the cover to do so.

And no, it cannot be replicated if you cannot get past the enemy scanners.

I'm fine with scouts not getting another equipment slot. To be honest I don't think scouts need any huge changes to have a defined role... the problem in my mind is that we are too slow to escape after being noticed by your typical AR/ScR user, and that our stealth mechanic is not as efficient as it NEEDS to be.

I think that a fully skilled scout should be able to avoid proto scanners without using modules (given we have so few slots; esp Min w/ their 2 low slots). Additionally, I think that we should be able to avoid being detected around installations, if they had a 44 db precision this would be pretty easy to do but even lower values are fine so other suits would have some incentive to skill up and run a dampener.

A bit more speed, a bit more stealth and I think scouts would come into their own as infiltrators, assassins and scouts.

Right now we are just targets for mediocre assault players. Against good players.... slaughter fest.

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I like the ideas in your other thread. Being slower than needed wouldn't be such an issue if there was some other way to disengage..... Seriously, sometimes all I need is another 2-3 seconds.....

I have having to be blind behind enemy lines. Passive scanning just doesn't get it done.

Honestly Scouts need that side-arm WITH 2 EQ slots, or they risk being outclassed by Min Logis.

I fail to see how giving scouts back field utility detracts from their intended role as stealth based suits, and then I cannot fathom why you would compare a light frame scout to a logi.....?

It's not going to be done through equipment alone, you are correct. But do you honestly believe trading the sidearm for a second equipment would be detrimental to scouts?