The only reason NKs aren't completely viable is because they lack the ability to sprint with the charge held.

Regardless of how viable any particular sidarm is/isn't, the issue isn't what you can/can't put in the weapon slot, it's the resulting loss of versatility.

Imagine this situation, one that is incredibly likely and often unavoidable.

Two assault players are standing next to each other, they hear a decloak and a shotgun blast. The second blast finishes the first assault as he warns the 2nd it is a Gal Scout. Instead of attempting to immediately fight back, he started running after hearing the first shot, knowing that the adversary is much less effective at >5m and has no other means of attack. He then turns and collects his guaranteed kill as the scout turns to run after finishing the first adversary. Meaning sneaking up on just two adversaries cloaked with a shotgun would still leave the scout at a disadvantage.

If the scout had a possibility of a sidearm, turning and running may have been suicide for the assault, as an SMG or ScP would have made quick work of him. The assault would have had to choose whether to run and predict the absence of a sidearm, or immediately fight back and rely on his skill and gun game. Giving the scout a sidearm makes the situation much more dynamic and rewarding of both intelligent and skillful play by both parties, which results in a much healthier and much more enjoyable game.

So what your saying is you should be able to take on 2 assaults and win even though it was you that made the first wrong decision of attacking the 2 assaults standing next to each other? Stealth and cloak will allow the scout to choose when and who to attack and let's not forget you still have grenade slot and or re's.

Imagine this situation, one that is incredibly likely and often unavoidable.

Two assault players are standing next to each other, they hear a decloak and a shotgun blast. The second blast finishes the first assault as he warns the 2nd it is a Gal Scout. Instead of attempting to immediately fight back, he started running after hearing the first shot, knowing that the adversary is much less effective at >5m and has no other means of attack. He then turns and collects his guaranteed kill as the scout turns to run after finishing the first adversary. Meaning sneaking up on just two adversaries cloaked with a shotgun would still leave the scout at a disadvantage.

If the scout had a possibility of a sidearm, turning and running may have been suicide for the assault, as an SMG or ScP would have made quick work of him. The assault would have had to choose whether to run and predict the absence of a sidearm, or immediately fight back and rely on his skill and gun game. Giving the scout a sidearm makes the situation much more dynamic and rewarding of both intelligent and skillful play by both parties, which results in a much healthier and much more enjoyable game.

And here's how the Scout avoids this problem.

Two Assault players are standing next to each other. They hear a Shotgun blast, and one is dead already because the Scout aimed high. The other turns towards his partner as he falls, seeing the Scout already turning to take a shot at him. By the time he can think to back up, he's taken a hit, and his suit is heavily damaged. Because he's facing the Scout, any attempt to backpedal can be matched by the Scout, so the second shot finishes the job.

The sound of multiple Shotgun blasts, and the sight of 2 dead teammates on the kill feed has drawn reinforcements towards the Scout, but as they approach, they hear a different sound. By the time they show up, there's no trace of the killer.

So what your saying is you should be able to take on 2 assaults and win even though it was you that made the first wrong decision of attacking the 2 assaults standing next to each other?

That's assuming a shotgun headshot will ohk an assault, which at the current time isn't always the case. If we're assuming all Proto on both sides, it often isn't the case, as it is nearly impossible to get a FULL headshot with the shotgun.

Since we can only consider what we currently know/have, then your proposed situation isn't necessarily viable, as Proto vs Proto means the shotgun would be 2HK or 3HK at best.

I can OHK protosuits semi-regularly using a Militia Shotgun with no damage mods. If I don't OHK, either I missed (unlikely when hitting with the element of surprise on my side) or they're so close to death that I can go for the melee kill before turning to shoot the other guy.

When I bring a real Shotgun or my Militia fit with damage mods, only Heavies and supertank Logis take more than one hit.

Assuming the average well fit proto has ~800 HP, then they weren't at full HP or weren't tanked properly. A militia shotgun cannot do 800HP of damage in a single headshot, not even to 100% shields, which in itself isn't possible. The proto shotgun has a bit more potential for an OHK, but it would still NEED a full headshot to do about 870HP of damage and would not OHK an armor tanked or dual tanked suit.

In case you were going to try to argue it, it is entirely reasonable to say the average PRO med frame has 800eHP. I know that a minmatar assault with 3 complex SEs and 2 enh APs has approximately 810eHP (about 1:1 for S:A). Considering it has the lowest base HP, and that all other assaults usually fit either the same or more in modules, 800 is a fair and even conservative average.

Well, if we're going to lose a side arm but gaining an extra equipment slot, wouldn't that mean our CPU/PG should get buffed? Surely more equipment would require more CPU and PG, right? It would make sense if we get buff to that as well if we're going this route.

@Flutter Sh... err... Shutter Fly

I can see what you mean that if you are cloaked then you already setup the advantage and should have a greater likelihood of killing both targets if none of them knew you were there due to the cloak. The loss in the ability to have two optimal ranges could also be a factor.

In this case, perhaps a movement and sprint speed buff would be in order since scouts should be inherently faster to begin with. Unlike medium and heavy frames, we don't have that much stuff carrying around. Would you be ok with losing the sidearm slot if it meant being given a sufficient speed buff? If so, what would be the minimum buff you expect? If not, what other compensation would you work with?

EDIT: or would you rather not lose the sidearm slot at all?

Assuming every protosuit uses all their slots for tanking isn't what I'd call "conservative" personally. Even "fair" is quite a stretch. Also, assuming enough protosuits are well fit to use that as an average is beyond ridiculous. Even assuming the majority of protosuits have full proto fits is questionable.

...
Then bring out 2 new suits that from the sounds of things will be better than both
of the current scout options... This is a really nice way to reward players for skilling into a class

The most appropriate way to implement this is to create variants....
Where all 4 races can choose between a 'regular scout' and a 'cloaked scout' (w/2eqp, no sidearm)
I seem to be the only one suggesting this and that surprises me

CCP seem to think racist suit choices are the better option....
Which I get that there should be differences... but to have Gal/Min scouts struggle for months

Then bring out 2 new suits that from the sounds of things will be better than both
of the current scout options... This is a really nice way to reward players for skilling into a class

You're not the only one suggesting it, it's just that it's not the optimal solution and further complicates things. Instead of trying to balance out four scouts we'd then have to balance out eight - let alone all of the tiers (militia, standard, advanced and proto)

I can OHK protosuits semi-regularly using a Militia Shotgun with no damage mods. If I don't OHK, either I missed (unlikely when hitting with the element of surprise on my side) or they're so close to death that I can go for the melee kill before turning to shoot the other guy.

When I bring a real Shotgun or my Militia fit with damage mods, only Heavies and supertank Logis take more than one hit.

Assuming every protosuit uses all their slots for tanking isn't what I'd call "conservative" personally. Even "fair" is quite a stretch. Also, assuming enough protosuits are well fit to use that as an average is beyond ridiculous. Even assuming the majority of protosuits have full proto fits is questionable.

Well, if we're going to lose a side arm but gaining an extra equipment slot, wouldn't that mean our CPU/PG should get buffed? Surely more equipment would require more CPU and PG, right? It would make sense if we get buff to that as well if we're going this route.

@Flutter Sh... err... Shutter Fly

I can see what you mean that if you are cloaked then you already setup the advantage and should have a greater likelihood of killing both targets if none of them knew you were there due to the cloak. The loss in the ability to have two optimal ranges could also be a factor.

In this case, perhaps a movement and sprint speed buff would be in order since scouts should be inherently faster to begin with. Unlike medium and heavy frames, we don't have that much stuff carrying around. Would you be ok with losing the sidearm slot if it meant being given a sufficient speed buff? If so, what would be the minimum buff you expect? If not, what other compensation would you work with?

EDIT: or would you rather not lose the sidearm slot at all?

Personally, I don't really want a speed buff, just stamina (50-75% preferably).

They can argue and complain all they want, that is no concern of mine, and if you care about this game or CCP cares about this game then I suggest you adopt the same attitude.

pfft... I dont care that much about a sprint speed buff.. I DO want a walk speed buff though.
This would definitely not "break the game" due to speed limits.. but it would make the scout a whole lot more useful in many ways.

nononono

don't ever tell CCP to ignore community feedback they don't know what they're doing

How does sprint break it and not movement.