Scouts need to have 2 sidearm slots. They don't need and shouldn't have light weapons.

I mean, I don't really have any problem with "OP Scouts" or anything like that, and this isn't really a QQ, but this is something that just doesn't feel right. I honestly don't think its that subtle.

I run basic Amarr scouts, btw. I feel more survivable using a MD than in my proto Cal Assault.

The suits that get the most eHP also are the only ones who get the freedom to run with the highest DPS weapon and the best AV weapon in the game while my assault suit cannot. Is that "Freedom to Fit"? No, it's called "balance".

Scout's advantage is it's scans, speed, regen, strafing ability, damps, 2 equip slots and access to cloaks. Not to mention their additional jumping height and sprint speed allow them to toss RE's ridiculously far, and that's cutting out the broken hit boxes and issues with brick tanking. They don't ALSO need access to high powered weaponry. And buffing assaults won't fix THAT large of a gap without making the assault game-breakingly good.

TL;DR: Balance>Everything

Edit: I'm open to better ideas if I hear them, but this is something that makes sense to me.

Balance is not adjusted based on individual player skill v player skill, but on class v class. It is game balance, not "handicap the good players and carebear the bad players", nor is it "leave one class brokenly OP so we can say everything is customizable". For instance, throughout Chromosome the assault suit was by and far the best suit in the game, with the heavy playing a close second. Scouts were semi viable and Logi's were borderline good. That was not game balance. Good players were able to make due with bad suits, but that doesn't mean it was fair to the players who wanted to play that class but couldn't properly because it wasn't worth getting rolled every match.

Basically the problem right now isn't that the scout's strengths are too strong and need to be tweaked down. It's that it has so many that it can fill far too many roles, leaving the medium suits completely lacking by comparison in pretty much every way except the logi having an additional equipment slot and assaults being the *tiniest* bit tankier.

So... which scout traits would you trade off to keep the light weapon that would also bring the suit close to balanced? Their speed? Their scans? Their damps? Their cloak bonus? Their tiny hitboxes? Like I said, I'd be happy to hear ideas, but Middas is the only one so far who has put a sensible (from a game balance perspective) idea forward. Everyone else here just went into rage mode instead of coming up with a solid counter proposal, so I felt I should chime in.

I respect the hell out of your opinion Seymor, if you've got a solid option I'd be more than happy to hear it.

While I like this idea, it does come with some quirks. The PG/CPU of the cloak is massive, so for any scout (especially non-proto scouts) who fits one will indeed have very little room for eHP if their CPU/PG is reduced. However.... if they opt not to fit a cloak, they get all of that lost pg/cpu to use for HP mods.

I proposed a few weeks ago that the equipment slots be taken out all together from the scout class (not the basic frame suits, just the scout specialization) and give them a built-in a cloak module so they are forced to run with a cloak as their equipment. This way you could reduce their pg/cpu to prevent eHP tanking and allow them to cloak Each suit tier would have it's tier's cloak built in (STD suit/STD cloak, ADV suit/ADV cloak, PRO suit/Pro cloak).

You leave the basic frame as it is so that if a scout WANT'S to run equipment, he has the option to do so (since you have to have light basic frame at ADV level to unlock the scout specialization anyway, giving your basic frames an actual purpose). By sacrificing his passive scans, damps and racial abilities and running a basic light frame suit, a scout can run 2 equips for whatever purpose they like.

I said that..... and all I heard was crickets.

I've always believed each class should be unique and specialized for different things. I've also been in agreement with KAGEHOSHI for a while that the basic frame suits should have more utility than simply more expensive starter suits to get you to the point that you can unlock the cheaper, good suits.

As for the specializations...

The Logi has only one weapon but extra equips. The heavy has access to all weapons but is slow, fat and has very poor regen/scans/damps or equips. The Commando gains an equipment slot and a swap to 2 light slots in exchange for the loss of grenades. The assault.... is broken, so we'll ignore it for now. The scout would gain a unique ability passively that every other suit has to sacrifice pg/cpu for, in exchange it cannot equip anything BUT a cloak. Imho it's forced equipment parallels the heavy's forced no equipment very nicely.

As for it requiring a clientside update, very likely. But I didn't say my idea fit into CCP's parameters for patches. I just thought I'd mention it since your idea reminded me of it.

The problem remains that as long as the pg/cpu for the cloak remains high, nerfing the scout's pg/cpu won't be the right fix for the job. You could reduce the cloak's pg/cpu.... but that's a whole other debate