What was not made clear in the original post is that this change is intended to deal with multiple issues:
1)Decrease Equipment Spam
2)Discourage Role Switching. Increase the commitment to the role you spawn into.
3)Nerf Scouts who act as fast Logi.
4)Nerf Sentinels who try to get around their lack of an equipment slot.
5)Buff Caldari/Amarr Logi, provided they stick to their role.

I can see how it might be problematic in that sticking to roles ultimately requires people to be grouped and communicating to be an effective team. The fact that heavies don't have a slot has always suggested to me that they're meant to have logistics backup for full efficacy. That people don't always play as a team and vets can one-man-army using multiple roles is sort of a separate issue.

The only real issue to me is that the role exclusion is ultimately a logi-specific thing here. Going from logi to blank - you're punished with equipment lost. Go from heavy to scout, scout to assault, etc. it doesn't matter because the only real role restriction is equipment-based.

I agree Zeylon Rho. If you want to buff Logi's, buff Logi's. If you want to discourage role-tourism, there are more straightforward ways that involve applying the "cost" to the player at the supply depot, rather than a "cost" to the team when some blueberry switches and randomly pops that well-placed uplink you thought your squad could use. There is little accountability in the role-switching aspect of this, and it really only encourages Logi's to persist and not other roles.

There are numerous threads about problems with the supply depot. I think adding a 30 second delay to suit switching at depots, or possibly even costing a clone, would be role-neutral, player-costing alternatives that don't require a whole new game mechanic.

Please, buff Logi's. But don't pretend this equipment-popping, bandwidth idea is a good way to address role-switching.

There's plenty of logi-buffing discussion in Cross' thread, this is a separate but related issue. This should be seen as a 'fix' to EQ spam, particularly by non-logis, not a specific nerf to scouts or the only or even primary means by which to buff logi's.

I agree. Keeping this thread on task for reducing EQ spam should be the center point. I've seen every suit/role imaginable spamming EQ and that's what we hope to stop. If I could team kill every bb I saw throwing down 12 nanohives around a supply depot...

This feature will allow proper Logistics to excel at their deployment role, while keeping Assaults & Commandos relatively useful and Scouts will be diminished in capability as they were never meant to be a king of deployables, the additional slot was added for the Cloak Field.

First good on you guys for finally coming up with a solution that actually fixes a problem correctly!!! Yay!

But my main point is: Ok so you finally admit it! You f'ed up when you left scouts OP with the currently layout!!!!

Honesltly scouts are able to do TOO MUCH. I can understand versatility, but the more versatility should come at a COST! As they are now, a scout can fit to be a decent logi, a decent assault, a more than decent scout, etc. They have too many role-specific slots!!! Hell you removed the sidearm from some logi's to represent the COST of being a logi! But for scouts you ADDED a slot instead? How dumb is that?

So the point I'm making is that Scouts should either have one less equipment slot or have no sidearm slot.. You can still fit a sidearm in a light weapon slot, but now you only get one weapon instead of two.

Or better yet! Let the players decide which they prefer! On two of the races, (let's say Minmatar and Caldari) you get to have two equipment slots and no sidearm slot. But on the other two races (Amarr and Galente) you get to have the sidearm slot as well as the light weapon slot, but only one equipment slot. The specific races don't matter, but the point is that there is one too many slots on the scout suits as they are now. Please fix it!

Can the Sentinel be given the same band width as an Assault, even though the Sentinel does not have an equipment slot?

In Pub matches were no one is dropping Uplinks, I am sometimes forced to switch to another fit to place some uplinks. Once that is done I spawn in again in my preferred Sentinel fit after dying or finding a Supply Depot.

If the Sentinel has no bandwidth I will be stuck playing a suit that has bandwidth in these situations, because my team needs an uplink or they will be red-lined.

I agree. Keeping this thread on task for reducing EQ spam should be the center point. I've seen every suit/role imaginable spamming EQ and that's what we hope to stop. If I could team kill every bb I saw throwing down 12 nanohives around a supply depot...

This is what this change is designed to prevent.

Once upon a time, I told CCP Rattati to remove scout's sidearm slot.
He reply me with only one word " NO ".

Because that's not a good solution.

Rather than take away the 2nd EQ slot entirely, this sorta "forces" it to be used for a cloak, as was intended. You won't be able to deploy 2 full slots worth of ADV or PRO EQ so it's not as useful for deployables.

With respect Cross, when I made my earlier posts I was working off the assumption that the sole purpose of this change was to reduce Equipment Spam by not allowing Logi to drop more than one suitGÇÖs worth of equipment, and to prevent Logi from switching to other classes while maintaining a full Logi load out of deployed equipment.

What was not made clear in the original post is that this change is intended to deal with multiple issues:
1)Decrease Equipment Spam
2)Discourage Role Switching. Increase the commitment to the role you spawn into.
3)Nerf Scouts who act as fast Logi.
4)Nerf Sentinels who try to get around their lack of an equipment slot.
5)Buff Caldari/Amarr Logi, provided they stick to their role.

It was not clear initially in RattatiGÇÖs post that discouraging Role Switching was an intended consequence of the introduction of Bandwidth. In a way this will help new players who only have the skill points to specialize in one role, as it will be easier for them to compete against Vets who have mastered multiple roles if the game discourages role switching during matches. It will be an adjustment, but I can accept the Sentinel not having any Bandwidth.


What I still have a concern with:

I am concerned about the Bandwidth nerf to Scouts. First, I think that Scouts are out of Balance because they can be made to be too robust without major drawbacks, and because the Assault suit, which is supposed to act as the Counter to Scouts, does not have the tools to counter Scouts. Second, I fell these Bandwidth changes are trying to nerf some of the ScoutGÇÖs Core Role, which is operating and insertion behind enemy lines, and CQC AV work. Placing Drop Uplinks behind enemy lines is part of the ScoutGÇÖs Core Role! Placing Remote Explosives on tanks is one of the ScoutGÇÖs Core Roles. (Before sticky Remotes, the Remotes were placed on the road and the Scout hid and activated the Remotes when the tank rolled past, to begin their ambush.)

Scouts also have to operate independently. While an Assault suit can rely on equipment provided by other members of their squad, a Scout operates independently much of the time. Having two slots gives a Scout more resources to work with, having the Bandwidth of a suit with only one equipment slot would give a Scout the equipment abilities of one half of two Assault suits. (2/1=1) I think that is reasonable.

Having the Band width of a suit with only one equipment slot would also define the difference between the Scout and the Logi. A logi can deploy all their equipment at the same time, while a Scout would have to choose between one type at full deployment capacity, or two different types of equipment at half deployment capacity.

Nerfing the Scout to have less than a single equipment slot suit is unwarranted. It is not an appropriate way to nerf Scouts. The difference between Scouts and Logi, besides Logi being able to deploy more equipment, is that Scouts are supposed to be more fragile than Logi and not appropriate for use on the front line in head to head combat situations. The fact is that Scouts are not as Fragile as they are supposed to be. Or more accurately, Armour Plate stacking Scouts have more survivability than Logi, and have therefore supplanted Logi in the Logi role on the front lines. Having Armour Plate reduce strafe speed is the type of nerf we need to balance Scouts, not limiting their Bandwidth!

And to be clear, I donGÇÖt play Scout. (I would like to, but I suck at it for many reasons.) So I am looking at this from a wider game perspective.

I had thought that Logi were the cause of the Uplink Spam. However, I have learned from reading this thread that those "Logi"* who cause Equipment Spam all switch to HMG Sentinels after they have deployed 2 or 3 Logi suits worth of equipment, which explains where all the extra HMG Sentinels came from.

As a dedicated Sentinel since 1.3 I always looked at it as a sacrifice to have to spawn in a different fit to help the team when no one was placing Uplinks. Instead I learn that many people do this as an exploit.

First off scouts "ScoutGÇÖs Core Role" is not nor ever intended to be AV. This was just a mere side effect of them getting the extra equipment slot. They got this slot so they could fit a cloak, place an uplink, or whip out the scanner to light up the area for the squad. Then they also got all the ewar as well and their passive scans made the active scanner pointless for a scout to carry. *edit* with the recent/soon cloak fixes will see less desirability of the cloak.

I do agree with everything else you posted and really agree with plates reducing strafe speed is needed as a small step to unf*****g the battlefield balance. Strafing across the field needs serious work period. Scout speed tanking should be viable but this matrix bullet dodging and hopping above a grenade/MD rounds needs to be brought down some.