Pseudogenesis
Subdreddit
Test Alliance Please Ignore
6
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Posted - 2013.05.19 05:38:00 -
[1] - Quote
Scouts have a lot of balancing issues that need to be addressed. Most know this, so I'm not going to focus on the overall issues. Instead I'll talk about a few niche tactics that won't affect overall game balance but will make life MUCH easier for a few niche playstyles.
1. Increase the walking speed of scouts, especially the Minmitar variants to differentiate them from the Gallente suits
I'll preface this by saying that I'm a dedicated nova knifer, in that I've got all my SP sunk into skills that would benefit that playstyle, and that I never run a primary. I understand that I'm not supposed to dominate the entire field with just a secondary weapon, trust me.
That said, attempts to actually kill people with the knives is extremely frustrating. If your potential victim spots you, all they have to do is walk backwards and the shoddy hit detection (Another issue I'm hoping will be addressed soon) will render them practically untouchable by the knives. Today I spotted a proto heavy with his back turned walking - not sprinting, walking - away from me, so I charged the knives to their fullest, and then proceeded to follow him for a good 7 seconds before he led me into enemy territory and I was killed before even entering the range that I might have be able to hit him. I run a Minmatar scout suit. I may be incorrect, but I was under the impression that these are supposed to be the fastest suits in the game, and yet I couldn't even out-walk a heavy. This is absurd.
Being able to sprint with the knives charged would help mitigate this problem by allowing knife users to take advantage of the scout's superior sprinting speed, but if I'm correct in assuming that CCP do not want to implement charge while sprinting, the best way to help this issue is to increase the walking speed of scouts.
I can't comment on how this will affect the balance of the game because, quite frankly, I'm totally ignorant of how increasing the global walking speed of scouts would affect game systems. Would strafing become overpowered and would the scout suit become the new go-to easy mode suit? I don't know. However, limiting this increase to forward walking speed would, as far as I know, eliminate these potential concerns.
2. Decrease jumping stamina drain for scouts
Again, I'll use my experience as a nova knifer for reference, but this has more to do with overall scout balancing than with nova knives specifically.
I'll start off by saying that the most effective tactic I know for using knives in a one-on-one situation is jumping towards the opponent I'm fighting while charging the knives. While eliminating my ability to strafe to avoid fire, this covers a lot of ground quite quickly, intimidates the opponent and most importantly allows me to charge my knives so that I can (hopefully) deal a significant amount of damage to my opponent once I'm within range.
Most of the time, this tactic is very useful. However, jumping depletes around 50 percent of the basic scout's stamina, which is incredibly excessive. For a suit for which stamina is one of its defining features, the utility of jumping is far, FAR outweighed by the cost of lifting yourself a few feet from the ground.
You've probably been there. Those few crates stacked on top of one another next to a wall, conveniently placed by developers so as to allow crafty players to find a more covert way to enter a compound. It's a classic design move that adds a lot of depth to a map in a very simple to implement way. And yet how many times have you found yourself and others sitting on top of a crate burning precious seconds in an attempt to build the stamina necessary to reach the next crate? How many times have you jumped, only to find that you misjudged the amount of stamina required to reach the next level, and ended up having to wait for your stamina to build again? This is an issue, and compounded with the very inconsistent terrain/scenery collision it has become a pretty significant irritation, and has corrupted what would otherwise be a great mechanic.
This is where the rationale behind this change to scouts becomes obvious. Scouts are at a natural disadvantage in head-on combat. If they were intended for direct assault like the Assault suits are, they would be a laughing stock, nerfed in every major aspect.
But scout suits' advantages lie elsewhere. They are quick, small, and difficult to spot. They're the perfect suits for being crafty, sneaky and exploiting the different quirks of a given map to their advantage. However, on top of the balancing issues they currently face (Which, like I said, I won't be addressing), they're unable to exploit maps well. Most suits are incapable of jumping over scenery like rails and small walls, and while a scout can do these things to a certain extent, it's very difficult to capitalize on, and oftentimes there really aren't any worthwhile ways for scouts to use their map-navigating prowess at its full potential. Scouts are confined to using the same paths and corridors that assaults, logis and heavies use. They can't fly gracefully over walls and small barriers; they're roped into preset pathways, where they can be slaughtered with ease by the far more combat-capable assault, logistics and heavy players.
I should make it clear that I'm not suggesting that scouts gain access to passages and shortcuts that other suits can't enter (Although this would be ridiculously cool, CCP). I'm just suggesting that decreasing the jumping stamina drain on scouts, while not fixing all of these issues, would increase their tactical viability, deepen the mechanics and nuances of utilizing their role, and make them more attractive to players.
I'll return to the crate-jumping to exemplify part of what this change might bring: The clunky and time consuming nature of this shortcut would cause other suits to ignore this option, but scouts could now easily use it to flank.
Thoughts? |