computer games forum

First of sorry for being silent for the past weeks. I moved and still have no internet access. In addition I was busy with a class project that took the whole last month.

In my mind Scouts are the opportunists of a squad. No matter what dirty little trick is needed to win they have it. Wounded Guardian on the front? Smoke Grenade to provide cover for him. Big nasty combat robot? Jam his targeting. Annoying little enemy psi user? Snipe him from safety.

Scouts are generally rather weak but can gear up for special situations and excel in them. They have access to a lot of things and will probably be able to carry quite a few smaller gadgets. Also expect abilities like bonus damage against an enemy type and a general preference for staying in cover.

Welcome back to internet!
Yes I agree on everything you said. Of course there will be the need to have some negative side on the class, since right now seems very powerful apart the low HP/weakness. I think probably they should also be very slow at moving, the kind of class that is active few times during a battle but their actions can turn the tides of a battle?

Unfortunately not quite back yet. I'm simply back home to visit my family on the weekend.
My new ISP is a real pain in the customer service department. Unfortunately they are mandatory in the dorms.

I'll definitely finish my first draft for the class design this week, probably, maybe, I hope.

A slow-moving scout seems something of an oxymoron to me. Real life scouts are lightly armed and lightly armored which enables them to move both more quickly and more silently than other units. Their primary purpose is information gathering without being detected, not assault. I can understand combining them with the role of a sniper for game balance purposes since they share several similar traits, but while giving them useful scouting or sniper equipment makes sense, and please pardon me if I've drawn a false conclusion, but I'm not sure that making them -the- group gadget specialist makes sense. Carrying a lot of gear is going to impact their speed and stealthiness. And I don't see why they'd be any better with gadgets than anyone else. So such a distinction, if it exists, strikes me as artificial.

Disclaimer: I don't know exactly how Anima plans to do it since we didn't talk about that yet, but I think he meant indeed small gadgets. While other classes will be able to carry bigger items, scout probably exactly for the reasons you listed will have limited SIZE of the items they can carry, but they'll be able to carry many and some special stuff (like smoke grenades or jammers/other tiny but powerful devices).
Another way to limit the class could be the fact that as snipers they can carry a limited amount of ammo (I forgot we have ammo limits in the game) and/or take lot of time to fire in sniping mode, though this would be valid in general for any class, it could have extra modes for the Scout (like an always critical-hit but that takes long time to fire up). Or simply some shots to finish off enemies and so on.
Or maybe will be something else, I'm just speculating

There are several reasons for making the scout responsible for gadgets. But the most important one is that scouts lack options in combat otherwise:. Scouting is not part of the combat, it's handled in a different game context. That's a limitation of our design. Therefore we need something else to do for them. Since of all the classes gadgets fit the scout the best, it's what the got.
Regarding the equipment question, there will be two restrictions. The first is the total equipment capacity. The second is the number of itemslots available to the character. Scouts will have more slots but low capacity. So they can take many small items with them.

Since unlike the real military which has more then a hundred of jobs, we have only four to our disposal. So no matter what, any distinction will be artificial. Mapping our classes cleanly to actual military roles is simply impossible.
So Scouts in this world are trained in the use of gadgets.

Though scouts will probably not be slow as a whole, they will have some powerful but slow options.

Good, I like the idea so far and is more or less like I imagined.

Anima_ wrote: Though scouts will probably not be slow as a whole, they will have some powerful but slow options.

Yes that's what I meant

cmmon say something about the guardian too, we need some love

Maybe would be better to have separate threads for each class? not sure just a suggestion

ValHallen wrote:cmmon say something about the guardian too, we need some love

Sure why not. The Guardian is a defensive character that excels in protecting herself and others. Killing enemies is secondary for her, the focus of her attacks is to keep dangerous foes at bay. That's why she favours weapons with a high rate of fire, to properly lay down cover fire. Of course just because killing enemies is secondary for her does not mean that she's incapable of doing it.

A properly supported Guardian wouldn't even need to include retreat in her vocabulary, if it weren't for the fact that she constantly urges others to take cover. That's also why Guardians are well versed in first aid and have recovery type psionic powers available to complement their defensive enchantment capabilities.

The best thing about being a Guardian is that you care for your friends and make sure to bring everyone home safe and sound. Jacks comparison to a Paladin was pretty apt already.