Insights Archive Past views from a seasoned veteran.

The Scout!|December 6, 1999

What a useless class!   All they do is buzz around ineffectively like mosquitoes.  Occasionally being effective, but most of the time a mere nuisance.  About the only real use of a scout is to spawn in on a public server and get a couple of quick captures before the enemy sets up a proper defense.  After a game has started, and the defense has established itself, I usually recommend that people playing scouts change to a more effective combat class player.

Then there’s the concussion jumping ability.  For the longest time, being a die-hard Soldier, I thought concussion jumping was more trouble than it’s worth.  It’s so much easier to just fire a stinking rocket into the ground, hit the “hop” key and get to where I needed to go.  But then I actually witnessed a scout flying from balcony to balcony in Torch one fine day.  I thought the rocket jumping was cool.  I needed to learn this!

So Scout enjoyed a minor come-back in my mind, until after making that dramatic jump I tried to be effective in the enemy base… NOT!  So little armor, so little weaponry.  Ugh, it was pointless.  But the medic has the same grenade and is much more feared when wielding that medical kit… yeah baby conc-jumping without the lame scout as my class…

The last time the scout was a somewhat effective class was back in QWTF days.  Nothing was more frustrating than being a big time Heavy Weapons dude, getting conc’d AND blinded by the flash grenade and then nailed to death.  Alas, even that was taken away from the little guy.  Now he can just drop some stupid little thorns to slow down any pursuers.  But a good defense will never get itself in the position to NEED to chase a puny scout.

In a true Team Oriented environment, I feel the scout is next to useless.  Being a commander in many team games at my monthly LAN parties, I NEVER recommend scouts to my players.  Such a waste of code.

In a public environment, where the games rarely get organized enough to stop a clever scout, they are bit more successful.  I still hate them, but they do enjoy some nifty moments when the entire game is mostly chaos.

The ratings below are how effective the Scout is in a game of that type or how effective a player of that type is when trying to play a Scout.

Team Oriented Rating: 2/10
Public Game Rating: 6/10
Newbie Rating: 4/10
Veteran Rating: 7/10

This is the first in a series of editorials about each class in TFC.  The opinions expressed here are my opinion alone. I didn’t consult with anyone when I wrote this.  I hope you disagree or have an opinion yourself, that’s what it’s all about.  Post your responses in the Views from the WEDGE forum.

Wedge