After playing this game for a while, I really feel that two of the classes–Assault and Engineer–are way, way, way more useful than the other three. The Scout seems only slightly better than the Engineer at sniping: he has longer range, but he has to take his eyes off the target to reload (unlike the E, who stays “eyes on target” between shots). Offsetting that, he’s significantly worse in close combat and against vehicles (i.e., useless) and has no repair ability. I don’t understand why people play Scouts. Maybe I am just really bad at sniping, but it seems like you’re much better off playing an Engineer, because you snipe almost as well and are so much better in other areas. Perhaps that will change when we play maps with more artillery. Overall, though, I think the Scout is underpowered and should be given a more powerful gun (one shot kill).
Medics seem completely useless. First off, you never know whom to heal, because unlike RTCW you can’t get a read on somebody’s health by pointing at them, as far as I can tell (which is weird, because pointing at vehicles you get the vehicle health as an Engineer, I think). You would have a better idea if people called for medics, but nobody does (and even if they do, you need to catch them turning yellow on the map, or memorize their name, to help). Cap it off with the fact that anybody can heal in a halftrack or at a med locker and you have class not worth playing. Medics should be given better abilities (maybe able to bring people back from the dead as in RTCW? Buffs?).
AT guys are useful, but I still find playing an Engineer to be better. Engineers are about half as good against vehicles as an AT guy, and are much better at infantry combat, and can repair. I will take an AT guy if the enemy has 2 or 3 tanks, but otherwise it’s just not worth it in my opinion. His weapon should do more damage against vehicles (one shot kill?) and should do more splash damage against infantry.
I get the feeling, though I haven’t used it yet, that the Scout’s ability to call artillery strikes would be devastating if people actually used it. It ain’t easy, since it requires the collaboration of two players, but considering how effective even the random shelling from the destroyer (or a beach gun) can be, I’d wager that directed shelling with an unobstructed view of the target would help balance out the Scout’s other weaknesses.
Also, I’ve noticed that good Scouts can snipe from much greater distances than the Engineer. Many people don’t take advantage of that, but still, it’s there. I’ve been taken out by Scouts atop the hill at the south end of the airstrip while I was running around far north of the machine gun towers. That rifle has a really long range. I’m not very good at using it, but other people are.
I think the Scout really could be a useful class if I can ever figure out how to use artillery. Think of the Scout sitting well camoflaged and calling down artillery on the airfield (plane spawns? boom. tank spawns? boom. people spawn? boom-splat)! That would make the scout much, much more effective.
I can’t remember if I read this here or somewhere else, but when shooting the scout rifle, hold down the fire button to stay in zoomed mode, and you can watch where the bullet falls. It still makes you leave zoomed view to reload, but this is invaluable in learning how to make the really long shots.
Medics seem pretty useless. Is the submachinegun any good? It seems to me that you’d rather just take the assault kit. The problem with the healing skill is that there are so many ways to die outright, so being partially injured is rarely a liability.
As for the AT kit, I agree that it’s a touch underpowered. I imagine you could merge the AT and medic kits into one class and end up with a character worth playing. Not historically accurate, but neither is a team made up exclusively of assaults and engineers.
I agree that the scout is sort of a toss up because of the way artillery works. I mean, it seems like there are more effective things to do than manning an artillery piece.
Actually the subgun is very very accurate which is nice and the healing is great. You can run away and hide and heal then come back for more. I find myself with other classes running to the med huts or halftracks a lot but with the medic I can even heal on the run while avoiding fire.
Medics seem completely useless. First off, you never know whom to heal, because unlike RTCW you can’t get a read on somebody’s health by pointing at them, as far as I can tell
You can get the damage on someone by looking at them as a medic there is a percent next to their name in brackets.
I find the snipers good for long-range shots, like across the bay, and for mainly picking off idiots who stand real still. The medic is great for healing yourself, but overall I agree that the Assault guys and the Engineers are best. Though what the hell the Japanese are doing with Sturmgewehr 44s I have no idea :shock:
‘I get the feeling, though I haven’t used it yet, that the Scout’s ability to call artillery strikes would be devastating if people actually used it. It ain’t easy, since it requires the collaboration of two players, but considering how effective even the random shelling from the destroyer (or a beach gun) can be, I’d wager that directed shelling with an unobstructed view of the target would help balance out the Scout’s other weaknesses.’
The servers are also way too empty for scouts to have much use; you need 20+ to justify wasting a teammate on spotting.
“Medics seem completely useless. First off, you never know whom to heal, because unlike RTCW you can’t get a read on somebody’s health by pointing at them”
Yes you CAN.
You see their health right by their name. Only medics see it, because I guess they have medical training or whatever. I think only engis ‘see’ vehicle health as a percentage, in much the same way.
If they shout for a medic their arrow on the map becomes a red cross, and their name above their continuously flashes until they are healed.
I think medics make a better general assault soldier than the assualt guys. The gun meds have is way accurate if fired in bursts (I mean you can snipe with it, half my kills are on guys so far away they are less than a cm tall)
Being able to heal constantly, if you take kills of opportunity and generally keep moving to the enemy flag areas and stay alive and harrassing, you can cost them a ton of tickets just in deaths and cause them spawn difficulties, all the while losing no tickets for your own death because you really cannot die if careful.
I love them for tank killing even, since tanks are usually assualting / defending a base, I grenade the tank and heal the splash damage, every base has more grens for you, if the tank sees you right off just run away, let him have the base for 10 seconds and get confy, then while healing grab your nades and boom. Tanks shells hitting you dead on are rare.
Too bad most of the competent tankers are good about remembering to use the machine gun.
Also, people tend not to use the medic request. I guess people would rather head for the med locker than spend the time waiting for a medic (if the team even has one).
The medlockers are death traps, they always have windows facing your rear, it’s alwasy in the obvious building etc… Also everyone tends to toss grenades in them before entering.
huts have ammo boxes, so its easier to grab grens than to to heal at those lockers, for me anyways.
Agreed on the tank thing, but the sloping edges EVERYWHERE on that island save you. Run, hit jump, hit prone, you land and slide down to waters edge superfast. Throw rgens up at tank that now cant hit you, turn, run while healing, get more grens from hut, finish tank.
Keep in mind I havent played all that many GOOD tankers yet, but I’ve taken out some decent 4 man tank teams* quite a few times like this. (*meaning driver/gunner/AT escort/engi groups)
I guess I like them because I played alot of Tribes 1/2 and (almost constantly) the Action mods for q2/hl so I’m used to always hitting a key to either heal or stop bleeding.
jumping and hitting prone in air and sliding down the hill also saves you from damn near any bombing run, unless they miss and hit the side of the hill you ‘dove’ to.
I was shown a great tank/artillery strategy last night.
It requires two people. One drives the tank, the other acts as the spotter, the spotter needs to get way ahead, a tank can actually fire quite a distance, well out of range of any other ground weapon and out of site from the enemy. Just pick a solid piece behind a hill.
When the spotter is set, shoot a test shot and the spotter should tell you where to adjust. One big help, turn the tank perpendicular to where you are shooting. It keeps you in the same place from shot to shot.
Attacking the village on the long empty leg on the island from the airfield is devastating. The axis side in particular seems to have no idea where this death is raining down from, they aren’t expecting any artillery attacks. The spotter got many kills as well since the troops in the village were confused and running scattered from the shots.
Once the village is taken or being attacked by friendlies - the spotter must tell the tank to stop firing. We learned this the hard way. After that village is taken, just repeat on the next village. It is hard to follow the spotter talk all the time, and you have to move the mouse very carefully and very slowly, but this mobile artillery unit can take villages and sink ships.
Also found moving the destroyer to near the airfield can give it great cover and stop the allies from launching any planes if they recapture the airfield. I always like to let the allies jump in the planes before I destroy them.
Been playing most of today. If it wasn’t the team killers mucking up my game, it was my complete lack of skill today. Bad day for 1942 I figure. Can’t wait for the patch tho!
I played some games as a Medic last night, and yeah, the health percentage does indeed appear next to the soldier name. I’m not sure how I missed that before (although I didn’t spend much time with the kit prior to last night).
The biggest problem with the medic is that nobody stops to get healed. I followed Assaults around for the entire game trying to heal them up, but people typically don’t stop moving for long enough to do it. I think what they really need is a better way to identify the Medic, perhaps on the map. As an Assault, if I saw a little medic symbol nearby on the map, I’d probably go to him for help (just as I go to the health bunker for healing whenever I’m in one of the towns that has one).
