I don’t really see the point of this. The tags would basically just be signifying what class a merc is in, which doesn’t mean anything to you until you need something from that merc, like ammo or heals. Knowing that Phantom is a recon doesn’t matter in-game, knowing what Phantom can DO matters in-game. If you run past a friendly Fragger and it says “Assault” over him on your HUD, what would you do in that situation? A new player would probably say “Oh, this is an assault merc. And?”
The tags could be detrimental, too, in some situations. Cluttering the HUD with more stuff is already a bad idea, no matter how small the tags are. If you make the tags small enough to the point where you can barely see them, then that would just defeat the purpose of even having them. Not to mention what seeing someone playing a merc labeled “Medic” running around brutally beating people to death with a cricket bat would do to a newer player. I’m not trying to say that new players are a bunch of infants who learn entirely by experience, most players probably know what a medic is, but if they see playing medic as solo fraggers who only use heals as a method to keep themselves alive, their learning process might be skewed a hwee bit.
I don’t want to say it’s a hindrance in the long run, because you don’t have to turn it off if it’s optional, so it’s not like you have to get the training wheels ripped off because the training wheels don’t really slow you down, in the long run. But, it wouldn’t really serve a purpose, in my opinion. Players who use the tag would eventually just recognize mercs by their models and sound effects, like we all do now, and the tags would just become irrelevant. Honestly, the cross symbol and ammo symbol for medics and fire supports, respectively, are enough in my opinion. It’s not like someone’s gonna be in a situation mid-firefight where their gonna be like “I NEED AN ENGINEER,” or something like that. Although, I would wish that the medic cross symbol wouldn’t appear over a Guardian’s head. THAT would confuse new players.
Side note: if this does get implemented, I think it would be better to just have a class’s symbol next to their player name. Medics would have the cross, fire supports have the ammo symbol, engineers have a wrench (or the objective specialist symbol, as to stray away from TF2), assaults have an explosion, and recons probably have like a spotting symbol or something, like the spotter augment’s symbol.
