This is an interesting thread, many of the ideas you’ve mentioned are ones we’re already considering.
To give you some idea what we’ve set out to achieve with the classes and various loadouts here’s the ‘class roles’ we’d initially decided upon:
Soldier Class
Role: Primary role of the Soldier is to be at the very front of the team’s advance, initiating fire fights, breaking through bottlenecks and breaching the frontline. Good at clearing rooms, strong points etc
Combat: Very good at close ranged combat but reasonable at all distances. Can stay in a fire fight for much longer than other classes (large amounts of ammo, two primary weapons)
Key Skills: Aim, grenade use, movement, weapon use/switching
Medic Class
Role: The Medic’s goal is always to support other players by keeping them alive and augmenting them in combat. Fighting by themselves should be a lower priority and they should not be as effective as other classes in combat. They should receive benefits for putting others first.
Combat: Good at close range, capable at mid-range. The Medic should be able to defend himself and clear the odd enemy to be able to get to fallen teammates, but he should not be easily able to advance the team’s position or clear areas.
Key Skills: Timing, positioning, use of cover, energy management
Engineer Class
Role: Engineers try to take and hold areas of the map, either to defend objectives or hold ground near the frontline for attackers. Their abilities allow them to be good at defending locations but are not that effective at pushing forwards or when on the move.
They are adept at doing objectives and are required for some of them, but generally they should only advance once they’ve secured an area nearby first.
Combat: Very good at medium range and OK at close range. They can defend a nearby location well with their weapons but aren’t great at pushing.
Key Skills: Positioning, use of cover, energy management
Fire Support Class
Role: The primary role of the Fire Support class is to disrupt the enemy, slowing their progress and hindering their ability to attack or defend. They are also capable of supplying and supporting teammates, but not to the same extent as the Medic.
Combat: Very good at medium range and OK at long range. The Fire Support’s guns should be amongst the most lethal in the game, allowing him to cause lots of disruption to the enemy team in terms of the number of kills he makes.
Key Skills: Movement, aim, map awareness, timing
Recon Class
Role: The Recon class focuses on gathering and supplying information to their team, giving them an advantage in combat. They also make use of remote devices and Sniper Rifles to fight from the safety of cover, making them good at defending locations and holding ground.
Of all the classes the Recon is probably the one that needs to interact and partner with teammates the least.
Combat: Very good at long range and reasonable at mid-range
Key Skills: Positioning, map awareness, aim
As you guys can see we’re probably a little off target with these right now. I wonder if Engis and Medics are too effective in straight forwards combat, not all abilities really drive characters to fill their role right now and the roles for Fire Support and Recon may be too shallow as it stands (both not fun enough to perform and not deep enough in terms of the abilities we could make for each role).
We’ve plenty of work still to do with regards to all of this stuff, but hopefully this gives you some idea of our current intentions for the classes and can help shape your feedback.
