[Merc] - Scrub

(TheGreatHoundini) #1

“I have no idea what I’m doing!”

Type: Assault

Primaries: AA-12 Auto Shotgun (New, Unique)
Secondary: Caulden
Melee: Stilnotto Stilleto

Health: 130
Sprint: 400
Arm: 5s
Defuse: 8s

Special Ability: Pipebomb IED x 1 (100 damage over 10m Radius, Cooldown: 10 Seconds, Cancel Cooldown: 4 Seconds)

Description:
Scrub is unique in that he is meant to be a beginner’s Merc. So Scrub only has a Lead loadout default card, having no higher class of loadout cards means that Scrub has no access to any augments.

On the other hand, Scrub is the only Merc with access to the AA-12 Auto Shotgun with a large drum magazine, a fully automatic shotgun firing 12-gauge rounds at a ROF of 200 rounds-per-minute.

Scrub’s Pipebomb IED explosive has a large radius and at 100 damage will only be able to kill the smallest Mercs or other larger Mercs that have suffered considerable damage. The Pipebomb IED’s cannot be cooked but have a very short fuse time, so they are essentially “throw’em and forget’em” explosives. Their weight means they have a shorter throwing distance than Fragger’s grenades and players may have to sprint or aim higher to get them to be thrown farther.

Scrub is an easy to use Merc for new players just learning the game and having fun at medium to close ranges, but can also be good as a joke/troll character in the hands of experienced players similar to characters like Dan in the Street Fighter series.

Having no other progression though means that Scrub is meant to be eventually left behind as players explore other Mercs, but is always available to those looking to have a few laughs.

Pros:
-Access to AA-12 Automatic Shotgun
-Manageable Special Ability Cooldown
-Good basic Assault capability in medium and close ranges

Cons:
-No access to any augments
-Pipebomb IED has very low damage
-Low character utility

Backstory:

Leeroy “Scrub” McCormick is an MLG Pro-gamer who got left behind during the evacuation of London in the midst of the Dirty Bomb incident because he was too busy playing a certain Free-To-Play online shooter.

By the time he realized what was happening, London was in full lockdown and the last bus had long since left. Having blown all his money on gaming paraphernalia, Leeroy MCormick’s only path to survival is to do pretty much what the other boys and girls prowling around London are doing these days after the Dirty Bomb incident - toting a gun, taking jobs, and making money.

It’s anyone’s guess though how long he can last out there. “Scrub” may have been among the “l33t” in the world of video games, but out here his nickname could have a literal meaning.

(Kirtap101) #2

100 damage is actually really high, even a frag grenade wont kill a 80, 90, 100 health merc in some cases. a grenade like the pipe bomb, while definitely cool sounding, a device with a large blast radius and a flat 100 damage, it just seems like an easier, higher damaging fragger, with slightly less health. just think his ability will need a re-work. i love the concept though. :slight_smile:

(TheGreatHoundini) #3

Yeah, for sure the idea behind the Pipebomb was that new players could “semi-Spam” inflicting 10 meter radius damage every 10 seconds and getting “some gratification”… just not too much gratification.

I think with the exception of the smaller characters, everyone else is over 100 hp so I don’t expect a lot of people to die from one Pipebomb and it’s not too hard for players of some experience to be able to read the “red circle with a trail” that warns of an explosive. But you do want to reward someone some of the time using Scrub.

So for sure it should be strong enough to nail a few kills and “get lucky”, but not so strong that people with real skills will get shutdown by someone spamming Pipebombs.

I usually main Fletcher, and find the 100 damage on Stuck is really useless. I once got the jump on a Skyhammer, and even managing to Sticky him on the head unawares, it still turned into a skirmish before I got him. I also thought Fragger’s grenades had 170 damage each? If I’m wrong then yeah maybe the Pipebomb should be weaker still. But again, I based the suggestion on the fact that Fletcher’s 100-on-stuck doesn’t actually kill anybody worth killing at the moment (ie: You cannot actually initiate a pushback by getting Sticky 100 damage on just one person). Again, I wanted Scrub players to occasionally “feel lucky” just not get “too lucky”. :slight_smile:

In fact, the entire theme of Scrub is that a new player should feel like they are able to come to terms with the game quickly due to Auto-Shotgun being very useful in small corridors and the Pipebomb being a simple “super grenade” (which isn’t actually that super). Also, a point blank AA-12 burst can put down enemies that were arming/disarming, so again a new player can feel like they did something useful some of the time and 400 movement speed means they might just make it on time to help out the team.

New players can work on reflexes first…since the AA-12 would essentially reward who can shoot first in certain cases, then they’ll learn to aim at medium distances which is the limit of the AA-12’s usability.

Later still, they’ll find the AA-12 isn’t useful when they face off against “Advanced Mercs” and that’s when they’ll explore the others and round out their squads eventually.

(TheGreatHoundini) #4

Oh and the short throwing distance means trying to spam the Pipebomb IED can sometimes result in a few suicides for Scrub… So that’s something new players learn as well regarding Special Abilities. :dizzy:

(doxjq) #5

How would you stop skilled players using him? Anything that has a huge radius and can one hit kill anyone would be OP as hell, and a smaller radius well, no different to fragger or fletcher.

I mean Fletcher is already considered so OP that they are going to nerf him, and his 100hp damage stickies have to be direct to deal the 100hp. If they had a 5 or 10 metre radius, no one could kill you.

(TheGreatHoundini) #6

OK… but maybe I just don’t understand the permutations… But aren’t most Mercs like well over 100 HP? Isn’t everyone above “light body type” at least 110 HP or something? How can the Pipebomb “one hit kill anyone”?

Again, correct me if I’m wrong… Otherwise, yeah the damage should be lower to whatever it should be.

Anyways, the vision of the concept is “The Pipebomb must insta-gib the squishy Mercs but only damage Medium or Larger Mercs.” How about 90 Damage? I mean… anything less and we might as well call them “Firecracker IED’s” since they can’t even kill an Aura. They already can’t kill a Bush Turret, mind you.

That said, I don’t know how much HP the Ammo Stations and Healing Stations have… but even with weak grenades Scrub can wipe an area of those things even with weaker Pipebomb IED’s.

(Naonna) #7

Keep in mind that as of now, every medic besides Sawbonez has less than 100 health. Unless there was a 5 second fuse without cooking, I see no way this merc could be considered fair, given the ability to clear a room even easier than Stoker.

As for the ‘fully automatic shotgun’ that makes every fast merc instantly kill-able in the hands of a skilled player who can land shot: regardless of recoil.

My logic of adding a long timer would be that once this explosive has been tossed into a room, it puts the turtling players under pressure to move: discouraging camping.

(TheGreatHoundini) #8

Actually yeah…that could be cool… like instead of a Pipebomb IED… it’s good old fashioned bundled Dynamite… like in the Looney Tunes cartoons… and it has a 5 second lighted fuse… so you see the fire… You can hear the loud crackling noise… the little smoke… the fuse getting shorter… then a huge 100 Damage 10 meter explosion.

I think that’s actually cool.

Not sure how AA-12’s translate… as it is only used sparingly in others… but the idea is that as someone learns the game… they eventually figure out that other guns are more versatile.

Another possibility is to make it a “small cone” Shotgun… so it doesn’t have a cone as large as the other in-game non-auto Shotguns…and you can sidestep someone who aims REALLY badly with it… again…You just want new players to be able to get on within a few minutes of play.

To get on… before they get good.

(Naonna) #9

The longest range shotgun in the game at the moment is the Ahnald-12 shotgun: slightly lower spread and increased range at the cost of some damage.

(TheGreatHoundini) #10

My alternative primary weapon idea, and it can fit the backstory, is that Scrub uses a unique primary weapon in the form of a DeWalt Super Nail Gun… So it fires like puny 1 - 2 hp damage nails… but it can fire out a stream of them so as Scrub you have to “hose” down someone with puny nail damage.

http://www.tooled-up.com/images/Dewalt_DC690N_06.jpg

The joke there being you actually learn how to aim by seeing the progress of the “stream of nails” you are firing… :smiley:

(Naonna) #11

oh… so it’s the medic’s syringe gun from TF2 … (Also, Mythbusters tested… and no.)

Since this wouldn’t be viable over long ranges, it only teaches bad habits. Even more so, if this is weapon isn’t a hit scan weapon, instead relying on projectiles, then it would NEVER see higher level play. Most competitive matches revolve around long-range picks with weapons such as the m4, dreiss, or PDP. - Even the hochfir or blishlock smgs are used more often ALL of the shotguns.

(TheGreatHoundini) #12

So what should be the primary weapon if we’re looking at two types of target users:

  1. The ones who want to have fun instantly in the game and they really don’t know anything yet.

  2. The ones who want to troll a game without being completely useless.

(Naonna) #13

Honestly, the Dreiss is the closest thing to a ‘under powered, yet decent’ weapon. Encouraging head shots without being an otherwise strong weapon. - Even with body shot against lower skill players, the time to kill isn’t horrid. (Alternatively, give him the kek-10. It’s a solid weapon all around.)

(TheGreatHoundini) #14

Dreiss or KEK-10 is OK as well… Yeah… see… the real goal of Scrub is to make a Merc that might just attract attention away from Vassilli if players are new. :slight_smile:

They’ll think: “Oh boy! A 10 meter radius explosive!” and then they try out the gun and it’s the only one you can get with this guy and they go: “Oh boy! This game has some great guns!”

And the idea behind not giving Scrub any “real” Loadout cards is so that people sort of leave him later and go for others. The game gives out cards on its own and the reason for example I stuck to playing Fletcher is because the game gave me a Cobalt Fletcher just like that. So I’m like: “Might as well…”

Some experienced players value their augments and loadouts so I don’t think Scrub should see competitive/serious play.

But choosing Scrub should be (a bit!) like choosing Dan in Street Fighter… You do it to get a reaction out of people if you’re already very experienced player. :wink:

(TheGreatHoundini) #15

On second thought guns like the semi-auto Dreiss might make more new players quit the game at a higher rate.

You really want something that rewards “reflex pull” and “defensive reactions”. I’d argue that headshots - the main thing to go for with the Dreiss - is something players can learn after they’ve stopped using Scrub.

(TheGreatHoundini) #16

Oh wait… Leads have ONE augment… well… maybe that’s not too bad… One augment and LEADS only should be OK.