Actually, I am fine with range combat is it is. But if the devs decided to enforce melee combat by nerfing ranged weaponry, they have 2 options now: either balance ranged combat around ranged careers, or balance ranged careers around ranged combat. In the first case they’ll have to ruin ranged combat for everyone, but ranged careers, in the second case they’ll have to nerf ranged careers, possibly ruin them.
And that’s an intractable dilemma, with 3 possible outcomes: 1) Non-ranged career have a decent ranged combat, while ranged careers can stick exclusively to ranged combat, completely avoiding melee (current situation) 2) Only ranged careers use ranged combat (switching to melee only when forced too), while others save ammo for specials and critical situations only (current change trend) 3) Everyone has a decent ranged combat, with ranged careers having only slight bonuses and not differing much from other careers in that regard (OP suggestions will lead to this). There are two other options, where everyone gets to shoot as much as the want, or ranged combat becomes completely destroyed, but let’s not view them, since they are very unlikely.
As for me, I think that devs need to fix melee combat first, before fixing ranged combat. People stick to ranged not because they find it super fun, it’s because ranged combat is much more reliable than melee right now. And as I said, I have no problem with it.
There is also another option for fixing ranged combat: limiting the number of ranged careers per party. Let’s say 2 ranged careers. I think this is the most healthy fix, not sure how players will treat this change though.
P.S. Scrounger should be nerfed and Heat Sink should be reworked no matter what.