One good idea I saw floating around was instead of having a 2 handed lascarbine, they should have their melee weapon and laspistol out at the same time. That will definitely visually change up their silhouette and animations to something a bit more distinct, and having a different reaction time to being melee’d differentiates them mechanically too.
This. And it is ok lore-wise (-ish, because troops in most cases go with standard weapon, not pistols… the “melee weapon + pistol” looks seem to stick only to Rogue Trader captains or higher officers).
These Guys are Stalkers, which use Swords at Close Range unlike Shooters which have Full Masks and only use Bayonet for Melee.
FS said that they will not be highlighted due to their Name and Function Buddy.
Hes a Stalker makes sense you cant highlight since they are good with stealth so to speak!
Yeah I pointed out kind of the problem in another thread.
Their current design does not fit what the enemy supposedly does behaviour wise.
Except in game they tend to not work like that and they keep using ranged even fairly close. They sometimes keep advancing but that’s not always the case as often they will just sit and shoot you.
You can call something a fancy name and claim they function a certain way but if they function exactly the same as another thing 90% of the time you’re doing a terrible job at enemy design. Note that the Dreg enemy that shoots you is also called a Dreg stalker but is still highlighted.
And the model doesn’t reflect that at all. It would be different if they had a similar urban camo job like the sniper, a lighter helmet with a cover, a camo wrapping, etc but they don’t. Instead they look like any other shooter but they instead pair with the shotgunner.
Where did you see how they are intended to attack in any way?
They just dont get highlighted, have a real melee weapon and thats it…
I agree however that they should work a bit more like Dregs in going into melee. However they are soldiers so they obvioulsy have discipline and tend to stay together and shoot you like we would aswell ^^
Lighter Armor does not reflect it?
Hes a Stalker/ Scout, and of course they have lighter Armor.
How can that not be stalthier?
What do you want exactly a Shinobi running around?
Never seen Scouts running around in Ghillie Suits, excepts they are Snipers, so ur Point is invalid iMHO.
*BTW i was only pointing that out what was said!
Maybe FS thought that Dregs are “normal” Peopz and not military and have not learned skills to hide and “stalk” Prey?! ever thought about that.
Or its a bug which is probably not since they stated that with stalkers a while ago and ywouldnt have left out the dreg Stalkers, makes no sense. Its on purpose!
YOu dont neeed to tell me i know it well enough, and that was the whole point of this Topic aint it. so why tell me like i did not know XD*
There is only one Stalker designated/ Highlighted and thats the Dreg Stalker.
Dregs are not military like Scabs. So it would make sense. Its on purpose since FS pretty sure, did not forget it on Dregs by accident. The highlighting was in Topics so many times its on purpose yet again.
Scab Stalkers have lighter Armor, seems they are scouts in that regard. Would make sense them being Comboed with Swords and not just bayonets in case they would get spotted especially at close range.
F.ex. Space Marine Scouts have lighter armor aswell. Looks practically the same in regard of how much armor. So they are quieter and faster and nimbler!
So now my argument its totally fine, the one which was not an argument at all in the first place, but Pointing something out! ^^
Gameplay-wise it doesn’t matter if they’re narratively “more sneaky” when you’re literally wallhacking their Scab Shooter and Dreg Stalker counterparts. The issue is still with readability, since their helmets, ranged weapon pose and animation silhouettes, and behaviour, are essentially identical to scab shooters until you’re literally in melee range.
scab shooters will actually engage in melee before the stalkers will if you have your gun out. You have to try to french kiss a stalker to get them in the mood to touch you
Dreg stalkers have no armor at all and also do not have bayonets, but use combat shovels instead.
So no. Your initial argument absolutely makes no sense.
I have never seen anyone from FS make the „different name“ argument.
But you make it here and it makes no sense, as it is inconsistent with the other Stalker being highlighted as it should be.
Weak argument. Literally in game various voice personalities call them an “assault group” and it’s pretty clear they are meant to pair with shotgunners who are the ones that shoot and move.
The point is then having virtually no distinction between their other shooter counterparts (besides actually shooting more shots” while not being classed as shooters.
This is such a reach but I’m going to entertain it anyways. Saying that scab stalkers have lighter armor is fairly laughable considering they have a full flak plate on the chest and a steel helm.
This man is dressed up like a discount krieg trench raider. There is nothing really light about the armour itself he is just missing sleeves.
When I say “light armoured assault troops” I think Tallarn Raiders.
Generally as well notice how they actually blend into their environment and don’t just look like every other guardsman.
I know you are going “hurr hurr what do you want, camo?” but this isn’t exactly a far reach considering various minis on scout / assault troops
Oh look, a camo helmet wrap, exactly what I was talking about right there. Cloaks, helmets with camo coverings based off Nam / other conflicts, lighter head wraps, a leather helmet cover, darker grey camo for pants / arms to blend in, you know, anything to actually visually convey this supposed “stealth bonus” you keep talking about.
Even then if they are supposed to be “assault troops” it run entirely counter to the idea of them being stealthy so this just goes back to my original point of the enemy design for them being a mess.
This is also, again, a reach and even runs counter to your whole “they are named different so they work differently” idea.
You don’t have a good defence for it working the way it currently does so now you are just making up excuses counter to even your own argument.
the fact that scab stalkers refuse to engage in melee and continue to shoot at you while backing away from you when you try to get closer to them completely invalidates FS’s claim to their design intent.