The common usage of the Katana and Xbow by Medics says more about the weapons (too effective in non-corresponding perk hands) than it does about the supposed lack of firepower for the Medic.
well, not really.......the specific weapon they choose to buy is not really the point being made here. the simple fact that they are buying other weapons at all shows that medics could use another or at least that they want another offensive weapon. actually, your approach that they buy the most "powerful" weapons in the game further illustrates my point that medics are trying to make themselves a more viable "threat" then they currently are. one can argue that it's not their role to kill, but if that's the approach you'd want to be so critical about, then the medic shouldn't be able to carry/buy any offensive weapons at all. so yeah, give the medics only a syringe and so armour and see how many people will actually use that class......NOBODY would use it if that were the case. to provide decent enough gameplay, the medic has to have decent access to some offensive weapondary even if it's "weak" just to keep the player satisfied enough to use the perk. that's why they have a knife, 9mm and grenades like every other perk as well as the mp7 which TW decided to add to give the perk a decent weapon. note, they included the healing darts to preserve the "medic" capabilities of the weapon. doing the same thing with the bullpup would help the medic become a more adequate "killer" without breaking his role as a "healer".
Yes porting in the L85 for Commando would fulfill the need for a tier 1 weapon but why? Why is it necessary in any way?
because you argued that the commando would need a weapon to fill the void left by the bullpup going to the medic????
If Tripwire wanted the Medic to have more weapons then they could just implement one, not this weird switching process.
again you're taking the wrong approach to the issue......the top priority of this idea isn't focused on the medic, or the commando for that matter.....the main purpose creating a way to keep the EBR in the game without butchering it death to render it a useless piece of crap (thoughts of the chainsaw come to mind....RIP
). the EBR is a GREAT weapon, well a great "mop up" weapon that is. so the most practical solution would be to just move it to the more appropriate perk. the commando perk is only tied into this "weapon redistribution" because it is the more appropriate perk for the weapon.
the commando could just stay with the following loadout:
Tier 1 - bullpup
Tier 2 - AK
Tier 3 - EBR or SCAR
however acknowledging the arguement that the medic could use another weapon, creating a brand new weapon for the medic would be a complete waste of time/resources if another weapon were available to be given to the perk.......moving the EBR to the commando woud end up giving the perk an excessive of weapons. since the medic could use a second perk exclusive weapon, moving the bullpup would be logical as the commando wouldn't really
need it and the medic
could use it as its characteristics are much more similar to the mp7 than the other commando weapons.
now if the bullpup went to the medic leaving the commando with the AK, EBR and SCAR, the weapons could be tweeked to make the AK a more appropriate tier1, and either the SCAR or EBR as an appropriate tier2 since they'd both currently be closer to being tier3 weapons...."nerf" one to make it a tier2 and keep one as is to be the tier3..... or the alternative would be adding a new weapon to replace the bullpup as the tier1 for the commando.
so the SA80/L85 as a possible choice to replace the bullpup. if the commando loses the bullpup and really needs a new lower tier weapon, lets bring back the L85 since it's pretty much already made but would just need a little work with a port. it'd be much more efficient to add a new weapon that's for the most part already created as opposed to creating something new from scratch like say, a new weapon for the medic like a mp5 or the p90.
remember the only "necissary" part to the redistribution would be moving the EBR......all the rest would just be extra. but even going with the rest of the proposed "redistribution" including moving the EBR and bullpup, and adding the L85, the changes would look as follows:
Commando:
Tier1 - SA80/L85
Tier2 - AK47
Tier3 - SCAR or EBR
Medic:
Tier1 - mp7
Tier2 - bullpup
SS: (assuming the gunslinger isn't added)
Tier1 - handcannon
Tier2 - LAR
Tier3 - Crossbow
after all of that there is ONE "new" weapon added to the game, which is a "port and polished" L85/SA80. additionally, not one weapon thats currently in the game would need any major tweeking, at least not to the extent that would be required to make the EBR as anything close to being a proper sharpshooters weapon. all in all, 3 perks receive attention and a couple major balance issues are fixed.
If the EBR were balanced appropriately - which it will be - then there is absolutely no need to switch it over to Commando.
well, for the most part it's already pretty balanced......just as a "mop up" weapon, not as a SS weapon. the fact is that the current weapon model could never be balanced appropriately to become a true "sharpshooting" weapon unless (as stated earlier) its mag size was reduced to 5-10 rounds, the ability to hipfire is removed, and the rate of fire is significantly decreased, which would all lead to a weapon that looks/feels/acts nothing like the real weapon. like i just pointed out in the above paragraph, instead of wasting the effort on just one weapon/balance issue, by simply redistributing a couple weapons, TW is literally killing 2-4 birds with just one stone. it's efficeint and effective and looking at the big picture, it it's much more benificial to the game as a whole.