Replace the insurgent medic's Skorpian with a Sterling

[PotatoLord]

I think the insurgent medic's primary weapon, currently the vz.61 Skorpian, needs to be replaced because honestly it's a really terrible weapon to use as a primary and was never actually even used by Iraqi insurgents in real life.

The gameplay result of this is when you're playing insurgents, you're going to not have medics more often than not.

From a game balance and historical accuracy point of view, I just think it'd make sense for the insurgents to get the Sterling Submachinegun, which was produced under license in Iraq and used extensively by Iraqi Insurgents in real life and is already in game.

Here are some pictures of captured Sterling SMGs from Iraq





As a testament of their relative abundance, many Iraqi contract Sterlings even made their way to Syria (though obviously they'd be fairly uncommon there)




And on a final tangent, it's also really a shame that we don't have the PPSh-41 for the Insurgents either, as many were famously used in the Battle of Fallujah (some captured units were even used by the USMC, if you guys remember that one really famous picture)

[dcm]

I agree. The insurgent medic needs a better primary weapon. But what will the knock on effect be? How will this change affect player psychology and gameplay? Will letting insurgents medic use a proper submachine gun make him too powerful? The problem lies not with the primary weapon itself, but with equipment surrounding the weapon. Most notably; the rope. Insurgent medics are the only class on their team with a rope. The ARF medic(and falklands medics)also has a proper smg, but no rope. Will giving the insurgent medic a sterling, allow him to go on the offensive alone? The skorpion limits the medics killing power. You can go on the offensive if you really need to, but the weapon is best used as a pdw in the emergency defensive role. What about the civilian medic? Will you have to take away his rope too? He already has less stamina and his rope is one of the few things that he has, that allows him to escape in certain situations. Will only one version of the kit have the rope? If so, then insurgent medics will have to make a tough choice between personal security and the greater good for the team(I dont mind breacher/scout having a rope and an smg, because he cant heal himself to full health). If the rope is removed from the insurgent medic, then who will inherit it?(If it was up to me, I'd give the rope to the second insurgent kit, the one with the G3/Type-56. Because that class needs some reason, some gimmick to be used). The skorpion is too weak as a primary, but that's what makes it perfect as the insurgent medic's primary, because of the unique circumstances of the team(personally I'd rather give him a hi-power as a primary, because it's more consistent).

I'm not shitting on your idea. In fact I think it's one of the better ideas I've entertained in a long time. It's just there's a confluence of factors surrounding your suggestion that make it not unfeasible, but hard to implement properly. Personally, I believe that the insurgents are long overdue for a complete kit overhaul.

[PotatoLord]

I agree. The insurgent medic needs a better primary weapon. But what will the knock on effect be? How will this change affect player psychology and gameplay? Will letting insurgents medic use a proper submachine gun make him too powerful? The problem lies not with the primary weapon itself, but with equipment surrounding the weapon. Most notably; the rope. Insurgent medics are the only class on their team with a rope. The ARF medic(and falklands medics)also has a proper smg, but no rope. Will giving the insurgent medic a sterling, allow him to go on the offensive alone? The skorpion limits the medics killing power. You can go on the offensive if you really need to, but the weapon is best used as a pdw in the emergency defensive role. What about the civilian medic? Will you have to take away his rope too? He already has less stamina and his rope is one of the few things that he has, that allows him to escape in certain situations. Will only one version of the kit have the rope? If so, then insurgent medics will have to make a tough choice between personal security and the greater good for the team(I dont mind breacher/scout having a rope and an smg, because he cant heal himself to full health). If the rope is removed from the insurgent medic, then who will inherit it?(If it was up to me, I'd give the rope to the second insurgent kit, the one with the G3/Type-56. Because that class needs some reason, some gimmick to be used). The skorpion is too weak as a primary, but that's what makes it perfect as the insurgent medic's primary, because of the unique circumstances of the team(personally I'd rather give him a hi-power as a primary, because it's more consistent).

I'm not shitting on your idea. In fact I think it's one of the better ideas I've entertained in a long time. It's just there's a confluence of factors surrounding your suggestion that make it not unfeasible, but hard to implement properly. Personally, I believe that the insurgents are long overdue for a complete kit overhaul.

Only civi medic gets rope then, as a SL main whenever I play insurgents I'd rather have a squadmate that can hold their own in a fight rather than a rope which is useful but not worth an entire squad member. And also you haven't considered that the skorpian just isn't fun to play with, which leads to more often than not no medics on an insurgent squad which is just bad for teamplay.

[dcm]

Only civi medic gets rope then, as a SL main whenever I play insurgents I'd rather have a squadmate that can hold their own in a fight rather than a rope which is useful but not worth an entire squad member. And also you haven't considered that the skorpian just isn't fun to play with, which leads to more often than not no medics on an insurgent squad which is just bad for teamplay.

Oh no, I agree that the skorpion is an absolute piece of shit. I detest it. Recoils like an assault rifle. Damages like a rock. I dont think removing the rope from either medic is ideal. I only see this panning out, is if there is another way to buff civi medic, so that armed medic doesn't overshadow him completely. Maybe remove the stamina penalty from the medic class entirely?(That would help armed medic too, but be much more useful for civi medic). Maybe let civi medic already spawn as civi? Maybe lessen civi medic's arrest and death penalties?(Say less intel for the enemy team upon capture and 50% less respawn than normal civi arrest?).

Sidenote: Giving second insurgent kit a rope regardless is still a good idea. I mean he doesn't even get binocs for fuck sakes, unless he drops his kit.

P.S. I think an unrecognized problem with the Insurgent team, is that they dont know what they are and what they want to be. Leading to internal conflict, which manifests mostly in equipment and asset conflicts. By that I mean, is that the Insurgents faction feels undecided as to whether they should more closely play like an a conventional but still insurgent faction a la Hamas and/or ARF. Or as a true insurgency, and fight as various clusters of independent cells of resistance. Because right now it feels like they're neither. But an amalgamation of the two, meeting somewhere unhappily in the middle(It's an abstract complaint I'm sorry I cant explain it better than that).

[Nightingale]

Hell yes. I love sterlings.

[sweedensniiperr]

Bit off-topic but I would like the skorpion to be 2 different guns. Folded for sidearms and unfolded for when it's the main gun.

[PotatoLord]

Oh no, I agree that the skorpion is an absolute piece of shit. I detest it. Recoils like an assault rifle. Damages like a rock. I dont think removing the rope from either medic is ideal. I only see this panning out, is if there is another way to buff civi medic, so that armed medic doesn't overshadow him completely. Maybe remove the stamina penalty from the medic class entirely?(That would help armed medic too, but be much more useful for civi medic). Maybe let civi medic already spawn as civi? Maybe lessen civi medic's arrest and death penalties?(Say less intel for the enemy team upon capture and 50% less respawn than normal civi arrest?).

Sidenote: Giving second insurgent kit a rope regardless is still a good idea. I mean he doesn't even get binocs for fuck sakes, unless he drops his kit.

P.S. I think an unrecognized problem with the Insurgent team, is that they dont know what they are and what they want to be. Leading to internal conflict, which manifests mostly in equipment and asset conflicts. By that I mean, is that the Insurgents faction feels undecided as to whether they should more closely play like an a conventional but still insurgent faction a la Hamas and/or ARF. Or as a true insurgency, and fight as various clusters of independent cells of resistance. Because right now it feels like they're neither. But an amalgamation of the two, meeting somewhere unhappily in the middle(It's an abstract complaint I'm sorry I cant explain it better than that).

Yeah so people don't choose medic because quite frankly it's not fun to play, so rebalance it so that it's fun to play.

People not playing medic is an issue to everyone else because medics are required for good teamplay so this just negatively effects everyone else's experience too

All of this and the Skorpian is historically inaccurate for the Iraqi Insurgency because insurgents never used Skorpians in real life

[dcm]

Yeah so people don't choose medic because quite frankly it's not fun to play, so rebalance it so that it's fun to play.

People not playing medic is an issue to everyone else because medics are required for good teamplay so this just negatively effects everyone else's experience too

All of this and the Skorpian is historically inaccurate for the Iraqi Insurgency because insurgents never used Skorpians in real life

You are absolutely correct. But the problem lies with player psychology. Insurgent players are conditioned to just give up and not wait for revive. Which means less medics are playing. Chicken and the Egg problem really. The only time I ever see insurgent medics, medic-ing is with civi martyr squads. There needs to be more incentive to play as a medic and for insurgents to not give up so easily.

People not wanting to play medic is greater PR wide problem. Because medic it's too risky and just aint fun. You're likely to get shot by blind and bleeding friendlies, that you just revived. You cant go on the assault with the rest of the squad. Friendlies wont grab your kit and revive you. Most medics just dont revive at all. They only go medic for the extra patches. And there are times, where you feel like you're the teams only active medic actually doing his job.

Like I said before. Insurgents need a complete overhaul and rework. Giving the medic a sterling is a nice start.