XCOM Scout

Normally in this segment, I create an XCOM class based on a TF2 Mercenary, but today I don't have to, because Steam Forum user WarVeterinarian sat down and created the XCOM Demoman. Good show, WarVeterinarian! As usual, if you have any comments or ideas, feel free to let me know about it in the comments section.

The Scout
Scouts are very mobile and agile units that are great for flanking, harassing, distraction and hit-and-run tactics. Like the XCOM Assault class, they are also invaluable at the front lines.

Scouts can equip rifle and shotgun type weapons.

Squaddie Rank Ability: Super Jump
Allows the Scout to jump over small obstacles and small heights without climbing aids.

Corporal Rank Ability 1: Bunnyhop
Confers +20 Defense against all reaction fire.

Corporal Rank Ability 2: Taunt
The Scout delivers a taunt at the first enemy that shoots at him, lowering its Will and Aim by -15 for the next turn. Enemies lose a bonus -5 Will if the shot misses.

Sergeant Rank Ability 1: Tactical Approach
+1 movement for each enemy that the squad can see.

Sergeant Rank Ability 2: Mad Milk
The Scout throws a mysterious milk-like substance that splashes upon impact. Coated enemies suffer a -33% to movement and -20 to Will, and any teammates who damage coated enemies will be healed by a certain amount.

Lieutenant Rank Ability 1: Atomizer
Allows the Scout to jump even greater heights without the use of climbing aids, and further increases movement by 2 tiles.

Lieutenant Rank Ability 2: Mr. Sandman
The Scout throws a baseball that deals light damage and stuns an enemy for 1 turn. Robotic units are immune. 2 turn cooldown.

Captain Ability 1: Bonk! Atomic Punch
Consumable item, 2 uses per mission. Confers +80 Defense for the next 2 turns. 3 turn cooldown.

Captain Ability 2: Crit-A-Cola
Consumable item, 2 uses per mission. Confers +80% Critical Chance for the next 2 turns. 3 turn cooldown.

Major Rank Ability: Pattern Prediction
Confers +20 Defense against enemies that fired at the Scout in the last 2 turns.

Colonel Rank Ability 1: Hit And Run
While moving, the Scout gets a free shot at the first enemy that he sees, provided that there is enough ammo to do so. Shot has a -15 Aim penalty.

Colonel Rank Ability 2: Force-A-Nature
Firing at enemies within 4 tiles will push them towards the direction fired at. Shotgun weapons can push further than rifle weapons. 

The Day the Heavy Ran Out of Ammo

Pan slowly through scene 1. Shell casings litter the ground, dead pyro barely visible in frame. Distant Heavy laughter can be heard. Fade to black.

Fade in on scene 2, pan slowly through. More shell casings. A dead soldier should appear visible in the frame, and a scout's hand is visible, too, dead at the foot of a fridge.  A half-eaten buffalo steak sandvich is on the ground. Fade to black.

Fade in on scene 3, pan slowly through. Faint battle sounds. Pan through the scene, to freshly falling shell casings and a Heavy firing maniacally into a diverse crowd of BLUs, a Medic healing him. Boom-headshot, the Medic goes down. The Heavy looks over his shoulder, angry but not about to stop shooting.

Click-click-click--- the Heavy stops, perplexed, and lifts the minigun to shake it gently. It rattles hollowly. Experimentally, he pulls the trigger again. Clicking.. He feels the pouches on his waist.

Heavy POV, close up on his palm--there are three bullets, which roll out and clatter to the ground.

Low shot of Heavy watching them roll away. After their last clink, he sags, slightly. Then, sounds of a building deploying and a wrench whacking a building. An Engineer is building a dispenser! He hustles over to it carrying his Minigun, and watches as the Engie whacks it.

Unlike in the game, if possible, the Dispenser-deploy animation should be syncopated with the wrench swings, i.e. wrench hit, followed by 20% of the animation, wrench hit, next 20%, to imply that the Dispenser requires an Engineer's touch. This should stretch the tension nicely.

Finally, the little bottom hatch opens, to reveal an ammo belt. As the Heavy reaches for it, a BLU sticky bomb lands next to his palm.

Reaction shot of the Heavy. He defends himself from the explosion with his hand.
Heavy POV on Dispenser--it's gone, but visible through the smoke is the Demoman, grenade launcher in hand. Shift shots through the smoke to establish that he's there, backed up by a Scout, Pyro and a Soldier. They all look smug.

Shot of the Heavy, glaring at them, holding his gun, thinking.

Close shot of the Demoman raising his sticky launcher to fire another shot--slow motion--as a minigun flies into the shot and bowls him flat on his back. The scout looks on in surprise at the Demoman (whose foot is sticking up from the bottom of the shot), when the Heavy barrels across the ground punches the Scout.

Now we see the Heavy, he's holding the Scout's scattergun between two fingers. He pokes the trigger mechanism with his finger. Close up on the gun--it's too small to accommodate his finger. He looks around, and grabs the scout in a headlock, stuffs the gun in his hand, and fires it at the Pyro three times. There's an explosion of gunfire--the Soldier is holding a now-smoking shotgun.

The Heavy throws the Scout at him.

TF2 FANFARE, ROLL CREDITS

The Arthur

The Arthur
Baseball Bat
Alt fire: Improved functionality to targeted friendly building
Excessive buffing will hurt you
-50% swing speed



Basically, the Scout uses his non-bat-holding hand to love-tap friendly buildings, causing them to temporarily work faster. Dispensers heal slightly more, teleporters recharge faster, and sentries fire a little quicker. Buffs are administered on a meter, and exceeding the buff hurts the Scout's hand. Just a fun little idea.

Scout Buildings

Brainstorming All-Class PDAs, because obsessive completionism and machines are more fun than working game mechanics. These are designed specifically for MvM, where the smaller playercounts make all-class sentries a workable idea. This is an idea that keeps reverberating in my head, buildings for all classes as designed by the Engineer, because I want the engineer to design more things. I hunger for them. Admittedly most of these have more in common with the "character" of each merc than their class, but then this is a fun exercise more than a serious game changer.

Non-engie buildings are, in this vision, not upgradeable or repairable partially to avoid the visual incongruity of fixing a things by hitting them with swords, baseball bats, or whatever.

Ultimately, these ideas turn TF2 into a Orcs Must Die style castle defense/action title, and that sounds like a freaking awesome idea to me.

First up is the Scout.

PDA: Simple, gameboy-like PDA (credit where it's due)

Offense: The Pitching Arm
Fires stun baseballs
Looks like the sentry, but with a horizontal spinning wheel over the ammo feed to fire baseballs. And a modified barrel. Obviously.

Support: The Second Phase
Allies moving near this building charge it, eventually activating a phase ability that minimizes damage
An handheld cooler containing bonk. The lid is wired with a timer, and when it reaches zero the lid opens and allies are phased.





Transportation: The Plate
A directional plate that gives classes running over it a speed boost.
Looks like home plate.

The Injury Update!

Now for a fake update about being wounded!

The Scout

The Big Hurt

Level ouch scattergun

Painslayers

Level 1 Painkillers (secondary)

While in use, heals the scout for 30HP and kills ramp-up on incoming damage for ten seconds.

While worn, the scout cannot be overhealed.

Tiny Tim

Level 1 Crutch (melee)

Improves returns from health kits by 15%.

-50% Damage

Hat: The Baseball Bill's Sports Shiner (a black eye)

The Soldier

The Tenderfoot

Level 5 Leg Casts

Deals damage to anyone within ~40HVU upon landing a rocket jump (groundpound)

+10% self-damage

Hat: The Spirit of 76 /The Hedwound

A stylish head-bandage recalling a famous painting by the same name

The Pyro

Another Burn Ward

Level 10 Flamethrower

Wearer shares any healing his victim gets until the fire is extinguished.

The Mental Exercise

Level 10 Imaginary Axe

party blowers and confetti on kill

Hat: The Invisible Person

A well-bandaged head in two styles!

The Demoman

The Hurt Launcher

Level 2 Grenade Launcher

The Company Health Plan

Tier 3 Scotch

Self-damage heals over time

+10% bullet vulnerability

Hat: The Double Eyepatch

Vision is for menn who don't rely on skill

The Heavy

The Medkit

Sandvich reskin

The Reverse Heimlich Maneuver

On kill: allows you to throw enemy ragdoll at opponents

-25% attack speed

Hat: The Sour Tooth

A toothache wrap

The Engineer

Sorry, Engineer fans!

The Medic

The Blood Drive

Level 10 Syringe Gun

Allows the medic to earn ubercharge for nearby non-medigun healing

-25% damage

The Suppository

Level Cough Bonesaw

Crits from behind

-50% base damage

this is a joke

Hat: Surgeon's cap

The Sniper

The Lobotomy

Level 5 Sniper Rifle

Pierces targets

+.5s charge time

Sample Seven

Level 2 Urine Joke

Splashed allies earn temporary health regen

Hat: The Reminder

Bandage over cheek-scar, numerous additional bandages on face

The Spy

Insurance Fraud

Level 5 Sapper Replacement

"Sapped" enemies share 10% of their healing with you

Surgical-Grade

Level 2 Scalpel

Hat: The Sympathy Solicitor

A neck brace

The Engineer:

Unlike Valve, I was kidding before.

The Workplace Accident

Level 3 Nailgun

Minicrits on headshots

-25% Damage

-50% Clip

The Quarpal Tunneler

Level 2 Right-hand cast

Allows engineers to walk through their buildings

-25% swing speed

Hat: The Clumsy Carpenter

A cracked version of the standard hardhat with nails in it

Meet the Test Subjects

Scout

Challenge: aerial faith plate

The scout sits at an aperture brand folding chair, leaning back and resting his feet on the table. He's wearing the standard Aperture jumpsuit with the sleeves cut off plus his dogtags, headset, and cleats.

Interview: "Yeah. I finished the tests. All of 'em. Perfect score. Yep. Didn't take any brain smarts or nuthing. They gave me this cube thing? Bam, I incinerated it. No problem. Listen pal, I can solve tests. I can solve any test, any time, no problem. Yeah, they tried giving me these dumb looking boot things when I came in here and I said "No way are you putting those girl shoes on me, nerd!" And then I gave him a noogie. You know what I'm saying? This guy does, ha ha ha."

Test Footage:
The door to the room opens, and the scout comes out, arms outstretched, mugging and strutting for an imaginary audience. He stops mid-gloat, noticing that the room is mostly empty of objects and completely empty of people. Cautiously he scans the whole room while backing up, only to step onto an AFP, which then launches him into the far distance. At the far end, another AFP activation can be heard, and one of the scout's shoes comes flying back and knocks over the camera.

Soldier

Challenge: Thermal Discouragement Beam

The soldier is dressed in an aperture jumpsuit, Long Fall boots (in a slightly more masculine style) and a test helmet that hides his eyes.

"How do I feel about this challenge? What is this, girl scout preschool? I am a man, and MEN do not talk about their feelings. Men do things with their hands, like build PROUD NATIONS or BIRDHOUSES. Do not test me, science man, I will not be--Oh! Sixty dollars? I'm in!"

The soldier tumbles into the middle of the testing room floor as though he were diving for cover, and lands in the middle of a nearly empty chamber. Quickly he takes stock of the elements in the chamber. Thermal Discouragement Beam generator. Two weighted discouragement beam redirection cubes. The Thermal Discouragement Receiving Port. After thinking carefully, he fires four successive shots. The first portal drops a redirection cube under the Thermal Discouragement Beam, rerouting it to another discouragement cube, into a portal on the wall and out to the Receiving Port. Standing direction in front of final receiver, on fire, is the Soldier.

As he crumples, the portal gun drops out of his hand, rolls through the open door, and the "test completed" success bell is heard.

Spy
Challenge: Turrets

The Spy is wearing an inexplicably classy Aperture jumpsuit with the sleeves rolled down and buttoned. He has a boutonniere on the lapel, and somehow retains his balaclava and cigarette. His pants are rolled up at the knee, revealing the Advanced Knee Replacement and a pair of wing-tip shoes. While speaking he dismisses one smokable and lights another.

Interview:
"Am I to believe you will be administering a test? And during this test, you will allow me to be alone in a series of rooms which may grant an invisible man who is not me access to unguarded industrial secrets? Top shelf."

Test Footage:
The primary testing area consists of a small antechamber with a security camera and aroom with several turrets (a genuinely ridiculous amount), arranged in a crowd that leaves a path between two doors. There's some conversion gel splashed on the floor. The spy enters the room, and immediately uses the portal gun to dispatch a nearby security camera. Glados' signature complaint regarding vital testing apparatus is heard. The Spy peers around the corner. One turret asks "Hello?". The spy ducks back into the lee of the door, activating his invisibility watch and chuckling softly.

Completely invisible to the viewer, his movements are implied by the movement of the camera. Quickly, he enters the room, the camera moving laterally to suggest he's strolling casually and mark his progress. There's an overhead shot of the scene, with the many, many turrets' targeting lasers staring straight ahead. A close up of the conversion gel puddle being disturbed, with a few footprints trailing out of it, then a close-up of a turret.

The turret is staring straight ahead, then blinks and looks down, its eye following the apparent progress of the footprints. There's an overhead shot again, only this time one of the sentries is following the footprints with its tracking beam. Slowly, ominously, the tracking beams begin to converge on a space near the footprints.

One of the turrets quips "Goodbye" and the scene fades to black over gunfire, and a gentle thump.