There have been lots of discussions lately about the infiltrator as actual infiltrator doing CQC. Allthough my trial of the SOAS-20 had been unimpressive I decided to go ahead and buy it to see how it plays with some attachments and more practice. The SOAS-20 is the TR auto scout rifle. The VS and NC versions are identical by the way. My attachments are laser dot, 2x reflex sight, suppressor. The suppressor actually makes it louder and sound like a sniper rifle. The laser dot can be turned off with L while still providing its benefit. So far I have 67 kills with it. The cloak is unsurprisingly borderline useless when enemies are closer than 15m and looking in my direction. It depends somewhat on time of the day, their graphic settings and how much is going on. Generally, I expect to lose direct face to face engagements every time. Attacking from the flanks kind of works. Uncloaking and burst firing (preferably on the head) when nobody is looking gets me kills. I want to be as close as possible while still being at a range where the cloak will help avoid being spotted by peripheral vision or hasty visual scans. The reason getting close is because I find it difficult to drop targets past 20m with 20 rounds unless the circumstances are favorable. The reason is a combination of small clip size, suppressor and mediocre dps. The anti-personnel mines (I can lay two) work well with this. If somebody comes to kill me, I run around a corner and let them walk into my mines. The effectiveness of this tactic is unfortunately heavily dependent on terrain and the situation on the battlefield. It doesn't work as well in bases and indoors as it does outdoors in rough terrain. So with the current cloak the current SOAS-20 in my opinion isn't really the answer to the CQC required for infiltration. So not only is infiltration basically pointless, we have neither the weapon nor cloak to perform well in that role. The semi-auto scout could perhaps work better for the tactic of maintaing 20m+ distance while flanking, even though the flinching when being hit will be problematic. How does it compare to a LA? I'm really just doing the same thing as a LA that's flanking enemies and the LA has an easier time in my experience.
Okay time for my two cents! I have purchased both scouts for the TR, and the automatic at first i thought was terrible, a complete waste of station cash. But unfortunately it was me not respecting the weapon, and the class, the cloak, and the simple fact that I had to adopt a new play style to make it all work together. First off, get the new Pistol, silencer it, and laser sight that bad boy, it will be the difference in life or death in situations where the opponent moved just a little to much and that 20 clip didn't kill them. Do not expect the cloak to work, play like you don't have the cloak, use it to escape, and to cross open terrain, it is not the be all end all, its a bonus in the right situation, but it isn't stealth. Fix the laser sight,and fix the NR scope, throw in a silencer if you want but imo it isn't worth it really, sometimes appearing on the minimap is a great way to pull guys over your claymores. When you have an opponent, charge them firing with your pistol then ALWAYS follow up with a knife, rebind it if you must. I have nearly 2000 kills overall and 52 of them are with the knife. KEEP MOVING, never stay still, always be shifting positions, use the grass, use any cover, play like a real soldier basically. In a pitch battle for a biolab, play something else, as TR the T1 cycler comes highly recommended, on the medic class. When you have the chance to knife, only follow it up if the person hasn't moved since you first saw them, if they seem skitish, throw in some handgun rounds to finish the job, I usually slice then pap pap pap, works every time. Using the SAOS-20 is not so much about aiming well or the right attachments, it's about changing your entire look at the class. I started getting slammed using it, now I run lone assaults on mediocre defenses, advancing at night, shutting down a tech plant or amp station. My KDR was 0.2 with it at first, now it's 2, and only going up. Don't get me wrong, it needs buffing, atleast a 30 clip, but other than that, I am happy.
The Automatic scout rifles are not worth the terrible stats they give. They are fundamentally lacking in damage and ammo. Every Carbine/Assault rifle has a better TTK(time to kill) than the scout rifles. Hell even pistols give them a run for their money. "use it as a sneak up behind weapon..." No. You use knife + pistol for that. You dont intentionally **** yourself for something you can already do with any rifle equipped. They need more ammo in the magazine, and more ammo supplied to make them worth it.
The cloak actually works amazingly well almost every time, you know when you stop moving the cloak becomes MUCH better and makes you incredibly hard to see, right? Crouch, dont move, and dont look around too much, and you can easily uncloak and ambush enemies.
