I feel as if human infantry really need sidearms, playing as human infantry sucks for a player but human infantry are fine as a commander the reason being that this game is made to scale and done so incredibly well, a soldier with a rifle is very obviously useless against a car or even a buggy with a machine gun or against an armored scorpion that shoots explosives as it should be but as a player when vehicles are so accessible and tech goes so quick it makes infantry kinda suck to play as so I feel sidearms are a nice quality of life even if they aren't able to be taken advantage of as the commander.
-Scout, the scouts stick is being fast so I feel fine if he doesn't have a side arm and think he actually shouldn't get one but a cool idea could be a speed stim or a landmine even if its a 1 time use thing or has a cooldown, let a player take advantage of the speed and enjoy doing scouting.
-Rifleman, some kind of grenade launcher/grenade, it could be a one in the chamber kind of thing, just something even if its hard to hit or poor accuracy just so you have the chance to outplay a quad and not given certain death, could also have ammo.
-Heavy, A pistol. plain simple and mostly useless but it feels quite silly to just be stuck with an rpg in every single fighting situation, let them try and shoot down a grab running them down or give the potential to have a gun fight with a rifleman even if they would be severely out dps'd, just give the player some way to not feel so silly zigzagin from bullets until your next rocket barrage is ready.
Marksman, honestly the sniper is very well made and doesn't really need a side arm, some kind of emp or stun bullet might be cool though, like you get only 3 shots of it or it has a cooldown and it can stun a vehicle or creature for x amount of time.
Commando, sort of has the same issue as the heavy, the explosive rifle just feels a little silly at all times, maybe a more accurate rifle secondary for infantry.
#Human infantry are useless
ashen kernel
dreamy matrix
This line of thought might change when resorces might potentially be limited through future map designs and resorces changes
ashen kernel
the sidearms just have some potential to give the player more impact and synergy while playing as an infantry
soft crypt
sidearms are very much planned for the future by the dev 
i belive he said it would be a choosable sidearm that every class has access to
like you choose your class then choose sidearm
but im not 100% sure
ashen kernel
I really hope he ends up doing it
soft crypt
very much a nessesary element to give the proper fps infantry feel!
something interesting he also mentioned was that he wanted to add something along the lines of a bomb or c4 that infantry can use against vehicles and buildings
which would make infantry a lot more important in battle
soft crypt
the sidearms just have some potential to give the player more impact and synergy...
here's an example of him mentioning it btw if you were wondering https://youtu.be/yklUh22WNs4?t=5877
ashen kernel
something interesting he also mentioned was that he wanted to add something alon...
yes definitely, give the player that light at the end of the tunnel that they might be able to outplay a tank somehow
soft crypt
here's an example of him mentioning it btw if you were wondering https://youtu.b...
if my copy link for a specific time in video actually worked 😂
glossy bear
Wait until infantry transports are released, then we can talk about balance. Useless rn
ashen kernel
Wait until infantry transports are released, then we can talk about balance. Use...
That's also very true but my title was more of just a click bait as I don't actually find them useless, there's just never a reason for a player to play as infantry over using a tank which I feel is a real shame since the game does an excellent job at making everything real to scale and the best way to experience that is a grunt carrying a big gun.
soft crypt
my man is clickbaiting on silica discord forum posts 😂
sly oriole
Skill issue
pseudo rivet
An underbarrel grenade launcher would compliment the riflemen nicely especially later in the game make it like an upgrade (HEAT grenades not great against tanks and not OP against infantry) make it a toggle ability from the commander perspective (like the rangers flashbang ability from C&C generals), I agree with the heavy having a sidearm, and I think the explosive rifle is fine for the commando but maybe some type of demo charge and a sort of way to be stealthier like a prone ability that makes them harder for the commanders to detects unless there are other unit within like 25-50 yards but they obviously move at a crawl when they are prone and are much more detectable while crawling.
ashen kernel
Skill issue
anyone can spawn on a mountain as a marksman and headglitch while shooting for 10 minutes at a building and make a unit viable, Im more interested in making suggestions for the game to have more engaging gameplay and have more interesting interactions between unit types so that they aren't as one dimensional
crimson wren
sidearms seem pretty meaningless for humans, you're asking for a low capacity weapon that would struggle to perform vs anything. Human infantry need upgradeable sidegrades or expansions to utility more than they need pistols.
even then a lot of human infantry is plenty useful, you just don't lead the attack with them.
distant scroll
Might we also have some other things added to infantry?
- Scouts should have larger lines of sight. It's in their name, let the commander see farther, or maybe a deployable sensor?
-Riflemen what about grenades or a grenade launcher instead of a pistol?
-Marksman and Heavy need a pistol, agreed.
-Commando, I haven't played and don't have an opinion on it yet.
And maybe these "upgrades" don't need to be on the bog standard troops the commander makes, but should definitely be on the FPS folks.