I find it a little disappointing that the Operative does not have any abilities that it can give to other players (medic = health buff & engineer = damage buff) so I would like to know what some of you guys would think a good ability for the Operative could be that he could give to other team mates.

I think that the operative should be able to give someone a radio (one pip) and they can then see enemies that the Operative spots (through iron sights and then sticks for a bit before disappearing) through walls. I think this would make actual sense since you are just radioing their exact position and it gives the Operative a more team based role as well as a more permanent one instead of just when an objective comes up.

Thoughts on this and your own ideas.

Isn't that basically Homing Beacon?

Does the homing beacon actually do that?

HB will show an enemy to all players and AI, but thats pretty useless since the AI on your team has the aggressiveness of a graqefruit. that goes the same for the skill they have that shows all enemies on the map to allies for a short period of time.

what could an OP possibly give? thinking about the class and its use, theres not really much that could be useful.. except maybe taking scavenge off of the soldier and reconfiguring it to pull off ammo/misc. supplies from dead bodies and leaving it on the ground for allies to pick up.

I do agree! Maybe like a.... a..... Uhhhhhhhhhhh........

"Homing Beacon allows you to place a red outline on an enemy by Iron Sighting on them for several seconds. This will allow the enemy to be seen by all your teammates, even through walls. The outline only lasts for a few seconds. Homing Beacon also lets you reveal enemy operatives in disguise."

Thanks bud

The OP can place enemy locations after com hacking a downed enemy. That seems to "give" quite a bit in information. It also "gives" enemy turrets to your team.

I think he should give extra supplies to friendlies by interrogating enemies, say interrogate two enemies and everyone gets one extra one time use pip of supplies.

Not a bad idea! I like it!

The Medic has the ability to transfer it's own pips to another player. Would be a little redundant to go after two enemies just for one when you change class and fill up another players pip bar to full.

But that at the expense of your own, giving you less to heal/revive with which is very important

fine. the OP can take the pips from downed enemies and gives them only to all medics.

still useless because i almost never see any of my ai as medics except when it is an escort mission. and they are bullet sponges.

Not just the medic but everyone, probably better to have it everyone in an area.

Only one player, if you do it the Operative way you give one pip to every player. It should expire if they die.

Another idea: Replace that pip transfer system the medics have for an ability to immunize people against the Operative's gas. The Operative's Gas should be in grenade form, and create an area of deadly gas that slowly drains your health until you are knocked out waiting for a medic. It would be good for clearing out objectives and sending people running for their medic, so you could sweep in and take the area. The gas would also linger in the area for eight seconds, causing all who wander into it to get the sickness.

I also wondered why the operative is the only class that can't buff other classes...

My idea was that they could give an agility boost which would speed up movement.

The way I see it working is an agility boost would make heavies as quick and as agile as mediums...mediums as quick as lights....lights would increase their ability to jump higher/farther?

I dunno...that would make more sense to me since operatives are supposed to be quick and stealthy. A boost like this could turn the tide when it comes to capturing intel or boosting an engineer to run quickly to disarm a bomb, etc.
I think the boost would need to drain out so that it doesn't get out of hand...maybe it lasts 20-30 seconds?

That is already a medic ability. It's not a drastic as making a heavy as fast as a medium, but it increases sprinting speed.

Operatives should be able to make the game connection better on multiplayer

You know how a lot of people think Engineers do too much?

Operatives undo almost everything the Engineer does. And they can take the previously-mentioned Homing Beacon ability - which will be great for marking medics or mission-critical enemies when you're too far away to take the shot yourself.

And Disguise is their specialty - turn into an enemy, vanish into their ranks, and hit them from behind as a distraction - best timing is either right before or right after your friends show up.

I just reached rank 4 with my Operative, and have been enjoying it very much. I believe they don't have any direct team buffs because the Operative, out of all 4 of the classes, is the one class best suited to working alone, or without constant contact with his teammates. This excludes hack objectives of course, when the team should support the Operative as he tries to complete them.

The Operative already has a number of very useful abilities to help his team. Most of them work indirectly, i.e. hacking a turret or spotting a mine. I'm not saying he doesn't need any more, but if he did, it would have to be something that did not require direct contact with his teammates, as that would hinder the Operative as he goes about his sneaky business. All in my opinion, of course.