The idea is that by using REs you will minimize your bleed. Thus, you will make a very expensive MP unit ineffective against your composition. Sure, you will never manage to kill the sniper; sure, the sniper will remain annoying. Sure, you might lose most confrontations because of that, but you will eventually win the war (because of lower MP bleed/better map control) -- and the enemy won't know if you also plan on fielding an m20 or not; that's the importance of having multiple options.
Yes, weapon racks are an issue. However, what if we made REs only able to pick up one weapon instead of dual-weapons? Or what if we gave RE's inferior versions of the weapons they pick?
please, don´t give USF snipers counters then,
if your sniper counter proposal is stop using rifles, start using RE becasue they bleed less, nerf those RE (If in the past USF only could use rifles and RE, now one of them will be nerfed by removing one slot, so more rifles everywhere) and then, on top of that, teching to LT tier to field other sniper counter (m20)....
A faction with only two stock infantery units, RE being the unit with less DPS out of the box of the game, the worse engineers of the whole game (you don´t need them to repair vehicles, so less utility, it is expesive to reinforce comparing with others engineers, you need to side tech to give them some figthing capabilities, no flamethrower upgrade, no mines...)
I think, your are a great user with great suggestions, but this one wasn´t validated by your QA department, or you didn´t take enough time to give it a though before posting it.....becasue at the end, what you are saying is, there isn´t a USF counter to sniper other than the m20, but hey, you can stop fielding the best unit of the USF arsenal and start using RE, yeah, they don´t have any figthing power, and in the actual game, they are not even cheap to maintain, but you can use them coz they will bleed you less than rifles....
Yeah, in the past, RE were cheaper to reinforce, so you could replace any lost rifle with them, coz in late game, they are more cost-effective than rifles if you give them some upgrades from racks....Problem here being that you never replaced rifles with RE in the early game, only when a rifle was lost during the match....in the early game,
YOU NEED RIFLES.
Aren´t there other options that actually give to USF a proper sniper counter???? if not, then, buffing m20 or give USF a sniper unit is a better solution imho.