In the games that I've seen and played, yes. I'm still seeing primarily scallops and lobster with some grizzlies, with some ducks raiding. A lot fewer lobsters than before at least, it's usually maxing out at 2. I have never seen any amph player other than myself build a single archer, at least that I have noticed in an mp game.
I'm not set on torpedoes per say for archers (though I do think you could probably do something like fast firing small torpedoes out of each arm). The idea is to have just one weapon that can hit any one thing though, and avoid the double weapon problem scallops have. If possible I was thinking to use the trajectory fire feature that Shogun has to give it the artillery option. The conception was to stay with the current method scallop+archer work under, and force it to bob up to the surface to fire so underwater shenanigans.
If it doesn't go for torpedoes but instead goes for the current weapon or a sonic blaster or such it probably gives up artillery duty to the ducks. Which is probably okay. A small sonic weapon does sound kind of interesting and if kept for land as well kind of makes more sense than the current water jet I think. I'm not sure I like the idea though because it feels easy to end up with a too samey vibe going between archers and scallops. I guess if archer's range was reduced somewhat then it could be even more like venom/redback with archer being a closer ranged dpsdisable and scallop being longer ranged dpsdps.
The specifics of weapon type aside, I think I do kind of like Archer being the lower range unit, with a moderate AoE and relatively constant unavoidable damage and the Scallop longer max range and more variable damage. I think I also prefer Archer as the artillery lite over ducks, because spammable artillery is kind of sling.
Shaman: If Scallop was going to lose its shotgun, the archer would be buffed significantly for land damage so that it could be a real riot unit. The purpose is to share roles, not remove them. I think archer being the riot for subsurface water is more likely though.
This thread is open to suggestions as to whether anyone actually likes my ideas or thinks they have better ideas as to what to do with archer/scallop/amph.