I'm suggesting a Bolt Action sniper rifle that would be unique in appearance, but chiefly the same for each of the factions. Onto the short list of details. 1: The rifle begins with a 12x scope and cannot use any lower magnification scopes. This will help it to be a long range only sniper rifle. Scopes can go up to 18x, possibly. 2: The rifle gets supersonic rounds with the same damage potential as the most powerful bolt action for each faction. 3: The reload speed of the rifle is fairly slow. 4: This weapon only has a one round magazine (it has to be action-loaded instead of magazine loaded). 5: A total of only ten bullets are allowed. This is to encourage long distance, careful sniping. 6: Due to the weight of such a rifle, running speed is slightly reduced while it's being held. 7: Taking out the weapon is a fairly lengthy process, which further encourages long range and finding good spots in which to hide. If there's anything you'd like to pick at, then go ahead. I feel that the supersonic rounds are completely made up for by the limited ammunition, the slow characteristics of the weapon, and the limitations of it encouraging very long range.
If you want, it could be tested. Go out to 1KM and test how long it takes the bullet to get there with a teammate. If it's longer than 3 seconds, it's subsonic. If our rounds are supersonic, then the point of this rifle could be to have faster bullets, but only be useful at very long ranges. (Honestly, how many people would use a 12x scope at 200m?)
Bolt-action sniping is in a good place at the moment. It doesn't need any improvements except to render distance. By the sounds of it, you want ultra fast bullets to which I respond: long range sniping is easy enough already, really. Sniper rifles also violate the sidegrade philosophy at the moment. The Longshot/RAMS/Parallax are clearly the best (fortunately not by much, but still). We don't need more sniper rifles, especially not for long range but rather some finetuning of the other rifles to make operating at closer ranges more attractive.
Well, that's a great reply, and I have to admit that the bolt actions are upgrades over the other instead of side grades. Yes, using a 12x scope at 500m is sorta easy. I just need to get more adjusted to bullet drop and leading. (last FPS games I played were hitscan... TF2 and Wolf Team. Ugh.)
Or we can take a look at the data mined weapon stats. The sound barrier at sea level is ~340 m/s. The NC-14 bolt driver is sitting at 550. The slowest I'm seeing on any sniper rifle, including the semi-autos, is 500 m/s.
Really? I apologize. I've not seen the weapon stats. So, these bullets are flying at nearly Mach 2. Incredible.
Are you sure those numbers are m/s? If so it is very fast. Especially with planetside 2 metres being much longer than real metres... People are already having fun sitting somewhere on a mountain and sniping on spots they shouldn't even be there. Last time I landed with my plane on a base, saw a single NC soldier (it got shot down by another guy's rocket pods) and landed. The territory was deep in TR territory, the only enemy base attached was an isolated NC base. Guess what killed me? Don't encourage people to camp spaces that don't help your faction with making camping even easier and possible from even greater distance.
When I snipe, I tend to do so from extreme ranges and yes... bullet travel is very fast. Even if PS2 meters are longer than normal, it will scale the calculations to fit the defined dimension sizes.
Yeah, it might be why my sniper shots from 500 meters, after adjusting for drop, are calculated as a headshot in less than a second.
It's been suggested before, OP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-materiel_rifle Supposedly the TR's RAMS .50M is an anti-material rifle (judging by it's caliber in the in-game description), but in-game it only deals slightly higher damage with a slightly higher bullet velocity compared to the rest of the TR's bolt-action rifles. That's actually not that fast for a bullet. A real-life M16 has a muzzle velocity of ~1000 m/s.
Uhh, you know almost all guns currently IRL are supersonic? I think you may want to reexamine your explanation lol. Not sure if you have seen people shot or been near people shot but they get hit a while before you hear the round, that applies to almost all guns except a very few specifically made to be subsonic.
You can't really say bolt rifles are a direct upgrade and not a side grade when you are changing FUNCTION when you go from a semi-auto to a bolt action. This is the biggest problem with all the sniper kiddies is they are only focused purely on sitting as far away as possible picking off the occasional kill with a headshot. Semi-autos are made for closer engagements and being far more mobile, you sacrifice your mobility and effective support for one shotting with a headshot from range. It is a side grade and it makes me sad people aren't intelligent enough to understand it. For you, it may feel like a direct upgrade but measuring it against the other weapons it is actually not a direct upgrade.
(Quote from OP) 1: The rifle begins with a 12x scope and cannot use any lower magnification scopes. This will help it to be a long range only sniper rifle. Scopes can go up to 18x, possibly. 2: The rifle gets supersonic rounds with the same damage potential as the most powerful bolt action for each faction. 3: The reload speed of the rifle is fairly slow. (Giving Better Idea on Reload time below) 4: This weapon only has a one round magazine (it has to be action-loaded instead of magazine loaded). 5: A total of only ten bullets are allowed. This is to encourage long distance, careful sniping. 6: Due to the weight of such a rifle, running speed is slightly reduced while it's being held. Equipped 7: Taking out the weapon is a fairly lengthy process, which further encourages long range and finding good spots in which to hide. Equal if not longer then taking out an LMG / RL Each shot reload is equal to the Bolt Driver or Slightly less Allow better then 12x Scopes but not forced Chest Damage will outright kill a Infranty UNLESS Nano 1 or 2 is equipped Headshot now kill Nano Lvl 5 straight Damage to a tank is equal to a 1/4 of a rocket Damge to an ESF is equal to 1/3 - 1/5 (Lib takes twice as many hits) Have it has an Anti-Material Rifle This would make it VERY risky to use in CQC is you missed that one shot but having very high rewards for hitting shots. Cannot be far from an ammo pack for too long otherwise you run out of ammo. Able to help you team in taking out Tanks and Air without having to get Bursters or an RL. Would take longer to kill Air or Tanks then a RL or Burster but can be still useful. Make the noise DISTINTIVE when hit so that the driver KNOWS he's been hit by an AMR. If you missed hitting Infrantry then you have a LONG load time before you can re-fire. Make the Tracers Bigger and More distintive so people KNOW they are being shot at by an AMR. Make the Tracers last longer then Normal Rifles but Shorter then RL Trails.
