I'm surprised I haven't heard noise being made about this. As of right now, the upcoming NS Sniper Rifle on the PTS is NOT class restricted. Anyone can use it. While it may not be a OHK bolt action it's still a capable weapon, functionally similar to the infiltrator's semi-auto scout rifle (Shadow, HSR-1, Nyx) able to drop a target with 2 headshots at any range with good accuracy, which it largely maintain even while moving (almost as much as the burst carbines) This could have a lot of potential when combined with the mobility perks of a jetpack. I'm mostly a semi-auto user anyway on my infiltrator so trading my cloak for to function as a mid-sniper with a jetpack is pretty tempting. But what do you all think? If this goes live as an all access weapon, how many would pick it up?
I hope it's not. I would like it on my medic. Finally a battle rifle with decent damage. Faq current battle rifles.
Possibly, but I'm not holding my breath that it is. So far the 'infiltrator' crossbow went to all classes. But also it doesn't really make sense for the NS Sniper to be an infiltrator only weapon. It is so close to the semi-scout in stats, function, and performance. What differences there are tend to be so minor that they're practically the same weapon. It has lower velocity, but less bullet drop that offsets it back to being about on par with the scout. It has a slower reload, and ever so slightly better hip fire (on a semi...) but all of this is so minor as to be unnoticeable in it's use unless you go looking for it. Since it first hit test, I've been asking myself why they would even bother. But if the intent was to give it to all classes... well that's a whole other story. I'm not a huge fan of it, but the more I think about it, the more likely it seems.
We're fairly sure that it's just not yet been restricted...which is the only reason we're not really saying anything about it. At this point though, it really wouldn't shock me.
They call it a sniper when it's basically a scout rifle. So consider it to be a scout rifle that all factions can use. Now if they give it to all classes they are going to make the existing battlerifles pretty much useless. It has equal velocity, but does more damage. However, this is offset by the small magazine...but does that really matter on a battlerifle? Accuracy at a distance and stopping power are the major selling points to a battlerifle, so the smaller mag size isn't a huge con. I would love for this gun to be available across all classes. From what I've seen in the test server, it's essentially a weak sniper rifle, which isn't something I care for with the inf class but something I would love with all others. Especially the light assault...
This could be very interesting if it goes live for all classes Does anyone know what scopes it will take? ie short range, long range or both?
On test it has access to all the scopes a scout rifle does, So rail, 1x-6x and IRNV. Honestly, it's not the kind of weapon you want the long range scopes on, let alone be restricted to them.
It could be fun, but even if it will go to live servers it would propably be changed in one week. There would be like tons of op/nerf threads
What about MKV SMG? It's basically an NS-7 PDW with preinstalled suppressor. I too don't know why would they bother releasing once again what we already have, but I wouldn't be surprised if NS sniper rifle turned out to be exactly that.
It will be for all classes. Them crossbows and the NS sniper is going to be big money makers for SOE!
The MKV has a purpose, though. It has the best velocity and the least bullet drop (just a little less than an unsuppressed NS-7 PDW) of any suppressed SMG by a pretty significant margin. That's enough, for me at least, to justify it's existence. The minor RoF increase (~5%) is just a perk. The NS sniper rifle on the other hand is practically identical to the Shadow (NC semi-scout). It's classified as a sniper rifle so it has less bullet drop over range, but it's velocity is 70 m/s less, making the bullet drop virtually identical between the two weapons. The NS sniper's bullet just takes longer to get there. The only legit differences are that The NS sniper has a longer reload and slightly better hip fire, which isn't exactly practical on rifle weaponry due to an already large base CoF, and low RoFs. If this is meant to be an infiltrator only weapon, other than aesthetic, there's nothing significant there to set it apart. It would essentially be a re-skin. I can't really say that of any two other weapons, there's always something there to separate them.
I guess all is fair in a "free" game, but, personally, I'm distressed when they release a weapon with basically same model and marginal difference in stats. As for the NS rifle, it is on the test server. In a normal game, test server would contain an almost finished product, available to players for testing, to see if anything needs to be adjusted. In PS2 it's safe to say that pretty much everything on the test server doesn't deserve attention, because it has no correlation with what gets put into the game, and what doesn't.
Of course, of course. I'm not saying that this is absolutely and is going to happen. Just making the point that possibility exists, is supported by circumstance, and at this point may well become reality. I wanted to hear what others thought of that possibility. The NS Sniper Rifle offers no new potential to the infiltrator class it's current iteration. Some might even say it's worse than what's already available. There's not much sense in releasing something like that. It won't sell well, and it's doubtful at best that it will enrich the class. So, it's very real possibility that it's not intended solely for the infiltrator class. During it's time on test, nothing has occurred to disrupt that line of reasoning. While other weapons have undergone several major revision, the NS sniper's stats remain unchanged, nor has it been class restricted, only receiving graphic and audio tweaks. It could just be that it's a very low priority behind the ES rifles, or this could just be where they intend the weapon to be. It's not set in stone, of course. They could very well take the weapon back to the drawing board on it's stats-- and frankly, I hope they do-- but until then, as of right now, the latter assumption does seem to be the more the more likely to become reality.
