On this note, I really want to say that there really shouldn't be upgrades to the default sniper rifles.
That is a good point but i dont really think that applies well in planetside due to the size of bases. If we were on The Crown for instance, i would agree with you. Most bases arent really that large and can be fully seen from a hill
This account is not my main and was made specifically for that thread, which was written by and worked on by over 15 people server wide, and edited by me. Its also a bit tongue in cheek, but only people with a sense of humor would detect that. Whereas I have the right to speak for myself, you certainly don't have the right to speak for me. I don't believe you are really the deadliest moon either.
Yes, SOE and gaming companies have never made poor choices that have resulted in less players. Ever. Everyone was happy with GOD expansion in EQ and everyone was happy with what happened in SWG. Heck, even in planetside2 everyone was SO thrilled with implants that SOE decided to scrap it and go back to the drawing board! You may be happy to roll over, not everyone is. My 'better solution' addressed all range of rifles, sorry if you missed that. Reread it with less ranty eyes. Curious what your 'solution' is, as a sniper. By saying someone 'let me' put them down with a TMG-50 and 4x scope you're saying the same thing many snipers are. Want to counter us? Move. A good sniper can no longer use their darts because they show up VERY obviously on their minimap. Counter snipers, vehicles (negating 'invisible' if they move), and sniper-hunters are all still very real threats. Best position is often closer range than render distance, but farther than 150m. What is your 'solution' for long range tank bombers that are in 'no danger when they open fire' or libs or...? If it goes through as is it'll be curious to see what people want done with things like engie turrets with the same or longer range and more leathalety - do you have your post ready for that, too?
On the contrary, There are plenty of bases of adequate size, and aside from that...these factors extend beyond the bases themselves due to the fluid nature of the maps. In other words, it permits people to extend beyond the bases and enshroud themselves within the actual terrain surrounding them...so it's not just a matter of covering the base alone. Doesn't matter if the base itself is small or not...the maps themselves are huge and there will always be high priority targets scattered throughout a sizable area. The Crown is a very good example though, you're right there. With all that said, you don't balance sniping by converting the BASRs into short ranged weapons. The entire system of long ranged sniping is balanced through the incorporated time sinks that ultimately equate to the death run and gun oriented players suffer. Death is irrelevant in Planetside 2, the only true punishment from death is the loss of time. Death is the primary cause of lost time for run and gun oriented players...but for long ranged snipers, it's the time sinks incorporated into the entire system. We have to travel to an adequate position to snipe from. We have to re-chamber a round after every shot. We have to wait for players to stand still, giving us the perfect opportunity to take that shot. We have to land that perfect headshot on a target that could move, and blow the entire shot, at any moment. All this takes time, intelligence, and precision. It's fundamentally different from the playing style that a run and gun oriented player enjoys...where twitch response time is key coupled with superb situational awareness. A long ranged sniper relies more upon their intellect and precision shooting, a completely different challenge altogether. The way you balance long ranged sniping is to toy around with those time sinks until the experience gain of the overall long ranged sniping community is on par with the run and gun oriented players within a given amount of time. Our time to kill ratio needs to be around the kill to death ratio of run and gun players, and if it is...we're balanced. In regards to the possibility of too many snipers...you provide the class with lucrative infiltration options that also follow this unique playing style instead of the run and gun oriented SMG play, then you'll have plenty of snipers coming in from time to time to experience that alternate, but similar, tyle of playing style. The SMG builds are good for those who actually do enjoy run and gun oriented gameplay but still want to play a stealth related class...but they don't cater to those who do not enjoy run and gun gameplay. You need something similar to sniping, such as a very stealth oriented melee and espionage mechanic which ties into the knife, stealth, and hacking.
I run an anti-sniper loadout on my heavy assault class, and, man, you can SHRED at close range as well as long, with a 6x scope and power to rival a sniper. The only problem for most people is, they aren't a sniper themselves, and it takes a sniper to kill a sniper in their domain when not using the infiltrator class. Hell, with as little as the 3.4x I could probably kick some butt against enemy snipers. It's not that you CAN'T take them out past 150m, it's that most people find it to be too hard to do so and are not persistent enough or skilled enough to follow through. Try playing infiltrator and getting good at it, then play your other classes, it will be much easier to counter them and play to your heart's content.
1.) I'm not sure if you're using "you" so as to imply that I think what I do because I'm a sniper, and therefore biased. I'm not a sniper (minus the few situations that call for it). The overwhelming majority of my time is on the HA or Engineer. I know this might be a startling realization for you, but maybe you're the one that's actually biased against snipers? Something to consider before you go making random assumptions about everyone who disagrees with you. 2.) If snipers are sniping at 300m, then they're not killing many people at all. One major factor in the balance of this is range vs efficiency. If you're sniping at 300m you might kill a person per minute, but so will me doing a ton of other ridiculous things that you can't predict. In Planetside 2 there's a way to be killed presented every few seconds; most infantry die far more than they kill anything. Comparatively, getting killed from 300m away out of random because you stood still is hardly significant. 3.) If a sniper is at 300m and somehow, some miraculous way, he is actually kind of annoying and threatening to you, then pull out your sniper and kill him in a few seconds. You can easily figure out where is he, then get your bolt action, and then line up a headshot since he has to be stationary to accurately fire. 4.) The 'danger' argument is pointless, but I feel that you'll somehow change your argument to only apply to snipers no matter what example I give. Anyway, I can do much more against you and your ENTIRE platoon solo-libbing at 1000m with a Zephyr at less risk and exponentially more potential payout. And what 'risk' are we talking about anyway? That I might die? I respawn a few seconds later. What benefit makes sniping at 300m so overpowered anyway? Death is barely a drawback in this game, and the only downside it has is you need to go back into your old position. But if I'm sniping at 300m I might not die, but I'll probably accomplish nothing. If I'm sniping at 150m I might die a couple of times, but I'm also accomplishing a lot more with each life. I see NO REASON to not let people play how they want to play. If someone wants to sit back at 300m all day getting a few kills, but having FUN while barely annoying anyone else (compared to everything else you can do in this game), then why the $%#@ shouldn't we let them?
HAHAHAHA, MY, MY. You say that is if it were hard with the TMG-50. It's not as accurate, but you sure can do it, and it works really well. Oh, a mechanic to hold your breath exists as well, didn't ya' know?
1. Not for me, and many others. It destroys long-range sniping. 2. Oh, so suddenly only players with NW care about dieing. Wtf? Plenty of high BR don't use NW, yes and they include engi's on AV and heavies using rockets. I'm not saying it's the majority, but a decent amount. 3. I kill NW players all day. It's called shooting twice... Most NW will drop from two like anyone else. However if people choose not to use NW in favour of something else why should they recieve this buff? 4. Don't know if this is directed at me? But if you read my post I don't use one.
There are plenty of excellent snipers at the 150m+ range. I routinely get Savior bonus kills when I'm sniping. But you're right that trying to snipe from 150m away is happy time for anyone with a LMG to instagib you.
Look SOE has thrown lots of things to us infiltrators and guess what doesn't matter what they nerf we're still the best class in the whole game imo. Our skill curve allows us to excel at most conditions compared to other classes so this I dont see a problem about it besides you want to stay closer anyways to be at effective range. Its hard to play infiltrator we have the one of the steepest learning curve compared to other classes from this game and other games in fact but then again we're one of those high risk high reward kind of thing either you kill everyone on sight or you dont.
I don't play HA much and when I do I rarely ADS, and when I do I feel like there is no breath limit. Is that right, or am I just crazy(ier than I already am)
The fact that they develop and market the game does not make them automatically right. Ideas like that spread through gaming forums exponentially over the last decade. It expresses the same unenlightened consumer mentality as the idea that customers have to blindly accept profit optimization by companies that go against their interest. Its funny that the only profession that truly did grasp stakeholder theory is public relations and hell do we do a good job using it while working against.. ahhhm with.. with.. our stakeholder groups... Your argument by itself is a bit problematic: A) We have more likely objective opinions about things if they are important to us. B) Statistical Data is not interpreted subjectively, incorrectly or unethically. -> C) Someone has an opinion about something that is important to him, that is based on statistical data, therefore this opinion is likely objective, correct and ethical. I do not need to show you in detail how easily that argument goes down the drain, do I ?
Could they implement an ability that allows for this class to have the OHKO/damage increase from any range with certain rifles if you equip this over cloak? Example: we have the cloack ability or the damage reduction ability at current. What if they offer a third option: always visible on map, no cloaking, but gives a damage buff while active and uses the same energy as the current cloak does?
Sniping is pointless and boring and a waste of time. It contributes almost nothing to actual team fights, much like light assaults. I do not feel it adds anything to the game and SOE might as well take it out entirely given the current state it is in. Even if you spend 15 minutes getting into a great position where you can overlook the battlefield and snipe people who think they are protected from an unexpected angle...they are back in 10 seconds, no worse for the wear. Despite the fact this game has TONS of instant one hit kill effects, people really react angrily to being one shot by an invisible dude they never saw and was never in harms way (as far as they know). So snipers always come in for a lot of flack, even if their general impact on a battles outcome is low. Right now sniping mostly seems to serve as a method for people to try to 'rack up kills from safety' which is a pointless role that no platoon needs filled. Infiltrators running stealthed with SMGs, hacking terminals and turrets and laying down mines and providing intel (please make recon darts not suck so much?) actually do provide a lot of utility to a platoon, so the class isn't hopeless. In fact, I think they provide more team utility than LA, by far (who are in a bad spot right now, admittedly, so that's not a high bar to clear). I don't see much value in spending lots of time trying to fine tune the sniping. It's just a side show where people try to pad their K/D ratios. Occasionally someone gets head shot and comes and whines that snipers are OP, occasionally a sniper dies and comes and whines that snipers are UP. I could not care less about the success of your lone wolf sniping operation. It's a team game. Likewise, I couldn't care less if you got sniped while standing on top of the spawn room with a lock on launcher. I'm so sorry you lost 10s of your valuable life.
You are entitled to an opinion but I and most of us snipers/infiltrators here on the forum respectively disagree. Sniping is as much a part of the game as anything else in Planetside. Firstly, it doesn't always take 15 minutes to get into a great position. I spent less time going to place out in open and obvious space and racking up decent streaks. Death does have an effect in this game as in any: What if they don't have a local enough spawn point or if their nearest spawn point is 15 minutes out? What if the battle is big and intense. That person not only has to spend the 15 minutes walking up the advance but he also has to take cover from anything else that wants to kill him thus making him ineffective until he makes it to the frontlines. I think the time I spent going to that spot is well spent because I can take out more people and put pressure on the battlefield like any good sniper/infiltrator. The more I take out, the more those 15 minutes paid off. A good sniper has presence on the battlefield and that places pressures on things like major defenses/advances. A snipers/infiltrators job is to help undermine what makes the enemy strong (i.e. anything supporting an advance or allowing the defenders to stay dug in) so that the primary force can push in on that newly created weak point and coordinated platoons are the ones that profit from making good use of this class and it's strengths and utility. Whether I play in a small squad of 6-7 members or a giant platoon filled with several large outfits, my skills as an infiltrator are called upon regularly and the sniper rifle is one of my many assets at my own disposal. I'm pretty sure there are a few large outfits out there that see the potential in a full squad of infiltrators which many have commonly codenamed "Reapers". xD Why are we bringing the LA's into this? But since you brought it up, Light Assaults are essentially CQC Infiltrators with jetpacks, 100 more shields, a broader selection of weapons that fit the roles LA's have and can play, and oh--let's not forget--anti-vehicle/anti-max capabilities. Like any class, LA's can be devastating if used properly. You lack vision/imagination then. You might see it as a K/D padder but as I said before about LAs; any class, when used properly, can be devestating. A single well trained sniper has presence on the battlefield--and can be pretty damn annoying to deal with; just imagine the effect 12 would have.
