Does the sniper rifle need to be nerfed?

[Ildamos]

"Some people equip their entire squad with sniper rifles"

With that, I think the weapon's imba.

Maybe limit the viewing arc of the soldiers handling them? This can reflect the fact that snipers do scope and therefore have limited awareness.

[odie]

"Some people equip their entire squad with sniper rifles"

With that, I think the weapon's imba.

Maybe limit the viewing arc of the soldiers handling them? This can reflect the fact that snipers do scope and therefore have limited awareness.

Actually, i use a high accuracy rifle with 4 x scope too..... but i dun have limited awareness.... not practical.
(Yes, i was a soldier and is still active reservist.....)



We should just leave it as it is.....

Besides, in this high tech age, we have comms, so the eyes and ears of our comrades are ours too.

[Colamann]

Right now the devs are putting the finishing touches on armor, and IIRC more balancing is scheduled for the time after that is finished.

[BTAxis]

More balancing is always scheduled.

[Ildamos]

Thanks all! Good to know that the community is aware of this.

@Odie: good point. From a game's perspective though, the exclusive usage of some unit/weapon is something to be looked into however. The fact that many players exclusively use sniper rifles is very disturbing.

But ya, further discussion in this thread is moot as Colamann and BTAxis have implied that future balancing will hopefully fix this.

[Colamann]

1 thing I have to add, tho: The sniper rifle isn't the best weapon in all situations. But depending on difficulty setting, you can guide a fight in such a way that the sniper rifle (or the later analogues) are really useful. If your tactic is to charge the enemy and engage at close range, you'll do better with other weapons.

[odie]

@Odie: good point. From a game's perspective though, the exclusive usage of some unit/weapon is something to be looked into however. The fact that many players exclusively use sniper rifles is very disturbing.

But ya, further discussion in this thread is moot as Colamann and BTAxis have implied that future balancing will hopefully fix this.

I am sure it will be fixed with more balancing. Actually, i am one of those serious snipers..... With 4/8 snipers, 1 full machine gunner, 1 rocketeer (cool name i give him) and 2 assaults (turned stunners later).

Sometimes for certain maps, i even turn into 7 snipers (using coil rifles) with 1 rocketeer....

I guess like most threads already have discussed - its up to the personal preference.....

And yes, we do have our uber super handicapp...... we have to move very slowly, and do tactical fire and assault movement....... not like assaulters (i call em cos they full assault rifles on 5 rounds burst reaction fire)....... who can chiong chiong chiong (local slang for heads-on brains off charge technique).

Then again, since we are so used to our sniper techniques, we have our own tactics and style..... no need to penalize us further.... we are alr TU-penalised. lol

1 thing I have to add, tho: The sniper rifle isn't the best weapon in all situations. But depending on difficulty setting, you can guide a fight in such a way that the sniper rifle (or the later analogues) are really useful. If your tactic is to charge the enemy and engage at close range, you'll do better with other weapons.

See? This is close to what i was saying earlier..... *wink*

Indeed, engaging enemies in close quarter with SR is suicide..... unless u r doing like 3 snipers at one go..... which makes no sense..... lol. Unless u r charging tat last house in the corner where every corner but the interior is covered.

[ChunLing]

Yeah, the sniper rifle already has pretty weak DPT compared to other weapons.  And most of the maps have so much cover you have to be almost trying to get shot from long range.  More generally, if you don't use a weapon exclusively yourself, I don't think that you're in much of a position to claim that it's overpowered because others like it.  There are a lot of reasons to adopt a given playing style, ubering is only one of them.  I'm a symmetry freak myself, I hate not being able to field an even number of identically equipped teams.  Some people just think that sniper rifles are cooler than other weapons. 

[vedrit]

I say that the SR is, perhaps, the most balanced weapon. Very useful in the begining (1 shot kill) when you are still getting set up.
The SR is neither a gun to be left out, not should it be the only gun. I have 1-2 SR per squad, and have them behind the frontlines or targeting small areas (Busted second floor of the UFO, window) to stop aliens from taking pot-shots at my squad

[odie]

So in conclusion? Haha.....

We started off with the recommendations to perhaps limit SR (Sniper Rifle)'s Arc of fire and stuff.

Then we discussed what recommendations to change.....and some styles of play.

All in all, i believe that all these are still being balanced, and hence we should just keep things as they are until a much later phase - the balancing phase?

As BTAxis says,
More balancing is always scheduled. lol. As of now, i thnk we should not change the programming for firings, nor the LOF (Line of Fire) or LOS (Line of Sight) for the SR. Instead, we will simply keep the existing stats and start more balancing when more wpns come into play.

(If u really love SR as i did, try CR - Coil rifle in 2.3 dev. IT ROX! Though 2 shots, but aint tat wat Sniper Rifles are all about? 1-5 shots / mag max. lol)

[BlerFarb]

I'm a pretty successful player and I rarely use SR. I pretty much go close range until I get lasers then I'm a total laser whore. Even in the face of particle cannons due to their inferior accuracy.

[Another Guy]

Well, in a balanced team usually I'd use 4 long range ones, 2 medium range, one close range and one flamethrower/stunner. Since Rocket lauchers r useless (very good range and accuracy, but most aliens on lesser alien armor or even no armor won't die from a direct hit), along with the other heavy weapons, I just stick to coilguns to do all the long range job.

I believe there is no need to nerf the sniper. Just balance the other weapons, then its solved.

[Ildamos]

This thread started when I happen to read one poster saying "in fact other people use mostly SRs in their load outs" which bothered me greatly.

But I think this is fixed now in 2.3 where reaction fire is pretty much nerfed.

[Colamann]

Actually, what I said was 'some people use mostly sniper rifles'. 

[Ildamos]

That was you? Lol! I couldn't remember. 

It still bothered me. Anyway, 2.3's going to fix all this, judging from the above replies and what I've experienced in the dev builds.