Sniper rifle buff?

[Tamanfodder]

I know what this may sound but read this first before feeding the possible trolls!

I remember reading a topic about adding special mutions (plasma core, AM-core Alien Marerial jacket .etc.) to the quicly obsoleting projectile weapons. It has a chance to be refined!

Such ammo would be made of WAYYY too expensive materials for automatic weapons. BUT How about Alien material tipped ammo for sniper rifles Idea behind this is that: Sniper rifle gets castrated way too soon on the game! And the replacement: Coilgun, i hawe newer even seen a needler on campaing so far... Also what ive tested on skirmish: The coilgun is ridicilously bulky! Idea is to add the MUCH needed stopping power to your poor snipers on mid-game and to get a way to get rid of the exess alien materials that start conquering your storage spaces! Alien materials are heavy = more kinetic energy = more penentration! And they can change shape when stimulated with electricity = shape chande when inside enemy = massive damage! 

[Hertzila]

While I'm all for new ammunition, I think a new sniper rifle for mid game would be better (buffed bolter?) than simply giving the old one a boost.
Also while alien materials might be heavy, I think that PHALANX might as well use DU rather than alien materials for the penetrator. If the alien stuff is heavier than DU... Well, it explains just why they need all that AM for flying.
Also (times two), I don't think you could fit a small enough battery into the round to cause the change in shape.

[CheeseshireCat]

I don't think even battery powered shape-change would rival either explosive, fragmenting, or infamous Black Talon munitions.

Also, there are actually existing IRL sniper ammo which change shape -- though they use piesoelectricity and do so to control flight.

[morse]

You can use self-propelling sniper rifle ammo with AM engine.

[Hertzila]

You can use self-propelling sniper rifle ammo with AM engine.

Isn't possible unless you make a whole new sniper rifle and/or ammunition with a magnetic AM containment chamber. The normal sniper ammo is too small to feature it and so the bullets would just explode instantly when the AM is placed inside.

[Tamanfodder]

The alien material ammo was just an example! The idea is to make a better ammo for sniper rifle to keep it useful on the mid-game before you get the coilgun. The fact what sort of ammo and what are its technical carachteristics is not my point! It can be improviced at the certain degree...

On all its simplicity sniper rifle has been castrated and needs its balls back at the mid-game! 

[gl0w]

It seems to me that the laser rifles just need an aimed shot that uses sniper skill.

[Hertzila]

It seems to me that the laser rifles just need an aimed shot that uses sniper skill.

Or a somehow special laser sniper rifle, which may turn redundant because lasers are already damn accurate. Perhaps the speciality could be an ability to give much more potent burst fire in the expense of (hugely) lowered mag size and bang-for-buck ratio (simply put, magazines used for laser snipers could, in the amount of damage per magazine, give more damage overall because the sniper "wastes" some of it for the increased burst damage).
I have no idea if anything can explain how it works or whether it fits the game though.

[vulkus]

Just looking at the Ufopedia, the Sniper ammo is massive. 20x140mm HMG, a round that size and the velocities involved would shred the barrel in no time. I'm assuming that the distance of 90.
A possible updgrade to the sniper rilfe isn't ammo, they are already quite big and beefy. A better idea would be recoil reducers/flash supressor forward facing which has a similar effect, to make it more accurate shoot out to 100, heavier barrel to again increase accuracy shoot out to 110. Trade off with these upgrades is user requires heavy and sniper skill to use. I don't think taking it over 110 would be practicle as it would put the laser weapons out of use.
The possibility of making the weapon out of alien materials to reduce the weight, weapon only requires sniper skill. This might have the effect of reducing the distance to say 100 but gives more TU's.

As for lasers, heavy is a better option for sniper it already has great range. A decent upgrade might be focused optics to further increase range and its ability to pass better through particulate.
I tend to favour hybrids, I would think that the best upgrade for the heavy laser would be after researching the plasma blaster, you would then be presented with the ability to research a new heavy laser based on the plasma principle. This would give you a heavy laser that still shoots to 120 but has increased damage, somewhere around the 85 mark, with a trade off in wave mode only. The weapon would use pre existing alien plasma rifle ammo.