Cass Caul
Namtar Elite
Gallente Federation
40
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Posted - 2013.08.09 04:31:00 -
[1] - Quote
Almost 3 months ago was when you create a thread in General Discussion saying that if we wanted you to know about a specific issue then we should mail your EVE character. Under a different character I sent you a 6 part mail, as the character limit in DUST did not allow me to write in whole.
I mentioned 2 things, Sniper Rifles and View Distance.
Within the first 5 days of Uprising it was obvious that those of us playing since January 10th used suits with 600-700 total HP.
I claimed that the Tactical Sniper Rifle variants had lost all killing power, and that Sniper Rifles could no longer deal the damage they did before. Citing my use of a Kaalakiota Tactical Sniper Rifle where 3 body shots couldn't kill an Advanced Caldari Assault Suit. While a prototype Caldari Logistics enemy soaked 2 head-shots (Now this was before the +10% to all weapon damage, and the removal of Caldari Logistics' bonus to extenders).
The standard variant was not much better. A head-shot from an Ishukone Sniper Rifle does not kill; a Basic Logistics suit can withstand one merely by bringing their passive skills, Armor Upgrades and Shield Upgrades, to 5 (though I suspect less is actually needed).
Then the issue of View Distance. On May the 6th, one could only see 100m on their own. With a zooming scope they could get to about 250m, and with the aid of another player (them being within 100m themselves) 350m was the cap. After that player models disappeared.
CCP LaFerrari commented and called it, "graphics optimization."
100m? That should have been unacceptable if the first place! That means that if I were to watch a football game (either variety) from 1 end of the field to the other people would just magically disappear!
There have been some improvements since, but they still reach an absolute maximum of 450m. This is cause for alarm. As Large Railguns and Sniper Rifles have a range of 599m, none of them can see their own weapon's range.
I'm a Chicago native. Love it here in a nice city, but made my friends in college out of state. When they come to visit for the first time, we go off to Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower). We take a full elevator ride to the top and look out the Sky Deck. That is 412m high. The maximum view distance in this game would make sure that nothing at ground level would be visible to me. And you even comprehend how ridiculous that is? That is just barely over a quarter mile (0.256mi) Could you imagine driving on a highway and only being able to a quarter-mile? That's not even 3 seconds away in an LAV at full speed.
Now, the CPM is not known for their battlefield prowess so this may come to a surprise for you: in competitive 8v8 corp battles, having a good sniper was a huge boon. From atop a perch, or Manus Peak, they could survey the entirety of the map. They could call out where enemy units were, which direction they were heading, and what type of suit they were in. All of that could be done before the Assault, Heavies, Logistics, and Scouts got anywhere near the other team.
Not only could they provide such tactical information to the team, but they could also kill people.
Currently a Prototype weapon can't kill a prototype suit. In all forms of battle the Sniper feels blind. They cannot tell a teammate where an enemy is, for the teammate must see them before the sniper can.
These combined to turn the Sniper Rifle into an item with one feeling: frustration.
The Vet Snipers are frustrated that we can't kill and we can't see. While people continue to bemoan red-line snipers, those of us there were competitive pre-Uprising feel like we are constantly ignored. We want our weapons to be what they were. Instead they have been reduced to the tool of kill stealing. For that is all they can really do. Pick off the people our teammates already found and injured. Or we can ping the guys near our allies and have our hard-earned kills stolen from us.
As of 1.1 even when we were close enough that we could see people, they all meshed into the buildings. 1.3 made it worse. I don't even know how you could make this worse, but they brought back headglitching. A problem they said they fixed in Uprising. A problem they said they fixed in Uprising. One where people are completely visible where you can see their entire body yet they have 100% cover.
Almost at the 3 month mark for PC as well. Where teammates still shout at the snipers to shoot people we can't see or kill people we can't kill. The only way to be competitive in PC is to use the Officer Weapon, the Thale's TAR-07 Sniper Rifle. A weapon in limited quantity, one that shouldn't be based on how we balance things, is the only way to remain competitive in PC.
There is a solution to this: Damage Modifiers. This has to be the worst contributor to horrible balancing of this weapon. There are 4 suits to choose from if one wants to use the sniper rifle: Amarr, Minmatar, and Caldari Logistics suits or the Caldari Assault suit. The idea of a Heavy/Sentinel Sniper has always been silly, without at least 1 equipment slot for a nanohive you would not be very helpful, But having the ability to choose mobility over health was a nice option. Now, it is about how many damage mods you can stack. Without the minimum of 3 complex damage modifiers on your sniper's suit you might as well not bother.
I remember the end of Chromosome well. On several occasions I would go 20/0 with my arbiter suit, replacing the MLT Sniper Rifle for the STD Tactical Sniper Rifle. 10 head-shots for 10 kills, 20 body-shots for another 10 kills.
I was very hopeful when I first sent this message, especially when I received a reply saying you had read and talked about it.
Instead of any new balancing of the weapon, with 3 solutions. Instead: Headshot damage reduced BY 20% and shield damage by 10% ...continued... |
Cass Caul
Namtar Elite
Gallente Federation
48
|
Posted - 2013.08.14 13:00:00 -
[3] - Quote
Nova Knife wrote:That said, are you saying we don't think the draw distance bugs are an issue? They are. No one in their right mind would think that people being magically invisible at (inconsistent and almost arbitrary) distance is a good thing. I do not ask if you disagree, I ask if you know why it HAS GOTTEN WORSE?
Quote:You lose my support at the notion of any sniper having perfect birds' nests on any map. They're terrible, having any sniper have line of sight to multiple (In most cases, all) objectives at any given time is just poor map design. Plain and simple. Where do you see me saying anything of that nature. I said that the Sniper's most important function should be surveying, and that the locations already exist on each map.
Quote:
I also have no sympathy for the inability for a sniper to score a OHK on any suit with any HP modules at all. OHK's are a very bad thing in a FPS game, in pretty much any circumstance. Draw distance issues aside, the sniper rifles are hilariously easy to use. Without the annoying bugs like draw distance and headglitching, sniping is just entirely too easy.
Pretty much no recoil to speak of, fast ROF, and no ballistics to worry about that would affect accuracy. Snipers have it easy. Who cares if it takes multiple shots to kill someone? It's more fun that way. The ease of use does not justify them to be any more powerful than they currently are.
You're clearly a great player and unbiased member of the CPM. Oh. Wait. You're neither. To see and to hit are very different things. Why don't you show us how easy sniping is with video capture, or just a low-res phone movie?
I can count on my fingers alone the number of times a sniper has killed my medium-range or close-range suits this build.
While, exploiting a broken system is no reason we should see -someone that is supposed to be speaking on behalf of the community- how balanced a weapon is.
Quote:Because, they've never talked to us about snipers
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