Given that the Sniper Rifles are rail tech from Caldari, it makes sense to be more effective (and get bonuses again) armour. No weapon should be excluded from the rebalance, since that would just make the untouched weapon a potential FotM and everyone would flock to it.

I agree. Shield/armour bonuses should be based on racial tech.

That being said then there should also be other racial sniper class weapons to round out the array: Gallente would get a bonus against shields, Minmitar would probably explode, and the Amarr varient would be look like a gold plated Cadillac (JK)

Given that the Sniper Rifles are rail tech from Caldari, it makes sense to be more effective (and get bonuses again) armour. No weapon should be excluded from the rebalance, since that would just make the untouched weapon a potential FotM and everyone would flock to it.

And yet the knives are untouched

I can't think of any bonus in EVE that only increases damage against Shield or Armor. It's weird, it's unlike EVE, and it should be changed to be more like EVE.

To accommodate that, weapon types in DUST (Laser, Hybrid - Plasma, Hybrid - Rail, Projectile, Explosive) should be identical to EVE's (Energy, Hybrid, Projectile, Missile.) DUST damage types (Laser, Hybrid - Plasma, Hybrid - Rail, Projectile, Explosive) should be independent of weapon types, and should follow EVE's (EM, Thermal, Kinetic, Explosive.) Numbers could be tweaked to retain the overall net effect we have now, but the EVE system would give DUST dev's much more flexibility in future adjustments. It would also pave the way for ammo types, primarily for Projectiles and Missiles.

I believe that snipers should not be changed from the flat damage bonus in 1.8 to a specialization in either shields or armor. Snipers, by virtue of the fact that they are snipers, should retain the flat damage bonus so as to be optimally effective against any kind of suit. I know snipers are widely hated by the community, but if the gun is going to be there you might as well make it work properly against every suit not just a couple of races specifically.

Maybe CCP should introduce sniper rifles from other races. The current sniper is caldari tech and usualy suited better against whateverr it is rail is good against. It is not the 'only' sniper rifle that exists in the galaxy, just the only one that exists in the game so far.

True, but in Eve there are plenty of modules for hardening specific resistances for armor, shields, even hulls. To be true to Eve, then no weapon would be able to do 100% of its listed damage as resistances would negate somewhere near 50-60% of incoming damage right off the bat.

But this raises another point: Many of these (or similar) balance issues were resolved in Eve over the course of 10 years. Why Dust is reinventing everything is beyond me.

they need to keep their racial characteristics too. for exmple, the idea for the gallente neuron rifle could make for a good gallente-type sniper rife. look it up on here on the forums