I think it may evolve into that, let's see how this urban tactical sniper works damage wise, and then we can look at sway and "stand and shoot". Soraya actually reprimanded me in skype just now, "it's not stand and shoot, just crouch and shoot" :)

...15 ammo. "Let's make sure people HAVE to skill the extra ammo capacity skill to 5, it'll be fun!" Not terribly pleased with that...

With the TacSR, would it make sense to make that weapon more viable for body shots? It could have the highest base damage but a comparatively low headshot bonus to balance that out? Since it is for shorter range engagements it would make sense that it would be designed for reflex shots more so than precision.

Base damage values aren't listed as changing in this post. Personally, I feel base damage is too low, and needs a buff upwards, but I think the concept of not buffing too much too fast will win out here. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Since hotfixes are somewhat frequent, balance passes don't need to be 'one and done' like they used to be.

I like the proposed changes, however Im not sure you will ever see a sniper getting close (without intentionally yoloing himself into it) until you change sway.

Currently if Im at (for example) 100-150 meters or so, which is a pretty long engagement range for a sniper that isnt sitting on the redline or on some obscure hill, I have about 5 seconds or so at best before someone Im engaging can move into effective range and kick my ass. To add to that, to fire my weapon with any kind of accuracy, I have to stop my character, kneel down onto the ground, and zoom into ADS, and stand dead still for those 3-5 seconds + however long it takes me to kill or give up on killing my target. This means that if the guy Im shooting at (or anyone around me when I do my preshot routine) sees me, Im screwed big time.

Until the pre-fire routine is removed or drastically reduced, snipers will never want to enter the battlefield proper, because its just stupid to do so.

I know you dont intend to touch sway/stability/etc with this hotfix, but in the future just consider the above. And consider maybe changing the tactical into a very low sway rifle so we can actually use it with tactical movements to get a quick kill and move on, because the biggest achilles heel of a sniper in close range is that requirement to stop, drop, and die just to get an accurate shot off.

If it does insane damage then the charge needs to have a mandatory charge cycle to prevent quick follow up shots. if the main focus of the charge is high alpha damage, else we will see a huge hard hit charge and then a tenth of a second later the quick follow up shot.(less damaging sure...but probably enough to finish most not all suits.......THIS SHOULD NOT HAPPEN.

In which I said this promotes more eHP chasing I appreciate you proving my point

All the changes seem to be good, but one.
The zoom level.

The only SR with a actual sniper rifle zoom level was the Thale.
Even if i like the changes and i really want more active snipers, the zoom level is needed, for physical reasons (not of the game), my eyes, i can't see a damn thing with the current zoom level.
Also the game from sniper eyes is flat, it's 2D, only the Thale have enough zoom to see 3D shaped objects.

Please do it for our eyes, increase the zoom.

I snipe in the Squidmando ck.0 with a compact (for the smaller visible bloom, as previously stated, because I don't want every Tom, **** and Mary to see my nanohive from all the way across the map). As you know, the compact offers a limited replenishment resource. With lag offering me short-burst teleporting targets (of all frame sizes), faulty hit detection frequently giving me the blue shield shimmer of hits with zero damage and now the increased emphasis on headshots - I'm going to have more misses than I already do, I'm sure. Now that a headshot will actually be reliable, of course I'm going to attempt them much more often.

i don't care how many guides you write, mate, you're not hitting every headshot you attempt, either. And if you're setting up with overwatch over a high-traffic area, 18 total shots are going to be gone pretty quickly.

Some will like the reduction in range but Im sure it wont be snipers. I dont foresee snipers coming down from the hills .Youve only managed to reduced the amount of targets a sniper has and considerably weakened the ability to counter snipe by reducing range.