Quote:Now, to the real heart of the matter:
1. Headshot bonus has effectively killed the existence for tiered sniper rifle skills; if a militia sniper can OHK all but a tanked-out heavy, what's the point in using anything stronger?
2. Almost all of the complaining about snipers essentially breaks down to how ridiculous the Thales was in comparison to all other variants; a well-placed Thales user was immune to everything except a fellow Thales user...who probably wasn't going to risk their own to try and hunt the other one down.
3. The damage bonus offered to Caldari Commandos only encourages the brick-tanked sniper that requires a headshot to kill; otherwise, you're just wasting bullets.
4. The recent changes made to map sockets (i.e. Manus Peak) further reduce the ability of a sniper to actively contribute to his side by playing point defense. Changes were made previously to make nodes less easy to target into, but the new map types have decided to enclose most everything inside of a building, leaving snipers with little else to do aside from try and pick off targets as they run across the map.
Solutions:
1. Reduce the headshot bonus. Implement actual differences between the sniper tiers/types.
Tactical variant--weakest, but with the best zoom, giving you the best chance to land a headshot. High RoF but small clip.
Standard variant--stronger than tactical and with better range, but slower RoF and less powerful zoom
Specialist variant--damage between tactical and standard, but with the furthest range and weakest zoom
Charge variant--highest damage, largest clip but with slowest RoF and shortest range. The Thales would be a faster-charging version
Give them a range of 425, 450, 475 and 400, respectively.
2. See above. The Thales was so overpowered that it killed an entire style of play.
3. Tough one to fix thanks to the inherent damage bonus given to commandos. However, the reduction to headshot bonuses would make it feasible to get close enough to counter.
4. Snipers need to be given the ability to scout and "mark" the opponent on an individual basis. One player at a time could be "tagged" and highlighted on the Tacnet--regardless of profile--with investment in the sniper class resulting in an increased duration of the tag. Snipers would then be rewarded with intel kill assist WP if the target is killed while tagged. This would eliminate the need for the bullet trails to give away a sniper's position as they can be tagged up to 500 meters away, further than any SR can reach. This would allow for a team to coordinate a counter strategy to neutralize the sniper.