The suggestion is charming. I don't agree with it, but it fits in with many players' notion that there should be a "Breach" and "Burst" variant of everything in the game (including dropsuits, injectors, and codebreakers).
I think "Sniper" in other games has a clear role that's undisputed most of the time. You stand way off from the fight, cover an insertion squad as THEY do the fighting, or carry out an assassination that is part of the game's mission-mechanic.
But of all the "roles" in fps gaming, I feel as if "Sniper" is the one role that doesn't comfortably hold-together in the combat technology of Dust. It's as though the KIND of electronic and vehicle and module hardware that your target has at her disposal, and the kind of movements and activities that are required to "win a Dust match",GǪ are slowly forcing the Sniper Role out of New Eden.
With our kind of combat in Dust, how many squads really NEED and integrate a Sniper into their tactics?
When I started playing this game in 2013, the Sniper was the thing that brutally taught Newberrys how to travel carefully in a Dust map
. But today, as the other playing devices become fine-tuned and stronger (arguably balanced), the sniper on the map becomes a weaker obstacle against players. To me, getting killed by a sniper is just a momentary mosquito bite nuisance, not that 'lethal threat' is used to be two years ago.
Dust combat is survived by players clustering nearer each other for safety and increased awareness.
Dust combat is WON by players working more socially-tight communication and increased cohesion with each other.
GǪA Sniper's strengths have always been built on moving as a socially-separated loner. Some communication in the beginning, some coordination and coverage maybe. That's all. So how much "damage" can Snipers do in the kind of matches Dust has? (Not kill-counts; I mean damage in consistently stopping the other team from winning the fight).
CAN you "change" a "sniper" job description in Dust?
Should there really be a "Breach" mindset in sniping? Breach usually means, the weapon that helps your squad bust down a door and storm the room, or pry through an enemy squad that's been holding a corridor too long.
If we give you a weapon that does that,GǪ are you going to come down to front street with the rest of us and kick down doors, or will you choose to stay up in the cliff, have little to do with our activities, and just pot-shot passing trucks?
Is that really what you're hoping to achieve,GǪ not trying to keep 'Sniper' as a helpful contributor in Dust-style combat, but just looking to add trucks-n-cars to your (sometimes too timid and almost non-participant) choice of gameplay?
I don't think Sniper-players ought to be given powers to "stay out of the fight" and just shoot tin vehicles in addition to just shooting tin players. It will only get players even MORE comfortable parking on a hilltop all through a Dust match. The rifle and the ole' cliche of sniping that comes from previous games shouldn't be encouraged as much in a Dust match. Not a DUST match.
I hope I'm not giving the impression that I dislike or oppose Snipers. I do like their potential. But I don't see them achieving any real potential in a Dust engagement. I'd like to see more Sniper-players become communicative, or become Squad leaders because of their great opportunity to be "overwatch" (you'd be just as good or even better at the job than a Scout could), or be squad-protectors during assault/extractionGǪ THAT's needed in Dust combat.
But that "lone hillbilly squating up on a rock or roof" traditionGǪ there's hardly any room (or combat effectiveness) for that in Dust-style fighting. And the hillbilly stuff is nearly the only thing I tend to see on the maps.