CELESTA AUNGM
Kang Lo Directorate
Gallente Federation
585
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Posted - 2015.07.08 04:33:00 -
[1] - Quote
GǪGǪ. This is a repeat of an opinion I expressed about "Sniper" several months ago.
If you think that Sniping is in a good place right now, I suspect you're only thinking about the performance of the weapon. Not the performance of the playerGǪ and I think it's the player's "role" (or call it "job" or "value" or "use" ) that is facing a problem in the game.
In any other fps or combat title (even a sci-fi fps like Killzone), a sniper has a classic purpose/value---she assassinates a prized opponent---she recons and covers a strike-team as they advance across an area---she confounds and distracts an enemy who tries to pursue and devour her buddies. Her silence and autonomy from detection are her key enablers.
But this is EVE Dust 514, and I have to say without corny exaggeration, that it's an environment that is nearly too hard for a classic sniper to find a place in. The technology of this lore universe has raised "DB interference" and "frequency profile" to a war art. These electronic transmissions are the standard components of New Eden ground combat, the way a predator/drone and Osprey aircraft are trying to become the standards of today's combat,GǪ
GǪ.and to this environment, an extra extension on her zoom scope is the only thing a "sniper" can bring to assist us.  
She has been literally squeezed out of battlefield---there's almost no room in New Eden warfare for a soldier who plans to squat in uninterrupted quiet and pick ONE person to kill every 30 seconds.
On the small battleground, vehicles literally probe for her signature, and for only 1.5 million SP extra, can hunt her for private sport.
Overwatch players can recline in the blue staging area, and comb for the sniper's own glowing nanohive giving away her position on the overhead map.
On large PC district terrains, the enemy's Lav and DS access means a "sniper" can't even reliably set up and wait for victims along an "avenue of approach". Dust's 'hop over the map' mobility means there isn't much "approach-avenue" combat available for a sniper.
"Sniper"GǪ still has its fascination and romance (those good at it love its 'one-shot-one-kill' ideology)GǪ and, umm still has its crutch (face it, multitudes of us new players took up sniper-role because we were frightened off the battlefield and felt comforted to hide behind a far rock and hope for luck).
But many of us non-smipers don't really feel we vitally NEED a sniper who can kill enemy quietly once very 30 seconds, when we can just as easily kill those enemy with a loud and explosive toys. We don't mind being loud and violent, and don't need to care about doing a silent-kill on a New Eden battleground.
In fact in Dust warfare, "silence" is almost "prey" for the hunter.
You can camouflage yourself among some cliffs? Hey, Dampening is a store-bought product in Dust, and if we want, any of us can be invisible climbing onto a roof.
What--you shoot far? So do the auto Rail installations I just bought from Avis-corp.
The warfare has threatened to leave your role behind. We may just end up the first fps combat game that DOESN'T hire snipers.
Wow.
Maybe a Scout should consider carrying a skill-invested sniper-rifle on his missionsGǪ maybe that will be the best place for what we used to call the "sniper" rifle.
I think, somehow, the player who specializes in the sniper rifle has got to invent a more up-to-the-battlefield career for herself thanGǪ. classic, stereotyped "sniper".
The nature of New Eden ground combat is pushing you out of a job.
Universe of good wishes for the 49, especially CCP Eterne...
No story can have life without writers and publishers.
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