Dispersion is already present. Noticeable when strafing.

Indeed, and you must crouch for a more precise shot.

Very few people still use the forge strictly for anti-infantry purposes.. Compared to what it used to be like at least..

I don't see how a dispersion increase would be warranted

Because inside of 300m, a FG is a better option than a Sniper and people don't like that?

have you ever even used a FG?

The only problem with a FG and splash damage is unseating the Forge Gunner from a rooftop position.

The reason for the nerf was primarily how effective area denial is with it. Just imagine a Kubo's PLC with a (somewhat) easier way to aim

Touch the forge gun (In a bad way) DEVs and I will rally every last merc I can get my hands on to hunt for your heads!

Because inside of 300m, a FG is a better option than a Sniper and people don't like that?

Slightly odd wording since the projectile despawns at 300m.

Framerate and it detection seem to be the biggest reason sniper rifles suck. That and the ability to chamge direction with no movement pause means lining a shot on a nerd wiggling in place is more luck than skill.

The framerate leads to some insane over-correction issues whenever I counter-snipe.

The forge gun has pretty much the same issues as a sniper weapon. Only difference is if it happens to hit you, you're dead.

I have not heard of any nerfs in the works on anything more than a speculative level on the forums.

Also sicerly you are absolutely correct: forge gun does NOT benefit from AA.

Maybe do something about mod controllers as well , even though most say that nothing can be done , I see that Destiny took care of that issue .

that's because Destiny fire rates are below the maximum believable threshold for the human finger pulling a trigger.

Because inside of 300m, a FG is a better option than a Sniper and people don't like that?

One of the reason snipers are damn near useless (this is a realist assessment of many core failure points not an assessment of the character and contribution of snipers.) Is the fact that there is poor hit detection and framerate, coupled with the fact that it is entirely trivial to make it near impossible to line up a shot because direction changes are instant.

I've tried sniping. it sucks. Because of the aforementioned issues landing a shot on anything but a perfectly stationary target is hilariously unlikely.

The forge gun versus the idiot wiggling in place is a simple matter. You aim roughly where the wiggle bandit's trajectory is centered and let fly. Odds are his path and the projectile will intersect and you will be rewarded with a rag doll flying.

The sniper has to click a headshot to get the same thing. Much, much harder.

Precision weapons in DUST require an insane level of patience. Right now they aren't as much a threat as they simply weed out the gene pool of dumbasses and people who make mistakes.

I feel that difference in percieved utility is actually the sticking point about "forge sniping."

There are other factors, as well, that I feel need to be mentioned.

Power leveling in the Sniper Rifles is just silly. The damage difference from a Standard to a Prototype is 20 damage. From Prototype to Officer? 123. This coupled with the additional range and zoom capability of the Thale's means that the only one worth using at all is the Thale's.

You also have to be crouching/holding completely still in order to get proper functionality out of a Sniper Rifle. As Breakin mentions above, hit detection and framerate play big roles but so too does the fact that unless you subject yourself to vulnerability you'll be fighting the sway as well.

Map design is a huge factor, as many maps prior to Uprising 1.5 were bowl shaped, meaning most of your sniper perches are going to be set about the redline. After that, CCP took to making maps as flat as possible with little to no actual terrain gameplay to limit sniper play on or near objectives and also started occluding most objectives inside buildings or behind lots of terrain (this practically started the Scout/Sentinel uproar of 1.8, when they had their respective buffs and gameplay changes) because both of those specialities rule CQC. With no objective play from medium to long range, those playstyles can - and still do - usually go uncontested.

So, the TL;DR as to why the Forge Gun is a preferable Sniper Rifle:

- Guaranteed kill
- Easier/more reliable Hit Detection
- Multi-role capability (AV)
- Damage scaling
- Mobility
- Map Design

Everyone hates snipers but out of all the FPS games I've played, Dust 514 has been the only one that I know of that seemingly designed it's entire gameplay scope to exclude them... then tried to balance them in that atmosphere.