Just gonna throw this out there, but I MUCH prefer the snipers here than other games. Hit detection fixes along with a new reticle will make them more viable to use, and when these changes roll out they might be better weapons.

As it is, it encourages you to specialize with the gun. I'm pretty sure most people roll around in a tanked suit with a sniper rifle and hope to get kills with one / two shots, but that's not how it works. Invest skillpoints in skills that give you more damage and better weapons, and scrap some of that tank for damage amps.

In Eve, there is no ship that can field a beastly tank AND have the damage to drop anyone it meets. It either goes tank, DPS, or one of the oddball niche fits. The sniper rifle is pretty good with the right skills and modules. Just gotta get 'em.

*Also, you have LESS than half of your team with these sniper rifles! Most other games I play you're either a sniper, or your sniper food.*

Just personal experience but I actually find sniping to be a very powerful way to play relative to using assault rifles or other light infantry weapons (discounting the swarm launcher obviously). I am somewhat concerned about how powerful sniping may be once keyboard/mouse controls are allowed.

That said, the hit detection is absolutely an obstacle and will frustrate regular sniper players. The way in which the default sniper rifles work also lend themselves to not being so good at getting kills. Specifically, even if DPS between the regular rifles and the charge rifles is the same, being able to do one big burst of damage every 5 seconds or so is simply better for getting kills than doing 20% of that damage every second (numbers are arbitrary but you get the idea.) People will find cover after they take the first hit and you may not get a chance to shoot again, let alone to shoot the handful of extra times it will take to drop someone.

So, I guess my thoughts would be that the charge rifle is powerful and effective, the regular sniper rifles are okay for harassment but overall seem ineffectual, and that sniping in general may become vastly more potent once precise aiming via a mouse is allowed and the hit detection issues are resolved.

One step at a time though. OP, once hit detection is better, see for yourself how sniping players when you get a high skill in Sniper Rifles and Weaponry and a prototype sniper rifle. I'd really be careful against any calls for buffing of sniper rifles in general. I think it would do the game a lot of harm to have sniper rifles be such a potent force. Better that sniping be more about suppression/harassment than sniping eclipse every other weapon in the medium-to-long-range department.