Play as a guy with an assault rifle. Get to the same level of skills and spend the same amount on your equipment. See whether you're able to get a better kill:death ratio as a sniper or as an assault guy. Spoiler: You'll get far, far more kills as a sniper. Being a random infantry guy is really perilous. You have vehicles, other infantry guys, and of course, ******* snipers. Being a sniper is a piece of cake. Just find a good spot, shoot till you have no more bullets, and keep an eye out for enemy snipers. Sniping isn't even close to being a balanced method of play right now, and especially as someone sniping with a mouse you're really living the easy life compared to the people you're killing.

I'm in favour of reduced damage and actually making it harder to aim via bullet drop, plus the whole tracer thing. Even if you reduce damage it'd still be very easy and very safe to be a sniper. Wouldn't get as many kills, but you'd still get quite a few for basically no risk. I don't think reduced damage in itself goes far enough. Although, who knows, maybe it would. Something you'd have to play through in increments I suspect.

I agree with this. People have been confusing snipers with marksmen in video games for years. A sniper is someone who takes out unsuspecting high-value personnel from like a mile away while completely hidden. A combat marksman or sharpshooter is someone who supports their team by taking out targets with accurate fire while in battle. Most video games don't really have a sniper role per se.

I haven't used them much, but maybe a tactical assault rifle is closer to a marksman weapon? Doesn't it have longer range, more damage and fire semi-auto?

I have to say I am genuinely pretty surprised that there hasn't been more of an outcry about sniping. Maybe once the hit detection is fixed, and you guys get to see what we're really capable of...