Snipers is one of the multiple options in the game; DUST allow you to take a role in the battlefield and you can choose the role that you think going to give success and victory.

Why is it again that snipers lose all sway when crouched?

Why is it cool for them to sit way up in the mountains, out of range of anything aside from other snipers,

I say change nothing, if you increase the sway on the scope, then that makes it even more difficult to snipe at closer ranges, meaning MORE snipers will go up into the hills. If you manage to hit a sniper with even one round, their aim is knocked off, use that to your advantage.

i love snipers. they dont move when i try and aim at them.

So what I'm hearing is that everyone complaining just wants no strategy just everyone running around with their same AR. Plenty of games are that way already. Why do you want to ruin this game too?

So what I'm hearing is that everyone complaining just wants no strategy just everyone running around with their same AR. Plenty of games are that way already. Why do you want to ruin this game too?

According to the Description of the sniper rifle, bullet velocity is 2000m/sec.

Lets assume that the mass of these bullets are pretty standard. I'll go with 800 grains, or 52 grams.

Kinetic Energy = 0.052kg * 2000^2
Kinetic Energy = 208 kj

Compare this to a modern sniper rifle, and well... there is no comparison. Basically, this should disintegrate a body no matter where you hit them. But this also means that there is enough recoil to take your arm off.

So speaking in game terms: We should see a considerable amount more recoil, and also more damage.

Also bullet drop:

Assuming we are on a similar planet to earth, and no other factors other than gravity.

These bullets travel 300 meters in 0.15 seconds. (This means you're not going to see any delay by the way).
It should drop 1.47 meters in that same amount of time.

Again speaking in game terms, you should see some drop. But why not assume that we've sighted the scope to account for the drop?

If you read the lore behind Dust you will see that all of the weapons that we use are more powerful than typical infantry weapons because we are genetically modified. Not to mention our drop suits would take nearly no damage from normal weapons. We are super soldiers in a completely different league than normal humans.

Right now I think it needs a slight buff and nerf

It needs the nerf when it comes to sway, it needs more overall sway and maybe a bigger subtraction to the sway for each level in sniper operations. They also need to return the kick and the sway in between shots.

The only things I would consider buffing is give the advanced snipers less CPU and PG usage, right now they are identical to prototype snipers. Also proto snipers could use a bit of a buff to damage or a lower price, right now the nerfed damage gained from skills make it so the proto sniper is not worth the price and you might as well stick with standard or even advanced at best.

I don't get the problem here. Yes, snipers are annoying. Nobody likes getting taken out just as they're about to cap that point. Does sniping need tweaking in this game? I think perhaps, a tiny bit. A previous poster in this thread said it is too easy to kill five people in five seconds now. To that I say, should the other four people, not conscious of their surroundings, deserve to live if a single sniper can get a bead on all of them?

Now, I haven't played since the launch of Codex unfortunately (stupid hotel internet), so I don't have the most up to date experience with sniping. I did note the reduced recoil and such, but I did not find it easy to the point where it made up for not being down there capturing points and repping/reviving teammates. Nor did I come close to the number of kills that the skilled players were racking up with ARs, shotguns, etc. I did provide a solid scout role, which I feel helped attribute to the survival of some of those other guys/gals.

If I could see anything needing balance/tweaking in regards to the scout sniper role, it would be the map itself. The mechanics of the weapon all fit with game balance as well as lore, when you look at the greater scope of the game. The ability to sit in an incredibly defensible location, while having line of sight to the majority of key areas, would be imbalanced in my opinion. Please, if someone knows if this exists or not, let me know. I have not studied the maps from a sniping perspective enough. If this condition does not exist, then CCP has properly balanced the maps and available cover. If it does exist, then tweaks or additional cover needs to be added so one person cannot defend several control points or key areas from one crow's nest.

To clarify, I feel that a sniper should have to expose themselves more to cover key points, than if they are just sniping people in open fields. If you are running around in the open and three guys on a ridge are giving you a hard time, stop going out in the open. But, if your whole squad is getting cleaned out at once from across the map while trying to cap, then some cover needs to be added.

tl;dr: Mechanics IMO are fine, maybe cover needs adjustments.

Someone please let me know how the maps are so in the future I don't talk out of my ass.