It's simple really. 1 good sniper is all the team needs. And if he's good, he's bearly shooting. He's in constant communication with the leaders and forever feeding them info. He only shoots in self defence or to take out a high priority target who's giving the ground team hell. In reality, snipers on ops shoot about once per engagement IF they're lucky. What you want to play as is NOT a sniper. You want to play as what the military calls a designated marksman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designated_marksman

People see DMs and instantly think he's a sniper. He's not. He extends the operational and operative range of the squad he is attached to. Snipers are attached to platoons in pairs. Therefore there 2 snipers for around every 40 men.

People also get annoyed because out of 14 players per team, 9 on each will be 'snipers' who are complete and utter dead weight to the team, who never cap or protect objectives, who never actually seem to lower their scope and do nothing but look at their own K\D. They also don't fit in to a shooter based around teamwork.

I personally thing the class needs a RADICAL redesign, or left as is but limited to 2 per team per game. Because right now, having snipers on your own team almost gurantees you've lost. Especially if there is more than 3.

From what I've seen, the majority of people's problems are with sniping being too easy, and with there being too many snipers.

It's not about the good snipers being good at being snipers. It's about the game making BAD snipers a viable method of earning money with minimal personal risk. You can be a bad sniper and still get a good K/D, and because you're not dying much (if at all), you're seeing almost all the post-battle income as pure profit.

Good snipers are fine. But the game makes things too easy for BAD snipers as well.

On the subject of snipers, are the sniper weapons light assault or heavy weapons. I ask so I know which skill to upgrade there for my sniper weapons...

Well i would think once everything starts moving to contract and corp battle then I would think that this would be a problem any more. Or at least hopefully it wouldnt be a problem anymore.

There will always be casual players.

There will always be a system for casual players to take NPC contracts.

There will always be a need for the game to be balanced with those problems in mind.

From what I've seen, the majority of people's problems are with sniping being too easy, and with there being too many snipers.

It's not about the good snipers being good at being snipers. It's about the game making BAD snipers a viable method of earning money with minimal personal risk. You can be a bad sniper and still get a good K/D, and because you're not dying much (if at all), you're seeing almost all the post-battle income as pure profit.

Good snipers are fine. But the game makes things too easy for BAD snipers as well.

What? casual players wont be playing against corps unless those casual players are in a corp that is.

Im no dead weight WHEN I do play. I always have my scope trained on the hack point of the objectives. When the icon turns orange, there is a dead person on the ground by the objective. I MAYBE only get 5-10 kills per round and thats protecting an objective. I do get bored of staring at an empty objective so I then hop into my assault suits and go die!

Re-read my first post. Re-quote it. Show me where I said anything about the problems with snipers being corp-related.

It's because snipers in general are totally worthless. Now, there are a few very good snipers. But certainly 2 on any team is enough. The reason I really hate snipers is because they feel they are the only players who should never change class. "But I'm a sniper" is not a valid reason to go cap objectives using a pistol. "I'm rubbish and will honestly get in your way" is a legitimate excuse. You see where I'm going. Basically, if there's 8 snipers on a team, they'll just keep sniping. They won't change class, call a tank or any of that jazz. They JUST snipe.

There are a very few good/awesome snipers in the game. These snipers are more important than grunt assault players like myself. I could be easily replaced in my team. I couldn't replace our snipers.

Light

So it's a light weapon the sniper rifle. So upgrading things like light weapon reload speed ect will make it faster if that's the case. Many thanks for your info. I've been playing this for months now, and I'm trying out the sniper as a last resort. The assault class are just tank fodder, the pilot doesn't seem to do anything. The heavy is so slow. So I've gone for the sniper so I don't have to be that involved in the slaughter.

that makes no sense. If i were a specialist for a sniper fit but was horrible at every other fit why then would i switch my class. So what I could become a detriment to my team when i was helping more when i stuck with what i know best.

Um you said "there will always be casual players" and i said " casual player wont be playing in any corp battles and contracts . since when the game goes full on is what every one since it will be the only was to get isk and such.

I don't think the real problem is a single sniper, or a handful of snipers. When I begin to get pissed at snipers it is when theres like a dozen that wont go out in the field because they to scared and just sit back under the mcc or something sniping entire match. I see this alot on the Manus peak map , I believe that's the map.. It happens so often that now when I see the trend begin , I say fk it and grab a militia sniper aswell.. no point in me suiciding

I use an assault rifle, a shotgun, a forge, a swarm, a sniper , pistol, and submachine gun

A sniper is not meant to go on the frontlines so i dont see how you can be mad about that. If I have a sniper rifle im not going to go to the front lines

Whether a bad sniper is in a corp or not, and whether a casual player is in a corp or not, the current sniping mechanics along with how the weapons are balanced still make them a SAFER way to earn ISK and SP than any other strategy at present. Casual players WILL see that, in comparison with ANY other strategy available to them, sniping is practically risk-free, and in NPC contracts, you'll see lots of bad snipers, unless things change.

As mentioned, current plans should see change happening to the sniping mechanics, so we'll just have to wait and see how that turns out.

A sniper is not meant to go on the frontlines so i dont see how you can be mad about that. If I have a sniper rifle im not going to go to the front lines