Railgun is a hybrid weapon. Hybrid weapons do 90% vs armor. Headshots likely got a nerf because they register against Armor, so you're simply seeing the railguns' inherent weakness towards armor manifesting itself in a reduced modifier.

What's the deal with the sniper optimal, falloff, absolute damage numbers, how did this affect things? Or am I just noticing the hybrid penalty?

I am kinda new to the game and trying to spec as a sniper but I think that there is more than the damage which is handled like crazy, especially for snipers:

I think it is crazy to work with + and - % on the damage and this is true with all weapons. If I have a weapon I should deal 100% damage in its range and have a drop effect after the optimal range (like they did now with 1.2). If we have to consider the efficacy of the weapon on armor or shield then I should be able to deal 100% against the specific target and something less against other targets (lets say my weapon is good against armor, then I should deal 100% against it and maybe 90% on shields). In this way things would be easier and CCP could play on the nominal damage iteself, on the drop against distance and on the drop over not specific target.

Secondly, and most importantly for snipers, I think headshots should kill anyway as long as they are carried at least in the optimal range...we are in the future and use ultrasonic bullets so, if a bullet can go through the dropsuit and deal damage to the body inside, then an headshot should kill... this should be true also for other weapons. Also on this point things things would get easier and more realistic allowing CCP to play on weapon stats, especially range...

In this way we keep a high level of challange for who wants to become snipers but in the same time we allow even a newly come to take out a proto enemy if he is good enough to place a headshot or if the enemy is so stupid to stand still in the open...and for the less skilled snipers it would be still difficult if not impossible to kill, having to deliver 2 to 6 bodyshots...

As for the optimal range of sniper rifles, I read they are something around 600m but someone states that, due to rendering, it is not possible to hit over about 400m. I did not checked personally, but I have beed killed from about 580 and we were shooting each other, I even shot first and was able to shot two rounds before him. Though I was not able to hit him but I guess it is my fault...anyone can confirm this or have information on the new ranges in 1.2?

As for MCC sniping I agree it should not be possible. I consider it like cheating or MCC SP farming...

We were at 100% body, and 195% headshot damage.

Why is it now 90% and 175%?
Why the fk would you REDUCE headshot damage on a sniper rifle?

Can't you just fix what we say are problems?

I was just praising you, CCP. So why when you fix something, you have to break something else?

Just as my faith starts to restore, you go and do that.

Why?

Why give every weapon a 10% damage nerf, just to take it away... and then put it back on snipers?

I spec'd back into sniping, because I was pleased that it was doing good damage again. I did not spec back into sniping just for you to nerf them or put them at some kind added disadvantage.
I went through all of Chromosome dealing with a broken sniper mechanic. Namely, sniper rifles that are weak on the proto end against proto gear... Please, don't start it again. Not with things starting to be good.

I noticed a good difference today when facing a pack of proto users.... 10% is a big nerf. Fkin put that 10% back. Please.

Perhaps we should just straight-up ask for every "unlisted" change that they didn't see fit to specify in the patch notes...

Railgun is a hybrid weapon. Hybrid weapons do 90% vs armor. Headshots likely got a nerf because they register against Armor, so you're simply seeing the railguns' inherent weakness towards armor manifesting itself in a reduced modifier.

People are going to complain regardless. I've been sniping since I started back in open beta... and right now the sniper rifles feel like actual sniper rifles. This stealth nerf your complaining about has been applied to every weapon. Its the range optimization you're feeling.

People are going to complain regardless. I've been sniping since I started back in open beta... and right now the sniper rifles feel like actual sniper rifles. This stealth nerf your complaining about has been applied to every weapon. Its the range optimization you're feeling.

Sigh... Faster movement, funky aiming 90% of the time, sniper rifles doing less damage than they did before, faster RDV dropoff time. It's game design to either get you behind an AR or in a LAV.

The sniper rifles felt just fine in uprising. One of the few weapons that really had no problems. It's hard enough for snipers to be effective and be accepted as a team role. Now you might as well just grab an AR, all of your precious aiming doesn't count for much anymore.

What's the optimal range then?

It wouldn't be so bad if there was a laser sniper rifle variant which hit hard on shielded targets that way people could specialize. Absent this, we should see a damage boost to the proto Sniper Rifles until they can make more variants of it. 3-shotting a moving target with the highest-tier sniper rifle and stacked with damage mods is absurd. The sniper is a tough job to do well as it is, much harder than running around with ARs.

Is there anywhere to look up what each weapon's optimal, effective, and absolute ranges are?

We were at 100% body, and 195% headshot damage.

Why is it now 90% and 175%?
Why the fk would you REDUCE headshot damage on a sniper rifle?

Can't you just fix what we say are problems?

I was just praising you, CCP. So why when you fix something, you have to break something else?

Just as my faith starts to restore, you go and do that.

Why?

Why give every weapon a 10% damage nerf, just to take it away... and then put it back on snipers?

I spec'd back into sniping, because I was pleased that it was doing good damage again. I did not spec back into sniping just for you to nerf them or put them at some kind added disadvantage.
I went through all of Chromosome dealing with a broken sniper mechanic. Namely, sniper rifles that are weak on the proto end against proto gear... Please, don't start it again. Not with things starting to be good.

I noticed a good difference today when facing a pack of proto users.... 10% is a big nerf. Fkin put that 10% back. Please.

because there were too many kittens not fighting, and sitting in the redline?

To make matters worse, all they're doing is making it more effective against armor guys.

A sniper rifle DOES NOT need to do 110% damage against ANYTHING. Especially armor guys. They got enough against them as it is, what with the Flaylocks going around like candy.

We were at 100% body, and 195% headshot damage.

Why is it now 90% and 175%?
Why the fk would you REDUCE headshot damage on a sniper rifle?

Can't you just fix what we say are problems?

I was just praising you, CCP. So why when you fix something, you have to break something else?

Just as my faith starts to restore, you go and do that.

Why?

Why give every weapon a 10% damage nerf, just to take it away... and then put it back on snipers?

I spec'd back into sniping, because I was pleased that it was doing good damage again. I did not spec back into sniping just for you to nerf them or put them at some kind added disadvantage.
I went through all of Chromosome dealing with a broken sniper mechanic. Namely, sniper rifles that are weak on the proto end against proto gear... Please, don't start it again. Not with things starting to be good.

I noticed a good difference today when facing a pack of proto users.... 10% is a big nerf. Fkin put that 10% back. Please.

Probably has something to do with the new weapon range thing they put out.

http://dust514.com/news/blog/2013/07/weapon-ranges-in-uprising-1.2-and-beyond/

Does this seem like a fair way of saying just how tired we are of stealth changes?

https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1008555#post1008555

We were at 100% body, and 195% headshot damage.

Why is it now 90% and 175%?
Why the fk would you REDUCE headshot damage on a sniper rifle?

Can't you just fix what we say are problems?

I was just praising you, CCP. So why when you fix something, you have to break something else?

Just as my faith starts to restore, you go and do that.

Why?

Why give every weapon a 10% damage nerf, just to take it away... and then put it back on snipers?

I spec'd back into sniping, because I was pleased that it was doing good damage again. I did not spec back into sniping just for you to nerf them or put them at some kind added disadvantage.
I went through all of Chromosome dealing with a broken sniper mechanic. Namely, sniper rifles that are weak on the proto end against proto gear... Please, don't start it again. Not with things starting to be good.

I noticed a good difference today when facing a pack of proto users.... 10% is a big nerf. Fkin put that 10% back. Please.

Weirdly enough i still OHK most people through HS with my covenant snipe.

Hello,

What you are experiencing is not a "Stealth nerf". It is updated weapon profiles that we detailed in our latest dev blog.

Thank you for your feedback.

>doesn't pay attention to public devblogs
>complains about 'stealth nerfs'
>is moron
>is OP

Weirdly enough i still OHK most people through HS with my covenant snipe.

24 hours (more or less) after the fact, Frame.

No one saw this coming.

It's still considered "stealth", because it happened before it was announced, on that dev blog.
In fact, no one was remotely informed that those particular changes would take place.

I've already linked to that dev blog (on page 2), thanks.

It doesn't change that an entire fitting has been ruined by a dramatic change that the playerbase wasn't even informed would take place.

If you are not able to read in game and understand damage profiles in the first place then just send support ticket to GM team and wait for them to refund you SP from sniper rifle skill if you hate it so much.

And stop ranting.

As I said, the difference is felt when facing proto suits. Not at lower tiers in HS.

Why is no one reading in this thread? >.<

Well, i still OHKed proto dudes running around. And still got OHked in my proto suit.

Yo, dawg. Here. http://dust514.com/community/support/

Tell them this: "i can't 1shot people now with my sniper, give me back my SP from sniper skills so I can spec into something else thx". And GM will do that.

It is not that hard, if 10% really matters to you. Which it does, apparently.

I'm now looking for a respec.

Here's the best part:
Someone will say, "No respecs. That will break the game. You should have been more careful with your SP."

My answer:
"I WAS careful. I knew exactly what I wanted. I spec'd into Gallente Logi Sniper. Good damage. Decent tank in case of counter snipers. And my entire build in literally 1 week was flipped on its head, by a stealth nerf, and a 24 hour late blog. No word beforehand that this would happen."

In a game where your build takes time and dedication to get, can you afford not to have a respec option if that can potentially change from month to month?

Stealth changes, can break the game for a LOT of people. Especially people that don't have much SP.

If i can't get my respec.... I'm just going to have to quit, and passively gain SP for a LOOOONG time, before coming back to play something else.

Well guys, I'm not sure why this change wasn't properly included in the patch notes ahead of time. It may have been a result of the adjusted weapon profiles, but it still should have been included in the patch notes properly.

I do apologize for it, guys.

My role I play as a sniper.
Find nice hidden spot hard to see with good view of objectives.
Scan for other snipers and try to take them out or have them highlighted for team to see.
Kill or WOUND any enemy I see to help out the front line Mercs.
I don't expect to 1 shot kill everyone. I expect to stay hidden and be able to pick and choose my target. So I have to take an extra shot to kill someone. Did the non-killing shots slow the enemy down? make them less likely to survive if team member engages them. Stop them from reviving / repairing the billy bad ass of the squad?

I don't care about K/D ratio. I play a sniper for ranged support and even if all I can do is wound for kill assists or force a Heavy to take cover to recharge I am helping the team. Even better when you concentrate on hitting the Logi Mercs vs just trying to get your kill score higher. What helps the team more your kill score or you killing or forcing the medic to take cover.

I can still play and get 16/0 on some maps. some maps only a few kills but I still do good at helping the team by slowing down logi and heavy. remember people we play in TEAMS. sometimes killing 4 assault mercs does nothing to the squads when the medic is reviving them and repairing them quicker than your killing the weak ones.

Can I still do my job with the stealth nerf? YES
Does it change the fact 90% of what i'm shooting at can't see or shoot back at me? NO
Can I still 1 hit those not shield stacking? YES
Can I still help the team by putting some nice dents in shield stackers? YES

I know I will welcome the want to be 1 shot killers leaving the sniper grounds in the outskirts of the maps to the ones who want to contribute to the team not just up their K/D ratio.

>Can shoot people from miles away where they can't even see him, with extreme damage often one shotting lower level suits
>Complaining


Seriously, sniping is the easiest thing ever.
You got no risk, all the reward.
Just point and shoot, collect WP.

Snipers should have ballistics (drop off, time to reach the target, etc')

The sniper was one of the only effective counters to groups pubstomping in proto gear. You could pop a few of their shiny suits and they start to respawn in STD ones. It has become nearly impossible to accomplish this now. Every extra sniper round required to kill someone makes the job EXPONENTIALLY more difficult, since landing 4 consecutive shots in a row from 300+ m on a moving target before they can scramble behind cover or out of LOS to recharge is a pretty tall f*cking order. I think AR's can kill someone faster than that FFS.

LMAO if they added bullet drop to snipers or all weapons for that matter, do you realize how many of these QQ'ers would be raging cuz they don't know how to aim...

I don't really mind...wouldn't be a sniper if you can't handle bullet drop.

maybe you just suck, and can't handle being a sniper so you come ***** about snipers any chance you get.

Well guys, I'm not sure why this change wasn't properly included in the patch notes ahead of time. It may have been a result of the adjusted weapon profiles, but it still should have been included in the patch notes properly.

I do apologize for it, guys.

bro i clearly don't have troubles sniping if i 2 shot protos with militia gear, and these proto sniper users say they cant even 4 shot someone... sad, and so is your reading skills.

All I'm seeing is you have no idea what you're talking about or you're shooting people point blank. The Long distance rifles have had their damage nerfed at longer ranges. Closer ranges will still do the damage they used to. If you think you're 2 shotting well fit proto suits with a militia rifle at 400m you are completely wrong. No questions about it.

and if you wanna go as far as to say i can't handle bullet drop give me your PSN I.D. and let's hop on BF3 and snipe it up like big boys...

You're not supposed to be soloing the entire enemy team with your redline sniper with view over most of the battlefield

No, but you should be able to actually kill things with a f*cking high-powered long range railgun to the head when you've maxed out the skillpoints in it and are wearing a glass-cannon fit with no tank.

I'm sure you still can. Aren't you still able to hit for more than 450 damage against shield tankers (including the 10% penalty that is) with the Thale's?

That's still only two shots against anyone not dual tanking heavily or any heavies, in which case three shots would be enough every time. Headshots will still take out most shield tankers in one shot.

Honestly, I don't see any problem.

It's ******** that it takes 3 shots from a proto sniper to drop someone. No wonder ppl think snipers are useless. The scopes are so bad as well. The only decent one is the officer.

I don't snipe but I do agree snipers shouldn't have a nerf, they're supposed to be powerful weapons. The only thing I thing they should add though is some fallout, because being at a far distance and then just placing the dot on a target is kind of bs. BUT people will then complain about that because they all of the sudden suck at sniping lol.

Well, Ben it's a big problem when your only truly effective weapon is your Thale's. I'm not a glass cannon sniper, but with the changes to the sniper rifle weapon profile, I may as well be. lol That extra 10% damage to armor renders my defensive choice obsolete. So much for tanking counter-snipers now. xD

I'm not saying every sniper rifle needs to punch as hard as the Thale's (which is arguably the strongest gun in the game... the thing is a fckin cannon), but the ones short of the Charge have lost that healthy middle ground that they had between the Thale's and where they are now, simply because of -10% damage off their opening shot.

Support and objective covering is what we do... but if it's taking 3+ rounds to drop targets, that gets impossible (unless of course you're using the Thale's). So we're right back to where we were in Chromosome. The Thale's being the only truly effective sniper rifle vs. protobears. xD

I do have faith that we have more sniper variants coming however... maybe an anti-shield laser sniper of some sort.