Snipers: Because I care.

[Warborn]

I remember having a lot of discussions in the past about snipers with people like Dio, so for the benefit of everyone not in the Beta (as I am and have been for the last month or so) I'll give you a rundown of the Bolt Driver.

1) The Bolt Driver is its own cert. Yes, this is public info, but I wanted to say it. You spend 3 cert points for the sole purpose of getting one gun.

2) Bolt Drivers have 5 bullets per clip. Each clip is the size of a 50-round clip for a Cycler or some such. For those who want a translation, you can't carry much ammo.

3) Bolt Drivers have a pretty slow reload. It's single shot, so after every bullet, you reload.

4) The cone of fire for the Bolt Driver is extremely large until you crouch and not move at all. And that includes looking around. For the most accurate, pin-point shots, you need to be absolutely still.

5) My favorite part - when a Bolt Driver fires, it leaves a tracer behind it. The tracer disappears quickly, but if someone is looking in your general direction when you fire the gun, they will know your exact position because of the big white line extending from you to your bullet's point of impact.

6) Oh, and yeah, we all know how damaging it is. In Agile it'll drop you to about 25 health and 75 armor. So 2 shots is fatal. I think Reinforced can survive 3 shots. MAX armor, don't even bother, you're not going to kill it. And as was stated before, Standard and Infiltration suits die instantly.


Anyway, those to-be snipers out there are probably looking at this and feeling kind of disappointed. If you're sort of pissed at how snipers work right now, let me tell you that I dislike snipers in virtually every game due to how imbalanced they are, but I think they're awesome in PS because they're balanced, and they take a lot of skill. It's very similar to using a Scout sniper rifle in Counter-strike, minus the headshots of course. If you're skilled, you'll get a lot of kills. If you're just some wannabe "leet dood" who thinks sniping should "pwn" everyone, you're going to be fodder for Infiltrators and sneaky guys with mini-chainguns.

[Lanizer]

Thanks for the information! I'll be sure to add you to my victim list just for the fun of it. :)
- Happy Stalker

[Warborn]

Originally posted by Lanizer
Thanks for the information! I'll be sure to add you to my victim list just for the fun of it. :)
- Happy Stalker

I'm actually a Prowler pilot by profession, and I stick to a Basilisk anytime I'm solo. So you're going to be hard-pressed to add me to your victim list. But, just for that, I'll keep a special eye out for you -- snipers have a difficult time evading large, fast-moving tanks :)


*EDIT* Because I spell like a crippled marmot at 6:30am.

[Sarah Jinstar]

Warborn, what empire are you playing for?

[Ruthless]

LOL roadkill

[Warborn]

Originally posted by Sarah Jinstar
Warborn, what empire are you playing for?

TR all the way, brutha.

[Tobias]

Well, I am still going to be a sniper, and true you may find me and run me over as I flee your tank screaming like a little girl, but I will then find your young and un skilled and shoot them, and this will make me fell better.

:p

[Warborn]

Deal :)

[Destroyeron]

Originally posted by Warborn
TR all the way, brutha.


I'm gonna be a Prowler Pilot too. :D

[Sarah Jinstar]

I think you meant sista but I get the point :p

[Terik]

Originally posted by Ruthless
LOL roadkill

Well, back in my old T2 days I used to have a problem with sniping, particularly vehicle station sniping. So what I did was, I took my scout flyer and make it look like I was flying in the opossite direction of the ub13 l331 V pad sniping asshole. When I was out of view range, I came around behind him, fired up the afterburners, and watched the asshole's mangled, lifeles corpse slide off my windshield.

[Warborn]

I'm gonna be a Prowler Pilot too. :D

Cool. There are very few dedicated Prowler pilots out there, which is understandable given that the pilot controls no weapons. It takes a special breed to pilot a tank in PS (except for the pilots Vanu and their MagRider tank, as the pilot controls the anti-infantry gun).

Originally posted by Sarah Jinstar
I think you meant sista but I get the point :p

I try to keep things neutral online. Gender just gets in the way on the Interweb.

Well, back in my old T2 days I used to have a problem with sniping, particularly vehicle station sniping. So what I did was, I took my scout flyer and make it look like I was flying in the opossite direction of the ub13 l331 V pad sniping asshole. When I was out of view range, I came around behind him, fired up the afterburners, and watched the asshole's mangled, lifeles corpse slide off my windshield.

Vehicle pad camping is hard to do as a sniper in PS, as all vehicle pads aside for the air vehicle pads on the top of the tech plant are behind fairly high walls. Unless the sniper can get to an elevation, he won't be able to see you.

But you should still do your best to kill them wherever you find them.

[Terik]

Originally posted by Warborn
But you should still do your best to kill them wherever you find them.

I sure as hell will, you can bet your life savings on that. :mad:

[NeoTassadar]

Awesome, I always thought being a sniper was too easy. Since there's a trail for Bolt Driver, the only real disadvantage to Lancer is lack of ammo (but the Lancer's trail a lot more visable). Maybe CoF also, but I doubt that.

[Venoxile]

Tank driving has to be the most boring profession... First, you can't kill anyone unless you can run someone over before your gunners take him out, which limits how much bp you will get... (unless tank crews share xp, i do not know) And second, if you try to leave your tank you will get shredded by anti infantry guns due to your shit agile armor. If anything, I wouldn't even hop into a tank as a gunner, it's a death trap to any small-medium group of infantry with strikers, lancers, decimators, or phoenixes.
Preferably I'd just use a basilisk alongside the tank and use the tank as cover when getting owned.

P.S. can you shoot someone out of a basilisk/buggy or does only the vehicle take damage?

[Tobias]

If the tank crew is in the same squad they will share BEP, but tank driving can be fun, you get to run over all those padestrians you have always wanted to, and you get to play a cool racing game where you get shot at. Of course, as only other Tanks and reavers can really hurt you, its not all that challenging.

[EarlyDawn]

Yo Warborn, does the Striker use a "Radar Lock" typed concept, or is it laser guided like the RPG in Half-Life? I've heard conflicting reports.

[Peanut]

Veno, don't judge the things in the game too much before you've actually toyed with them.

The tanks (well, vanguard at least) aren't slow lumbering things...they're fast as greased weasels. You can run down pedestrians fairly easily, and it takes a decent amount of fire to kill them. And you'd be squaded with the rest of your tank crew, so yes, you'd share BEP.

That small group of infantry usually can't get off more than 0-2 shots before they either get gunned down or flattened.

I'm partial to the vanguard. :love:

[Nubi]

TR all the way, brutha.

damn ur on my side

oh well, I'll just snipe off the enemy sneaking up behind y- *bam*

oh nm, got him

[�io]

I agree with everything War said in initial post, they are balanced.

The only 2 things that i didn't like and ultimatly will make me have sniping cert on very few chars is

1- It takes 3 cert pts alone to use it and that's if you have the med assault cert. That's a lot of cert pts. That's a mosquito cert you could have had, or a MAX armor cert, or hacking,etc.

2- No area dmg. I just don't like sniping if i can't use my skills to aim carefully and get a headshot. I got screwed 1 more than once when sniping simply because despite the no headshots i still aim for a headshot so i take too long to shoot and eventually die. Headshots is a very important and cool part of sniping for me.

[Warborn]

LNS0388:
Yo Warborn, does the Striker use a "Radar Lock" typed concept, or is it laser guided like the RPG in Half-Life? I've heard conflicting reports.

The Striker is a lot of fun to use. It has two fire modes -- dumbfire and tracking. In tracking, if you keep the crosshairs focused on the enemy vehicle you want to have it track, the target list will go from, say, "Reaver", to "Tracking Reaver". Then, you fire, and the missile does its own thing. The benefit of this is that, unlike the Phoenix, the missile does not require you to manually aim it, and thus waste time. The downside is that sometimes enemy pilots can avoid the Striker missile if they see it coming by putting an obstacle between themselves and the missile.

So, yes, "radar lock" is how I'd define it. It isn't at all like the Half-Life missile launcher.

Veno:
Tank driving has to be the most boring profession... First, you can't kill anyone unless you can run someone over before your gunners take him out, which limits how much bp you will get... (unless tank crews share xp, i do not know)

I never let anyone who isn't in my squad and isn't in voice chat with me into my tank. It's simply way too inefficient to try and type warnings etc to your gunners. Also, BEPs can kiss my ass. I'm there to fight.

Anyway, tank driving obviously isn't for everyone. I think it's a lot of fun though, and I'm sure others would agree. Controlling a powerful weapon like a tank and being responsible for its well-being is good enough for me.

And second, if you try to leave your tank you will get shredded by anti infantry guns due to your shit agile armor.

That's probably why any tanker worth the cert points he spent on the vehicle will withdraw to a safe location before getting out of his tank to repair it.

Also, Agile armor isn't bad. There's not a major difference between it and Reinforced in terms of longevity. There's a noticeable difference, but it's still a hell of an exaggeration to call it shit.

If anything, I wouldn't even hop into a tank as a gunner, it's a death trap to any small-medium group of infantry with strikers, lancers, decimators, or phoenixes.

Anti-vehicular weapons take a little while to kill a tank. Usually in that time, from my experience, I can either run over the offending infantry, or just sit there while my gunners mow them down. I really doubt how much experience you've had with a tank saying stuff like this. Anti-vehicular weapons can be a problem, sure, but even if I ran into a lot of them, the tank is still quite fast, so it's no problem to kill a few, withdraw, repair, and come back.

P.S. can you shoot someone out of a basilisk/buggy or does only the vehicle take damage?

Only the vehicle takes damage.

NeoTassadar:
Awesome, I always thought being a sniper was too easy. Since there's a trail for Bolt Driver, the only real disadvantage to Lancer is lack of ammo (but the Lancer's trail a lot more visable). Maybe CoF also, but I doubt that.

Woo, now that the NDA is gone I can talk about it. The Lancer sucks ass for sniping. I find it really odd that people would even consider using it to snipe to be honest. First, the game has what seems to me like damage modifiers based on the type of target you're hitting. Meaning, infantry are extremely resistant to anti-vehicular weapons. It would take you more shots with a Lancer to kill someone than it would with a Bolt Driver, by far. Not only that, but the Lancer doesn't have a very good built-in scope like the Bolt Driver. To further compound matters, Lancer clips are much larger than a Bolt Driver clip in terms of how much inventory space is consumed, and their clips only hold 4 rounds rather than the 5 a Bolt Driver has (this is common for all anti-vehicular weapons -- they take up much space). And on top of all that, the Lancer, despite its very good accuracy, is not as accurate as a Bolt Driver at extreme ranges, I can guarentee you.

So, Lancer sniping is really not a good way to snipe. But as a side note, I don't think the Lancer leaves any projectile trail (it's difficult to tell when you fire it, because it's instant-hit more or less).

[HRR Raven]

As tanker you need to fear a skilled reaver pilot. We like to call tanks BEP Boxes, because in a couple of high speed passes you blast the sucker away;)

[The President]

Hey Veno, from what I've heard the pilot in open air vehicles (buggies, quads) will take the shot. I hated that in Halo when the vehicles would transfer the damage. Hope i helped you out man.

-The President:sniper:

[Venoxile]

I loved that in halo, sniping people out of their warthogs as they ran away. You ever snipe an elite out of one of the covenant tanks in single player? Hardest shit ever, you have to have the shot hit him in like a 3 inch squared area on him.

Back in the day (about 2 weeks ago) I owned people so bad in 12 player games (system link) with the pistol and the sniper rifle together. Damn that was some ownage, i love shooting people out of tanks.

[The President]

Yeah man the pistol is like a compact sniper rifle, I take more people out with that then with the sniper rifle.

-The President:sniper:

[EarlyDawn]

Can somebody else confirm that you cannot be shot in an "open" vehicle? If not, that would remove a big part of sniping for me.

[Venoxile]

depends on what range for most people. For me not really, i can kill someone with the sniper rifle at medium-close quarters combat range even and not miss a shot.

[EarlyDawn]

I'm refering to Planetside.

[Warborn]

Originally posted by LNS0388
Can somebody else confirm that you cannot be shot in an "open" vehicle? If not, that would remove a big part of sniping for me.

I can guarentee you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you can't kill the driver or gunner of a vehicle if they are on the vehicle. I've used a Basilisk at very close range to enemy infantry, and not once have I ever recieved damage beyond that of the Basilisk getting hit. There is no way to snipe people in vehicles.

{HRR} Raven:
As tanker you need to fear a skilled reaver pilot. We like to call tanks BEP Boxes, because in a couple of high speed passes you blast the sucker away ;)

Reavers generally try to get right behind me and match my speed while attacking. It's no big deal though. If I have both gunner spots full, the Reaver will die to the dual 12mm chainguns before he can take me out. And even then, I can usually shake them by using trees and walls to get between myself and them.

You know, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever died to a Reaver before. Most of my deaths in a tank are actually from turrets of facilities and towers when they're automated via an Interlink Facility.

[The President]

Thanks for the input Warborn, though that saddens me because that was gonna be an awesome part of sniping, but alas i will stick to taking out infantry with the bolt-driver. Thanks in any case though.

-The President:sniper:

[EarlyDawn]

Damnit. We all seemed sure before the NDA was dissolved.

Can anyone else confirm?

[Tegadil]

Originally posted by Venoxile
I loved that in halo, sniping people out of their warthogs as they ran away. You ever snipe an elite out of one of the covenant tanks in single player? Hardest shit ever, you have to have the shot hit him in like a 3 inch squared area on him.

Back in the day (about 2 weeks ago) I owned people so bad in 12 player games (system link) with the pistol and the sniper rifle together. Damn that was some ownage, i love shooting people out of tanks.

Ever snipe a banshee? Seriously.

I saw my cousin do it, second level, very beginning. It crahsed and the corpse had already fallen out. Went for a nice long joyride.

And I despise the pistol - easily one of the most unbalanced weapons. It's got good accuracy, ammo capacity, good damage, and from a range, it's nigh impossible to tell where the damage is coming from. At least the sniper rifle gave you a tracer.

[NeoTassadar]

Originally posted by Warborn
Woo, now that the NDA is gone I can talk about it. The Lancer sucks ass for sniping. I find it really odd that people would even consider using it to snipe to be honest. First, the game has what seems to me like damage modifiers based on the type of target you're hitting. Meaning, infantry are extremely resistant to anti-vehicular weapons. It would take you more shots with a Lancer to kill someone than it would with a Bolt Driver, by far. Not only that, but the Lancer doesn't have a very good built-in scope like the Bolt Driver. To further compound matters, Lancer clips are much larger than a Bolt Driver clip in terms of how much inventory space is consumed, and their clips only hold 4 rounds rather than the 5 a Bolt Driver has (this is common for all anti-vehicular weapons -- they take up much space). And on top of all that, the Lancer, despite its very good accuracy, is not as accurate as a Bolt Driver at extreme ranges, I can guarentee you.

So, Lancer sniping is really not a good way to snipe. But as a side note, I don't think the Lancer leaves any projectile trail (it's difficult to tell when you fire it, because it's instant-hit more or less). I guess you know better than me (you've played). Okay, so AV doesn't work well on infantry at all. Sound weird but it's a balance thing, I can deal with it. Or are you talking resistant in proportion to their usual damage? Pointed out ammo issue already. No huge purple trail? Sweet. I'll still be able to snipe vehicles and go AA, but better now.
Only thing I even semi-disagree with you this time is the scope. It's not built in, but that's easily fixed with implants.

[Warborn]

I guess you know better than me (you've played). Okay, so AV doesn't work well on infantry at all. Sound weird but it's a balance thing, I can deal with it.

Yeah, it doesn't make sense, but it's in the spirit of game balance. Otherwise we'd have rocket launchers and energy cannons ruling the game.

Or are you talking resistant in proportion to their usual damage?

The Lancer does a lot of damage to vehicles, but it does a lot less to infantry. It's still dangerous if you get hit with it, but that's not saying much, as it's very difficult to hit infantry with it, and it's also extremely limited in ammo capacity. But, yes, to directly answer the question, infantry must get a damage reduction when hit with AV weapons, because the damage these things do to a vehicle would probably kill an infantryman outright if it were directly translated.

No huge purple trail? Sweet. I'll still be able to snipe vehicles and go AA, but better now.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't leave a trail. The thing is that it hits its target almost instantly, so it's hard to tell if it leaves a trail or not when you're firing it yourself. Once Staging comes up I'll go on my Vanu character and fire in in 3rd person though, to settle it once and for all.

Only thing I even semi-disagree with you this time is the scope. It's not built in, but that's easily fixed with implants.

That's a given. Wouldn't make much difference though, as I doubt the Lancer retains its accuracy at extreme zoom (which the Bolt Driver does).

[NeoTassadar]

Originally posted by Warborn
That's a given. Wouldn't make much difference though, as I doubt the Lancer retains its accuracy at extreme zoom (which the Bolt Driver does). Probably retains its accuracy enough for its primary purpose, however. We are dealing with large targets, there. And I've always found it easier to track targets at very long ranges, no matter how small that target becomes on the screen. The only exception has been using support heavy machine guns in Ghost Recon. But that's just me. Got sidetracked a bit, but I guess that sort of fits in with the range/CoF thing.

[Warborn]

The Lancer is accurate, make no mistake about it, but I don't believe at very high magnifications that it would retain its seemingly pin-point accuracy as the Bolt Driver does. The Lancer isn't meant for extreme ranges, it's meant for long range, and against reasonably large targets, so I doubt its targetting reticule stay as small as the Bolt Driver's when zoomed in as far as you can.

[NeoTassadar]

Again ruling out infantry at that range (you're having the first moment of redundancy I've seen from you). But vehicles...

[Warborn]

It's good for sniping large vehicles, very bad for sniping infantry.

[Vis Armata]

Thanks for posting some quality information, Warborn :)

[darkfireknight2]

Thats great and all but take away there ammo and snipers are just cowards behind rocks. also, head shots HaHaHaHaHa try shooting through a ten foot thick block of NC steel.

[darkfireknight2]

As for prior comments to all of you snipers (YOU WILL DIE) Tribes orginal left a deep seated hatred of snipers. Vengance shall be mine.

[NeoTassadar]

:lol: at ^ for several reasons.