Weapon Suggestion: NS-80 Devastator AMR

[DarkBalths]

"The NS-80 Devastator AMR is an extremely powerful anti-materiel sniper system. This weapon is chambered for the giant .80 caliber anti-materiel cartridge, capable of doing moderate damage to armored targets and massive damage to infantry. All factions can use NS weapons."

everyone's asking for an NS sniper rifle, but since the sniper rifles are carbon copies of each other (more or less) across each faction, I thought it needed a different approach. The NS-80 would damage armour, obviously, because it's an anti-materiel system.

I'd like some feedback on this. The stats are obviously subject to change, and I'd like to hear what people think. The gun right now would do a bit more damage than the Striker, but fires much slower, so one infiltrator can't just blow up an entire armour column. The only way this gun could destroy an entire field of tanks is if a group of players coordinated themselves, all got the gun, then all focus fired each tank. That's teamwork, and would not make this weapon "OP".

Here are the stats I drew up. (I skipped the CoF stuff because it's pretty obvious.):

Name: NS-80 Devastator AMR
Faction: NS
Type: SNIPER
Bullet Max Damage: 850 @ 10m
Bullet Min Damage: 600 @ 75m
Fire mode: Bolt
Short reload: 5s
Long reload: 7s
Mag Size: 3
Ammo Pool: 27 (30 rounds total)
Recoil Vertical: 1.75
Recoil Horizontal Min/Max: 0.2/0.2
Recoil Angle Min/Max: 0/0
recoil Horizontal Bias: ← = →
Recoil Decrease: 5
First Shot Recoil Multiplier: 1x
ADS Speed Multiplier: 0.5x
~RoF: 38
Muzzle Velocity: 695m/s

[Wahooo]

From the perspective of a sniper an AV rifle that shares a lot of the gun play as a normal bolt rifle does sound a tad OP. The lower muzzle velocity helps, as well the accuracy needs to be far less than the other bolt rifles so it isn't a default why would you ever carry any other weapon kills everything great weapon.

It just... well vehicles are very very easy to hit with a rifle compared to a rocket. Something about the idea doesn't sit well with me.

[DarkBalths]

Originally Posted by Wahooo

From the perspective of a sniper an AV rifle that shares a lot of the gun play as a normal bolt rifle does sound a tad OP. The lower muzzle velocity helps, as well the accuracy needs to be far less than the other bolt rifles so it isn't a default why would you ever carry any other weapon kills everything great weapon.

It just... well vehicles are very very easy to hit with a rifle compared to a rocket. Something about the idea doesn't sit well with me.

This weapon has a smaller magazine, much longer reload time, and slower RoF. I get that if you're aiming at a tank you don't have to be as accurate as aiming at a head, so I see your point. Making it less accurate would be a nice balancing factor.

[Badjuju]

Anti vehicle turrets are already annoying enough. While I play infantry primarily, I imagine tank drivers would be driven absolutely crazy by a bunch of snipers pelting their tanks with AV rounds. It would be incredibly difficult to balance as well considering the sheer numbers of snipers that can be in the field and how mobile and elusive they are.

[derito]

How do you think it should fare compared to the lancer ?
Should this sniper simply be better or worse than the lancer ? Or do you have a particular niche in mind for the sniper ?

[DarkBalths]

Originally Posted by derito

How do you think it should fare compared to the lancer ?
Should this sniper simply be better or worse than the lancer ? Or do you have a particular niche in mind for the sniper ?

It should definitely be "worse" than the Lancer, in the fact that the Lancer is a rocket launcher, and this is a sniper rifle. The Lancer is a special launcher that only the VS get, so if this gun were more effective, it would essential make the Lancer useless.
However, the Lancer can charge, this cannot. This gun always does 850 (max) damage, but the Lancer does varying degrees of damage (I don't know the exact numbers).

[Obstruction]

i think it would be more fitting and less game breaking to give this type of ability to a heavy assault LMG (or ammunition cert option) with decreased AI functionality.

if bolt action rifles need a gimmick, make it that nonlethal hits decrease movement speed 20% for 2 seconds.

[Falcon_br]

Anti tank rifles are fine for me, but they need to have a lower bullet speed them the standart sniper rifle, and be much less accurate.
It must be easy to hit a sunderer or a tank, but infantry and maxes should be harder to hit, it would be more like luck then skill because of the low accuracy.
Of course, you can kill any infantry with headshots, and body shots must do a Phoenix damage, like we all know, it is almost lethal.
And the dps must be low, 3 snipers can be annoying to a sunderer, but one alone must not be able to kill him, unless none is repearing it.

[Timealude]

Originally Posted by Falcon_br

Anti tank rifles are fine for me, but they need to have a lower bullet speed them the standart sniper rifle, and be much less accurate.
It must be easy to hit a sunderer or a tank, but infantry and maxes should be harder to hit, it would be more like luck then skill because of the low accuracy.
Of course, you can kill any infantry with headshots, and body shots must do a Phoenix damage, like we all know, it is almost lethal.
And the dps must be low, 3 snipers can be annoying to a sunderer, but one alone must not be able to kill him, unless none is repearing it.

like have a x4 scope at most?

[GreyFrog]

No hip fire.

But honestly I don't like the idea. The last thing this game needs is another AV weapon, vehicles are too squishy as it is.

[Oracen]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this would 1HK a Heavy with Nano5, yeah? A whole lot of people would be annoyed at more 1HK weaponry, and even more at 1HK being added in to a new weapon instead of one of the ones that used to have it.

[Falcon_br]

Originally Posted by Oracen

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this would 1HK a Heavy with Nano5, yeah? A whole lot of people would be annoyed at more 1HK weaponry, and even more at 1HK being added in to a new weapon instead of one of the ones that used to have it.

Nope, only one hit kill with head shots, what would be impossible because of the low accuracy.
But it would do a nice damage, like the phoenix do.

I agree with the 4x scope and press B to deploy the weapon, you can´t fire it on the move and have a 1 second arm time, 2 rounds magazine, but 2,5/3,5 seconds reload time, 1 second bolt action time.
One striker shot each round would be nice, maybe 500 direct, 400 explosive 1m radius like is the striker (400 down to 500 explosive to don´t 1 hit kill). It should have the same striker rockets count to kill a vehicle, like 2 on a flash, 14 on a mbt and so on.
And like the striker, a full squad with it will be game breaking. Unless maxes come, or a turrets, on real sniper and go on.

[DarkMesa]

The way I would balance it would be to give it a low zoom scope, low muzzle velocity compared to the standard bolt-actions, single round magazine and a fairly lengthy reload, and force some sort of deploy mechanic before it can be fired.