Gameplay: Snipers and Teamwork

[PoisonTaco]

I posted these ideas in another sniper thread but I'm going to flesh them out a little more. These are my ideas on how to make snipers team players and give them tools to help out their squad and faction on top of shooting people.

Commander Connections

In Battlefield 1942, snipers had a unique ability. In their loadout they had binoculars which they could use to spot for players in artillery vehicles. The artillery would get to see what the sniper is seeing and they could indirectly fire at the area.

Let's bring back that mechanic and tie it into the commander CERT line. Under the command CERT's have one that allows a squad leader or commander to gain vision of a sniper's scope. Communication and coordination between the sniper, squad leader and the rest of the squad. A Sniper might be able to spot things that other players can't, and this ability would allow for a commander to see what the sniper sees and relay that information to everyone else.

This gameplay would make a sniper more valuable to a squad. For one, a sniper has more of a reason to get to some high ground other than to score some head shots. A sniper would be contributing to the rest of his or her squad in this sense. It also gives a leader more options to work with.

Target Information and Marking

Here's another idea to incorporate with the sniper's scope. Target identification and designation. Give the ability for a sniper to identify the target they are looking at. Make it so that a sniper can single out a squad leader and take them out. In addition, have it so that the sniper can highlight or mark a specific target to the rest of his or her squad. If the sniper is unable to kill a priority target, they can mark it.

This is another way to make snipers valuable to a team. Instead of mindlessly picking off players from a distance, snipers could actively seek out and eliminate important targets. Being able to pick out a squad leader, a medic, an engineer or AT would add a lot more strategy to being a sniper.

Obviously I nobody knows the inner workings of Planetside 2 outside of SOE, but hey these are my ideas on how to make snipers both active and passive team members. Instead of just sitting back getting headshots, there's a lot a sniper could do to be useful to their faction.