Reality check -- playing PS1 for the past three days

[Captain1nsaneo]

My friends, it has often been said that I like sniping. Friends, I like sniping. No, friends, I love sniping!
I love contlocks. I love field fights. I love defensive sniping. I love offensive sniping.
Sniping across fields, in bases, on walls, in grass, on frozen tundra, through deserts, from the beach, from a tree. I love every aspect of sniping that can occur in Planetside.
I love hitting enemies at 400m. My heart leaps with joy whenever teams of snipers mark the unwitting for death, and there is nothing like killing a rezing medic. And the feeling when a soldier runs for the safety of a base only to be cut down by a bolt just short of the threshold, is such an exquisite feeling.
Like when enemy snipers brandish their rifles from behind cover. It moves me deep within my heart to watch a rookie hiding behind cover that just isn't quite high enough to cover his hitbox.
The sight of cloakers being caught trying to sneak past is an irresistible pleasure. And there is nothing more arousing, than the sound of a failed boomer attempt.
When a band of pitiful NC makes their final defense of their AMS in nothing but spawn gear, only to have 5 snipers race for their BEP, I am in ecstasy.
I love it when my allies are broken by the TR. It's so sad to see bases and towers that were supposed to be defended being taken, their backpacks violated. I love being forced out by scorpions. The humiliation as my rounds go just wide, ducking the second round in a duel to go heal.
Gentlemen, all I ask for is sniping. An infantry fight so vast as to make the server itself tremble. Gentlemen, I ask you as fellow brothers in arms, what is it that you really want? Do you wish for sniping as I do? Do you wish for merciless and tireless sniping? A duel whose field is built with iron, and lightning, and fire? Do you ask for sniping so complete that not even cloakers are left to scavenge the dead?

(Repurposed from Helling)

So yeah, I like sniping and think the current mechanics are fine. Sure it's a pain to have to compensate for both travel time and the target's movement but that makes hitting them at draw distance all the sweeter. I don't care much for more recent sniping because the rifles are too powerful for me to consider it fair and thus enjoyable or the maps are based around close range fights and I prefer extreme range sniping. (In BF2 I used to pick people off of the TV heli spawn in Sharqi from max draw distance with head shots. Love that drop.)

tl;dr: Sniping is best when it's high risk/reward and difficult. Otherwise there's no enjoyment for pulling off hard shots. It's similar to how people like getting melee kills (Source: Valve). People like pulling off difficult things.


OH WAIT.

Sorry, the comments about sniping being bad stirred me. So yeah.

1: BFRs are essentially coffins these days. They're only good for getting mow kills. (well the VS one is)

2: Raiders are a problem to man but you're also asking in the wrong place. You'll have much better luck at a front line AMS as almost everyone who's gone back to base is there to pull their own vehicle not crew one. The best way to deal with it though is to work with a squad or with your outfit but for randoms it is a problem but I like to think of it as encouraging people to get in squads.

3: I've rarely ever had problems with grief and I used to heavily use a thumper. It does become a problem when defending extremely crowded bases like an interlink.

4: Mods are fairly easy to understand as far as I'm aware though I could definitely understand someone being confused about them after enough time away.

5: I agree with you on this, I think that the devs will find out that the TTK is much too high once we hit beta but there's nothing we can point to yet to prove it.

6: I think they're fine, you might be having trouble with the lightning though as it did get an armor buff (as did the reaver because AA got a buff [AA turret] to counter the gunship and this is all far too stupid.)

7: Quick tip, enlarge your minimap. Mine is huge compared to what it starts at. Helps a ton if you don't have layouts memorized.

8: Cloaking is awesome. Hard to get BEP doing it but having a small inventory, limited arsenal, and dying to a stiff breeze is worth being invisible permanently for. I hope that style of cloak makes it into PS2. My only worry would be that only cloakers could have sniper rifles turning sniper duels into whoever sees the other first wins. Wouldn't mind sniping as a heavy assault if it meant I could soak a round. Otherwise we'll have to play shoot once and move which doesn't work out sometimes as there sometimes aren't multiple spots to shoot from.

9: If you only play TR how can you say such things definitively?

"Anyone else been playing, rediscovering old loves and ancient frustrations, and pondered what they portend for PS2? And of our hopes and fears for it?"

Oh wait, I guess I was on topic!