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.

[Warborn]

Hm. Letting the squad leader simply look through the scope himself I'm not so sure I like. While it's a cool idea, it takes the emphasis off of the sniper and puts it on the squad leader. I'd rather the scouting role, such as it is, be more active on the sniper's part. That is to say, maybe snipers should have the capacity to make their own, distinct marks on the squad map? So that they could designate special areas of interest and whatnot? That could be in addition to a Battlefield-like spotting system, or separate.

Either way I do like the idea of snipers being more scouts than strictly murderers like in most FPS games. Giving them tools to serve as the eyes of a squad or platoon is something I think is good in principle.

Incidentally, anyone ever play Aliens Online? Was that old multiplayer FPS title based off the Aliens movies. That had the sort of see-what-your-squad-sees function similar to what you described, only it was for the entire squad at once that the squad leader could see. I don't know why I'm bringing it up exactly, but that was a neat feature in general.

[TheBladeRoden]

a remote camera deployable would be cool

[Mordicant]

I liked tracer darts in Bf:bc2. It helped mark vehicles and aided in missile locks. I always thought that was a good role and I always had fun trying to tag helis.

[Traak]

I would like deployable unmanned Snipefire turrets.

LOL! Of course, I don't want to FACE them. Just deploy them.

[Cosmical]

One of the things thats bothering me about the new PS is that im not hearing much in the way of innovation. Sure the battles will be scaled up, ten times what any other game has even attempted, and maybe thats enough.

But most of the ideas ive heard are not so much exciting as they are just reveals that, WERE DOING WHAT BF3 IS DOING!! COS IT WORKS!! Once again this isnt a bad thing cos i love BF3, and if it aint broke dont fix it.

It just get the feeling that team work is going to be kill whoring cos you can, rather than addapting to the battlefield. Without flails and weird attack strategies, war is looking like its going to be two/three forces clashing head on after deployed Galaxies, andy without stealth aspects like AMS's its sounding rather boring.

[Traak]

Galaxies need to cloak when deployed for spawning, and be loaded with AA weapons.

Then the pilots will have to find someone else to farm. Maybe other planes? Oh, then there's no farming, but actual fighting.

[nomotog]

Originally Posted by Mordicant

I liked tracer darts in Bf:bc2. It helped mark vehicles and aided in missile locks. I always thought that was a good role and I always had fun trying to tag helis.

Oh those sound nice. Lets have them in PS2.