Let's talk about the Sniper Rifle.

Games Other Halo
1

Some love it, some despise it. Some rip off their scope and go rambo with it. Others play it safe, stick back in the base and use camo.

I was thinking one day, if Halo 4 is truly to be a game about weapon niches considering we’ll have custom load outs now, I think the sniper should be changed. It’s been changed from every game, from a rifle that knew no range limit, fired very fast for a sniper rifle, and required leading…then all the way to a slow fire rate with hitscan and big magnetism.

I believe I have the idea to balance the sniper very good in Halo 4. Granted I’m no game designer but it’s worth a shot, no? Here goes.

In the right hands the sniper can be used to instakill anyone, and perhaps a bit too easily. Anyone familiar with swipe sniping? Or the general auto aim and magnetism involved? It kind of makes it a bit too easy in semi-capable hands.

What if the sniper had full aim assist mechanics at long range, and as a target passed a certain threshold those mechanics were gradually reduced?

To where at a range the sniper is meant to fulfill it’s niche, someone can use it effectively (though not any easier than past games), and at CQC where it’s not meant to be effective, it’ll be extremely hard to use?

The reason I believe this would be good is because it’ll encourage use of the sniper in the role it’s supposed to be used it, and TRULY good players will feel even better when they can pull off no scope headshots in CQC.

2

The sniper isn’t really too easy to use in itself. Granted, the Reach sniper had a huge amount of bullet magnetism. The amount of bullet magnetism should be greatly reduced, but the weapon should still be capable. I don’t think your idea is necessary or even really good. Aside from the Reach version, the sniper really isn’t that easy to use. It can be used in closer range combat, but isn’t your most viable option.

3

Adding aim assist to long-range combat would make long-range combat too easy. “Did I really get that snipe, or did the game do it for me? Do I even have any right to be proud of this kill?”

However, if aim assist is kept where it’s at, but reduces to zero as range decreases, then that’d work. Damage reduction as range decreases could also work, but if possible shouldn’t apply to headshots; that’d stop body shot warriors while still rewarding true no-scopes.

4

I agree with Dave. On the simple fact that at close range a round such as the one used in the sniper rifle would have to much velocity to do any “major” damage. It would simply pass through the body as harmlessly as a bullets can. The ballistics coefficient of a round is always measure at the rounds intended rage and can act dramatically different as the distance from muzzle to target changes. I personally think all assistance needs to be removed from the rifle if your not out at range. And personally * puts on flamesuit* hitscan at range. But that’s just me. If it were real life I would expect to have to lead my target, but given that the game takes place several hundred years in the future and so on, I woul expect to see a head pop as soon as I pulled the trigger.

5

Reduce the amount of aim assist and bullet magnetisim for the Sniper to where the skill ceiling would be quite large.

That’s all i have to say. No need for over complicated walls of texts (for me at least).

6

My bad, I’m a gun nut

7

A good suggestion but:

  • Halo is an arena style game, similar to that of Quake. When was the last time you killed someone with the Railgun (which is basically a sniper rifle) from across the map? Granted, Halo is not Quake but the Sniper Rifle in Halo is designed with the idea of using it at short range.

  • Last time I checked you would be unable to spawn with power weapons in Halo 4, the Sniper Rifle last time I checked was counted as a power weapon. Therefore it is supposed to be outright better than the BR or the AR, provided you can use it.

8

> A good suggestion but:
>
> - Halo is an arena style game, similar to that of Quake. When was the last time you killed someone with the Railgun (which is basically a sniper rifle) from across the map? Granted, Halo is not Quake but the Sniper Rifle in Halo is designed with the idea of using it at short range.
>
> - Last time I checked you would be unable to spawn with power weapons in Halo 4, the Sniper Rifle last time I checked was counted as a power weapon. Therefore it is supposed to be outright better than the BR or the AR, provided you can use it.

Excuse me sir but I have never, repeat NEVER used the SR in CQC situations, I find it unsuited for them and quite heavy handed in tight quarters. I have always used it for cross mapping in some way shape or form. Percision weapons by nature take a moment to line up the shot. If some people use it for CQC more power to them, but with its limited ammunition that’s quite the waste IMHO

And when was spawning with it mentioned?

9

> > A good suggestion but:
> >
> > - Halo is an arena style game, similar to that of Quake. When was the last time you killed someone with the Railgun (which is basically a sniper rifle) from across the map? Granted, Halo is not Quake but the Sniper Rifle in Halo is designed with the idea of using it at short range.
> >
> > - Last time I checked you would be unable to spawn with power weapons in Halo 4, the Sniper Rifle last time I checked was counted as a power weapon. Therefore it is supposed to be outright better than the BR or the AR, provided you can use it.
>
> Excuse me sir but I have never, repeat NEVER used the SR in CQC situations, I find it unsuited for them and quite heavy handed in tight quarters. I have always used it for cross mapping in some way shape or form. Percision weapons by nature take a moment to line up the shot. If some people use it for CQC more power to them, but with its limited ammunition that’s quite the waste IMHO
>
> And when was spawning with it mentioned?

CQC sniping aka no scopes are always fun to get :smiley:

10

Let me clarify a bit.

I’m not saying it should be easy to snipe at long range, it shouldn’t be any easier than about Halo 3.

Also, while you can’t spawn with the Sniper rifle, it’s still evident this game will have a sandbox based on true niches. So why not make sure the weapons are encouraged to be used in their niche?

Like I said, a truly good player will be able to use it in CQC and get kills. It’ll just be hard to, like it should be.

11

> Adding aim assist to long-range combat would make long-range combat too easy. “Did I really get that snipe, or did the game do it for me? Do I even have any right to be proud of this kill?”
>
> However, if aim assist is kept where it’s at, but reduces to zero as range decreases, then that’d work. Damage reduction as range decreases could also work, but if possible shouldn’t apply to headshots; that’d stop body shot warriors while still rewarding true no-scopes.

I’m not really a fan of the idea of damage decrease. Disregarding Reach, as the sniper is rather horrible in the game, no scoping is already hard enough. It’s really not like people would be running around pulling no scopes, even body shots. Getting a headshot in close quarters is extremely demanding. In case of very close range, it’s pretty much luck do you get the time to react. So, the sniper would become too useless at close range.

In the end, all we need is some aim assist and bullet magnetism reduction, both at range and in close quarters, to have a sniper rifle that isn’t too easy to use. After all, the current rediculousness of the sniper is only created by the large amount of both mechanics.

Bullet magnetism could even be completely dropped, but I could imagine a no-aim assist sniper to be frustrating at close range. Because, in the end, the aim assist itself is there only to make the experience bearable with a controller. And I really don’t feel like wanting to miss shots because of the inaccuracy of my controller and the unpredictable aim acceleration. That’s why zero aim assist is absolutely unacceptable unless we are given a much more accurate way to aim.

12

Sniper rifle has always been a love hate relationship for me… i love it when I have it in my hands… and I hate it when someone else is killing me with it.

IMO the skill gap needed to succeed with the sniper rifle is too low. There is simply too much auto-aim/aim-magnetism and the headshot hitbox is too big.

I hope that the Sniper Rifle remains the end-all-be-all power weapons, but I also hope that it takes a lot of skill to bring its potential to light.

13

> Adding aim assist to long-range combat would make long-range combat too easy. “Did I really get that snipe, or did the game do it for me? Do I even have any right to be proud of this kill?”
>
> However, if aim assist is kept where it’s at, but reduces to zero as range decreases, then that’d work. Damage reduction as range decreases could also work, but if possible shouldn’t apply to headshots; that’d stop body shot warriors while still rewarding true no-scopes.

Beat me to the post… in all seriousness, damage reduction over distance and aim assist will teach players how to actually use a sniper rifle. Not to get too off-topic, but a recent show featuring sniper uses in real life touched upon the basic mechanics of aim, elevation, distance, and a few other key elements. If aim assist is turned off for long distance, your looking at very difficult shots. The problem is, people are going to behave like snipers and that means taking long distance sniping to camp levels and further then that, meta-gaming to avoid deaths.

While I like the overall idea of implementing this, I just see too much abuse from the community for certain matches on maps like Hemorrhage, but hey, new game, new maps, so that’s why I agree with Cobb above.

14

I would just reduce the magnetism and perhaps reduce the ammo, honestly if it functioned like it did in H3 I would be fine. In Halo 2(at least this is where I remember the most swipe shots) and Reach I believe it had a lot of bullet magnetism. Overall I see to many ppl capable of just picking it up and having a potential 12 kills which is wrong, sure it requires more from the player but 12 potential kills that can be gained from the safety of distance is too much. Then there is the fact that in Reach the sniper is not only anti-infantry but anti-vehicle which is taking it way too far. The Sniper needs to be the weapon that players fear in the hands of a capable player but that one player shouldn’t be able to control the match for the majority of its duration without having a capable team.

15

I don’t think the magnetism should be increased at all (maybe even reduced slightly), but if the magnetism is reduced gradually as you get closer to the target, then i don’t see a problem with that.

I’ve never had a problem with CQC with the sniper myself, but i understand how some people see it as a problem.

16

I’m seeing a lot of really roundabout and unnecessary suggestions so far.

Personally, and I’ve dwelled on it a bit, this would be the best thing.

First of all, I think many of us would enjoy a non hitscan sniper because shot leading takes skill, and quite frankly it just feels more natural, it also really sets up for some talented people to display their prowess. However, with a non hitscan sniper you get more bullet registration issues, they don’t have to be as bad as Halo 3’s was, but it’s going to be there. But I’ve also seen games with non hitscan weaponry that have NO WHERE near as bad as a “netcode” as Halo 3, and they were quite fun.

So for the sake of safety let’s say a hitscan sniper, since it’s hitscan, anywhere within that circle counts as a hit. MAKE THE DAMN RETICLE SMALLER. I mean seriously, the thing is friggin huge in Reach, what’s worse is that given the way the proportions are in Reach, people are quite tiny at even the mildest distances. So given the tiny people, and large reticle it’s pretty hard to miss, and headshots are awarded fairly often.

Obviously we should be toning down the aim assist and magnetism for the sniper as well, but across the board, very little to none at close range, and a reasonable amount at a distance. All weapons should have as little as comfortably possible. Just enough to snag just a bit.

Sniping should already be more difficult in H3. Since there are the aforementioned problems with Reach, coupled with the STUPIDLY slow base movement in gametypes that are non MLG, it’s quite easy to hit someone.

H4 is supposed to be faster, movement looks a lot more crisp, strafing seems quite viable, therefore sniping will be harder. No scopes more challenging, this automatically puts the sniper back into it’s much longer range niche. I mean I don’t think no scoping has ever been as easy as it is in Reach.

17

I dont see why they cant just do what a lot of games do, and remove the reticule completely when you’re not zoomed in.

I know spartans are supposed to have the uplink with the weapons to display the reticule on thier hud but im sure it wouldnt be hard for 343 to make a small description for the Sniper explaining a reason for this.

or at very least make the reticule change sizes when you zoom in.
no zoom = | |
zoom = | |

seems a bit rediculous though, would be like ME1’s sniper rifle if you went the wrong class haha. hence why they should just remove it completely…

18

Or how about we keep it the same, since there is absolutely nothing wrong with how players use the sniper in Halo. The only thing that is wrong is the player’s perception that because a weapon is named a “sniper rifle” that it must be used similar to how our military snipers use them.

Here’s a little tidbit for you: Just because our military snipers don’t run around no scoping and quickscoping, using their sniper like a shotgun, doesn’t mean they can’t.

You want to limit a sniper to extreme range, go play Battlefield.

19

You’re acting like the sniper is a god-tier weapon in all situations. I can tell you that I’ve never had a problem with another sniper in Reach or any other Halo game for that matter… well except when my team has been spawn killed.

Nonetheless. The sniper doesn’t need any change. Anyone stupid enough to Rambo with it usually dies quickly anyway.

Oh, and I have doubts that we’ll be able to spawn with a sniper rifle. It’s a power weapon.