New and unique sniper.

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

This is my replacement for the binary rifle.

Ammo total: 6 bullets or beams.

clip: 2 bullets or beams.

Damage: first bullet hit: drains 25% of total shield each second. The bullet will stop draining health once the target has no more shields.

Damage: second bullet hit or head-shot hit: increases the drain from 25% to 50% per second and will kill the opponent.

When is this weapon good? When fighting Camo, OS, or you want to keep one of their teammates or more out of combat for as long as possible.

When is this weapon not good? In close combat, or when killing fast is a necessity. Because it has a drain effect the opponent can still deal damage to you and your teammates.

2

This was supposed to be posted in the Xbox one forum.

3

> This was supposed to be posted in the Xbox one forum.

I got you covered. :slight_smile:

4

This would be a weak weapon compared to the other sniper rifles. Why would you choose a slow kill over an instant kill when you hit a headshot? Of course, you can never actually choose between sniper rifles. But what will make people go out of their way to pick it up?

in any case, I think the advantage of this promethean sniper over the other snipers would have to be in other things. We could make it easier to hit with, but that would introduce an easy to use sniper and we don’t want any easy weapon in a competitive game. Alternatively, we could actually increase the clip size over the unsc sniper, as opposed to keeping it reduced like the binary rifle. Or give it a really fast reload time. This would enable it to have a potential greater damage output than the other rifles, at the cost of sacrificing instant kills. It would still have less ammo than the UNSC sniper though. Also, headshots in particular should drain shields a bit faster, say 75% per second, so that an instant headshot will still beat a BR 4 shot killtime.

If it were balanced this way, I would love this weapon as it would be quite unique in the sandbox and pretty satisfying to use. Especially if those hit by it are visibly hurt by it; for example a shock effect showing how the shields are being drained.

5

> <mark>This would be a weak weapon compared to the other sniper rifles. Why would you choose a slow kill over an instant kill when you hit a headshot? Of course, you can never actually choose between sniper rifles. But what will make people go out of their way to pick it up?</mark>
>
> in any case, I think the advantage of this promethean sniper over the other snipers would have to be in other things. We could make it easier to hit with, but that would introduce an easy to use sniper and we don’t want any easy weapon in a competitive game. Alternatively, we could actually increase the clip size over the unsc sniper, as opposed to keeping it reduced like the binary rifle. Or give it a really fast reload time. This would enable it to have a potential greater damage output than the other rifles, at the cost of sacrificing instant kills. It would still have less ammo than the UNSC sniper though. Also, headshots in particular should drain shields a bit faster, say 75% per second, so that an instant headshot will still beat a BR 4 shot killtime.
>
> If it were balanced this way, I would love this weapon as it would be quite unique in the sandbox and pretty satisfying to use. Especially if those hit by it are visibly hurt by it; for example a shock effect showing how the shields are being drained.

With descope incorporated head-shots aren’t going to be a matter of course anymore.

The sniper has different uses, and is, more of a “support-sniper”.

*It will drain 25% of the persons full health no matter what. Which means you will take down a full OS in 4 or less seconds with the use of one or two bullets.

*While players using the Power Up Camo can fire a few shots and then go invisible again this sniper would hinder them in doing that, by holding them visible and low shield for at least 6 seconds.

*As players always will lose health they are hindered to scope (Descope).

*You can keep other opponents weak for at least tree times as long by the use of only 1 bullet compared to the other snipers, which allows your team to be up in players for a very long time.

The only “disadvantage” it has is that it doesn’t kill as fast. This could be a positive and negative thing based on the situation.

6

> > <mark>This would be a weak weapon compared to the other sniper rifles. Why would you choose a slow kill over an instant kill when you hit a headshot? Of course, you can never actually choose between sniper rifles. But what will make people go out of their way to pick it up?</mark>
> >
> > in any case, I think the advantage of this promethean sniper over the other snipers would have to be in other things. We could make it easier to hit with, but that would introduce an easy to use sniper and we don’t want any easy weapon in a competitive game. Alternatively, we could actually increase the clip size over the unsc sniper, as opposed to keeping it reduced like the binary rifle. Or give it a really fast reload time. This would enable it to have a potential greater damage output than the other rifles, at the cost of sacrificing instant kills. It would still have less ammo than the UNSC sniper though. Also, headshots in particular should drain shields a bit faster, say 75% per second, so that an instant headshot will still beat a BR 4 shot killtime.
> >
> > If it were balanced this way, I would love this weapon as it would be quite unique in the sandbox and pretty satisfying to use. Especially if those hit by it are visibly hurt by it; for example a shock effect showing how the shields are being drained.
>
> With descope incorporated head-shots aren’t going to be a matter of course anymore.
>
> No, it isn’t. It just has different uses.
>
> *It will drain 25% of the persons full health no matter what. Which means you will take down a full OS in 4 or less seconds with the use of one or two bullets.
>
> *While players using the Power Up Camo can fire a few shots and then go invisible again this sniper would hinder them in doing that, by holding them visible and low shield for at least 6 seconds.
>
> *As players always will lose health they are hindered to scope (Descope).
>
> *You can keep other opponents weak for at least tree times as long by the use of only 1 bullet compared to the other snipers, which allows your team to be up in players for a very long time.
>
> The only “disadvantage” it has is that it doesn’t kill as fast. This could be a positive and negative thing based on the situation.

…Did you read the rest of my post?

And I’m well aware of the advantages you describe. It is an effective overshield killer; but a sniper vs. overshield is only a rare occurance. And camo should be a powerup, so it doesn’t need a counter and again, camo vs sniper is a rare occurance. (And if not, Halo 5 will be an armor ability game and then i won’t be playing multiplayer anyway.)

So what we are left with is its regular use as a power weapon. The shield drain keeps enemies out of combat longer, if they can retreat before getting shot again. However, if they are getting teamshot, their shields will be down almost instantly, so they will start recharging earlier again, negating the effect. At that point it also would have been better to have a UNSC sniper, where the snipe + headshot would have instantly killed him anyway. Headshots also don’t kill instantly but over time, and since they can still give damage before dying that’s a direct nerf compared to the UNSC sniper. So yes, its damage output is less useful than with the UNSC sniper or beam rifle in most cases. But i support the weapon mechanic since it is unique and plays a good support role.

But in order to have the promethean sniper on the same level as the UNSC sniper and beam rifle, there must be an advantage to the promethean sniper that the other snipers don’t have. The beam rifle’s advantage is how it can instantly fire two body shots to kill (at the tradeoff of a cooldown). The UNSC sniper’s advantage is how it has more total ammo. So what will your promethean sniper have over the others?

My suggestion is a higher fire rate, say fire once every 0.75 seconds, which would be a nice counter to its slower killtime. It would allow for two body shots on somebody passing a broad hallway, something the UNSC sniper wouldn’t be able to do. An alternative would be more bullets in the clip, so you need to reload less. Which would fit in nicely with the support role of the weapon.

7

I would say that the unique advantage for this sniper would be that it has a promethean vision scope. That would remove the AA promethean vision from the game which already adds newfound balance.

8

> I would say that the unique advantage for this sniper would be that it has a promethean vision scope. That would remove the AA promethean vision from the game which already adds newfound balance.

… You are serious about adding a sniper that can look through walls? that’s rediculously overpowered in so many ways. People would hold on to it just to scan the map for their team.

9

I’d prefer a new weapon that is not a one hit kill weapon, so maybe a bolt action sniper that fires a sticky, explosive EMP device. It’s main purpose would be to disable vehicles at long distances, but in the right hands could be an effective anti infantry weapon, similar to how multiple shields could be partially drained with the Grenade Launcher in Halo: Reach. One round would be loaded at a time and you would have 2 on reserve, 5 max.

10

> > I would say that the unique advantage for this sniper would be that it has a promethean vision scope. That would remove the AA promethean vision from the game which already adds newfound balance.
>
> … You are serious about adding a sniper that can look through walls? that’s rediculously overpowered in so many ways. People would hold on to it just to scan the map for their team.

Have it spawn on map where it can fought over then it will encourage map movement and teamwork/communication.

11

> This would be a weak weapon compared to the other sniper rifles. Why would you choose a slow kill over an instant kill when you hit a headshot?

The idea might not work for MP, but it could work for Campaign since the Promethean Knights are prone to teleporting to inaccessible locations and having swift recovery of their shielding.

Teleporting was a terrible ability in Halo 4… it was an easy way to make the Knights pose a challenge. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely to be removed or replaced because of canon, so there should be weapons and/or equipment (i.e. AAs, nades) to counteract it.

12

> Have it spawn on map where it can fought over then it will encourage map movement and teamwork/communication.

Well, that’s quite obvious. That is how all power weapons are balanced; they need to be fought over. The things that need to be considered for power weapons is not their killtimes, as they are almost by definition instant killers. The things that play important factors are ease of use, and how long the weapon is in play (usually limited by ammo).

Giving promethean vision to a sniper scope will basically give it a function that can be used indefinitely, as long as the user carries the weapon. At high level matchmaking, I see people just sitting back towards their spawn, scanning the map for the enemy, while the other players on the team take them out. Or he can come a bit forward of course to snipe them himself. He’ll see everything coming. A weapon both easy to use (he sees everything coming) and that is potentially in play from the start of the match to the end (free PV!)

when you compare that to a rocket launcher, that’s at most four free kills in a short time, and that’s it. It’s powerful when in play, but it isn’t in play for long and so it does not guarantee victory the way a promethean vision sniper would.

> The idea might not work for MP, but it could work for Campaign since the Promethean Knights are prone to teleporting to inaccessible locations and having swift recovery of their shielding.
> Teleporting was a terrible ability in Halo 4… it was an easy way to make the Knights pose a challenge. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely to be removed or replaced because of canon, so there should be weapons and/or equipment (i.e. AAs, nades) to counteract it.

I never really stop to think about campaign. Indeed, the OP’s sniper would play out well in campaign… But what do we do about multiplayer? I think the multiplayer prevails over campaign as that is what gives Halo games its longevity… So it needs to be perfect.

We could give the promethean sniper an instant headshot kill and an over-time headshot kill for campaign. It would be an awkward difference of the same weapon in different gamemodes. But it could work.

This in itsself would bring the sniper’s level pretty much up to the level of the other snipers; an instant headshot kill. And I think that the damage-over-time effect for body shots would set it apart from the other snipers. Along with playing with the firerates and ammo, I think this could turn out to be a great addition to the game.

It would certainly be better than the binary rifle. That thing was insanely OP.