Why is the sniper rifle not hitscan?

Rhaider

R
I've been trying different combinations of weapons today and it just blows my mind the only sniper rifle is a slow floating ball of plasma.

Any laser or kinetic weapon far out performs the plasma sniper rifle in accuracy and that just seems silly.

Why would devs apply grenade launcher like mechanic to a sniper rifle?

The formula for snipers is well established Hitscan, High damage to head, small clip sizes.......

Please please please whoever mapped out the weapon balancing have another look and see how your mechanics compare to the last 20 years of successful FPS games.
 

Amanojaku

Amanojaku
I never liked the "slow floating ball of plasma", but I also never liked hitscan much either tbh, aside from laser weapons that are supposed to fire at the speed of light.

Some games are more realistic when it comes to projectile trajectory and velocity, but unrealistic velocities don't bother me too much in games (as long as it feels good mechanics-wise).

What drives me crazy is the entire idea that "projectile weapons would be inferior to slow floating ball of plasma, therefore we won't bother making a TRIED AND TRUE ballistic sniper rifle". Or that shotguns are useless past 10 feet in almost any shooter I've ever played. Or that the alien/monster/boogeyman in everything can't be affected by TRIED AND TRUE ballistics. You need some special/magic/unobtainium weapon or artifact to defeat it, or have "faith" (OMEGALUL).
 

Kezika

Kezika
The formula for snipers is well established Hitscan, High damage to head, small clip sizes.......
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Please refer to Kraber in Titanfall and Apex Legends (which actually has the slowest projectile speed of any non-hitscan inthose games), and snipers in any of the Battlefield series of games.

Also it does the latter two, it has 3x damage to head, whereas most are 1.5, and it has a magazine size of 3.

Why would devs apply grenade launcher like mechanic to a sniper rifle?
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Probably because the damage it does is quite powerful, and it's a balancing thing and makes it require some skill to use effectively. It already is arguably a bit OP and hitscan would put it firmly in that field, and would make it silly to use any other weapon if that were the case.

Also weapons in real life aren't hitscan, you have to lead a moving target, which isn't that hard of a skill to learn.
 

here_it_comes

here_it_comes
Rubbernuke said:
Goldeneye is an amazing FPS, even today. Lots of fun and was very forward thinking.
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Nostalgia is a lot of fun. I wouldn't say it was forward thinking though, it's ace was that it was on console. Had it been a PC release it likely would have been forgotten. FPS arena on console was a huge thing at the time. I remember Goldeneye matches dropping to single digit framerates sometimes and my friends and I thought it was cool, like a slow mo feature. We hadn't experienced what PC players already had, otherwise it would not have amused us. Once I played Unreal Tournament, my console FPS days were done.
 

Caydran

Caydran
Feels like a shotgun to me. Three rounds to a clip. Recoil sucks and I have not hit anything with it yet.

A sniper rifle. Yea, right!
 

Tyrit Shadowstalker

Tyrit Shadowstalker
Kezika said:
Also weapons in real life aren't hitscan, you have to lead a moving target, which isn't that hard of a skill to learn.
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While that is true to an extent, that's usually only a problem at a decent distance, the speed of the executioner is laughably slow to the point of needing to lead as much at about 30 yards for a walking target in EDO as I would at 300 yards for an elk at a full sprint. I'd have to actually conduct some tests to figure out its actual projectile speed, but I'd hazard a guess it moves far slower than even a nerf dart gun.

In my opinion as it stands currently, the Oppressor (even with the bugged scope) is a better DMR than the executioner is a sniper rifle.
 

Amanojaku

Amanojaku
Some of these replies really don't make much sense to me tbh. I've played tons of fps games where enemies had the same sniper you did, and if the AI was coded right it didn't make the game too hard.

Wiping out enemies from a distance in relative safety is what snipers are supposed to do, but it's not like you could actually do that if they AI was good. After the NPCs saw one of their buddies get sniped they should take cover and try to flank your position, not sit there like ducks.

Not having a "true" sniper just proves very little thought was given to balance and mechanics imo. From what I've seen the main reason a true sniper rifle wasn't added is because the spawning system stinks. No one would want to be sniped and take 15 minutes to get back to the mission area.
 

Iron Golem

Iron Golem
FrogsFriend said:
A weapon that would allow you to sit way outside a settlement, in a position of absolute safety, and kill all targets without the slightest effort. Always a popular suggestion (y)
Anyway, there are ship-mounted rockets for that :)
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If they have to lie about a weapons intention with a faux name because of poor implementation...
 

CMDR DragonHorn

CMDR DragonHorn
Jumping from one extreme to another? Hitscan can may be a laser weaponry, or perhaps something built around railgun tech, but not kinetic or plasma. Real sniper rifle should be a kinetic weapon with projectile travel time, ideally having a trajectory based on gravity profile of the body, but since that would be too unrealistic for FD to implement, just simple kinetic shot could be a thing. I mean, take ship MCs, each bullet has a travel time. So it would make using it fun, so you cannot hit targets instantly, but shot still should travel relatively fast. And it wouldn't be some slow plasma balls either...
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
Rhaider said:
I've been trying different combinations of weapons today and it just blows my mind the only sniper rifle is a slow floating ball of plasma.

Any laser or kinetic weapon far out performs the plasma sniper rifle in accuracy and that just seems silly.

Why would devs apply grenade launcher like mechanic to a sniper rifle?

The formula for snipers is well established Hitscan, High damage to head, small clip sizes.......

Please please please whoever mapped out the weapon balancing have another look and see how your mechanics compare to the last 20 years of successful FPS games.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I'd rather FDev didn't create a traditional FPS "sniper rifle".
All that ever happens is that you end up with every player running around, using them as short-range instakill weapons.

Personally, if I was creating an FPS, I'd make it so you had to use the scope with a sniper rifle to fire an accurate shot, and when you looked through the scope the image would move around for about 10 seconds before stabilising to simulate the sniper controlling their breathing and settling down before they could take an accurate shot.

I haven't really looked at the weapons in EDO yet but I kind of like the idea of a sniper rifle using slow-moving ammuntion, presumably as a way to help ensure they only get used on unsuspecting, slow-moving targets and providing a chance that the shot will miss, the target will become aware they're under attack and have an opportunity to defend themselves rather than just suddenly being killed.

Course, I say all this as somebody who's spent the last 10 years quite happily "sniping" with an Ebony bow in Skyrim. :unsure:
 
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