Sniping

[Rob Sharona]

If you pull it off a few times, and practice a lot, it almost becomes instinctive. You know the kind of moves your opponents will make because you have seen it so many times before.

 

[Jumplion]

I'm a little bipolar on the whole sniping issue thing.

Usually i make/take an assault class, but sometimes i'm way better at let's say the demolition class (shotgun in BF:Bad Company) and sometimes with the sniper like in CoD4.

I usually get good at almost anything with a couple of minutes practice (but there are some good and bad days i have) but sniping is 1/3 notice ability, 1/3 practice, and 1/3 aim. It takes some practice, but it's so annoying when everyone on your team is a sniper for some reason or that one bullet ANYWHERE will instantly cripple you and kill.

 

[Telperion]

Well, to be honest I try, but (I think) most of the TF2 levels are pretty unsuitable for sniping so I usually have to end up running around with a flamethrower or something...

I have to disagree here: there are lots of open areas in all of the maps that a sniper can take advantage of. It's just that you can't hide yourself really good, which leaves you exposed to getting killed while you are still trying to get that lazer dot on-target. A good example is 2Fort: there are plenty of good places to snipe, but none of them are really what I would call "secure".

And, to be honest they're probably aiming at the corner waiting for you to come round

Well, of course. I usually aim at a spot that is not immediately visible to anyone I'm planning on shooting when they first come into my kill zone. It cuts down on people starting to move inconsistently when they see my blue/red dot of death.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Dirty trick time.

Zoom in the cross hairs of your sniper rifle. Then place a small blob of blu-tack right in the centre on your cross hairs. Then zoom out and let the owning ensue.

#I don't recomend this for lcd screens, only glass screened crt monitors.

There is also the old time solutions of practice, patience and finding a copy of Goldeneye.

I fail to understand why sniper rifles are so damned powerful in games anyway?

Me neither. Obviously real world Anti Material rifles are cannons but in games that makes for poor balance. TF2 has it right where the gun starts off pretty weak and charges up, the Scout in CSS is pretty good too as it needs precision.

 

[Flunk]

It's because CS is insanely unrealistic, it allows someone with enough practise to just use one of the completely overpowered sniper rifles to one shot you instantly (without setting up and aiming like you would actually have to do) and because there is no recoil they can then just do it to the next guy.

This is my biggest complaint about CS, it favours the kids who play 8 hours a day and doesn't realistically handle high powered rifles.

 

[The Bandit]

It's because sniping in FPS games is unrealistic to the point of absurdity.

Allow me to take one of the most famous examples: The Accuracy International Arctic Warfare/Magnum (better known as the AW/P in Counter-Strike). A fifteen-pound sniper rifle that fires .338 Lapua rounds (delivering about TEN TIMES the kinetic energy of a 9mm round), typically mounted on a bipod to ensure anything resembling accuracy. However, in Counter-Strike, you can jump off a ledge, land, scope and pop off a shot within one second and have it be pinpoint accurate. And so long as you don't move while you're reloading, you're fine to scope and fire again immediately after.

Try this at home! Find a relatively large bag of dog food or cat litter. Place your hands under it and hold it to your shoulder. Now imagine that you're going to do this while running around and then taking shots.

Scope drift? Fatigue? Flinching from taking incoming fire? Who needs that?

And that's why I absolutely hate sniper rifles in online FPS games. All of the benefits, few (if any) of the drawbacks.

Wow. I don't understand how any of this even comes close to answering his question.

Sacrificing realism for fun is sometimes necessary.

 

[exocel]

im not bad sniping in games, but man, those grenade nutters freak me out, ive seen people throw 4 plasma grenades in halo and have 4 opposite team member RUN INTO the path of them on the other side of the level and die at the same time.

EPIC.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Videogames =/= real life

I think in games where realism is more of a 'thing' then it's more important. You wouldn't be happy if your pistol did more damage than your rocket launcher.

That's pretty much it. The situations where the game touts its "super-realistic tactical combat" and then gives you a sniper rifle that allows headshots while you're pirouetting onstage at a London dance recital.

TF2's style of sniping (I'm assuming; I've never played it, but did play TFC for a while) is more suitable for the over-the-top gameplay style. And Red Orchestra (which I've also never played, but have seen videos for) makes it a much more difficult experience. Probably the most challenging sniping I've ever done was in Goldeneye 64; the N64's analog stick didn't always allow for precision maneuvering, and there was a lot of scope drift when you went into maximum magnification, but the sight of a lone gun-toting silhouette dropping when you squeezed the trigger was a beautiful thing.

I just think that having the most power in an FPS (one-shot, one-kill, from excessive distances) should have counterbalances. There was a reason that I chose to play only on one server during my CS:S days- it banned the AW/M and automatic sniper rifles outright and allowed only a handful of Scouts per team. And that Scout isn't the easy-kill dispenser those other rifles are.

 

[Gitsnik]

4: Has never known the touch of a woman.

It still counts if you pay for it

 

[fix-the-spade]

TF2's style of sniping (I'm assuming; I've never played it, but did play TFC for a while) is more suitable for the over-the-top gameplay style. And Red Orchestra (which I've also never played, but have seen videos for) makes it a much more difficult experience.

Interesting you bring up Red Orchestra, the snipers in that pretty much own the battlefield. Because of its uber-realism shooting just about anything on the fly is near impossible, so the few guys with scoped weapons tend to get most of the kills because they can see furthest. Also the ranges you can fight at in RO make the bolt action guns useful for once.

 

[LordCraigus]

Interesting you bring up Red Orchestra, the snipers in that pretty much own the battlefield. Because of its uber-realism shooting just about anything on the fly is near impossible, so the few guys with scoped weapons tend to get most of the kills because they can see furthest. Also the ranges you can fight at in RO make the bolt action guns useful for once.

No doubt the combat with bolt-action rifles is one of the best things about RO, it's an art in itself getting to be really good with it. Also and having a good sniper is an essential part of properly working team, mainly because they have the ability to constantly harass enemy snipers and infantry.

 

[The Potato Lord]

I despise sniping for the most part unless they let you take 2 chest shots for a kill instead of the headshot, Though i play almost all of my games on my 360, because i prefer ease of movement over the accuracy of the mouse.

I usually prefer using longer range assualt rifles, rather than a sniper rifle when given the choice.

 

[rougeknife]

I played Tribes for the most part, and if a sniper can hit you when your travelling at 100k's an hour, hit you head and take you out clean, he bloody well deserves the kill.

I've seen some freaky, almost inhuman shit from snipers, leading a capper with the spinfusor, firing a disk (think rocket launcher), then whipping out the sniper, shortly after the disk connects, the sniper finishes him off with a head shot. Both the sniper and the capper where travailing mid air at breakneck speeds.

 

[scoHish]

CS's been around for ages, so people have been playing it for ages. After a while you get pretty damn good... thats pretty much all there is to it.

 

[shatnershaman]

Sniping is easy

 

[Altorin]

There is a zoom feature on most sniping rifles. With the zoom feature, it's not that difficult to score infinity+1 headshots... back in UT1's days, I used to get 50 frag combos in packed games using a sniper rifle

 

[Knight Templar]

You just go aotomatic, its why even good players team kill.

 

[The Irrelevant Gamer]

Scoring a headshot from the hip with a sniper rifle just takes practice. Basically if you play with the rifle enough you begin to visualize where the crosshair should be, and if you keep that at head level while running around you can get off those impossible seeming shots, opening someone's head like an overripe melon as they run around the corner. I've actually managed it a few times through sheer luck, but have a friend who can do it with maddening consistency.

It doesn't work in all games. I'm pretty sure in TF2 the sniper's rifle does much less damage when zoomed out, but most FPS games don't have that, and it can be done by skilled, or lucky players.

 

[xraychick]

I wonder the same thing. I play COD4, and when I watch my kill replay when someone snipes me most of the time their scope cross isnt even near me, let alone my head, and I go down with one shot. Yet, when I manage to try to snipe someone I have to hit them directly on, and it takes two shots to kill them. Weird. And most of the time they just put the scope up and boom there's my head already, or the sight is no where near me. Do they have aim bots on cod4 on XBL?

 

[fierydemise]

I'm a decent to below average sniper, from time to time I'll go on a tear and it seems like every shot is a head-shot but otherwise I'm better in other roles. I know a couple good snipers and what they say is its all about predicting movements for which most people have a pattern they can exploit. One of my friends put it this way, even the best players when they're dodging left and right have a pattern, often something as simple as going right more often then left this means if you know the dodge distance you can shoot for a right dodge and you'll nail them more often then not. Also most maps have common sniper locations so the best option is not to use a common location because players will often let down their guard.