Darvaza, on 22 November 2013 - 06:22 PM, said:
pop tarts would have been solved a long time ago if forward thrust would have been added to jump jets. having to be a full speed to get a long jump is dumb. jump jets should give forward thrust and turn you according to which way you are facing.
Eh, that wouldn't solve the "problem". Most good poptarts jump laterally, so they move in a parabolic arc from their target's POV.
Then again, I don't think jump sniping is a "problem" that needs to be fixed by PGI. Rather, it's a puzzle for the players to solve on their own.
Actually, watching some of the videos of jump snipers from the jump sniper's POV, you notice how they're often riding the edge of the heat scale after a few shots? I admit that if I were on the receiving end of those volleys, my instinctive reaction is to duck into cover and relocate. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that the correct response may be to block those volleys with the arms and then charge in.
The trouble is that it's difficult to coordinate a charge with all of your players. If you charge alone against 4 jump snipers, you will lose, but then again, if you charge alone against 4 of anything, you will lose. If the jump snipers are in a loose formation, you can close in on one of them underneath PPC range, but his buddies can still nail you.
Another possible counter to heavy/assault jump snipers, in my mind, is fast moving light and medium snipers. My experience from a game called Subspace Continuum tells me that, given equal weapon projectile speeds, between two opposing fighters, the one with greater speed, acceleration, and smaller profile, can find a sweet spot range where he can hit the larger, slower fighter, but still have enough distance to dodge return fire on reflex. The weakness of a light or medium sniper is, of course, that they would lose against an enemy light or medium mech built for close-combat. But you can perhaps setup a formation of assaults and heavies to provide close support for your light and medium mech snipers. Your light and medium snipers wear down the enemy snipers at range, daring the enemy lights and mediums to close in for close combat. If they do, your own Assault and Heavy brawlers, who have been staying safely behind cover from the enemy snipers, splatter the enemy lights and mediums.
Those are just a couple of back-of-the-envelope ideas I have, I'm sure much smarter players than me can think of other possible solutions to attempt against a team of jump snipers.
P.S.:
I'm reminded of arguments raging on the World of Warcraft forums between Rogue players and Warrior players about the relative balance between those two classes, especially in a 1v1 duel. At the lowest skill levels, Rogues would tend to win. Bad Warriors complained about OP Rogues and screamed for Rogues to be nerfed. But as a player's knowledge improved, Warrior players learned a few basic counters against Rogues, and at the medium skill level, Warriors tended to win. The bad Rogues would cry about it and ask for Warrior nerfs. But smarter Rogues in turn learned some very fancy tricks (one of which I invented, the weapon swap trick to reset weapon swing timer so you had the ability to apply Expose Armor without breaking Blind or Sap), 5-to-8 yard energy kiting, restealth between DoT ticks, etc., and started winning more duels. Warriors upped their game and learned how to counter the kiting game with shouts, when to apply burst damage and when to turtle, to make the most efficient use of their GCDs, etc. And at the highest levels of skill, the 1v1 match-up was pretty much balanced, 50/50, where the difference between winning and losing was primarily influenced by player decisions, rather than class balance.
The evolution of these techniques occurred over a period of months as players tinkered, explored, and experimented with different things. I discovered the weapon swap trick by pure accident, since I played a Warrior, not a Rogue. I had a habit of equipping a shield at all times until I charged into combat, just in case a Rogue got the jump on me. When doing this, just before charging, I'd swap to my two-hander. I noticed when doing this that my first auto-attack would take ~3.5 seconds to come out. That's when I realized that swapping weapons was resetting my weapon swing timer. Then on the forums I came across a discussion where Rogues players were trying to time their Expose Armor ability to occur in between their auto-attack swing timers (for *both* hands), and that they couldn't reliably pull it off, I suggested that they do the weapon swap trick to swap to a pair of slow swords, apply Expose armor, then have plenty of time to turn off their auto-attack. A Rogue player named Unsouled saw my suggestion, tried it out, and featured it in a demonstration video where he kills another Rogue named Ming from 100% health to 0% health with Ming completely unable to respond throughout a stunlock, despite him being naked and not having any benefit from gear.
Edited by YueFei, 23 November 2013 - 12:32 AM.
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