28 replies to this topic

[Carcass23]

Really. I loathe them.

I'm not referring to snipers on the enemy team. I could care less about them. It's the snipers on my own team. It could be just my own observation, but these snipers are some of the most ineffective members on the battlefield.

Mind you, I am not talking about someone taking long shots with Advanced Zoom as they move around the field. I mean specifically, the ones that try to find a hiding spot and poke at the enemy from what nearly always ends up being, WAY out of range.

Is there some facination with sniping that I am missing? Dreaming of being hidden away and making one shot kills from 2km? Is that it?

[Bulletsponge0]

Carcass23, on 01 January 2015 - 09:58 AM, said:

Really. I loathe them.

I'm not referring to snipers on the enemy team. I could care less about them. It's the snipers on my own team. It could be just my own observation, but these snipers are some of the most ineffective members on the battlefield.

Mind you, I am not talking about someone taking long shots with Advanced Zoom as they move around the field. I mean specifically, the ones that try to find a hiding spot and poke at the enemy from what nearly always ends up being, WAY out of range.

Is there some facination with sniping that I am missing? Dreaming of being hidden away and making one shot kills from 2km? Is that it?

some people are scared to get their fancy paint scratched.

Others are actually very good at sniping, and can be deadly...

[Event Horizon]

Yea, then we end up taking all the damage for them so they can come into the fight at the end full health. Cheap moves that hurt the team if you ask me.

[Flaming oblivion]

[nehebkau]

Actually in a PUG match its a viable tactic. Since you cant guarantee the skill or quality of your team-mates you sit back, do some damage and wait to see how things evolve. If you team is better than the others -- then you move out to help with the clean-up. If you team is worse, you keep hiding and watching and pick-off as many badly damaged mechs as you can before the enemy wave rushes over you.

In CW, I would agree with the OP

[Carcass23]

Sitting back while your team dissolves is a valid tactic, if you plan to lose.

Edited by Carcass23, 01 January 2015 - 10:22 AM.

[Aethon]

Carcass23, on 01 January 2015 - 09:58 AM, said:

Really. I loathe them.

I'm not referring to snipers on the enemy team. I could care less about them. It's the snipers on my own team. It could be just my own observation, but these snipers are some of the most ineffective members on the battlefield.

Mind you, I am not talking about someone taking long shots with Advanced Zoom as they move around the field. I mean specifically, the ones that try to find a hiding spot and poke at the enemy from what nearly always ends up being, WAY out of range.

Is there some facination with sniping that I am missing? Dreaming of being hidden away and making one shot kills from 2km? Is that it?

My favourites are the ones that sit in the very back in something like an Atlas AS7-K with a single LRM20, spamming missiles; when we ask them to move up and help the push, they say something like, "I'm a missileboat, I belong in the rear, you just don't know how to play the game", etc.

[Max Liao]

I'll sometimes fire medium lasers at 1k just to watch a noob back off. They may do no damage, but it still makes the contact sound and will often times cause someone who doesn't know any better (or who simply doesn't want to be spotted) to leave.

[Bulletsponge0]

Max Liao, on 01 January 2015 - 10:27 AM, said:

I'll sometimes fire medium lasers at 1k just to watch a noob back off. They may do no damage, but it still makes the contact sound and will often times cause someone who doesn't know any better (or who simply doesn't want to be spotted) to leave.

I'll do that sometimes with streaks... the "Warning: Incoming Missile" is a powerful psyops tool...

[Cow And Chicken]

Most of you guys sit back waiting for the first guys going in softening the rest of the mechs for you.
Then you rush in and act like you know it all and tell us the dead ones how we should play the game.
(finishing the leftovers)

I run gauss. I ran alot more gauss. Gauss is over nerfed atm but I get around 1.5-2 mechs each
game summed up. Sometimes I get 0 kills, maybe I get 4 the next game.

The ppl I see sitting back are usually the lrm pissypants pressing E and then theyr mousebutton.

[Joe Mallad]

Carcass23, on 01 January 2015 - 10:22 AM, said:

Sitting back while your team dissolves is a valid tactic, if you plan to lose.

and I've seen just as many teams that use their snipers very effectively. The brawlers tie up the enemy and the snipers pick off the enemy from distance. I don't see anything wrong with this tactic. Just because we are all fighting in giant robots, doesn't mean everyone needs to be brawling it out does it?

[Carcass23]

I suppose it's as I stated, watching snipers ineffectively 'picking' is what I find painful. I am not against long range tactics at all. It's the scenario where your team is dying and the snipers aren't helping, at all.

Yoseful Mallad, on 01 January 2015 - 10:42 AM, said:

and I've seen just as many teams that use their snipers very effectively. The brawlers tie up the enemy and the snipers pick off the enemy from distance. I don't see anything wrong with this tactic. Just because we are all fighting in giant robots, doesn't mean everyone needs to be brawling it out does it?

[nehebkau]

Carcass23, on 01 January 2015 - 10:22 AM, said:

Sitting back while your team dissolves is a valid tactic, if you plan to lose.

Sometimes that can't be helped, no matter how much you try and, in PUG matches, it is more often about your individual performance than the team winning or losing. That is why playing a 'stay at the back' sniper can be a viable tactic for some individuals.

Edited by nehebkau, 01 January 2015 - 11:01 AM.

[Alistair Winter]

Funny story:
Me and 11 other pugs were getting owned attacking Boreal Vault yesterday. It was really bad, we were getting slaughtered. I lost my first two mechs trying to push for an attack, but most of my team just stayed at the gate. And you know where you're halfway through the match, you already lost about 15-20 mechs for nothing, And your team is debating whether to make a push or to just give up.

Anyway, my team decides to make a push. It's kind of half-hearted, but eventually everyone makes it through the gate, except 3 guys on our team, who are still sniping and not moving an inch. And they're all heavy / assault mechs, so it would have been useful for them to lead the charge.

But then karma kicks in, and an enemy SRM Stormcrow sneaks through the other gate, sneaks up on them from behind and kills two of them before they know what's up and manages to severely damage and leg the third guy. Ultimately, the rush failed miserably, but it was just kind of funny that when I was about to gently protest that they didn't join the charge, to see they were already getting killed because of their decision to stay behind and snipe.

Anyway. Schadenfreude. It's a real thing.

[BourbonFaucet]

Carcass23, on 01 January 2015 - 09:58 AM, said:

Is there some facination with sniping that I am missing? Dreaming of being hidden away and making one shot kills from 2km? Is that it?

Nope, there's no sniping fetish really. Welcome to poor player psychology in reaction to game design choices and the enthronement of "skill".

In the current state of MWO, with the way that the deathmatch part of the game works, the objective is to deal as much "Safe Damage" as possible, that is to say, to take shots when you can where the enemy cannot damage you back as much.

The 2ERLL ECM Raven is a good example of playing to this strategy, as it can strip armor often without any retaliation from opponents, until of course it gets caught at short range where it runs a bit too hot to fight from there.

What you are seeing is a mix of this strategy with a dose of good old fashioned human stupidity. Naturally, most players are going to go for safe shots on an unaware enemy, however, there will be some people who take the idea to the absolute extreme and decide to sit a kilometer or more away plinking away with PPC's, Gauss, AC/2's, etc...

If you're going to snipe in MWO, you need to stay within 1.2 K with either twin gauss, twin PPC's, or a bunch of ER Larges. You gotta "set up shop" somewhat near your team, or have a brilliant flanking move planned and in action. Many players are not going to be able to do that if they aren't skilled or tactically minded enough to do so.

[Mad Strike]

Carcass23, on 01 January 2015 - 09:58 AM, said:

Really. I loathe them.

I'm not referring to snipers on the enemy team. I could care less about them. It's the snipers on my own team. It could be just my own observation, but these snipers are some of the most ineffective members on the battlefield.

Mind you, I am not talking about someone taking long shots with Advanced Zoom as they move around the field. I mean specifically, the ones that try to find a hiding spot and poke at the enemy from what nearly always ends up being, WAY out of range.

Is there some facination with sniping that I am missing? Dreaming of being hidden away and making one shot kills from 2km? Is that it?

A good "sniper" goes for the same component/hitbox....if not.....they suck big time at their role.

[627]

Inb4 Joseph shows up with a lengthy explanation what a true sniper is

[TKSax]

I was in game the other day where I watched a guy in a stormcrow with 4ml a guass rifle try to climb up on the rocks in Troumourline while his ream was dying near him, we ended up winning but not because of this supposed sniper, even at the end of the game he stay in his little pearch while an awesome was going one on one with the last mech missing shot after shot, all he need to do was take like 5 steps forward and he would have been over the lip of the ridge he was to fire his ML and guass in to the last mech... but he did not, but we still one. It was one of the most frustrating people I ever spectated.

[Raggedyman]

Carcass23, on 01 January 2015 - 09:58 AM, said:

Is there some facination with sniping that I am missing? Dreaming of being hidden away and making one shot kills from 2km? Is that it?

If done right its an effective means of taking out problem mechs without getting hosed. It's just difficult to do it right (I know, I tried). The big trick is knowing when to stop sniping and just brawl in. That and not shooting your own team in the back,

[Davegt27]

I would not worry about it its part of the learning experience once they learn that it does not work

Then they will join up

Sometimes I type better get in the fight now or you will be fighting alone