85 replies to this topic

[HermesFenix]

Ok, forgive me the rant, but I don't get it. Why all the hate with the snipers?? What's the problem with them?

I have lots of builds, brawlers, snipers, lurmers. Some with cannons, some with lasers, lights, assaults... I like all kind of roles when I play. Even a light with just AMS and NARC.

And one of the type of mechs I enjoy are snipers. Generally gauss and lasers. And almost every single time I use it, I get lots of hate from lots of players... "you are a coward", "you are just camping", "**** you..." and worse insults...

Last match some of my teamates started firing on me just becasue we were losing and I was standing on a wall on HPG watching one of the basement entrances. They attacked me without reason. I killed one of my teammates in self defense, and quitted the game when I saw more of them serching for me.

Now I have 20mins of penalty, and I was just enjoying the game, playing supposedly within A TEAM. I'm the one punished... For what?? Some don't like my playstyle? OK, I don't like some others' either. I don't like my back blown up by a sneaky SRM boat, but that's the way it goes, we all play and have our playstyles. But as long as there is no abuse, let people play how they want.

Seriously, Why all the hate and the harassment? It speaks really bad of the community when this kind of behaviour is tolerated.

[LordNothing]

snipers are fine if they function as part of a team. the snipers nobody likes are the ones left alive at the end of the game with full armor and usually no kills. usually in a build with a very weak alpha. they effectively deprive the team of a mech slot that could have been put to better use. a pro sniper stacks enough damage to be useful and can get kills at range.

[ScrapIron Prime]

You’ll also get people expressing frustration that they died while being up front and you’re neither dead nor in front. If you’re not cranking out epic damage before their eyes, they blame their death on you. SMH

[HermesFenix]

I usually make as sniper good damage and kills, but people harass anyway.

But even if I performed bad. It's no reason to treat people bad. Let people play how they like as long as the don't abuse anyone.

If I build a ****** brawler and die the first with 100dmg done, nobody complains. But I let's make a sniper, make good shots without getting too much attention, geet 700dmg and 3 kills, and you got all the hate because "you still got your full armor..." Yes! I still got it because I know when to spend it and when not to.

I get that people get frustrated when they lose, but first, this is just a game, you lose all the time. Second, frustration is not an excuse to behave violently. And third, respect other players and their playstyles.

[D V Devnull]

HermesFenix, on 30 August 2021 - 03:39 PM, said:

And third, respect other players and their playstyles.

I get how you feel on that one, as that loss of respect also resulted in an unnecessary loss of communication among players on the battlefields. If people had been willing to keep respecting each other about five years ago and onward to now, then all of us never would have gone through the cycle of unnecessary nerfs & junk which MWO has been dragged into. We also would never have lost a fair share of the population, and MWO might have ended up super-popular before today.

~D. V. "totally getting that sentiment... people need to start respecting each other and communicating once again" Devnull

[Aidan Crenshaw]

HermesFenix, on 27 August 2021 - 06:24 PM, said:

Now I have 20mins of penalty, and I was just enjoying the game, playing supposedly within A TEAM. I'm the one punished... For what?? Some don't like my playstyle? OK, I don't like some others' either. I don't like my back blown up by a sneaky SRM boat, but that's the way it goes, we all play and have our playstyles. But as long as there is no abuse, let people play how they want.

While I totally agree with your main point, you have 20 mins of penalty because you inflicted significant amounts of Team Damage, killed a team member and disconnected from a running match without being dead. And you are rightfully punished for all that. If people decide to be a **** and start shooting you, don't shoot back if you can't avoid them. Let them kill you, report them and move on. Now it's them getting the punishment.

[Ekson Valdez]

This thread has been moved to General Discussion.

[Kaeb Odellas]

D V Devnull, on 30 August 2021 - 04:41 PM, said:

I get how you feel on that one, as that loss of respect also resulted in an unnecessary loss of communication among players on the battlefields. If people had been willing to keep respecting each other about five years ago and onward to now, then all of us never would have gone through the cycle of unnecessary nerfs & junk which MWO has been dragged into. We also would never have lost a fair share of the population, and MWO might have ended up super-popular before today.

~D. V. "totally getting that sentiment... people need to start respecting each other and communicating once again" Devnull

Huh? Things got nerfed because they were overpowered, not because people weren't communicating with each other.

[Kanil]

HermesFenix, on 30 August 2021 - 03:39 PM, said:

And third, respect other players

Sure.

Quote

and their playstyles.

No.

I mean, I'm not gonna berate you in chat or anything, but if you're standing 700 meters away from the fight, using the other 11 of your teammates as a meat shield so you can snipe without getting a scratch on your 'mech, well... you better be doing a damn good job of it, yeah?

Edited by Kanil, 30 August 2021 - 10:55 PM.

[Gagis]

No problem whatsoever with sniping and trading.

The efficacy is a bit map-dependent so dedicated long range mechs can be a bit feast or famine. Your mileage will vary.

[MadHornet]

While I don't condone teamkilling as a solution, I think the primary issue people are having, and that I'm annoyed at, is the constant selecting of HPG so people can sit on the wall the entire match and snipe, often making them less effective than the rest of the team actually engaging the enemy which won't always be in their sight. I don't hate snipers but the constant wall usage is a detriment to teams and it's kind of selfish gameplay.

Edited by MadHornet, 30 August 2021 - 11:19 PM.

[LordNothing]

HermesFenix, on 30 August 2021 - 03:39 PM, said:

I usually make as sniper good damage and kills, but people harass anyway.

But even if I performed bad. It's no reason to treat people bad. Let people play how they like as long as the don't abuse anyone.

If I build a ****** brawler and die the first with 100dmg done, nobody complains. But I let's make a sniper, make good shots without getting too much attention, geet 700dmg and 3 kills, and you got all the hate because "you still got your full armor..." Yes! I still got it because I know when to spend it and when not to.

I get that people get frustrated when they lose, but first, this is just a game, you lose all the time. Second, frustration is not an excuse to behave violently. And third, respect other players and their playstyles.

i get just as frustrated with bad brawlers as i do with bad snipers. but taters gonna tater. sometimes if you are the last person alive people are going to be mad at you for stretching the game out no matter what kind of build you're in. sometimes (rarely because i like an aggressive playstyle) im the last one alive and i usually get **** for it. maybe i was in a squirrel and went to deal with a lerm assault, and the team died before i got back, or maybe i was in an assault and successfully fought off a couple lights only to find a dead team. sometimes i just couldn't get into weapons range without dieting in a brawler because the team decided to camp, it happens. if you did your best and they didn't you can always point at the scoreboard.

my advice to newer players is if you are frequently the first mech dead, then you need to learn patience, if you are frequently the last one dead, you need to learn aggression. and if you are intentionally choosing to be in either situation, you are an *******.

i think most of the frustration comes from people with low numbers of mechs or who have a favorite that they like to run, or even if you are just trying to level a mech, and get frustrated because they have to wait for the last guy to quit screwing around to get them back.

Edited by LordNothing, 30 August 2021 - 11:55 PM.

[D V Devnull]

Kaeb Odellas, on 30 August 2021 - 10:52 PM, said:

Huh? Things got nerfed because they were overpowered, not because people weren't communicating with each other.

*sigh* ... I see you got rather confused by my post. I seriously was NOT saying that the Nerfs were caused by the lack of comms.

What it was that I tried to say is... Over time, I noticed the comms & respect disappearing as the various Nerfs came into play, which was unfortunately not healthy for MWO in general. In short, the other way around, that the Nerfs caused the lack of comms & respect to happen.


As for whether something was OverPowered or not, I'm going to leave that part alone right now. Getting metaphorically 'harped on' by someone else with physical disabilities, as well as having to face my own emerging and fight against them, quite well has left me with a multiple perspective on things.


~D. V. "really hates others misreading their posts, particularly when they mix up the cause & effect sequence" Devnull

[Fae Puka]

Persistently setting up as a wall sniper means you are not sharing armour, not working as a team/drop and trying to wrack up personal scores at the cost of the other drop members. There is a unit with players who routinely did this in FP where certain members always got good personal scores but the drop was lost time and time again (rearrange the following AIFT, to get the unit). In fact it got so bad, that the opposite side used to send their sympathies for having the aforesaid unit members on the other side.

The botched rework of HPG is simply encouraging players to sit back and score off of their own side's efforts, so their frustration in you sitting back is totally understandable.

Look to your own play style and how you can better fit in or at least communicate what you intend doing rather than ghosting away to let them take all the damage.

That said, as someone has already pointed out, if your own side attack you, stand still, take the beating, then report them instead of fighting back.

[Navid A1]

In my opinion negative comments about "snipers" come from either players that are coming in from infinite respawn run and gun games or players who have not played many PvP games.

A considerable number of players just play MWO as a hobby. They don't know and have no time to learn maps and available lanes. They just want to drop and shoot stuff. When they get shot from long range, they panic, and they lose the ability to think. Then panic turns into anger and frustration towards what has costed them their mechs.
Mechanical skill and aim is also something that is rare in this game, so more people gravitate towards close range face hug weapons which you can not miss with.

Regarding friendly snipers on their team, people rarely think about where to initiate a fight and where to be and dragging the enemy into the sniper's shooting range. They instead get baited in themselves and while they are getting gangbanged, completely outside of sniper's line of sight (which they chose to be in the first place), they complain about the sniper not being in the front... which is kind of funny. A sniper on the front is a dead mech. Unless it REALLY have to move to escape something. That's where the hate is often coming from.

That said, on the other side of it a lot of "snipers" think being a sniper is just a point and click adventure from 1km away. They rarely move, rarely try to reposition, or get better angles, they don't pay attention to their surroundings, they shoot the wrong targets, have low accuracy, and have very little effect on the match outcome. Being effective doesn't necessarily mean getting closer... but it's knowing the good positions to best cover your team... if the team does not use you to their advantage, it's on them. If you make it impossible for them to do so, that's on you.

At the end of the day, it is hard to identify whether someone is actually a dead weight on the team's back or not, when the only view you get is at the end of the match from a spectator's point of view. So because of that, if you know you've been doing your best, just ignore the backlash. There is nothing you can do about it.

[Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie]

@OP
this game has quite a fanbase for longrange-trading (see how I don't call it sniping); that however involves both DISHING OUT meaningful damage as well as CATCHING a bullet ever so often.

if "friendly fire" and "bad comments" happen to you all the time, chances are you pew-pew to little and don't ever get shot. people in this game can be 'rough', but generally, as long as you're doing your share, they won't be.
so.. don't get me wrong, but
maybe it's not a problem with "snipers" per-se, maybe it is more a problem with you and your playstyle

maybe you can record a few matches and post these; I'm sure there's plenty of people who'll point out 'advice'

Edited by Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie, 31 August 2021 - 03:42 AM.

[John Bronco]

No problem at all, so long as they're shooting as much as possible and contributing to getting mechs off the field asap.

[VeeOt Dragon]

i honestly don't care what build someone is running as long as they are trying. hell you think you have it bad playing a "Sniper" build try a LRM boat. the shear amount of hate for LRM in this game is epic even when the LRM boats is doing devastating work you still catch **** for it.

my hand tremors make sniping hard for me so i general us LRM if i want long range fire and i don't like the brawl play style.

honestly i think the biggest problem is that more often than not its because of the "Brawl is the only Meta or functional play style" crowd. i personally prefer mid range or even the odd mixed build for their versatility. is it meta, no. do i care, also no.

i say just play and have fun. new HPG is still in a sort of flux with people learning the new map. as for ******** well like has been said let them kill you and they will get the penalty.

(honestly the only play style i hate are those players (mostly lights) that get a kill or two then when the match starts to become a loss run off, hide, and shut down somewhere. only way to fix this is to do something when after a certain amount of time with no damage being dealt on the field you get Radar blip showing the location of every mech shut down or not until damage is dealt again.)

[RickySpanish]

Good for you OP, I also ate a big time penalty defending my 'Mech from eejit team mates not so long ago. I don't TK or ever shoot my team mates just because I don't agree with their play style, but if a friendly obviously cores me out on purpose I'll halve their 'Mech for them.

Sniping is fine, the only caveat is that you have to watch out for the common trap of not having done enough damage. Once the match is in an unwinnable state, further damage from you means nothing, so you might end a match with 600 damage and a kill as a sniper... But if 300 points and the ki were dealt as the sole survivor of your team, that means you only effectively did 300 damage with zero kills.

But yeah, you do you man, there are far derpier things to do in MWO than take up a good firing line outside of your opponent's effective trading range.

[pattonesque]

folks get mad at snipers because they misinterpret a generally good principle, which is "sharing armor." Really what it should be is "sharing attention." A sniper isn't at the front throwing itself on a line of spears like the Atlas, but a good sniper can draw fire from other snipers, draw ineffective fire from shorter-range builds, close off or delay lanes of attack, pick off wounded mechs, chase off flanking lights with a surprise alpha, call out enemy positions, etc.