Help with sniping.. - Page 2

Liquidtide · 2004-02-03, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by TheRagingGerbil

Second Wind has saved my ass a number of times. If I take an unsuspecting bolt hit, I'll immediately jam a med pack. If a second hits before I can take cover, SW will kick in and I'll survive. It is also buys you a few extra seconds to kill that cloaker who decides to jam his amp in your back.

Are you serious about second wind plus 1 med pack being able to take 2 sniper shots without repairing? If this is truely the case sign me up, I have yet to find a use for second wind but this might be it.

~Tide

Dharkbayne · 2004-02-03, 01:21 PM

Another thing about sniping from behind, is usually, someone hit by a sniper will take cover, if you are behind him, you can still see him,

My favorite spot to snipe from is trees, I got around 25 kills before I ran out of ammo in one session, trees protect you from air too, because, well, you're inside a tree, kinda hard to spot, it's a VERY good place to be,

Jagd · 2004-02-03, 01:46 PM

Even being in front of trees or rocks is good, if you're at a distance. They can't make out your shape because there is a bigger sillouette behind you.

DDSHADE · 2004-02-03, 03:30 PM

okay for the fog problem, that is simple you need to turn down your Gamma Contrast, and Raise your view distance, that should fix it

Rbstr · 2004-02-03, 04:07 PM

I don't find having the perfect place that critical. If its hard to find a good spot, i get closer, and snipe tacticaly instead of strategicly (well kindof) If a person gets too close i open up on him with my guass

EarlyDawn · 2004-02-03, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by BadAsh

Advice has been given in these forums to shoot and move. I've even read that one shot is good, 2 shots are risky and 3 shots from the same location = dead sniper and you deserve it because of your stupidity. I love when people who don't know how to snipe make posts like that...

I'm not gonna try and start a flamewar here, but I think it's your tactics that are flawed. Warborn is one of the most repected authorities on sniping on PSU.

Rbstr · 2004-02-03, 05:28 PM

If i have a god stop i can fire multiple times, I rearly run into problems while sniping do to poepl finding out where i am. I pick off the snipers before i start working on the others. And its been months scence i've lot a sniper duel (were a person is not behind you) though i have had two ties.

2mthsTheSniper · 2004-02-04, 01:06 PM

Just a note to all contributors, this has got to be the best thread I've read. I snipe because as a noob with no FPS experiance it's about the only way to get kills (XP). I also really like the sniper 'concept' (The only DVD I own is "Enemy at the Gates").

Reading this thead has made me realise how pants a sniper i am. I've only ever ran out of ammo once (and I probably only got 5 kills from my ~25 shots). But thankfully you've also given me ideas about how to improve and indicated that sniping isn't a 'cowards' game, but one that is recognised and respected.

I wish there were stats for kills with each weapon - That would allow a sort of sniping leaderbord (if you are into that sort of thing).

Lonehunter · 2004-02-04, 01:17 PM

The sniper rifle. Elegant slayer of the slow and inattentive. Weapon of choice of ninja and coward alike. This perennial FPS weapon can be a mighty Excalibur to some, and an ulcer-inducing bringer of many expletives to others. The real world roots of sniping pre-date the combustion weapon. Some scholars trace this deadly art back to Roman times, when a select breed of warrior would stand well behind the Phalanx, plunking his hapless targets with arrows from a great distance. The most skilled of this ilk would earn some adoration from his allies, but moreso the ire of his opponents. The moniker gained, arquites longes, or �distant archer�, was later revised from the New Latin into its modern translation, �camping bitch�.

Despite the historical negativity associated with this silent yet deadly weapon (no, the sniper rifle), many FPS gamers find the practice of sniping invaluable, profitable, and sadistically enjoyable. Frag whores can rack up the kills virtually undetected. The especially patient can set their sights on an �undefended� bit of his or her team�s property, airholing a prospective invader who thought he had a free shot at the goal. The especially stealthy can lay down the kind of suppressive fire that strikes the fear of God (and Allah, Buddah, Odin, etc.) into an enemy squad before the real fighting even begins. Truly, the sniper is a veritable Swiss Army knife which happens to shoot people instead of stab, saw, clip or uncork them.

Today, this column will focus on the life and times of the Planetside sniper. Well, you and I will be the ones focusing, the column itself will just sort of sit here and get read. Lazy Web Page.

Your hand and your eye � a winning combination

Do your Counterstrike buddies lovingly refer to you as �the perma-spectator�? Was it hard to focus your vision when you went to school this morning because you accidently brushed your eye? Did you find you mistakenly typed one or more numbers when entering this site�s web address into your browser? Does the chewing of gum severely impede your walking ability? If you answered �yes� to any of these questions, I wouldn�t know because I can�t hear you. It also means you might not have what it takes to hang with the Bolt Driver. Of all the different roles one can play in a twitch game such as PS, sniping is by far one of the twitchingest. This ain�t your daddy�s sniper rifle (unless he�s in a militia, in which case I�d like to say �hi� to the nice man from the NSA currently scouring this hard drive for bomb recipes,) and you�re going to have a hell of a time hitting the broadside of the continent you�re standing on if you lack those rudimentary �point and click before your skull gets ventilated� talents. Never fear, dear friends. You�re never too old to develop your skills at popping a cap in some poor fool from a football field away, and maybe this guide will help.

Now you�re probably saying, �But Mr. McNally, I�ve sniped in TF/Unreal/Halo/and so forth, I know the deal, what makes this so difficult?� What did I just say about not being able to hear you? At any rate, the answer is simple (and you can call me Sean).

The Cone of Fire (and other Bible stories).

I�ve got a rude awakening for those of you who grew up in a world of railguns, plasma pistols, and little red insect thingies that invariably stop chasing your target and run right back to you to bite you in the jewels � Planetside weapons employ a sense of real-world physics. Spray n� Pray mavens need not apply, and the same goes for you l33t d00dz (did I spell that right?) who love running full speed, front-flipping over the nearest tree stump, landing in a full split that would make Patrick Roy blush while putting a headshot through your buddy with laser-like precision. You�d better have a nice, safe hiding spot, because you�re going to be doing a lot of ducking, crouching, and inevitably tucking the gun away and evading.

You�ll notice a decorative ring around your targeting crosshairs (or reticule, if you like being as pretentious as you are deadly). Said ring will be quite expanded when you�re standing and running. Come to a stop, it shrinks. Crouch, and it contracts almost completely. That�s your money shot, my friend. You do not want to take a shot in any other reticule (meh) state that�s not totally puckered up. It ensures a straight and accurate shot, lag permitting. If you feel you�ve got excessive lag, count one Mississippi of dead aim before squeezing the shot off, just to ensure that the server isn�t behind your client. If a tiny gold circle flashes on your enemy�s torso, you�ve scored. If they fall over, that�s even better. To reduce server-side lag, there is currently no body part recognition in Planetside. A shot between the eyes will do the same amount of damage as a shot to the pinky toe. If your prospective corpse has so much as a nose hair sticking out from behind that tree, let �er rip. Your crosshair will turn red when you�ve got a definite target, but occasionally a normal orange one will yield fruit. Sniping is all about confidence. If you think you have a shot, take it.

Continued...

Lonehunter · 2004-02-04, 01:19 PM

Before you complain about all the preening and fussing it takes to fire a straight shot, remember one thing. Real life snipers in World War 2 would remain perfectly motionless for days, just for the chance to grease a whole outfit undetected. Some would even crap their pants to ensure their stealth. All you have to do is crouch.

Location, location�um�no, I know this. Oh, location!

In keeping with the confidence theme, you�re going to want relative safety and serenity from which to rain down Oswaldian death on your enemies and other ill-wishers. You�ll more than likely be running with a squad, but that doesn�t mean you�re on the front lines. Even the slightest bit of enemy fire will be enough to piss in your proverbial Cheerios and spoil your chances at a clean shot, not to mention that a sniper in plain sight doesn�t usually make your potential target stand still and gawk at you. The consummate sniper doesn�t make his presence known until the heads start exploding (I�ll be lobbying for that battle animation in a later patch). A sniper will want to be either geekily early or fashionably late. If you feel you can slip into a good looking sniper spot without the bad guys seeing you, sneak your way up there. Once your grunt buddies start drawing fire, let the bolts fly. They didn�t see you come in, where the hell could you be? You could also simply hang back, let the battle start to get hot, then slink off to some corner and do your thing.

So where should you do the afore-mentioned �thing�? Elevation is a sniper�s best friend, particularly when besieging a base. Lots of juicy targets in the courtyard and up on the parapets, and most if not all will be transfixed on the advancing forces outside the gates. Make sure you�ve got some anti-air support on your team, though, or a gunship could stumble onto you and make you a stain before you can do so much as zoom out. Certify yourself in something light and fast, like a Wraith or Mosquito, so you can tear ass when ass needs to be torn.

When mountainous perches are lacking, nothing wrong with sniping from the ground, but you most assuredly want to find cover. Rocks are good, trees are better. AMS and other large targets of opportunity are no-no�s. You may as well hide behind a naked woman holding a bag of money, because the enemy will be all over that as soon as they can squeeze through your front line. If you�re stuck on the ground, try to get yourself as far away as possible from the actual field of battle. You have pinpoint accuracy at twice the zoom distance of your standard grunt, so use that reach advantage to its fullest�advantage. My favorite thing to do is slip away to somewhere adjacent to the middle of the field, but off in another side direction, so that I�m in the cheap seats on the 50 yard line, so to speak (that�s the midfield line for you fans of �real� football). People who are getting sniped will scour the direction of your main squad before they ever think to turn 90 degrees to the left or right to find you merrily capping away.

He who snipes and runs away, gets spammed with /tells that scream �you�re lame!�

As I mentioned earlier, evasive action is something you�ll be no stranger to taking. That doesn�t always mean running like a frightened little bunny, but at early Battle Ranks, sniping may be all you�re good at. A Reinforced Suit is something to invest in. You lose general mobility, but nothing cheeses off infantry more than spending 5 minutes sneaking around and up behind a sniper, only to find his other car is a Sweeper Shotgun. Often times, you�ll be beset by a damned dirty Infiltrator. They�ll eat you for lunch in your Agile suit with only a few knife jabs. Your kill-happy sniper will hit BR6 and get Advanced Targetting, zeroing in on the weak ones in the herd and raking in that xp. Be a smart sniper and hook up the Darklight Vision. Backing away from an Infiltrator that thinks he�s invisible is a treat, especially when he stands still to augment his invisibility, and you calmly kneel, take aim, and put a bolt through his crotch before he realizes something is amiss (good thing he can�t see that evil smirk on your face).

In a base siege, you may find yourself in a sniper duel. Win or lose, it�s imperative you find a new home afterwards. If you managed to kill your counterpart, he will be back for revenge, and he may just tip off the MAX in his squad of your exact location. Every time you feel your position might be compromised, pull up stakes and change your sniping spot. A little caution goes a long way. It may be a long walk back if you die (like if they blew your AMS), and outdoor battles never go on forever. Once the fight spills into the Control Center or the top floors of the tower, you�re SOL.

Speaking of MAXs, they will hurt you. It takes 13-15 shots to bring one down solo, which with their firepower, speed, and sometimes jumping ability, you will not accomplish. If anything big and armored finds you (tanks, flyers, etc) and decides you�re a tasty treat, just bug out. A fast vehicle will save your neck, but sometimes it�s worth it to just try to leg it out. Your boys just might blow that Reaver bearing down on you to bits before you drop. You could always compliment your sniping with Anti-Vehicle training like I have, but that�s another column.

There�s no �I� in snip�damn it.

One beautiful thing about Planetside is that it screams �team game�. It�s hard to be a lone wolf killing machine no matter what cert you learn, and running with a pack is generally far more fruitful. It may be tempting to load up your Driver and traipse off for some enemy stronghold and start plugging unsuspecting guards and engies, but you�re far more valuable in a solid squad. You might be having an off-night in terms of actually hitting targets, but you possess a near-omniscience when it comes to the lay of the land, the scope and position of enemy forces, and so forth. From your hilltop, you may see a battery of tanks coming around to ambush your guys, or an ANT the baddies have brought in to lock their base down for good. Hitting infantrymen for upwards of 60-75 health per shot, you can easily turn the tide in a bloody front-line rifle fight, provided you trust your shot enough to not nail your own platoon.

Compliment your squad, even in a non-sniping capacity. Enemy hunkered down deep in a base? Fly the Galaxy. Hack the nearby tower. Shoot your pals full of morphine. Spray them with that gray gunk that regenerates armor. You can wear many hats in this game, and they don�t all have to have beer cans attached to them, if you get my drift. You do? That makes one of us.

The Tao of Snipe

Remember when I said sniping is all about confidence? I hope you do, because there will be a test later. As twitch-oriented as you need to be, you also have to know how to center yourself. Excitement, frustration, bad gas, they all lead to the dark side of the Force, but more immediately they lead to missed shots. When you see a swarm of targets all running in different directions, don�t go all ADD and chase them around. Find a busy spot, and center your crosshair. Take deep breaths. Relax your hands. Light some incense and play some Pink Floyd, if that�s your thing. You�ll never hit anything by tracing them, not in this game. Lead your targets, nail down your timing, and let them know that nowhere is safe from your eagle eye. Test your lag day by day as well. You may have to lead someone a half a second one day, two thirds of a second the next. Most importantly, don�t get flustered. You will miss at times. You will be discovered and stabbed, chaingunned, Phoenixed, or sniped first. You will slink to the left and end up sliding down a 200 foot cliff you spent 10 minutes working your way up on and then, while you�re standing there cursing your crappy keyboard, get stabbed. Just take it moment by moment. In the right setting, on a good day, you�re a killing machine and an integral part of your squad�s total victory.

Sniping isn�t easy. If it were, everyone would do it (and in some games, everyone does.) You�re a wildcard cert in a game where only the most skilled and coordinated survive. Do your thing well, find a crew that appreciates a crack shot, and most of all have fun. It�s all fun and games, as evident by your relatively clean underwear.

This was posted on my outfit's forums, trying to figure out where they got it.

Whole thing was too long for one post. It's a very good read.