Laser Sights on Sniper Rifles

(BioSnark) #1

I found these weapons a bit irritating to deal with as, like certain other things that have been discussed, they offer no chance to react and can kill and gib instantly.

I’m wondering what people think of giving sniper rifles Arty style targeting lasers when the sniper is scoped.

That gives players warning if the sniper is aiming into a gap in cover rather than at the edges of the cover. It’s something we had in Team Fortress Classic and it gave sniper duels on 2fort some nice mind games regarding when you hid your laser on a corner and when you advertised where you were ready to shoot. I’ve heard the idea carried over to some sort of lens flare warning in the newer Battlefield games, although I’ve never played them.

There are different levels of application of the concept like an opaque targeting beam originating from weapon that makes the sniper vulnerable when scoped and allows more laser tag deterrence shenanigans versus a red sprite dot appearing only on the surface the shot will hit.

(Nail) #2

I was going to say it was a silly idea until I realized you could probably build a laser detector, so I’ll see what others say

(tokamak) #3

Red Eye’s detection is a bit too penalising for his ability, but for a sniper it would be perfect.

(Senethro) #4

Or a scope glint when the sniper is aiming within 1.5 degrees of you? If people have even half a seconds expectation of being insta-gibbed they might feel less shocked/surprised/aggrieved when it comes and might not post in a forum about it. Nothing makes new players call for nerf like things they didn’t expect.

(Njsfirth) #5

TF2 also had the “laser on a wall” thing, so the tactic was just to hide it on a corner until someone pops out.

I think this would eliminate a lot of the “Stay scoped until someone appears” snipers, as you could see where they are aiming. Nice suggestion!

(tokamak) #6

Then again, TF2’s sniper also had to charge up. Combine those two elements and you’ve got a very balanced sniper role. It’s something only TF2 can get away with though.