It’s a really nice idea, but I’m not too sure about the values. I would very much like to see a nerf to the bodyshot values, raising the skill ceiling for sniping, but I don’t think that the headshot damage needs much of a change.
In general I think PDP could use a rework and it would hopefully end up like FG42 from Wolfenstein: ET. (Would probably be my dream sniper rifle in DB.)
Grandeur feels at a pretty decent spot, the biggest difficulty being dealing with the ironsight and recoil management.
But what really caught my eye was the damage you discussed.
MOA at the moment is 75 bodyshot, 150 headshot.
Fel-ix is 79 bodyshot, 158 headshot.
What I personally would like to see is reduced bodyshot damage for these snipers as they are rather powerful. I mean Fel-ix can literally one shot any 80hp merc if they have taken damage from any source at all, even 1 damage from snitch after the 79dmg bodyshot and they die.
This could also differentiate the two snipers that are considered near identical.
The sniper rifles should still hit hard, so I can’t really nerf the bodyshots too much with my idea here.
These values shouldn’t come into effect without either nerfing or reworking the current PDP.
MOA: 50 dmg bodyshot, 150 dmg headshot. So bodyshot damage reduced, but headshot multiplier brought from 2x to 3x to compensate it and increasing the skill ceiling of the sniper rifle.
Fel-ix: 64 dmg bodyshot, 160 dmg headshot. Bodyshot nerfed as well, but compensating with +2 headshot damage and bringing the headshot multiplier from 2x to 2.5x. Same reasoning as for the MOA, the difference being that should the Thunder HP be reverted to 160 in the future, the Fel-ix could one shot anyone but Rhino compared to MOA.
Other than shotguns, the bodyshots of these sniper rifles would still hit the hardest compared to the rest of the guns. So I think the change would definitely be noticeable, but not too much in my opinion. (Both guns would still gib a downed player in one shot.)
MOA would still two shot bodyshot any merc at a 100hp or less while Fel-ix could two shot bodyshot any merc at 120hp or less.
Beginners wouldn’t probably get as many lucky kills through bodyshots while the more experienced snipers shouldn’t really feel too much of a difference. (Having Vassili as my most played merc, I do feel dirty even when I accidentally hit a bodyshot as I try to avoid bodyshotting as much as I can, considering it’s current values.)
This should make a more noticeable difference between the two sniper rifles and I only considered the damage portion of the guns here.
The Fel-ix would become more forgiving if the shot happens to be a bodyshot, making it more beginner friendly I guess, but with an actually noticeable bodyshot difference MOA should become a tiny bit faster at taking shots in compensation.
A slight nerf to Fel-ix’s rate of fire would probably be the best, as I don’t think MOA deservers a rate of fire buff just to compete with Fel-ix’s bodyshot dps.
(I’m a little conflicted here as both sniper rifles already have a rather poor bodyshot dps and nerfing Fel-ix’s rate of fire to compensate it’s damage difference with MOA doesn’t feel fit. While also buffing MOA’s rate of fire would make the crazy good snipers even much more scarier than they already are.
So considering snipers being the high risk, high reward weapons, I guess it’s still better to try to balance them around headshots over bodyshots, in which case MOA’s 50 RPM is fine and Fel-ix should have it’s 46 RPM lowered to 40 RPM maybe?
So after all the changes this would actually be a nerf to both sniper rifles, but in my hopes it would be big enough of a nerf to justify bringing back jump sniping, raising the sniping skill ceiling even further, I mean why can shotgun bunnys take advantage of jump shooting and snipers can’t?)
(A little off topic now…
I can’t speak for the entire DB sniping community here, but jump sniping had such huge value literally at every range, but especially at close range where you could severely reduce the damage you took while preparing your shot as you were able to position yourself with a jump and then take the shot, compared to now where you’re limited to the ground just reacting and taking the best shot. While I don’t want sniping to get nerfed even further with my suggested changes, compensating it with jump sniping would be worth it in my opinion. And while I’m already off topic, just revert Vassili’s hp back to 100, he doesn’t really deserve the extra 10hp, especially comparing him to Aimee who’s at 90hp without machine pistols.)
In the end MOA should still remain superior to Fel-ix with a 100% headshot accuracy.
I think this would actually make a difference between the battle of MOA vs Fel-ix. If this could be balanced well, I do believe that the higher skilled snipers would still risk the value of faster headshots over lower bodyshot damage, while the players newer to bolt action snipers wouldn’t probably take the risk and settle for the higher bodyshot damage.
Also these are just my initial values, if anyone finds this suggestion interesting I’d love to hear their opinions and values.
#BringBackJumpSniping, I’ts not too late!
