Development Cycle Archive
Thread: IC 1-12: Combat Roles; Rifleman
What defines theRiflemanrole in combat?
A Rifleman's defining role is their preference to long range weapons. As such, they should have the longest range weapons of all the ranged professions.
What basic combat elements should they possess?
To keep with what I think was TH's intent on this question: The basic combat elements (or "Everyman" combat elements) for a Rifleman should include some small ability to protect ones self at melee range. For a Rifleman, the ability to attack a melee opponent with their rifle would be key. This attack should not do much damage (and may damage their weapon), but it should have a stun component. This would give the Rifleman a chance to get out of Melee range where they are very ineffective.
What offensive abilities?
The offensive abilities should be primarily ranged special attacks. This should be dependant on what type of weapon the Rifleman is using. For instance, a "Sniper" rifle should not be able to do AoE shots. And a "Machine Gun" should not be able to use attacks that target certain pools.
What defensive abilities?
This will also depend on the gun being used: A "Sniper's" primary defense is stealth and concealment. A "Machine Gunner's" defense lies in thier ability to suppress the enemy. When an enemy is under suppression, they should be less accurate as they are afraid to poke thier head out of cover. Finally, either type of rifleman should have a (working) Block ability for when they are caught by a Melee type. (A successful Block may also damage a rifle.)
What unique abilities?
A Sniper should be able to target any pool that they choose. Also, the /aim ability (or a more advanced version of it) should add extra damage to the attack as well as increasing the chance to hit. More over, a sniper should be able to stack /aim mods in order to achieve a "One shot, one kill." effect. (You may want to cap the accuracy benefit, but the damage mod should not be capped. This basically means that if a target is not smart enough to move in the time it will take the sniper to draw a bead on them, then they deserve to get one-shotted.)
Machine Gunners should only have random-pool AoE shots. These shots should be powerful, but less accurate. (The /aim skill should not work with an AoE shot.) AoE should have a Suppression effect on the targets. This can be a state-change (i.e. - Posture Down) or a new effect that makes the target less accurate at range (i.e. - only sticking thier head or for a moment to squeeze off a shot should have a negative effect on accuracy).
Should add what advantage or asset in group combat?
Group dynamics with Rifleman could get interesting. For instance, if a rifleman chooses to use thier less-accurate weapons (Machine Gun type) then they should have a chance of hitting friendly's who are engaged in Melee combat with the enemy. But if they use thier more-accurate weapons (Sniper rifles) then they should be able to assist any group by targetting which ever HAM pool that group is best at targetting. Thier damage will be moderate to high and with AP, there should be damage bonus'.
What interaction / dependencies should exist with other combatants?
Rifleman will rely on other professions to keep targets at a distance. The other professions will rely on the Rifleman to deal good, consistant damage to assist with taking down a target.
What should be their unique role in the Galactic Civil War?
Rifleman using either the Sniper technique or the Machine Gun technique could be very useful in large battles. But the Sniper should get special missions: Assassinations. These missions would take advantage of a Sniper's stealth and concealment abilities to infiltrate an enemy location/base and take out a single target. The Sniper would get a bonus for eliminating the target with no other casualties. For any other incidental kills, the amount of the mission reward would diminish. (Hence rewarding the stealthy Sniper.)
What basic combat elements should they possess? Awesome for LONG range attacks (> 45m) /horrible accuracyfor close encounters (< 40 m). Basically, a rifleman should be standing still, kneeling, or prone, at a long range. They should not be running around firing off shots every 1 second and hitting every time.
What offensive abilities? Basically, I see riflemen has the long range profession with extreme accuracy (at long range), reasonable firing rate,and great power.
However, if they are attacking a target that is less than 40 m distance, while walking or running, they should beEXTREMELY inaccurate (miss 98% of the time). Why? The reason is that I seeing morerifleman templates that are firing off a shot everyONE second -- runningat 30 m distance and hitting almost always. I don't believe the rifleman's role is to shoot everyONE second, hitting every time,while running around at 30 m distances from you. They should be invisible andkeeping still killers (prone / kneeling / standing), attackingat a long range distance.... if they run or walk, they should suffera large accuracypenality and if they are close to you while running while firing, they should almost always miss.
It is completely possible to run forward and fire a rifle fairly accurately. This is how assaults happen. I once saw a team of two special forces guys move 100m, side by side hitting the target as they moved forward at a fast trot. They were using 7.62mm FAL assault rifles (Belgian FN If I recall correctly). Never did they fail to hit the target. Not all the shots were bullseyes, but none failed to hit the target.
No, this is not something you should try with a bolt action hunting rifle!
MSP0 wrote:
It is completely possible to run forward and fire a rifle fairly accurately. This is how assaults happen. I once saw a team of two special forces guys move 100m, side by side hitting the target as they moved forward at a fast trot. They were using 7.62mm FAL assault rifles (Belgian FN If I recall correctly). Never did they fail to hit the target. Not all the shots were bullseyes, but none failed to hit the target.
No, this is not something you should try with a bolt action hunting rifle!
Forward....how often do riflemen run towards their enemy in this game? No, they strafe and run backwards, happen to see how you hold the rifle when you do that? It is completely stupid to see them conect on every shot while you hold the rifle with one hand pointed behind you...completely stupid.
It's completely stupid to see a CM throw an Area poison that only affects imperials or rebs.
It's completely stupid to get KD'ed in a prone postition.
It's completely stupid to dodge speed of light laser fire.
There's alot of completely stupid things in this game.