Rifleman Archive

There are a lot of issues that riflemen have. We are a profession weakened by nerfs and broken abilities. Being a former Army Ranger Sharpshooter, I have views that will probably differ from everyone else's. But, solutions will come, and this is just my take on the situation.

First, let me state my assumptions and presuppositions. We are intended for long range combat. We shoot from 60m out and look to do intense damage to a target before he becomes a serious threat. This does not mean "sniper" neccessarily, that is just a part. I many times served for SRS - Strategic Rifle Support. We hold the single most damaging (non-explosive) weapons in a war, with the capacity to literally rip a body to shreds.

1) Cover - Concealment and Cover are the basic neccessities of any Rifleman. We concealourselves, nearly invisible to the naked eye. We hide tracks, we use camoflauge and ghille suits. We become invisible. We fire from the shadows, systematically taking down targets with precision and skill. Cover in the game does nothing more than allow us to fire broken shots. In a PvP enviornment, an autofire return and a highlight on the radar can lead to a quick incapacitation. You see, the idea of players on the radar is flawed. In a real war there is no radar that can quickly detect every human in a 128m radius. But this is the StarWars universe. There is no radar in the StarWars Universe like that either! Otherwise, Obi Wan never would have been ambushed on Geonosis, and those Tusken Raiders would have been yellow dots and Luke never would have stopped his landspeeder. THERE MUST BE A WAY TO MAKE OURSELVES INVISIBLE TO RADAR. Now if someone is within a certain distance, no doubt they would be able to detect us. Without concealment, our advantage is quickly depleted.

2)Range - Rifles use different rounds than pistols, as well as having long barrells for accuracy. In Ranger Sharpshooter training we would do target practice from 600 yds. A 64m shot was a warm up at best. My personal longest confirmed killwas from 1.1 miles (1600 m) That, however was after over 1 year of training, and was in a clear, open desert where I was elevated. Rifleman need to at least be able to deliver sizable damage before ANYONE with a pistol or machinegun could get an accurate shot.Whether this means lengthening rifle range or shortening pistol range, something has to be done. A pistol can shoot from 64m, but is not by any means accurate. Otherwise the basic premise of our advantage is nullified.

3)One Shot Kills - Everyone is making a big deal about one shot kills. Although one shot kills are probably the most fascinating part of a sniper, that is not all we are. In urban warfare, riflemen look to cause serious damage, but one shot kills are not the entire profession. A "sniper shot" one shot kill takes hours to set up your position and angle, calculate wind shears and bullet drop, just so you can pull the trigger once. If you have to pull it twice, its too late. Setting up a position would be too hard to program into the game and would probably imbalance the PvP game too much. Therefore, I would be willing to cede that one shot kills are out of our reach. If we can deliver damage, while keeping ourself relatively safe, then there would be no problem.

4)High HAM costs - Completely Justified. Aiming for a Shot on a human being is extremely draining. It is difficult beyond belief. Aiming, holding your rifle steady, controlling your breathing, often having to take muscle relaxers to keep your aim, all while remaining virtually motionless to avoid detection is hard on body and mind. I firmly believe that other professions (such as pistoleer) should have lower HAM costs than riflemen. Our job is harder than theirs, it is more straining. Bounty Hunter's eyeshot should be taken care of differently than making the HAM costs higher. It should be a short range attack that cannot be done more than twice in a row. I'm sorry, but it is not as hard to make that kind of a shot.

Just my opinion. Ok, I have to go prepare myself for the flames now.

-Logoseen Ospooro
Abandon All Hope, All Ye Who Enter....

You can't imagine how pleased I am to see someone with rifle experience posting, and I agree completely. I don't mind the mind pool being hit, but think we should have more of a range advantage as well as useful hiding techniques. Unfortunately from the correspondent posts I've read, the radar issue will not be resolved becuase they feel it will lead to cheating and hack files.

I dont want mind dmg healed.. Imo i think ALL mind dmg attacks should be reduced dmg like 25 to 50%. What we get in compinsation is cheaper HAM costs... IF im attacking in a group i dont want to use mind but heath and my flurry1 EATS my mind and there is no way i can keep up with any other proffesion over time.By lowering mind dmg it puts lessstress on the mind being the main factor in pvp.

One shot kills IS IN THE GAME.... Just not by rifleman =( was hit in pvp last night for 3366 dmg by a commando, BH with a LLC and special can also one shot kill. What SHOULD be done is make one of our /cough suprise shot havea hugh dmg multiplyier that way we can one shot kills. DOWN side should be a FORCED timed before you can refire like the commandos for like 15 seconds to balance it, also high HAM costs...

Not much i can say on range other than the whole system is a joke atm. Flame throwers hitting at 64m LOL

Ifrifleman are snipers then we should be able to have an ability to hide from pvp... There NEEDS to be a down side so it isnt to powerfull but in reality, this will never happen =(

I have rifle experience...and I've been posting...

Hey Army! I agree with you completely. High HAM costs, better accuracy, tweak the range somehow, more damage. And finally...why does an opponent charging straight at you impose an accuracy penalty... he is only a target that is RAPIDLY INCREASING IN SIZE.

As long as this penalty exists, the rifleman cannot work properly. People are supposed to take cover when a rifleman opens fire. Not simply charge him.

IMHO

1. I think if you are 10m from someone and you take cover you should stay on radar, if someone is out of range and you are in cover and they walk into your sights you should be invisible until the first shot. Yes they will start autofiring back but at least we have SOME method of surprise, some version of I lie in wait until my target comes to me, I doubt sony will implement any sort of invisibility past the first shot.

2. As for range. Tricky issue. We have no rifles that fire bullets(anymore). The jawa shoots electricity to stun, we have a cold rifle, etc. So all that is a consideration. Many people say rifles are much more 'powerful' than handguns, well my FWG pistol damage sliced is 250ish damage and my DLT20a damage sliced is 260ish damage so star wars mechanics seems a bit rough when it comes to the weapons. Basically I think the devs either need to say this is intended, or that they will be addressing it, the lack of information leads to too many posts on the subject.

3. We can one shot kill. I've shown the math with a laser rifle and T-21 in this forum. What we need is armor piercing to be fixed so that our rifles do the damage they're suppose to. Rather than the current system of needing awesome gear, awesome luck on the damage rolls, and our master level skill.

4. If our roles were just to fire off a few rounds in a group, high HAM costs wouldn't be a problem, but in order to maintain respectable damage in a group in PvE situations, we need the HAM costs to be lowered I think, too many other classes can spam 5x damage attacks that don't even require master level to attain.

TheWastrel and logosys, the rifles you guys use to say snipe someone from 500m out, do they also have the capability to strafe areas etc. to duplicate our AOE attacks?

That is great what a Rifleman can do in real life, but this isnt real life. This is a game that has a little thing called balance to contend with.

What you are implying in your post is we should be stealthed, shoot from a insane distance and one shot. Now exactly how did you plan on balancing that? oh make us have higher HAM cost, give me a break.

It seems this real life refrence to rifleman has to be posted at least once a week. The thing in common with all of them. They want our class changed into a pure sniper which it is NOT, and it totally disregard game balance. You people really need to get your head out of your a$$ and understand this is a game, not real life.

Frailboy,

When I served, I was equipped with a M40A1 bolt-action. It is a long range rifle, but I could easily strafe, since it could hold 5 rounds in the magazine. The newer M24's can hold 20 rounds in the magazine, but are only about 80% the effective distance.

And Lobo,

Thanks for the flame, I appreciate it. I really do....
Now why don't you shut your trap for a second and listen?

One Shot Kills are not going to be available. It would unbalance the game. I believe I stated that.
Shoot from an insane distance? No, not an insane distance. Far enough away where we can get 1-2 shots off with little danger during that time period.
Stealthed is part of being a rifleman. It allows us to keep our edge. We won't be able to stay stealthed for long, obviously, but there is no need to unless you want a one shot.
I never said I wanted to be a pure sniper. Infact, I said I didn't want to be a pure sniper. I would like to be a sharpshooter, like my title, and I'm sure yours as well, says.

Lobo, I have read some good posts of yours. I agree with you on many points. I, too, want balance in the class. I think Bounty Hunters should be the strongest 1-1 profession in the entire game, they deserve it. But Lobo, please, stop flaming and go back to the good posts you used to make. Thanks.

-Logoseen Ospooro
Rangers Lead The Way

I call it how I see it. You might think it is a flame, I look at it being very direct so that no one can misunderstand my point.

Now lets look at your last post.

Your answer to not wanting a insane distance was "just far enough to get one or two shots with little danger." That doesnt explain squat, do you want 80 meters, 150 meters? You do understand that the major issue plaguing PvP right now is the ability to kite pure melee classes, all you are setting up is the ability for Rifleman to do that to everyone. You didnt look at balance at all, even in your latest post, guess I wasnt direct enough.

I have stated over and over that you revisionists want to change ourprofession to match our title instead of just changing thename of the profession, and I believe you prove that with your latest post.

You might wonder why this bothers me so much. Well it is because I know that to do these changes, these drastic changes, to our class would force the Devs to look at things to remove from us. I picked this profession for the skills that were PLAINLY displayed, not what could possibly be. In my eyes you are trying to nerf the profession I picked, because you want it changed for your own selfish wants, and I wont stand for it.

Lobo,

What do you view as your major advantages in combat? Or do you think all combat classes should be the same, just with different weapons. The thing that makes this game, to a large degree, so much fun is the fact that each combat profession has its unique advantages. Personally I think a TKA should be able to slaughter anyone who comes within 10m of him. Pistoleersshould run-n-gun with almost no penalty. Carbineersshouldcut through ranks of the enemy and clear a path This forces strategy. When I raid a town, I utilize my abilities to fire from a long range with my compatriot's abilities to create an effective assault. Any combat profession should learn to utilize its abilities to the best. Right now, it is just hard for riflemen to use our abilities. A number on farther range? 75m. Not insane, just enough to get a shot off. /takeCover gives defensive bonuses and keeps you hidden from enemy view, allowing you to squeeze of /concealshot or /surpriseshot., right? The only problem is that the way these are written is not a proper portrayal of the actual action. The actual action is yet to be seen, considering all of the above are broken. I was posing how I view the profession, and how we could best make use of our advantages.

By the way, telling someone to get their head out of their "a$$", is hardly what one would consider "civilized criticism." I apologize for my rude response in my last message, it was unkind and unfair of me.

Although I have my doubts that you were a real sniper (I think you tipped your hand when you said you killed someone) I can explain why we have a radar.

Might seem a bit techincal, but the game works on information going back and forth between the client (you) and the server. You won't see the enemy, or the building, or the animal until the server sends you information about it.

In EverQuest there was a program called ShowEQ. There was no built in Radar in that game. But the information had to be you by the server anyway, in order for you to see everything. But what hackers did in EQ is they made program that took this information and used it to make their own radars and cheat tools. Because the information was already being sent by the server, the program showed all the people and AI from several kilometers radius, including name, level, class, special items, etc... a long with a radar that showed their positional locations. You can't really do anything about it to stop the hacks, since the server has to tell you that theres a player at 340830 x and 40832402 y anyway, right?

So in SWG they decreased the range the server sends you stuff to about 256-128 meters. You don't know about anything past that range, and the server won't send you anything. Once the server loads all the players and stuff when you enter an area, it will be displayed on the radar anyway.

If it wasn't like this, you would have cheaters who have an advantage over non cheaters. When you're PvPing someone would be tracking you from a distance away with you on their hacked-up radar while you are unaware. When they're ready, they move in and strike and you don't know what happened. Id rather have an all-knowing radar that is at least giving everyone the same advantage, instead of having no radar and having the element of surprise in the game... while tons of other players download their own.

Wow I always assumed they lowered our field of vision because seeing every tree and building for 1000m would be too laggy, learn something new everyday.