Can anyone disagree that the Sniper Rifle is the universal answer to any problem in Phoenix Point? Sure, it’s action point for damage can be surpassed, but overall there is no situation where the SR is ineffective. It’s a waste to use a sniper on foes you can dispatch with a pistol, but no enemies is too strong or well protected for it.
So what could be done about it?
-Make it so certain enemies are resilient to it
The SR is an anti-personal weapon, it is a given killing organic, man sized enemies be it’s forte. But what about cybernetic enemies or tank like foes? Some enemies should have resilience to it, or have body parts less affected by it (like shields).
-Make them unusable at point blank range
SR are long weapons, unwieldy in tight spaces. Enemies that are right next to the shooter should prevent it’s use, or make it impossible to zoom in.
I also think sniper rifles should be terrible at short range, though I also think automatic rifles should be more deadly too. Personally I want to see shotguns as the best short range weapon, automatic rifles as the best mid range weapon and sniper rifles as the best long range weapons.
The biggest problems with the SR is they do high damage, pierce armor and are also very accurate. Combined with quick aim you can shoot them twice a turn and very likely destroy some body part or kill some of the weaker foes. They need situations where they are not the right answer, their only drawback currently is AP cost alone. If they had say 50% reduction in damage against certain body parts (like Arthron carapace and shields or Heavy’s armor) or armor plating (like vehicles), sniping from a safe distance would be far less effective.
Maybe. But to be true they should be powerful slow weapon. Currently they deal like ~120 damage on average per shot. Decrease it to be 80 and they won’t win you encounters. No resistance would be required.
When you need to aim at particular body part it makes difference. But yes laser sniper rifle is special case especially when boosted with armor and skill buffs.
If you need to target special body part then you take laser SR. All others don’t have enough accuracy even without any debuffs But you like to nerf everything, if I remeber right…
Since then I have largely changed my view on SRs. Yes, they have good accuracy and armor penetration (high damage per projectile), but they have low damage per ap, they don’t shred armor and they don’t daze.
IMO, the hell cannon wielded by a sniper/heavy, especially with the strongman skill, with armor buffing accuracy makes for a much better choice than an SR. For the same APs it can often one shot kill, but when it doesn’t it shreds armor and can easily daze the target.
Useless? It still pierce armor, still very accurate and has the longest range. Would be the worst weapon for damage per AP but still be the king when it comes to long range engagements (as it should be).
Not with the Synedrion armor and the marksman sniper perk, that gives a total 85% boost to accuracy… Not that useful for the SR, but very useful for the HC.
@Yokes yes, the HC is OP with the accuracy buffs. But then as accuracy and mobility in PP are practically the same thing, you can also argue that the best weapon is the deceptor with an extreme mobility build. Though currently the most powerful weapon is probably Marduk’s fist when used with the melee bionic torso…
In any case, I would rank SR OPedness somewhere below the Synedrion assault rifle in the hands of a lvl7 nfiltraror with an echo head…
I guess my point is SRs are actually not that good because they don’t benefit from the things that make other weapons OP. They don’t benefit from accuracy/mobility buffs, and they also benefit less from damage buffs because actually their damage per AP is quite low.
To all.
SR DON’T has any armor piercing (only one has, ok)! It has good alpha. But it’s SR - what do you want from it?
SR has very bad accuracy right now (not laser). But in other cases it’s in balance. You can guarantee kill one enemy in one turn at middle range. It’s normal and I don’t see any reason to nerf this.
I don’t know if the SR is best described as “the universal answer”, while I do employ them a lot…they have generally low damage per AP. and that is not a downside to ignore in a game where you want the enemy dead as soon as possible.
now they used to be exploitable as heck, the old return fire allowed way too many bonus shots on a high perception sniper and the old rageburst heavily abused the 10+ shot magazines these weapons have. but both these exploits have been dealt with when those skills got reworked, and in both cases keep in mind its the skills that made the weapon too powerful (much like current RB still works well with snipers just like it still does well with any other 3AP costing weapon) not the weapon itself
what they do have going for them is reliability, they can deal damage to practically anything due to the high damage per shot + high range (accuracy in this game). unless a nearly unarmored enemy is standing point blank to your soldier, firing the sniper is an okay move. this can be seen as a “universal answer” but its actually very suboptimal…you can make a full rifle-squad in the game and do okay…but you will realize that it takes 2-3 guys to take down targets, and very liberal use of WP to get into position or lower shot costs
I’d have to find my old suggestions regarding sniper rifles again to see what I found to be problem with them…but from the top of my head it wasn’t that as drastic as the problems with shotguns and AR’s.
So maybe not only adjacent enemies but in some close vicinity?
No resistance would be required.
btw