I know the title is likely to make this suggestion sound stupid, but please give it a fair chance. For whatever reason, most new players to this game are drawn to the sniper rifle like magpies to shiny things. When I played Empires this past week, I noticed a disproportionate amount of new players playing rifleman with the sniper rifle, when in previous versions they would no doubt be playing the scout. What I propose, therefore, is this: For whatever reason (whether out of sentimentality or obstinacy), this community has come to the collective decision not to remove the sniper rifles from the game. Therefore, I would propose that the engineer be given the sniper rifle, to ensure that if new players wanted to use a useless weapon, they would at least be using it as a useful class. I recognize, however, that this alone is not enough to ensure that new players do what engineers are actually supposed to do - that is, building, reviving, etc. To ensure that new players are forced to play engineer "properly", I propose restricting the use of the sniper rifle until one has accumulated 10 points in the game. An objection to this proposal may be that there may at times be legitimate uses to begin the game with the sniper rifle (like being bored and wanting to grief your team), so I propose to dismiss that objection on the ground that it is stupid. Please implement this idea (although if there are other things of a much higher priority on the list of planned features, worry not about this. It is fairly pointless anyway, I suppose.)
"Collective" my half-Mexican half-Scandinavian full-American ass. If it was up to me, I'd remove the sniper rifle and HMG in half a heartbeat. Despite the claims of them individually being "a strategic weapon with strategic uses in strategic situations as part of a strategic strategy", it doesn't stop 95% of the uses being for fucking around. I see god damn concs getting used appropriately more often than those two weapons combined.
Give the long-ranged-sitting-alone-weapon to the guy-who-needs-to-be-close-to-his-teammates-to-work-properly? Sounds like a good idea.
Well, the idea is that most players who know how to use the game won't be using the sniper rifle anyway. The person who is apt to be using the engineer simply for the long-ranged-sitting-alone capability needs to reach at least 10 points before he can even unlock the sniper rifle, so as hopefully to teach him that it is more important/enjoyable actually to play engineer properly instead of simply sitting on one side of the map picking at opposing infantrymen.
Haha, you're so fucking right. Firstly, it wouldn't even matter if it was a majority opinion since the majority isn't magically correct. Regardless, it's pretty clear that the sniper rifle doesn't hang around because the "collective" wants it that way. I won't go as far as to to suggest that popular opinion is against the sniper rifle (but it still wouldn't matter if that were true), but it's definitely not for the rifle. However, I don't think that's Hexi's point. I think he's saying that the sniper rifle should be moved to engy since it attracts noobs and noobs are less likely to play engy. The problem is that engy is generally most useful when close to the enemy and the sniper rifle does not encourage that. So it might put more engies on the field, but they might be more likely to be shitty engies. A better weapon to achieve this goal would be the shotgun and, surprise surprise, it was moved to the engy.
To add on something, a real dumb something, rifleman has better resists than engy and they aren't really gonna be sprinting anywhere if they got that sniper rifle. So in the case that people just want to be kinda useless with the sniper rifle it is better for them to be a rifleman. At least they can be a bullet sponge so people shoot at them and not me.
Yes just remove it, its only purpose is as a joke gun since it performs worse than the other rifles at any and all ranges.
How to make everybody who plays empires happy: Remove Sniper Rifle Remove Scout Remove Mortar Remove Mines Remove HMG Remove Artillery Remove Heavy tanks Remove Composite Armor Remove Bio Weapons Make jeeps invincible Make light tanks go faster Replace NF rax model with BE model Nerf pistol2 Nerf shotgun pistol And finally... Remove all maps from the servers
Is no one actually thinking about this? Let's take something like Cyclopean for instance. Engineer is at the middle resource node, taking down an enemy refinery. Rifleman comes along, or usually it's a pair of enemies, and starts assaulting that position - to defend the ref. Engineer puts up a wall, starts constructing a turret (if not already done), hides and tries to shoot. What most puts the engy at a disadvantage is that his weapons aren't that dangerous and at any kind of range they're not really deadly. Added to that the enemies usually have high ground, which makes it easier to hide and bombard. If you give the engy a sniper rifle at that point, they've created their own cover, and if they're any good at using the rifle they can get themselves out of that jam. The turret will help when enemies are close, as well as the pistol, and when they're far away the engy can use his rifle. You've effectively extended the engy's zone to harassment level. Take another position. Well, any position really. How often on many maps have you been pinned by a rifleman as engy? What really works against you is the range, and the fact that you have to expose yourself to powerful rifles in order to get anywhere. Running from A to B on dust. Heck being pinned in the base from the mid point of dust. Crossing the bridges on cyclopean, running from A to B on mvalley, the landscape in canyon... On all these maps the sniper rifle becomes a powerful tool. How much do the smg's do? 10 damage per shot? How much does the sniper rifle do in comparison? 2.5x that? The usefulness of the rifle is that it extends the range of effectiveness for the class, but also that it packs more damage in less shots. This means you can duck out of cover, nail someone that's been suppressing you, then duck back into cover without taking much, if any, fire. That simple weapon change affects the class use on an incredible scale.
Heads up, the sniper rifle currently does 75 damage to the body. It's fall off is basically the draw distance, or at least that it what it feels like, so the min damage feels irrelevant(it is 30). Smg 1, which is what most people will carry, does 25 damage to the body and has a min damage of 15. Point is you can almost use the sniper rifle as a shotty with slugs. Just something to think about when talking about rifleman, they are kinda rare. In bigger games sure there will be at least 1-2 floating around, but most of the time it is another engy you face. I don't know, maybe it would be ok? I know I would still use smg1, it is almost a laser if you prone and not much worse if you crouch.
You missed melee upgrade. Shotty, Melee upgrade are the two most retarded things in this game, the fact that they survived all this time reminds me that this game has no future.
Sniper rifles are great for taking out HMGwhores or stray engineers that don't move when they build shit. Plus, why would you remove the awesome minigame that is snipe the enemy sniper across the bridge on emp_slaughtered? 3bend is boring until lategame when you can take an afv/lighttank and tony hawk around in the canyon killing heavies with your fission engine.
I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I'd totally want to try Empires that way. Think about it from the perspective of a person just installing the game. Why did they install Empires? They probably saw screenshots or videos on the steam page. What does that page's content make Empires look like? There are lots of pictures at the top of the page. I see vehicles. I see more vehicles. I see neat maps. I see more vehicles. Oh wait, was that a person? More vehicles. It's all vehicles except for a handful of pictures that show individual footsoldiers - no groups (read: squads/teamwork). When noobs install Empires, they don't care about the sniper rifle (only one picture in-scope), the scout class (no pics), the mortar (no pics), mines (no pics), HMG (no pics), artillery (one pic, no pics in action), heavy tanks (no clear difference from meds), composite armor (no customization pics), bio weapons (no customization pics), LT speed (no frame of reference), pistol 2 (no pics) or the shotgun pistol (no pics). So I'd love to try out an "Empires" that might be closer to what incoming noobs perceive. I might decide that I don't miss any of that superfluous bullshit or I might decide that I really like that my noob teammates are more competitive (i.e. more fun) in a simpler game. Or I might decide that it's a boring game. I can't pretend that I know the answer because I haven't tried it.
I am not ashamed to say that I think I really want to try playing Empires that way. I mean, it was meant to be satire but as I got towards the bottom of the list I actually kind of liked it.
