Adjusting the scope
Recently I’ve been spending more time playing as a sniper. I don’t know why I haven’t played him more, I love playing the sniper. Always have. In most games I always favour the sniper rifle, picking off enemies from a distance to later raid their bodies for ammo. It all started from the early days of playing the original Delta Force game. It was the first FPS game I played online and I’d spend most of the match climbing a faraway hill and the rest of the match waiting for a pixel to move slightly to indicate another sniper on a far away hill. There’s something therapeutic about seeing people through a crosshair, knowing with a simple tug bye bye person. And that’s when you ascend the clocktower and. . . no, no! Bad. Here allow me to demonstrate.
Now look it him, can you imagine how annoying he’s going to be. Horridly unfunny jokes, that weird laugh. The sort of person where you have to use every fibre in your being just not to crotch punch them to death. Now imagine a crosshair.
Ahh it’s better isn’t it? You can deal with him now. Go on try it next time your boss gets their panties in a twist, it calms you down but remember to imagine a crosshair, and not to bring in your own rifle. I also find when people push past me rudely to imagine they’re a Harrison Ford type figure desperately trying to save their family, cheers me up to ad lib his lines in my head, “I must catch that train to Basingstoke. My family’s life depends upon it!”. Ahem anyway what was I on about?
I think it’s the feeling of power I like, serenely watching the far away battle knowing I have the power to end anyone I so wish. Making a Schindler’s list, those that will survive and those that will perish for my greater good. I feel untouchable, unkillable, unstoppable, basically I’m I feel like God with a sniper rifle in the sky. I have the power to kill a medic before they use their uber or take out their tubby friend that was protecting them, I swear I can see a look of confusion on their face before they high tail it out of there. I’ve helped a spy sap a sentry nest by taking out all the engies knocking off their sappers. In short I love what a sniper is capable of. Note that I phrased that “what a sniper is capable of”, allow me to expand on why with a few points;
Spies, Pyros, and Scouts oh my!
As a sniper it’s a big given that you are the main prey of the spies, you may as well paint a target on your back with the words “knife goes in here” and tattoo “Freekill” on your forehead, so complaining about that would be redundant. What I didn’t expect though is the other classes that also prey upon the sniper. If the enemy team get annoyed with a camp of snipers they nearly always bring in a pyro to cleanse that land, usually accompanied by a medic. I’ll be happily staring down my scope until one of two things happen; one, I’m set alight and before I can react I’m already a burnt crisp. Or two, a pyro’s head pops into my scope and I’m immediately burned to a cinder. Then there are the scouts. Their speed allows them to run past most players and get behind enemy lines, and at some point they find themselves at the snipers point and boink themselves to ecstasy. Sometimes the torrent of these three classes can become unbearable; Snipe, stab, respawn, burn, respawn, bonk, respawn, stab . . . It’s like a never ending parade of death, a circle of Dante’s inferno. Though it may be in part due to;
Brother, brother, brother, there’s far too many of you dying
You can be doing your best for the team, but all it takes to ruin your good work is another sniper. You’ll be there sniping away key figures of the enemy when suddenly you slump back and the camera fast tracks to an enemy sniper. You respawn and make a note to kill them before it’s safe to resume sniping. They respawn and kill you. Then you respawn and kill them. And then they . . . well you get the idea. Before you know it you’re ignoring everyone else and solely focusing on a sniper war with that other sniper. Congratulations you’ve become one of them, here’s your deck chair and a bottle to piss in, your going to be here awhile companion cube sniper. Your whole reason to exist anymore is to kill other snipers, you’re class’s purpose has become a completely self-contained paradox.
Oh, I die with a little help from my friends
I hate it when someone blocks my shot, it’s a sod’s law of playing the sniper that as soon as you get a clean shot of an important player a friendly head will bounce into view and absorb your bullet. But that’s just the way it goes, unless of course your view is blocked by another sniper standing infront of you. It’s when all snipers seem to congregate in one spot, that trouble starts and anger raises. Not only do we become a wet dream to spy’s and pyro’s, it also becomes impossible to snipe without everyone getting in each others way. If you spot a few snipers in one point maybe you can try not joining them and find another vantage point, or maybe we have too many damned snipers already. Though there may be a reason for the high number of snipers;
At the core you’ve forgotten
There is a breed of sniper out there that only care for one thing and one thing only; score. They do not snipe for the team but for themselves, and flee at the slightest chance of danger coming towards them. Mostly they are just temporarily snipers and are following the class that has the highest score on the server, following the score zeitgeist, although they seem blind to the word medic. I call them ’score hunters’. They spend the whole match taking down the easiest targets they can find and running away at the first sign of danger. These players are why others declare the sniper as a cowards class, taking the easy kills without contributing to the team. When a spy is sapping nearby sentries, snipers flee for fear of ruining their kill/death ratio or their ’streak’, here’s some advice; DON’T. You draw out your Kukri, do your best Crocodile Dundee impression and charge! The Kukri is a powerful weapon so discard that crappy pea shooter and use that machete.
These types of players seem to have forgotten that the sniper can do more than just headshots (they can also do crotchshots), that the class isn’t just there to rack up some kills. When the team needs a sentry/engineer destroyed/killed so the team can progress, the team have do it themselves. Why? Because the score hunter is too reluctant to put themselves in tricky positions, prefering to stay in a safe spot than risk being shot at but helping the team. Remember TEAM Fortress 2, how many more times do we need an article to tell players it’s a team game before they realise?
This is the end, my only friend the end
As you can see now the sniper has the potential to be a great asset to the team, but also the potential to be completely useless. Which will you be? Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to climb onto that ledge and shoot some heavies in their knackers. Boom, crotchshot.
Stumble it!
Cubic_C responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 8:51 am #
nice. Whenever I go sniper, i just try to find a nice spot where nobody else is, and take out those heavies. But the main reason i use the class is actually to take out sentries. You can kill them in two shots from a huge distance, headshot the engie before he can react,then get his dispenser too. Sniper is arguably the best anti-sentry class.
of course, i’m crap at spy, so that might have something to do with it.
Monchberter responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 8:58 am #
Ahh, good old sniper. Such a fickle class, if you have an off day as pyro you may get the odd after death kill, as heavy some unlucky chap will stry into your Sasha, but snipe on a bad day?
zero, nothing, zilch, epic fail.
So, to add something to the fantastic post, if you’re having a bad day sniping and you really want to help your team, admit it, get someone else to carry the piss bottles (you know there will be enough) and go Medic and bask in the warm glow of ze uber!
Neuromante responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 9:10 am #
With snipers it’s always the same: Selfish players who don’t look for the team, just for themselves and his “skill”.
I wrote, inspired in the Weighted Companion Sniper and in a funny sniper-kill-fest I did, a little rant about wich I called the “Counter Companion Sniper”, talking about those snipers who stands still aiming and headshotting.
At the end of the article I talked some about the lack of team-play in that class, the lack of that “I’m gonna commit suicide for the team” moment and the ironic point that a Pyro -the more newbie-friendly class- can take out snipers using he W+Forward combo ^_^
Nice article. Thumbs up!
PutterMayhem responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 11:29 am #
As a sniper, at least for me, it is not about the k/d ratio. It’s nice to have a positive one but it is not important to me. When I snipe I try to take out everyone that I see. Not just enemy snipers. If I see a heavy + medic combo I try to take out the medic so the heavy is easier to kill for my teammates.
If the intel is taken I don’t ignore it, I switch to my kukri and try to stop the intel thief. If I hear that there is a spy in the base I watch my back but I also try to go after it.
I run away from classes that can easily kill me but once I get far away I line up a shot so as they turn the corner Boom! Headshot! It’s all about strategy. It’s not smart to run right at an enemy as a sniper. If it’s to protect the intel then I will run at the enemy but knowing that I will probably die but by doing so will slow them down enough for a teammate to finish them off. One time I was in my base searching for a spot to snipe from when an enemy pyro sees me. He immediately set me on fire. I ran into the next room and hid around the corner with my kukri equipped. When the pyro came around the corner I surprised him with a few hits from my kukri and he went down. Seconds later I died because I was still on fire. Although I died I helped my team by killing the pyro.
Killing a foe with the kukri gives me a sense of accomplishment. There is no better feeling then taking out a scout while he is trying to bonk you to death.
Himmelstoss responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 12:15 pm #
Good stuff, I like. Though I still hate snipers with a passion, I’m glad they’re there. I love playing spy, and snipers are my favorite pastime.
Sypheros responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 2:55 pm #
I like to think im a good sniper, my focus is Soldiers, Heavies, Demomen, and Pyros when they come by. I try to do my job as best as possible, that means SUPPORT my team.
I have the best vantage point out of everyone, I see everything, I use my mic alert to a sentry or other sniper, and cover my teams advancement. That’s a good sniper.
2Fort sniping is something I ABSOLUTELY despise, its just so boring, and all you’re really doing is Counter Sniper. So I choose soldier or spy, and pick on the snipers, just to continue to ruin their, as you say, K/D Ratio.
General Balls responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 8:25 pm #
A good Sniper is a game-breaker, I know that much.
I go Sniper just to piss off Himmelstoss.
UberOgden responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 9:01 pm #
Grammar and structure were a bit wonky, but you got your point across masterfully.
Good humour, good advice, good rounding. Nice work, m’boy.
Nabanaba
Punjab responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 10:39 pm #
Unintentional Frohman?
IceWeasel responded on 02 Nov 2008 at 1:39 am #
I love playing sniper and i say that i only sniper wars if the enemy sniper is really good and i can be pain for him. Otherwise, i usually try to get rid of engies, medics and heavies. What I don’t understand is that when snipers are attacked at close range, half of them get out their SMG, instead of the kukri and those people, always die. So, I don’t understand, if the SMG doesn’t work for you, why use it? I also have to say on 2Fort, if there’s nothing to kill (i.e enemy turtling), i go to their sewers, come out and wait for them and snipe them, or else i just follow an attack squad at a distance and try to no-scope some enemies. On a side note, personally, i think that no-scopes are much better than the SMG. Granted it has a slow reload time, but it can be very deadly if you have good aim.
Zorgulon responded on 03 Nov 2008 at 3:36 am #
I think Snipers have a very bad press (I’m not one, btw) for many reasons.
1) By their very nature, they are all about the kills. In every other department, be it attacking, defending, capturing intel, tackling sentry nests, there is always someone better suited. Hence people tend to think of them as being little credit to team, and that they’re just “killing people who are playing TF2″.
2) They are a very satisfying class to play (if you’re doing well), so there is often an overabundance of Snipers that really should be playing something else, like Medic or Heavy.
3) As stated above, they tend to only target other Snipers
4) It is annoying to be killed by one.
Nothing annoys me more than people saying a class is n00bish or useless or whatever, and Sniper is no exception. A decent Sniper, who does not camp in one spot all match, executes Medics before they can charge and keeps the enemy generally terrified of sticking their head above the parapet and away from your capture points is very useful indeed. We just don’t need five of them.
Baggie responded on 03 Nov 2008 at 6:26 pm #
Arg, I hate the inbuilt sniper v sniper attitudes people have, it’s a horrible paradox and I despise it.
Yeah, I caught the reference responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 9:05 am #
Jim Morrison was a Sniper…
Gabe responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 9:25 am #
You described perfectly how sniper should be played. I myself has many a death from rushing a charging pyro, kukri drawn. I may burn to death later, but only after I’ve solemnly doffed my hat over their bloody corpse.
“You got blood on my knife, mate.”
Mo responded on 05 Nov 2008 at 8:21 am #
Using the mic is the best thing for any sniper to do, call out to tell of positions, cloaking spies, and sentries. I was working with a spy the other night. Telling him the best time to sap a gun and even saved his life when a heavy saw him do it. It’s a fun class to play, just don’t be a self-centered prick.