Talux:
and is a one hit kill if you hit an enemy virtually anywhere other than their foot. Plus the rifles and smg's in CS take a second to aim... which is about the second it takes to be headshotted by an awp.

I cant remember the name of the game battle field 2 or something but I was a great sniper
this is partly due to the fact that it was piss easy there were hardly any other snipers maybe 2-3 including me per map and if you shot someone in the foot or any wear else it was an instant kill.

Uhhhhhhh whats aimbotting?

I don't know too much about hacks.

Copter400:

Gitsnik:
The other good one is equipment. I can't stress enough how good my choice of gaming mouse is (It's a razer for anyone who cares) because it's sensitive as hell and has good responses. Coupled with my reflexes (i can catch knives and arrows) the accuracy is phenomenal.

Identifying a hardcore gamer:

1: He talks about using the proper mouses for FPS sniping.
2: He talks about the metaphysics of FPS sniping.
3: He boasts reflexes that give him the ability to snatch knives out of the air.

4: Has never known the touch of a woman.

Perhaps watch the new "Meet the sniper" for TF2 and you'll understand.

I fail to understand why sniper rifles are so damned powerful in games anyway?

I have two theories

1) They get sighted, adjusting for height, and when you're in view, they pull the trigger

That's if they know you're around the corner. If they don't, and they still get it, then...

2) They're a race of super-snipers from another planet who have auto-targeting built into their genes.

Theory #2 seems a lot more likely, seeing as half of the FPS players can't snipe someone unless they're in a protected vantage point. Of course, they could be using bots, but I wouldn't report someone for being able to snipe you xD

Fondant:
I fail to understand why sniper rifles are so damned powerful in games anyway?

1. That's not where a question mark goes
2. In GAMES??? Have you ever shot or seen someone shoot a sniper rifle??? The recoil can break your arm! That's why they're not rapid fire. Anyways, if your shot in the skull with ANY gun that has the power to PIERCE your skill, there's a high probability it will enter your brain and kill you. With a sniper rifle, if you shoot, and it hits the person's skull, there's a near 100% chance it will kill that person. If you shoot the person's arm, and they don't get medical attention very soon, there's also a good chance they'll lose enough blood to have your arm amputated. Sniper rifles have A LOT of kick.

This should explain why snipers are so powerful.

If you pull it off a few times, and practice a lot, it almost becomes instinctive. You know the kind of moves your opponents will make because you have seen it so many times before.

I'm a little bipolar on the whole sniping issue thing.

Usually i make/take an assault class, but sometimes i'm way better at let's say the demolition class (shotgun in BF:Bad Company) and sometimes with the sniper like in CoD4.

I usually get good at almost anything with a couple of minutes practice (but there are some good and bad days i have) but sniping is 1/3 notice ability, 1/3 practice, and 1/3 aim. It takes some practice, but it's so annoying when everyone on your team is a sniper for some reason or that one bullet ANYWHERE will instantly cripple you and kill.

Jdopus:

Well, to be honest I try, but (I think) most of the TF2 levels are pretty unsuitable for sniping so I usually have to end up running around with a flamethrower or something...

I have to disagree here: there are lots of open areas in all of the maps that a sniper can take advantage of. It's just that you can't hide yourself really good, which leaves you exposed to getting killed while you are still trying to get that lazer dot on-target. A good example is 2Fort: there are plenty of good places to snipe, but none of them are really what I would call "secure".

Jdopus:

And, to be honest they're probably aiming at the corner waiting for you to come round

Well, of course. I usually aim at a spot that is not immediately visible to anyone I'm planning on shooting when they first come into my kill zone. It cuts down on people starting to move inconsistently when they see my blue/red dot of death.

Dirty trick time.

Zoom in the cross hairs of your sniper rifle. Then place a small blob of blu-tack right in the centre on your cross hairs. Then zoom out and let the owning ensue.

#I don't recomend this for lcd screens, only glass screened crt monitors.

There is also the old time solutions of practice, patience and finding a copy of Goldeneye.

Fondant:
I fail to understand why sniper rifles are so damned powerful in games anyway?

Me neither. Obviously real world Anti Material rifles are cannons but in games that makes for poor balance. TF2 has it right where the gun starts off pretty weak and charges up, the Scout in CSS is pretty good too as it needs precision.

It's because CS is insanely unrealistic, it allows someone with enough practise to just use one of the completely overpowered sniper rifles to one shot you instantly (without setting up and aiming like you would actually have to do) and because there is no recoil they can then just do it to the next guy.

This is my biggest complaint about CS, it favours the kids who play 8 hours a day and doesn't realistically handle high powered rifles.

The Rogue Wolf:
It's because sniping in FPS games is unrealistic to the point of absurdity.

Allow me to take one of the most famous examples: The Accuracy International Arctic Warfare/Magnum (better known as the AW/P in Counter-Strike). A fifteen-pound sniper rifle that fires .338 Lapua rounds (delivering about TEN TIMES the kinetic energy of a 9mm round), typically mounted on a bipod to ensure anything resembling accuracy. However, in Counter-Strike, you can jump off a ledge, land, scope and pop off a shot within one second and have it be pinpoint accurate. And so long as you don't move while you're reloading, you're fine to scope and fire again immediately after.

Try this at home! Find a relatively large bag of dog food or cat litter. Place your hands under it and hold it to your shoulder. Now imagine that you're going to do this while running around and then taking shots.

Scope drift? Fatigue? Flinching from taking incoming fire? Who needs that?

And that's why I absolutely hate sniper rifles in online FPS games. All of the benefits, few (if any) of the drawbacks.

Wow. I don't understand how any of this even comes close to answering his question.

Sacrificing realism for fun is sometimes necessary.

im not bad sniping in games, but man, those grenade nutters freak me out, ive seen people throw 4 plasma grenades in halo and have 4 opposite team member RUN INTO the path of them on the other side of the level and die at the same time.

EPIC.

ScreamingCrab:

zen5887:

Videogames =/= real life

I think in games where realism is more of a 'thing' then it's more important. You wouldn't be happy if your pistol did more damage than your rocket launcher.

That's pretty much it. The situations where the game touts its "super-realistic tactical combat" and then gives you a sniper rifle that allows headshots while you're pirouetting onstage at a London dance recital.

TF2's style of sniping (I'm assuming; I've never played it, but did play TFC for a while) is more suitable for the over-the-top gameplay style. And Red Orchestra (which I've also never played, but have seen videos for) makes it a much more difficult experience. Probably the most challenging sniping I've ever done was in Goldeneye 64; the N64's analog stick didn't always allow for precision maneuvering, and there was a lot of scope drift when you went into maximum magnification, but the sight of a lone gun-toting silhouette dropping when you squeezed the trigger was a beautiful thing.

I just think that having the most power in an FPS (one-shot, one-kill, from excessive distances) should have counterbalances. There was a reason that I chose to play only on one server during my CS:S days- it banned the AW/M and automatic sniper rifles outright and allowed only a handful of Scouts per team. And that Scout isn't the easy-kill dispenser those other rifles are.

wgreer25:
4: Has never known the touch of a woman.

It still counts if you pay for it ;)

The Rogue Wolf:

TF2's style of sniping (I'm assuming; I've never played it, but did play TFC for a while) is more suitable for the over-the-top gameplay style. And Red Orchestra (which I've also never played, but have seen videos for) makes it a much more difficult experience.

Interesting you bring up Red Orchestra, the snipers in that pretty much own the battlefield. Because of its uber-realism shooting just about anything on the fly is near impossible, so the few guys with scoped weapons tend to get most of the kills because they can see furthest. Also the ranges you can fight at in RO make the bolt action guns useful for once.

fix-the-spade:
Interesting you bring up Red Orchestra, the snipers in that pretty much own the battlefield. Because of its uber-realism shooting just about anything on the fly is near impossible, so the few guys with scoped weapons tend to get most of the kills because they can see furthest. Also the ranges you can fight at in RO make the bolt action guns useful for once.

No doubt the combat with bolt-action rifles is one of the best things about RO, it's an art in itself getting to be really good with it. Also and having a good sniper is an essential part of properly working team, mainly because they have the ability to constantly harass enemy snipers and infantry.

I despise sniping for the most part unless they let you take 2 chest shots for a kill instead of the headshot, Though i play almost all of my games on my 360, because i prefer ease of movement over the accuracy of the mouse.

I usually prefer using longer range assualt rifles, rather than a sniper rifle when given the choice.

I played Tribes for the most part, and if a sniper can hit you when your travelling at 100k's an hour, hit you head and take you out clean, he bloody well deserves the kill.

I've seen some freaky, almost inhuman shit from snipers, leading a capper with the spinfusor, firing a disk (think rocket launcher), then whipping out the sniper, shortly after the disk connects, the sniper finishes him off with a head shot. Both the sniper and the capper where travailing mid air at breakneck speeds.

CS's been around for ages, so people have been playing it for ages. After a while you get pretty damn good... thats pretty much all there is to it.

Sniping is easy;)

There is a zoom feature on most sniping rifles. With the zoom feature, it's not that difficult to score infinity+1 headshots... back in UT1's days, I used to get 50 frag combos in packed games using a sniper rifle

You just go aotomatic, its why even good players team kill.

Scoring a headshot from the hip with a sniper rifle just takes practice. Basically if you play with the rifle enough you begin to visualize where the crosshair should be, and if you keep that at head level while running around you can get off those impossible seeming shots, opening someone's head like an overripe melon as they run around the corner. I've actually managed it a few times through sheer luck, but have a friend who can do it with maddening consistency.

It doesn't work in all games. I'm pretty sure in TF2 the sniper's rifle does much less damage when zoomed out, but most FPS games don't have that, and it can be done by skilled, or lucky players.

I wonder the same thing. I play COD4, and when I watch my kill replay when someone snipes me most of the time their scope cross isnt even near me, let alone my head, and I go down with one shot. Yet, when I manage to try to snipe someone I have to hit them directly on, and it takes two shots to kill them. Weird. And most of the time they just put the scope up and boom there's my head already, or the sight is no where near me. Do they have aim bots on cod4 on XBL?

I'm a decent to below average sniper, from time to time I'll go on a tear and it seems like every shot is a head-shot but otherwise I'm better in other roles. I know a couple good snipers and what they say is its all about predicting movements for which most people have a pattern they can exploit. One of my friends put it this way, even the best players when they're dodging left and right have a pattern, often something as simple as going right more often then left this means if you know the dodge distance you can shoot for a right dodge and you'll nail them more often then not. Also most maps have common sniper locations so the best option is not to use a common location because players will often let down their guard.

xraychick:
I wonder the same thing. I play COD4, and when I watch my kill replay when someone snipes me most of the time their scope cross isnt even near me, let alone my head, and I go down with one shot. Yet, when I manage to try to snipe someone I have to hit them directly on, and it takes two shots to kill them. Weird. And most of the time they just put the scope up and boom there's my head already, or the sight is no where near me. Do they have aim bots on cod4 on XBL?

I think that's because that the game is extremely delayed, when you die from a knifing from someone that was 5ft away from you the person knifing you would seem that you were only 2ft away. I was so frustrated when i saw this on the kill cam and i always thought that the bullet took a second or two to get to the point the scope was aiming at so i would run into the bullet.

Also, the SVDs in MGO are so annoying as almost everyone uses them and somehow they almost always get headshots. It's way over powered in my opinion.

Hrmmm, I have a problem with sniping, particularly in CSS. I don't really use the AWP myself, I find it degrading. The problem I have isn't just one or two people using this gun, its when most of the people on both teams just sit and camp it with the gun.

It kinda ruins the game if there are 4 people running around in a match, and everyone else is playing "point-and-click extreme" while the clock runs out. Guarding a planted bomb? I have no problem there, defending the hostage area? Same deal. It just gets a bit overused most of the time.

The autosniper, on the other hand, is pure bullshit. I've been known to go after someone with a knife when I run out of bullets rather than picking up the tardcannon.

The sniping in TF2 is good, it requires the people to size up their targets rather than jumping out to shoot quickly and diving behind cover, something which would be a terrible situation IRL for a sniper. Plus, forcing the snipers to look through the scope for a while lets us spies get the upper hand.

My fellow Snipers. We own.

Now that I've got that speech out of the way, time to answer the question. You become a good sniper by getting used to where head height is. Learn where weapons spawn or find a much-used thoroughfare and you have your targets. Also, only fire when you have mentally double-checked that you are aiming at your targets head or chest. Don't go full zoom immediately either, sweep in a lesser zoom or scopeless first to find a target, then go for the kill.

There's also a bit of natural skill and some luck involved. Maybe a dash or two of Nerdination.

Gitsnik:

wgreer25:
4: Has never known the touch of a woman.

It still counts if you pay for it ;)

...but does it count if she paid for it? I really need to know.

I think the ideal sniping situation would be "headshot = kill", "legshot = hindered movement", "armshot = decreased accuracy", and the like. Also I like the America's Army/COD4 sniping thing where you have you take the gun movements and breathing into account.
Anyone who has ever fired a sniper rifle without a bipod/tripod surely agrees that it is very hard to hold the rifle perfectly still, while standing, and looking through the scope, at the same time for an extended period of time.

Sniper, no sniping!

Sorry...Dora rules.

The Rogue Wolf:
It's because sniping in FPS games is unrealistic to the point of absurdity.

Allow me to take one of the most famous examples: The Accuracy International Arctic Warfare/Magnum (better known as the AW/P in Counter-Strike). A fifteen-pound sniper rifle that fires .338 Lapua rounds (delivering about TEN TIMES the kinetic energy of a 9mm round), typically mounted on a bipod to ensure anything resembling accuracy. However, in Counter-Strike, you can jump off a ledge, land, scope and pop off a shot within one second and have it be pinpoint accurate. And so long as you don't move while you're reloading, you're fine to scope and fire again immediately after.

Try this at home! Find a relatively large bag of dog food or cat litter. Place your hands under it and hold it to your shoulder. Now imagine that you're going to do this while running around and then taking shots.

Scope drift? Fatigue? Flinching from taking incoming fire? Who needs that?

And that's why I absolutely hate sniper rifles in online FPS games. All of the benefits, few (if any) of the drawbacks.

too true

what's more bizarre is how developers continue to counter balance a sniper rifle through contrived annoyances (like nerfing the impact, or flighty scope drift) when the reality of the weapons has more than enough drawbacks in real life.

why not require a sniper to use a bipod? why not make the sniper sluggish and more susceptable to fatigue?

sort of silly when you look at it realistically

usually I can't snipe for crap, can only really take stationary headshots..

my buddy's awesome at it though, and that never ceases to annoy me.

i agree that in games like halo they're waaaaaay too powerful though - need to be scaled down with realistic drawbacks.

I am not that good a sniper in most games, except for COD4.
I absolutely love it, hardcore mode, peeking out of the second floor in overgrown,
with a carefully placed claymore near the stairway.

With my trusty M40a3 on my side, noticing a target on the other side of the map,
adrenaline starts flowing, deep breath, leading the running target, pling! headshot.

When I snipe in COD4, I really get immersed in the game, unlike in CS.

Well, I play Counter-Strike 1.6 and when it comes to the AWP, I'm a pretty sharp shooter with it.

When it comes to close range, yes, believe it or not IT DOES TAKE SKILL. The fact that you might jump in your seat, jerk your mouse, or have that chance of missing that 1 shot, remember, ONE SHOT or else you're dead because of the bolt action.
- My advice for close range in CS1.6, is to master the quickscope/noscoping ways.

Flickshots are very useful to, sometimes when you're keeping your mouse on the target, you can't hit it, but when you do a flickshot, most of the time you'll hit it, it happens for me. For example, you shot at a guy, missed, while he runs to the left of your crosshair from where you originally shot, just continue facing it until the bolt action is done then FLICK it real fast at him.

Long Range, stay calm, cool, usually the EASIEST SHOTS are the HARDEST shots to make believe it or not. I see kids everytime I play, you jump into pit on d2, a guy is on A-Platramp, not knowing you're in pit zooming on him, and you miss that shot because you're nervous believe it or not, or just suck :D.

So to you OP, Master the quickscoping/noscoping, flick/reflex shots, stay calm and cool.

And to those who say the AWP takes no skill, bull fuckin' shit, go drown in a fire. The AWP does take skill when you play competitive and you're trying to fight off a incoming rush of 5 T's while defending a bombsite from flashes and smokes.