u/paperman910

Hello pape- I don't need to explain this post. You read the title. It's the millionth post about the sniper rifle being reworked. Let's just get this over with.

PROBLEM

The issue I have with the sniper rifle is simple, out of all weapons in the game, the shotgun, the bow, the RPG, only the sniper rifle, the gun that's hitscan and has no damage fall off, is the only gun in the game, that can 1 someone from full health.

My biggest issue with that is it completely removes every other skill factor in the game, besides aiming. If you hit a headshot, you win.

Weapon understanding? Movement? Map knowledge? Doesn't matter, 1 headshot, win.

This makes the sniper rifle, not fun to fight against. You have to do a massive dance of ducking, parrying, shooting, taking cover, and if you mess up even a little bit, 1 shot, you're dead. Granted, that does depends on the other players skill, and most can't just 1 shot you the second you poke your head out, but once you do go up against someone who can do that, oh my god it's pain.

It goes against every weapon in the game, nothing else can 1 shot except the sniper rifle. Well... there's the knife. But the knife requires a lot of risk to pull off, as if you mess it up, you deal 40 damage and are now breathing down the neck of someone with a rifle aimed at your face. The sniper rifle, if you mess up the perfect headshot, just try again lmao, and do it correctly once to win.

So, my plan is to change the weapon in a such a way, that's a still a powerful long range weapon, but the enemy has counter play, and requires more skill besides aiming to use well.

CHANGES

- Base damage is 50. Headshots deals 50 damage + rapidly deals 2 damage for 3 seconds, up to 70 damage (meaning headshots deal 120 damage after 3 seconds)

GOAL

Ok, I know adding damage over time sounds weird, but hear me out.

Firstly, changing the damage from 150 to 120 is a simple change in my eyes, it puts in line with the other high power weapons like the bow and shotgun, and it's still a really good amount of damage.

Being left with 30 HP is really bad. That's a single revolver shot away from dying. Sure you could use a first aid kit and heal some of that damage, but that means you don't have a weapon out and can't defend yourself, and that's applying you even have the first aid kit on you.

In team gamemodes with multiple players, dealing 120 damage to a single target is a very powerful ability. However, shotguns can do this much faster and allows you to be on the frontline with your team, unlike the sniper that would make you go on the back line where you could get picked off, and aren't directly helping your team. So overall, a simple change that I feel like makes the sniper less annoying to play against. HOWEVER. None of what I said applies if you consider 1v1s.

This version of the sniper rifle would just be a better shotgun in 1v1s, since you can do 120 from anywhere on the map, including close range, meaning you could just headshot + 3 uzi shots someone and kill them stupid quick.

So, I decided to add the damage over time effect. That way, if a player rushs a sniper player, they have 3 seconds to quickly kill the sniper before they left with only 30 HP. Which isn't easy, but it's doable if you're skilled enough.

But, since it's damage over time, you can pull out a secondary to try to quickly finish off anyone that comes close to you, which means you have to play with more of the game machines.

The main design goal of this change is to make the sniper more of a combo tool with the other items you got. The damage over time discourages you from using only the sniper, as even 2 back to back headshots can't immediately kill an enemy. which means if they are in close range and shooting tons of rounds at you, you're still gonna die.

Instead if you want to kill the enemy quickly, using a secondary is much faster then the sniper after the first headshot. In my eyes, this adds a lot of depth and counter plays to the sniper rifle, which is something it really needs.

END

Ok, before someone goes though my account and exposes me for not being a real rivals player, I'm gonna be honest. I don't play rivals that much. I'm a rank 59, and only today did I decide to play the game again.

However, I got recommend this subreddit before hand, and noticed a lot of people not liking the sniper rifle. After playing a bit, yeah I completely agree, it wasn't a fun weapon to go up against and it feels like it went against the whole game's design.

So I thought, what would make the weapon more enjoyable to fight against, without it sharing a similar role with another weapon and not making it too weak. I thought for a bit, and this was my idea.

Now, since I'm not a rivals player, I'm willing to do this. If this post turns out to be really freaking bad and everyone hates, I'll post my worst fail in rivals so everyone can make fun of me.

Have a nice day everyone, and thank you for reading.