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I love playing sniper roles in games like this; especially open world games.
However, I feel like the sniping gameplay has stepped backward a bit from Wildlands, just because of one simple thing..
Breakpoint is making it harder for those of us who like shooting at longer ranges just because the act of ranging a rifle, thus far, is much more difficult. The tracer rounds you fire are so much larger (flare wise) than in Wildlands (or at least, more able to obscure your view of impact) that you pretty much need a dedicated spotter whenever you're hitting "the range" so to speak to determine bullet drop for your particular scope/rifle. That's actually not that bad, and might force me to finally team up with someone for such an activity. However, with the game map much tighter overall vs. Wildlands, it's hard to find a good spot to range out your rifle (especially early on).
Anybody have any luck finding a good location where you can range your rifle out? Have you tried ranging past 400-450m? In the closed beta I thought I discovered a good place, but it was ranging on a series of pipe support beams, which had no solidity out past a certain range (meaning your bullet would just pass straight through).
And yeah, while the game map is tighter, and general combat is more closer range than Wildlands, there have still been plenty of 300-400m+ shots (even a few 500+) I could've taken that would've been sweet if I knew how much bullet drop to compensate for.
Don't misunderstand me; I don't want magic vision like in Sniper: Ghost Warrior or Sniper Elite. I don't want you to tell me where my bullet will land. I want to figure it out myself.
Also: Your special sniper skill (armor-buster rounds or whatever) seems to eliminate bullet drop (tested this out to about 300m solo, so I can't say for sure, but yeah, looks like it).
Member
The gunplay, especially for snipers is just ****. The bullet drop and bullet speed feels more like a paintball gun or softgun than a real rifle. Wildlands had rifle physics more or less correct, but Breakpoint tries to be all "Survivaly" and fcks everything up.
This game is just a far worse version of Wildlands, but with loot.
Member
TAC50 Sniper has a ridiculous bullet range compared to every other sniper in game.Originally Posted by White-January Go to original post
Try it out, bullets go straight at where you're aiming.
Also equip a sniper perk that increases bullet range by 100%.
Junior Member
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Update: Got some playtime in this morning and may have found a good ranging location, plus got some updates on the bullet physics.
First, I've got a screenshot of the location I recommend thus far after scouting. See below.
I chose this location for the following reasons:
- The target, a building with a white-sided wall, makes spotting the bullet impact a little easier.
- The shooting location is a big field relatively devoid of enemies, and allows you to get 300-500m+ away from the target location, and is slightly elevated
- The area is close to a bivouac that can be reached early in the game easily.
Now, some specifics about ranging at this location:
- You'll need to take care of a few baddies; there is a small side-mission that's frankly a little dumb (hack a terminal) right in that area (not what is shown on the screenshot; ignore that one) with 3 baddies that can easily be dispatched. There are also some enemies holding 2 civvies hostage right by the lake, but once again, easy to dispatch.
- The foliage can make it difficult to get eyes on the target, but if you just shift around, you'll find it.
- Watch out for patrols on the road, and avoid going too far to the east or west unless you want to clear out the enemies there, too. You don't really need to, however.
- Having a spotter down by the lake will help immensely.
Here's what I've discovered, additionally, about bullet drop physics.
- I tested the armor buster skill further, and there is SOME bullet drop, but not enough to matter; at 500m, a headshot would drop to upper-torso. So, that's good, at least.. Mean's we're not just shooting 100% magic bullets (only, maybe, 70% magic bullets).
- I'm not sure that the tracer is actually accurate in determining impact; it seemed to me that it ended higher than where the bullet hit. I'll need to test this further, though.
- Thus far, I've just tested 2 rifles (Scorpio Scout & TAC 50). Like Wildlands, there is a noticeable difference in drop. The Scorpio is a DMR.
Here's my goals for testing in the released game:
- Compare bullet drop between the same rifle of different levels (early game, mid game, end game).
- Test how much of an impact skills have on bullet drop (in Wildlands, there was NO impact).
- Test impact of rifle gunsmith upgrades.
I'll hopefully have a video out tonight demonstrating everything here; I was recording while I was testing this area, but the game was having performance issues, and my audio went south on my mic. Need to reboot before I play againOrdinarily I get pretty good performance aside from the occasional brief freeze when aiming or zooming using the drone.
And, Ubisoft, if you're reading this.. Seriously, the tracer SUCKS for this. I'd almost suggest you get rid of it completely, or give us the option to disable it. If nothing else, Wildland's was much better regarding the tracers. Not knocking Breakpoint; I'm excited to play the full game. Just seems like, in some ways, Breakpoint is a step back for sniper roles (when you'd expect a step up).
Junior Member
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Tried to record another video, and this time my mic didn't get captured at all.. *sigh*
Anyway, here's even more info after testing.
Skills that affect range DO have an impact; In fact, the sniper skill Ballistic Advantage is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL, at least in early game. Using the Scorpio Scout DMR, I shot from a range of 500m with and without; impact with dropped about 6 feet. Impact without the skill? Uhh.. A lot more (as in, didn't even hit the wall of the 1 story building, nor the ground before it, and it ended up splashing into the lake in the ranging spot in my above reply).
My guess is that the stats in the game do actually matter thus far, because something else interesting happened.. I used the armor buster skill, and noticed that your weapon stats with your rounds loaded is higher (range was maxed on my DMR).
So, if you're going to play a long range sniper, you'll need to spend 6 points to get Ballistic advantage; 1 to unlock a class, 4 to unlock 2 skills each section before the Sniper section, and 1 to unlock Ballistic advantage.
After that, it's up to you, but I'd say spend 2 points to grab an extra perk slot, then invest in sniper & stealth trees (including sync shot drones).
Member
The holding breath longer perk as a main descriptor of the sniper class kind of sucks. I never use the ability as it takes longer to kill enemies reactivating it over and over versus just hovering over and understanding the flow. Why not just have steady aim as a main perk for the sniper class.
Member
Yeah, breath holding has pretty limited use, and adding to the duration just doesn't seem all that beneficial. I've never even let it get to the halfway point before I fired my shot when holding my breath, and typically, I only hold my breath for the first shot of a really long-range shot. Within 200m? No need to bother. Hell, even 300m it isn't that useful.
Junior Member
So what I've noticed (and my roommate standing over my shoulder watching) the tracer is BS. I had a shot approximately 300m away, I was elevated by quite a bit, where we could see the impact of the round in the ground before the tracer disappeared and it wasn't even in the same location. I've also had the tracer seemingly go right through the enemy with the round whizzing past, alerting them. I hope they either fix the tracer/round desync or add a setting to remove tracer rounds, cause it's misleading and inaccurate AF.
My only hope for the time being is to get a scooter with a lot of range and boost it as much as possible through perks so I have near Lazer shots.
