TF2: God save the queen!

[Samwise]

Sniper update announced!  Let the breathless countdown and speculation begin.

My bets are on:
1) Rifle that can do leg shots.
2) Trading the SMG for better mobility (getting to higher vantage points).
3) Melee weapon with knockback.

[Prospero]

I could see something that lets a sniper cloak while not moving so that he could get off one shot from an interesting place.

[schild]

Head-seeking bullets. Hur.

[Teleku]

Ability to throw the machete at people.

[Malakili]

My guesses:

1) Semi automatic sniper rifle, less damage, no charge up possible.

2) Given this imageI'm going with the Pee Jar, which will do something like expose spies if they are hit with it, or put some sort of debuff on whoever gets hit by it.

3) Some sort of gimmicky melee weapon that will be far superior to the normal one in practice.   Probably give some bonus to sniping.

[eldaec]

If valve aren't retarded (HAH!) it would need to be something that rewards headshots even more than currently. Any reward for other body part hits, or anything that makes headshots easier turns it into a newbie weapon. This is tough because headshots already kill practically everything.

Rail sniper maybe? Reduced damage on non-headshots, but can hit multiple targets?

Camo net, making you invisible from long range when stationary?

Piss jar looks like a horrible stun grenade. I have no idea why Valve believes that what TF2 is missing is crowd control. 

[Ookii]

That piss jar was an Aprils Fools joke.

[Samwise]

Science has yet to invent the April Fool's joke that doesn't sucker about half the Internet into thinking it was real.

[Triforcer]

It will be hard to give Snipers anything anti-spy without completely negating the spy class (which is designed to go after snipers). 

My guesses:

(1) A short term cloak like suggested above (like 10 seconds on a thirty second charge, but you can't move) would be interesting.  It would give snipers viability in many more maps and let smart snipers pull off some neat tricks.   I guess this would replace the SMG.

(2) Sniper rifle- Ability to stay scoped while shooting, but lose 25% power and ability to charge up (this would run through ammo pretty fast too).

(3) Kukri- hmm.  I hope they don't go with an "instakill spies, do 10 damage to everyone else" Kukri.  Maybe one with 10 seconds of guaranteed crits if you kill someone with the rifle.   

[Malakili]

That piss jar was an Aprils Fools joke.

Still, i don't exclude the idea that they still might put it in the game.    I know that they released that image on april fools, but would the REAL joke be to then actually put it in?  Valve has put in some stupid stuff into TF2 already, so I'm not ruling it out.

[bhodi]

I expect they'll use some sort of decoy to replace the SMG. Puts an exact copy of yourself in your chosen place.

[Kail]

It will be hard to give Snipers anything anti-spy without completely negating the spy class (which is designed to go after snipers). 

Eh, I don't know about that "completely negating" the spy class.  Snipers are rarely more than an annoyance to anyone other than another sniper, and killing them is not usually the pivotal event that wins matches.  The spies that really screw with things are the spies that go after sentries, not the ones that spend all their time racking up kills on the battlements, so I don't really have a problem with giving them something that works against spies (though it would be the first weapon in the game that's basically a huge "fuck you" to class X, other than the sapper charges).

I agree that I don't see a way they can make headshots any more effective (save something stupid like making them work on ubers or sentries), so I suspect the new rifle will trade headshots in for something else (a slowing effect or faster charge or blast damage or something).

[Malakili]

You know, I wouldn't mind something like a mark.  That it so say, the new sniper rifle doesn't do headshots, but has some sort of on hit thing that marks the target (some sort of obvious graphic).  While marked, the guy take a bit more damage.  Only one guy can be marked at a time, so shooting someone new overrides the old one.

[Valmorian]

You know, I wouldn't mind something like a mark.  That it so say, the new sniper rifle doesn't do headshots, but has some sort of on hit thing that marks the target (some sort of obvious graphic).  While marked, the guy take a bit more damage.  Only one guy can be marked at a time, so shooting someone new overrides the old one.

Um, does the mark go away when the target dies?  If so, then why would anyone ever take this ability instead of just shooting the target?

[Prospero]

Keep your WoW out of my TF2. The next thing you know you'll be saying the Sniper should have a pet kangaroo with boxing gloves to tank for him.

Wait, I take it back. That would be rad.

[Malakili]

Keep your WoW out of my TF2. The next thing you know you'll be saying the Sniper should have a pet kangaroo with boxing gloves to tank for him.

Wait, I take it back. That would be rad.

TF2 has already gone the way of RPGs with crowd control, slow effects, crits etc.  So they may as well at least do interesting things with it.

[Malakili]

You know, I wouldn't mind something like a mark.  That it so say, the new sniper rifle doesn't do headshots, but has some sort of on hit thing that marks the target (some sort of obvious graphic).  While marked, the guy take a bit more damage.  Only one guy can be marked at a time, so shooting someone new overrides the old one.

Um, does the mark go away when the target dies?  If so, then why would anyone ever take this ability instead of just shooting the target?

I should have been more clear, the target would take more damage from ALL sources, which means it would make the sniper a bit more support oriented rather than getting the kills himself.  This gun would be appealing to people who aren't especially good at sniper, because they could play the class effectively without needing headshots.  "Pro" snipers who can insta kill whoever they want, aren't going to use this gun.

[Ookii]

You know, I wouldn't mind something like a mark.  That it so say, the new sniper rifle doesn't do headshots, but has some sort of on hit thing that marks the target (some sort of obvious graphic).  While marked, the guy take a bit more damage.  Only one guy can be marked at a time, so shooting someone new overrides the old one.

Um, does the mark go away when the target dies?  If so, then why would anyone ever take this ability instead of just shooting the target?

I should have been more clear, the target would take more damage from ALL sources, which means it would make the sniper a bit more support oriented rather than getting the kills himself.  This gun would be appealing to people who aren't especially good at sniper, because they could play the class effectively without needing headshots.  "Pro" snipers who can insta kill whoever they want, aren't going to use this gun.

I see no reason to encourage people who can't snipe to pick the sniper class.

Taking queues from real snipers I would think they would give him some camouflage.  I'd love to be able to dress up like a crate.

[Prospero]

Dispenser is not our dispenser!

[Samwise]

[Teleku]

Allowing them to throw up decoys would actually make sense.  A lot of people do that anyways with those stupid sniper spray's  .  Plus they could have the funny graphic of a cheap cardboard cut out of the sniper when your own team views it.

[eldaec]

I still say ranged mez is more likely than any of this cool stuff you're discussing.


*Adds snare to heavy*
*Adds ranged stun to scout*
*is L4D dev team spy disguised as TF2 team member*

[Samwise]

So far ideas haven't been reused in these updates nearly as much as people predict they will.

[K9]

TF2 has already gone the way of RPGs with crowd control, slow effects, crits etc.  So they may as well at least do interesting things with it.

Many of these things and similar elements have been in FPSes for ages, it's not a bad thing.

[Hoax]

They were esp common in TFC, I remember all sorts of annoying pixel effects from various grenades and them doing all sorts of shit.  Hell all sorts of people cried bloody murder when they found out there weren't going to be any 'nades in TF2.

[Trippy]

Ah concussion grenade jumping, how I miss thee!

[Malakili]

I see no reason to encourage people who can't snipe to pick the sniper class.

Taking queues from real snipers I would think they would give him some camouflage.  I'd love to be able to dress up like a crate.

Being able to camo/cloak would indeed be nice.  I consider myself a good sniper,  so that gun I suggested would probably go unused by me.  But every patch valve released seems to suggest them are aiming to make the game more and more accessible to "casual" players, so I just wouldn't count something like that out for that reason.  Now, i don't think my idea is what they will go for, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if we see a new sniper rifle that makes the class more accessible.

[Ookii]

Well instead of the magic laser you could make the sniper rifle shoot darts which slow people down for x number of seconds.

Then again a good sniper is going to be much more useful than one who just shoots darts.  There are some amazing (and absolutely annoying) snipers out there who can almost defend entire maps by themselves.

[Samwise]

Well instead of the magic laser you could make the sniper rifle shoot darts which slow people down for x number of seconds.

A Steve Irwin tranq rifle?  That would actually be fairly  theme-wise.

[Kail]

But every patch valve released seems to suggest them are aiming to make the game more and more accessible to "casual" players, so I just wouldn't count something like that out for that reason.  Now, i don't think my idea is what they will go for, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if we see a new sniper rifle that makes the class more accessible.

Problem is, in order to get that new rifle, they'll have to run a pile of achievements (headshot a scout while skydiving out of a burning building and slamming a dew, etc.) with the normal, more "expert" rifle.  So, it's going to take a fair amount of skill to unlock the rifle that doesn't require you to have as much skill... or something...

[Samwise]

Problem is, in order to get that new rifle, they'll have to run a pile of achievements (headshot a scout while skydiving out of a burning building and slamming a dew, etc.) with the normal, more "expert" rifle.  So, it's going to take a fair amount of skill to unlock the rifle that doesn't require you to have as much skill... or something...

If you think getting the sniper achievements are going to require a "fair amount of skill", or even a fair amount of time, you haven't been paying attention to the last several updates.  I kept track of how long it took me to get the Heavy and Pyro unlocks, and it averaged around two hours per weapon (playing fairly normally on normal servers).  There are a few "tough" achievements that require precise planetary conjunctions (good luck and/or staging), but they are in the minority and you don't need them for the unlocks; those ones are just for fun.

Even if you make the argument that I am some sort of TF2 god (which I will permit you to make if you must), I don't think people will have undue trouble getting the new guns.  People who suck really badly can always achievement-box them.

[Malakili]

  People who suck really badly can always achievement-box them.

Hell, I've been playing since beta, consider myself pretty good at the game, and still achievement box every unlock simply because I'd rather get them all in an hour and then get back to actually playing than spend my time on a real server trying to get some ungodly rare thing to happen, all the while pissing my team mates off because I've been trying for shenanigans rather than helping them with the actual objectives.

[Megrim]

Well instead of the magic laser you could make the sniper rifle shoot darts which slow people down for x number of seconds.

A Steve Irwin tranq rifle?  That would actually be fairly  theme-wise.

A sting-ray. A deployable sting-ray.

[Strazos]

You know, I consider myself a decent sniper, and even then, there are times that I would use some of the rifle selections here. Either, when I'm just not getting consistent headshots, or on maps where I cannot seem to get setup but I'm still winging a lot of people. With the chaos and fire I come under on some maps, ranged buffs would actually be sort of useful.

[Samwise]

TF2 blog post on the challenge of replacing the sniper rifle

It's interesting reading.  tl;dr version is that their current plan is to give the sniper something that encourages him to engage at closer range, to reduce the frustration other players feel at being headshotted from across the map.  We'll see how that plays out.