Can snipers be too high?

#1 Posted by zFUBARz (466 posts) - 7 months, 3 days ago

So I was doing a mission in a downtown area, and it focused mostly around an alleyway, I set up my sniper on a 3rd floor (second rooftop) in order to create a nice little deathtrap for the aliens I knew would come flooding down that alleyway.

But when they did finally come, he never once had a shot at them, I was essentially down a man the whole mission and almost lost the whole team. no idea what was up with that, does height contribute to range or something? I don't think he had teamsight on so that might have been an issue, but aliens running around 3 blocks away on the ground level where completely safe, not even bad percentage, just no shot at all.

If i hadn't gotten really lucky with some overwatch shots I'd have been a gonner.

#2 Posted by Tesla (1521 posts) - 7 months, 3 days ago

If you were 3 floors high, and they were only 3 blocks away you probably didn't have that great an angle. The sniper rifles are less effective at close range too.

#3 Posted by TheSouthernDandy (2900 posts) - 7 months, 3 days ago

I don't know if it's a bug or a problem properly communicating the sight lines visually, but I've run into a similar problem before. I had my Sniper boosted up with the Archangel Suit near some roof architecture and looking at the game he was completely in full view of enemies below, but I couldn't actually shoot them till I dropped down a level. Kinda annoying.

#4 Posted by The_Laughing_Man (12102 posts) - 7 months, 3 days ago

@Tesla said:

If you were 3 floors high, and they were only 3 blocks away you probably didn't have that great an angle. The sniper rifles are less effective at close range too.

Where did you get your Avatar? I need a Iphone wallpaper.

@OP You can not be to high. Well maybe. If you are up to high and away from backup that can go bad. Other then that no not really.

Online

#5 Posted by Tim_the_Corsair (3065 posts) - 7 months, 3 days ago

Nah dawg, snipers can never be too high, ya dig?

#6 Posted by Demoskinos (8994 posts) - 7 months, 3 days ago

*insert marijuana joke*

#7 Posted by Giantstalker (1247 posts) - 7 months, 3 days ago

This is probably wins the "Unfortunately Named Thread Title of the Day" award.

Right up there with the "Does Length Matter?" topic.

#8 Posted by Enigma777 (5970 posts) - 7 months, 3 days ago

I think you can't see past 2 "tiles" high (or low) so putting your sniper on a roof is useless unless he has shared vision.

#9 Posted by Ares42 (1818 posts) - 7 months, 3 days ago

Height doesn't contribute to range, but to sight. Basically your soldiers never look over the edge of the building, so there's a deadzone of 1 or 2 squares close to the building they're on that they can't see.

#10 Posted by RollingZeppelin (1365 posts) - 7 months, 3 days ago

@Ares42 said:

Height doesn't contribute to range, but to sight. Basically your soldiers never look over the edge of the building, so there's a deadzone of 1 or 2 squares close to the building they're on that they can't see.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that if the enemy is flush against a parallel wall, you can be right at the edge of a rooftop and not see the enemy. I was on a mission with my sniper on top of a long train. She had squad sight and the enemy were definitely in sight of my soldiers but the aliens were too close to the wall. There was no line of sight for my sniper so she couldn't shoot them.

If your sniper didn't have squad sight though, they might have just been out of range.

#11 Edited by zFUBARz (466 posts) - 7 months, 3 days ago

@Giantstalker: Frankly I got way less drug responses them I was expecting ;)

I could see too close being an issue, logically anyway, kinda hard to hold a giant ass rifle accurately while you're dangling over a ledge. but he had a great sight line over the whole alley, maybe 3 turns worth of movement long in all, and aliens would wander in and out of his range, or what should have been, there was never an issue of not being able to see the guys below him (he was under cover behind the ledge) but yeah who knows, I use squad sight on every damn sniper now so hopefully it doesn't come up again.

thanks for the tips

#12 Posted by Tesla (1521 posts) - 7 months, 3 days ago

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@Tesla said:
If you were 3 floors high, and they were only 3 blocks away you probably didn't have that great an angle. The sniper rifles are less effective at close range too.
Where did you get your Avatar? I need a Iphone wallpaper. @OP You can not be to high. Well maybe. If you are up to high and away from backup that can go bad. Other then that no not really.

I actually pulled it from Giant Bomb's images page for Dark Void.

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