cmss13-devs
Heavy Sniper Part 2 - The Heavying
About the pull request
New Updates:
- AMR Aimed Shot base cast time increased by 60% from the M42A (1.25s to 2s), to emphasize working with spotter and normal shots, and solidly setting the Aimed Shot DPS under the M42A even under optimal conditions (decreased by ~40%). If this is too crippling, may increase Spotter Bino bonus to the AMR or slightly roll back cast time in the future.
- Interrupt no longer applies to Queen and Crushers unless they are the primary target of an Aimed Shot. Damage threshold requirements still apply, and any piercing will still prevent it from interrupting big xenos at all.
- Charger Strain no longer gets interrupted or slowed while charging.
- Aimed Shot slow no longer applies to Runners, as they didn't have the protection of Focused Fire to reduce the duration by half initially.
- Screenshake maximum against big xenos decreased by 1 step. Now applies at 90 and above to them, instead of 60.
- Changed non-xeno (human) stun to stamina damage instead of directly stunning, to match slugs and high impact.
XM43E1 AMR shots now have stopping power, a scaling system that functions similarly to shotgun slugs and heavy impact ammo, both in role and visible effect.
SCREENSHAKE: Hitting a target will shake their screen so they know they got hit by something heavy. This shaking scales with damage dealt, with the maximum shake being equal to slugs and impact ammo. At 60 or less damage, this does not shake the screen.
INTERRUPTION: Hitting a target will apply a mini-stun, scaling with damage dealt. At 60 or less damage, this does not interrupt targets at all.
- Big Xenos need a base damage of 90 or more damage, will only ever by stunned for 0.1s max, and cannot be knocked back.
- Other xenos can be stunned for up to 0.3s if the base damage is more than 120, losing 0.1s per 30 base damage, and will be knocked back at 90 damage or more.
- Non-xenos can be stunned for up to 3s, losing 1s per 30 base damage.
For comparison, impact rounds stun for 1s, and slugs stun for 1.4s as well as buckshot within range. The stun on this is much lower as it is only meant to interrupt, and can affect big xenos if they are the only target hit, which other heavy rounds cannot.
AIMED SHOT: Can now potentially apply a slow scaling with stopping power, similar but much weaker than M42A Flak. At 60 or less base damage, no slows are applied.
- Lasts for at most 5s of slow, 2.5s of superslow against runners and non-xenos, at 120 or more base damage.
- Slows are reduced by 1s and 0.5s respectively per size tier, and for every 30 base damage lost.
- If this slows any amount, it will always give 0.2s of reduced vision as a visible warning.
Other Changes:
- Defenders are no longer counted as an exception for Aimed Shot, only Runners. Defenders should take 200+20% current health damage on an aimed shot now, but are affected by Focus modifiers, so only 10% current health on first, then 15%, then 20% current health. Being Fortified reduces the flat damage to 125 but increases current health damage to 15/22.5/30%.
- Increased base armor penetration for XM43E1 and M42C, as in rare cases target armor could go above 50.
Explain why it's good for the game
The heavy sniper currently has almost no incentive to use its standard fire due to how little ammo it has, and being less damage efficient overall, as well as no utility on its normal shots. Consequently, it's unable to actually support allies in most cases. These mechanics should hopefully encourage standard fire more, especially against non T3s, allowing heavy sniper users to juggle their objectives of focusing aimed shots against a priority target while also using their standard shots at critical points to save allies from getting dragged off. This leans further into the weapon's identity as a support, as playtesting so far has shown that it's generally much worse at securing kills due to massively reduced DPS and aimed shot damage against T3s in the majority of situations, with its current health scaling.
Because the stopping power mechanic has very low stun numbers, max 0.3s against xenos, and the firerate is incredibly low at 3s between shots, there's effectively no kill potential with this support feature. Instead, it's a way to save allies from a far distance like slug shotguns, but with IFF and much higher range, allowing it to be done from safety with no risk of slugging your teammates in the back because they resisted out of a grab.
Additionally, high-caliber rounds should feel heavy, which is why ammo like Scout Impact and shotgun slugs give both mechanical and visual cues when they hit a target. Briefly reduced vision, stun, knockback.
Both from the user's and target's perspectives, getting hit by a heavy sniper round doesn't have any visual cue different from a pistol bullet, and the only noticeable impact is health loss unless you're staring at chat to see the 'hit by' message. There's a distinctive firing sound, but in an active front it doesn't really let the target know they got hit by the AMR, in the midst of all the other guns firing in their direction.
With this update, the screenshake and small knockdown should make it much more likely for targets to realize they've been hit by something dangerous.
Testing Photographs and Procedure
Screenshots & Videos
Put screenshots and videos here with an empty line between the screenshots and the <details> tags.
Changelog
:cl: Kaga balance: The Heavy Sniper's XM43E1 rounds are now actually heavy. Targets hit will get screenshake, like slugs and impact rounds, scaling with damage dealt. balance: XM43E1 shots can now potentially interrupt targets if it deals enough damage. The heavier the target, the more force is needed to interrupt them. Big xenos require a full-damage shot with no piercing, while smaller targets can also be knocked back with enough damage. balance: XM43E1 Aimed Shots can now potentially apply a slow to the main target only, scaling with base damage and target size. If a slow is applied, vision range is reduced for a moment as a warning. balance: XM43E1 and M42C ammo AP increased to 75 (from 50) balance: Removed the Defender exception from the AMR Aimed Shot calculations. /:cl:
In the future I recommend basing off of a current master so you don't have all this ancillary commit history.
I'm skeptical of 3s stun potential ontop of slows/superslows/dazes/knockbacks. I'm also skeptical of the AP increase. I'm also skeptical of the increased damage to defenders - likely you want to test if they are fortified or not and do no status effects nor damage increase to them if fortified.
In the future I recommend basing off of a current master so you don't have all this ancillary commit history.
I'm skeptical of 3s stun potential ontop of slows/superslows/dazes/knockbacks. I'm also skeptical of the AP increase. I'm also skeptical of the increased damage to defenders - likely you want to test if they are fortified or not and do no status effects nor damage increase to them if fortified.
For xenos, this is a mini-stun for 0.3s that interrupts, happening once every 3s (the firerate). For non-xenos, it's up to 3 seconds, which I was basing on the 1.4s slug stuns, but this might actually need to be changed to stamina damage to be in line with other impact ammo.
Daze is also practically nonexistent. The one applied on aimed shot here similarly lasts for only 0.2s, and serves purely to indicate to the target that they received a near-maximum hit through flickering of their vision, not just being limited to chat cues.
Slow/superslow are both limited behind aimed shot and are also affected by Focus mechanics and scaling.
- Slugs have the same numbers against most xenos (2s super, 4s slow), and can do this on normal shots with much higher firerate and no need to aimed shot.
- Scout Impact also doesn't need to aimed shot, and can superslow for up to 4s and normal slow for 10s.
In exchange, the AMR can do it with IFF, at much longer range, and can affect T3s but at a reduced rate.
- Runners: Max 5/2.5s
- Most Xenos: Max 4/2s
- Big xenos: Max 3/1.5s
The only effect that I didn't make significantly worse compared to other impact ammo in exchange for being able to affect T3s is the knockback. That, I specifically made unable to ever affect big xenos. This includes fortified defenders. It is slightly more conditional than slug/impact knockback though, because it requires a minimum stopping power (damage) threshold.
Armor Pen increase is something I feel should be done, because of the way armor scaling works. Snipers explicitly had the highest defined armor penetration and the ingame weapon menus even seem to imply that there's nothing beyond 50, and that snipers will do consistent damage no matter what. This isn't the case because of two things though, one being some abilities like Defender Fortify which can get a Defender up to 65 visible armor in the Status panel, and directional armor which gives another 5 invisible armor to Defenders from the front, 15 to Steelcrests.
Frankly, I'd like to give the base sniper marksman ammo this buff too, but I felt it would be out of scope and it's a bit more distinction between the two calibers. If it, by every metric listed ingame available to the player, seems to imply it deals 70/125 damage on a hit, it should.
As for Defender, most of the issues listed are not a concern whatsoever, and are based on observations from the current version and realizing that they're not as vulnerable to Aimed Shot as previously thought, as well as actually suffering somewhat from not having the Focus mechanic. This means they actually BENEFIT from this change when fortified, as they only take 125+15% current health when fortified (125 + 75 = 200), as they are considered big mobs. Previously, this was a universal 200+10% current health no matter what, because they ignored any size considerations, and also did not apply focus.
They also will never be knocked back while fortified, again because they're considered a big mob, and the mini-stun will similarly only apply 0.1s, but in my testing they never even dropped out of the fortify stance visually.
i feel this series of small buffs will end up making AMR a sniper 2.0 instead of an alternative as it is suposed to be . it has wall penetration , stun , screen shake . where is the cost or flaw to justify all of that ?
i feel this series of small buffs will end up making AMR a sniper 2.0 instead of an alternative as it is suposed to be . it has wall penetration , stun , screen shake . where is the cost or flaw to justify all of that ?
- It strictly still has less single-target DPS with everything except fully-focused aimed shots on the queen. This includes both normal and aimed shots.
- Its ammo, despite being approximately the same potential per mag, increases in cost 3-4x as fast as normal sniper/spec ammo. This is because most specs have 3 ammo types, and 1 mixed ammo type, which they can purchase from req. AMR can only purchase one type, which increases each times, and heavily punishes freely using ammo. Even normal shots need to be considered before they're used.
- It can't set things on fire, and flak can actually hit more targets for full damage in an AOE. Its slow is also explicitly lesser than flak's, and relies on focus scaling as well.
- If you've used the initial version, you'll likely know that wallpen does very little for it besides making the stacking slightly more consistent when dodged. Notes on the balancing for that are in the original PR, I recommend either testing the weapon out or reviewing the design notes there.
Nothing here changes the downsides (lower dps, worse ammo efficiency, no ammo variants) at all, it only makes normal shots more viable instead of being an aimed shot bot that's worse than the M42A because it can't even switch targets without suffering.
Love to see scout's impact ammo being nerfed with distance due to offscreen scope chain-stun combat but this one being added
The heavy sniper currently has almost no incentive to use its standard fire due to how little ammo it has
b-but... wall penetration and one hit resin door removal...
Stacking damage to burst down queen in one shot from full HP to 1/3. Now added stuns, slowdown and pushback. Why chosing "ammo variety" and "bigger mag" with regular sniper kit over all this? To plink boilers with incendiary?
Love to see scout's impact ammo being nerfed with distance due to offscreen scope chain-stun combat but this one being added
Please check the M4RA Custom's stun amount to firerate ratio, and then compare that against what's listed in this PR (1:30 to 1:10 Stun Duration:Firerate ratio). If you require assistance with the math involved, please let me know.
b-but... wall penetration and one hit resin door removal...
Neither of those effects is actually used much because you've got half the ammo, and that ammo increases in price at 3-4x the rate of every other spec currently. Door removal is especially weak when the XM51 and masterkey both exist. Currently, you can blow through a door, but the runner behind it is still gonna be walking off with the marine. Any xeno can stand in front of you, in the open, and devour a stunned marine without you being able to kill them in time even with 125 damage per shot, because your firerate is 1 per 3s.
The aim of this is to change that, and provide an actual tradeoff to using normal shots instead of being a single-target aimed shot bot, not even a flexible one like normal sniper.
Stacking damage to burst down queen in one shot from full HP to 1/3. Now added stuns, slowdown and pushback. Why chosing "ammo variety" and "bigger mag" with regular sniper kit over all this? To plink boilers with incendiary?
If you're going to make a claim, I'd ask that you first ensure that it's accurate. At max HP and max stacks, a matured xeno Queen has 1000 HP, and takes 125 + 30% = 425 damage, leaving her with 575. I'm not sure where you're getting '1/3' HP from.
Additionally, you don't seem to have looked into the actual debuff numbers on any of the compared ammo types, including both the normal Sniper's aimed shots and other heavy/impact ammo. Here they are for reference:
Slows:
- M42A Flak Aimed Shot: 8 seconds of unconditional superslow on big xenos, including queen. 14s against everything else.
- AMR Aimed Shot: 5s slow, 2.5s superslow on Runners and non-xenos. 2-4s slow, 1-2s superslow against most xenos. 1.5s-3s slow, 0.75-1.5s superslow against big xenos. Scales from first shot to third shot in a row, on a target.
Vision:
- M42A Incendiary: 10s vision blur. 4s against big xenos.
- AMR Aimed Shot: 0.2s welder vision on a full-force aimed shot.
Damage/Execution:
- M42A Marksman Damage: 210 damage, at all health.
- AMR Scaling Damage: First shot on any T3 does less than 210 damage at 566 or less HP. This means if you're switching targets, and they're not at around max health, you are doing less damage to a T3 with the AMR aimed shot than a normal sniper rifle. At the 'execute range' of a marksman aimed shot (210 HP), the first aimed shot on a big xeno with the AMR will deal 156.5 damage with a longer aimed shot cooldown and less ammo.
You pick the normal M42A to be able to flexibly hit any xeno, at any point, with the highly effective and long-lasting debuffs like fire, blindness, superslow, or raw execute damage that doesn't need to ramp up. This also comes with higher base DPS and higher aimed shot DPS, cheaper ammo, and not being helpless against your focused target leaving that front and forcing you to use another 2 inefficient shots, which can immediately be wasted again if the new target leaves. You can pre-chamber ammunition and stack debuffs on top of one another easily, like Incendiary in chamber. Normal shot first, then aimed shot with flak to have a xeno on fire and superslowed for 8-14s.
You pick the AMR, now, to be able to open up opportunities for your teammates and deter a single target, especially in focused chokes. You use your precious ammo and firerate to pick options. Blow through a wall to open up a path, focus aimed shots on the most dangerous xeno, or hit one dragging a teammate away to force them to pay attention and grab again. You can't force a xeno to stop kidnapping completely, because your stun only lasts for a frame, while they can immediately grab again. It just stops them from being able to do it without thinking, and gives the marine grabbed some agency to resist too. Try to knock a xeno into a wall. Interrupt dangerous abilities - but take care to remember that xenos have infinite regeneration and plasma, and you have very, very finite ammo.
The flicker stun is too powerful on charger crushers as it allows an AMR sniper to stop a charger crusher dead in it's tracks, even in the middle of a full momentum charge, allowing a very easy kill.
As charging is it's primary ability for movement and damage (along with the fact that it was only designed with AP rockets to completely shut down a charge), this effectively hard counters the entire strain.
I suggest a unique interaction with charger crusher:
If a charger crusher is charging (using TRAIT_CHARGING), lower it's charge momentum instead. This makes AMR able to deter charger crushers and make their life harder without sentencing them to death.
The flicker stun is too powerful on charger crushers as it allows an AMR sniper to stop a charger crusher dead in it's tracks, even in the middle of a full momentum charge, allowing a very easy kill.
As charging is it's primary ability for movement and damage (along with the fact that it was only designed with AP rockets to completely shut down a charge), this effectively hard counters the entire strain.
I suggest a unique interaction with charger crusher:
If a charger crusher is charging (using TRAIT_CHARGING), lower it's charge momentum instead. This makes AMR able to deter charger crushers and make their life harder without sentencing them to death.
Agreed, already was planning too! Good suggestion for checking the trait for a charging crusher too.
I'm also considering increasing the base channel time on Aimed Shot to increase the distinction between AMR's normal and aimed shots, as well as increasing AMR's reliance for a proper spotter while leaning into the M42A as the more flexible option.
If you want interrupting make interrupting, why make it a stun? Or don't misrepresent it as "interrupting". You can easily code in "stop pulling" on shot or whatever you want, instead of sneaking in an off-screen stun.
Just saw some AMR in action . i can say its insanely strong . it can secure kills in T1s T2s T3s super easy with the stun + the damage + IFF + range. and they dont even need to aim shot to get the stun which makes all of this more hilarious they can just normal shot you as T2 and bye bye with a single bullet.
If you're going to make a claim, I'd ask that you first ensure that it's accurate. At max HP and max stacks, a matured xeno Queen has 1000 HP, and takes 125 + 30% = 425 damage, leaving her with 575. I'm not sure where you're getting '1/3' HP from.
True, my bad. I was talking from in-game perspective, not test enviroment where you are alone sniper vs alone queen - charging queen always would get shot at by some folks around Full stacked shot deals 425 damage to queen, true. 425 of total 1000 HP. Quite close to 1/2 HP, huh That's two aimed shots with regular marksman in one. With microstun and slowdown applied. Microstun could be ignored due its only meaningful impact being breaking grabs
You pick the normal M42A to be able to flexibly hit any xeno, at any point, with the highly effective and long-lasting debuffs like fire, blindness, superslow, or raw execute damage that doesn't need to ramp up. This also comes with higher base DPS and higher aimed shot DPS, cheaper ammo, and not being helpless against your focused target leaving that front and forcing you to use another 2 inefficient shots....
2 aimed shots take around 4-6 seconds and being shot at queen causing: 420 damage by regular marksman aimed shot, resulting in 70+ DPS ~720 damage by AMR aimed shot, resulting in 120+ DPS
and let's add this one...
AMR Scaling Damage: First shot on any T3 does less than 210 damage at 566 or less HP. This means if you're switching targets, and they're not at around max health, you are doing less damage to a T3 with the AMR aimed shot than a normal sniper rifle. At the 'execute range' of a marksman aimed shot (210 HP), the first aimed shot on a big xeno with the AMR will deal 156.5 damage with a longer aimed shot cooldown and less ammo.
I understand idea about losing damage stacks, but why would player even consider switching if he can just wait? Xenos are forced to frontline, only boiler and resin whisperer may avoid open ground for whole round. You stack you damage, wait when xeno heals fully and goes fighting again and do your aimed shot. Repeat. Oh, maybe if xeno went to another flank. But how Queen would avoid being aimed at? Never charge out? Also to mention T2 castes being shot down more thah half HP from full by single aimed shot with full damage stacking
You can pre-chamber ammunition and stack debuffs on top of one another easily, like Incendiary in chamber. Normal shot first, then aimed shot with flak to have a xeno on fire and superslowed for 8-14s.
Do you really try to "combat" or, guess, "get on par with" this one exact mechanic here? 70 damage from regular marksman plink followed by aimed shot with incendiary stacks or flak slowdown? Apply one fire stack and cause slowdown? I have hard time to see it being similar with current AMR and read it as "to make M42A as good as AMR you need to juggle your mags, marine". On other words, be very skilled sniper with M42A but with AMR just be patient to win
Question still stands: why players would choose overall weaker kit if damage means more? Was it really needed to compile weaker, yet a flak and twice as marksman into one thing under sauce of more utility? Why removing defender blocking? What do you propose to counterplay this specialist as xenos? Marines are able to get second AMR sniper with intel and Foxtrot. One good spec player with right kit pick becomes game ender now?
True, my bad. I was talking from in-game perspective, not test enviroment where you are alone sniper vs alone queen - charging queen always would get shot at by some folks around Full stacked shot deals 425 damage to queen, true. 425 of total 1000 HP. Quite close to 1/2 HP, huh That's two aimed shots with regular marksman in one. With microstun and slowdown applied. Microstun could be ignored due its only meaningful impact being breaking grabs
In a live environment, the AMR becomes even worse in terms of DPS, as current health damages decreases if other people are shooting at the queen too.
Yes, it's about double the damage of a M42A Aimed Shot which applies regardless of HP... after you've already stacked twice, haven't used aimed shot on any other xeno since, and if she's at full health with very, very obvious signs that it's happening, not to mention the channel itself. If she's a fresh target, first one will do 275 damage, leaving her with 725. Second shot will do 288.125 (125 + 725 x 0.225) for a total of ~565 damage.
If a queen is still charging in after having been aimed at twice, having a new colored laser, and isn't shifting tactics to take advantage of the fact that the sniper can no longer aimed shot anything else without effectively wasting ammo, well
2 aimed shots take around 4-6 seconds and being shot at queen causing: 420 damage by regular marksman aimed shot, resulting in 70+ DPS ~720 damage by AMR aimed shot, resulting in 120+ DPS An important aspect you haven't mentioned: The base cooldown on the sniper's aimed shot is 2.5s, and the AMR's is 4.5s.
Base aimed shot channel is 1.5s + 0.1s per 2 tiles. 16 tiles would be about 0.8s, for a total of 2.7s. The closer a target is, the stronger M42A becomes. Laser reduces this to 0.9s, or 1.62s Spotter reduces this to 0.75s, or 1.35s Both reduces this to 0.525s, or 0.945s
We'll treat them as just using the laser, no spotter. Both aimed shot at t=0, completing at t=1.62s, at which point cooldown initiates. M42A completes cooldown at t=4.12s, AMR completes at T=6.12s M42A completes its second shot at t=5.74s, and AMR completes its second shot at T=7.74s
Assuming both shots land, M42A will deal 420 damage, for about 73.17 DPS, 2 seconds before the AMR can complete its rounds. It can do this to any target. It doesn't have to wait for a marked one, whereas to match the M42A's DPS against most T3s, the AMR must limit itself to only one target, and can't switch off of it or it loses about 20% DPS. This also assumes the target takes no further damage from other marines, and doesn't get into cover with the extra 2 seconds: Queen at full health, unaimed: ~73 DPS Queen at full health, aimed: ~93.35 DPS 650 HP T3, unaimed: ~57.32 DPS 650 HP T3, aimed: ~75 DPS 600 HP T3, unaimed: ~55.12 DPS 600 HP T3, aimed: ~71 DPS
I understand idea about losing damage stacks, but why would player even consider switching if he can just wait? Xenos are forced to frontline, only boiler and resin whisperer may avoid open ground for whole round. You stack you damage, wait when xeno heals fully and goes fighting again and do your aimed shot. Repeat. Oh, maybe if xeno went to another flank. But how Queen would avoid being aimed at? Never charge out? Also to mention T2 castes being shot down more thah half HP from full by single aimed shot with full damage stacking
If you can't understand why a sniper spec would want to switch aimed shot targets to continue having effective impact then I'm not sure what more I can do to explain it, especially while they're already dealing with a more difficult ammo economy than the normal sniper which discourages normal shots as well as unfocused aimed shots. Playing it a bit may help with understanding, but the weakness of limiting yourself to a specific priority target to try and match the normal sniper or exceed it in ideal conditions is exactly the intended niche as a sidegrade.
T3s are generally dangerous, and specs besides the AMR can switch between targets without being punished from an efficiency and ammo standpoint. While a queen will be your priority aimed shot target if she shows up, that's an intended behavior much like how a demo spec will generally shift from AP rocketing any T3 to primarily saving to try and hit the queen instead. The difference here is that the queen has several chances to take into account the AMR, can rotate flanks, stay a bit behind the main T3s line and support, or even just let the rest of the hive attack the marines with no danger of the AMR aiming at them, or else they lose the queen stacks.
Crippling a specialist's flexibility is nothing new, when a queen shows up a demo spec will usually load nothing but AP, a good sniper spec will swap to flak or marksman instead of incen, a pyro will use greenflame or focus on the hive around her instead, etc. The difference is that the AMR gets that limited flexibility at all times, not only against the queen, or else they're throwing away req budget with every wasted or inefficient shot.
Do you really try to "combat" or, guess, "get on par with" this one exact mechanic here? 70 damage from regular marksman plink followed by aimed shot with incendiary stacks or flak slowdown? Apply one fire stack and cause slowdown? I have hard time to see it being similar with current AMR and read it as "to make M42A as good as AMR you need to juggle your mags, marine". On other words, be very skilled sniper with M42A but with AMR just be patient to win
No. The provided example is intended to show one of many ways how an M42A can outclass the AMR when used by someone who understands both. I'm fairly confident that an improperly used AMR will perform worse than an improperly used M42A.
Question still stands: why players would choose overall weaker kit if damage means more? Was it really needed to compile weaker, yet a flak and twice as marksman into one thing under sauce of more utility? Why removing defender blocking? What do you propose to counterplay this specialist as xenos? Marines are able to get second AMR sniper with intel and Foxtrot. One good spec player with right kit pick becomes game ender now?
Again, that question is loaded by the assertion that the M42A is somehow the 'overall weaker kit' when that's simply not true in the majority of use cases, both from the calculations above and direct observations. I've already answered the question, twice, and provided the numbers that you can independently verify with the open source code yourself.
If you still wish to stand by your case that the AMR is objectively better in the majority of cases despite its greater limitations then I'd like direct examples from situations encountered ingame or calculated from the code, please. Do note that the math may change further as noted in previous comments, as I'm currently considering increasing the base channel time on the AMR, likely by around 0.5-1s, which will further decrease both aimed and unaimed DPS in the queen targeting situation above.
Stacking AMRs actually makes them worse, precisely because of how their current health damage works. The strongest combination between snipers would be a standard sniper and an AMR, as the M42A can execute with flat damage and apply debuffs while the AMR can deal upfront damage and open firing lanes. This is part of why the two kits are mutually exclusive in the normal spec vendor, though foxtrot spec kits use their own code that doesn't care what specs were already picked.
Two normal snipers using marksman ammo can actually 100-0 anything not a queen in ~6s (3 aimed shots, +1 normal for anything over 630 HP, which doesn't need to wait for cooldown.) They can also kill the queen in ~8s (5 aimed shots), which is further sped up if any spotter marks her. Both of these TTKs are within the window of a single flak superslow.
You really should try to look at your project from a different angle. Sniper is by design a very low risk spec, you have IFF, you shoot from several screens away, darkness is not a problem for you, in your version you have bonus stacks you never lose unless you choose to. And it deals damage equals up to 50% of T3 HP with full AP, and on top of that you decided to put microstun (which is probably actually longer than 0.1 sec because of how status processing works), screenshake, and even slowdown. I literally cannot understand what is going on here. How can you look at 425/1000 dmg on Queen, 321/650 dmg on base rav and think "well, that's not enough". Queen can just disengage? Okay, you cannot always just disengage depending on the situation, but even if you can, forcing Queen to disengage with one single shot is already insanely strong power. Losing 50% of your HP because of spec you can do literally nothing about, and also getting a "microstun" (that gives people the edge to start shooting you a bit sooner), and even slow.
This is extremely broken. It already was broken if you ask me, dealing 50% of HP in one shot from several screens away should have never been a thing. You compare it to regular sniper for whatever reason, which is funny, because this is the definition of powercreep, this is how it happens every time: we add an op gun, say it underperforms in comparison to another very strong gun (which has a lot of the same balancing problems, I am fairly certain that sniper spec is the most broken spec in the game, and just like your gun now, got significantly powercreep'd. You used to be able to use aimed shot only when camouflaged, now you can do it anytime, which significantly reduced preparation time, so you can just run around and instantly use aim shot, so the only downside which was the lack of mobility was removed), so we buff the first gun to make it even stronger. Next step is to put up a PR that buffs M42A, because now it underperforms compared to the new AMR.
But all of your comparisons are wrong, because you will never deal 321-425 damage in one shot with M42A. And this is all what matters. I literally cannot understand how you came to the conclusion that your AMR is somehow 100% weaker. The fact M42A can instakill some xenos with regshot + aimed shot combo is a reason to nerf M42A, not to buff AMR.
Also you say Queen should change her strategy if she's getting targeted by sniper. I wonder how. To use your main ability as Queen you gotta leave cover. What can you do about spec plinking you for 425 hp? Change flanks? Sniper can do the same, thankfully command will announce Queen's movement. Guess you should just go on ovi.
But even that wouldn't be a fail state for the sniper, as he can just choose a new target. Stacking bonuses is not hard, you never lose them (even if you miss or don't use aimed shot, which is just baffling, where are the risks, trade-offs or downsides???), and you are never in rush, because you are in complete safety, with IFF, several screens of view, etc. Compare it to SADAR, for example, who has to try to utilize every opportunity, who is always at risk, who is a priority target, etc. etc.
Then we'll just have to agree to disagree, as I have my understanding of the project and you have your own interpretation. It's being compared to the M42A because that's exactly what the intent of the kit is, a choice between two similar but distinct sidegrades. If it somehow manages to entirely supplant the normal kit somehow, then I fully intend to continue tuning things while maintaining a distinct identity. That's the whole reason it's a testmerge. I haven't seen that yet, given around half the rounds I've played or observed in still go with the normal sniper, though there has been an interesting trend of the same type of kit being picked multiple times in a row for both types.
If you have actual suggestions for alternative mechanics and how they would function, ideally with a detail design, then I welcome a well thought-out post. Otherwise, I'll be continuing to use the actually constructive feedback provided by others to code and adjust the current design to the best state it can be.
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