Snipers in CoH2

I was thinking about the slight brokenness of snipers in CoH1 and that one possible way to fix this in CoH2 could be if there is a small cool down on the camouflage ability after a sniper had been spotted (not after they fire). It wouldn't need to be too long, only like 4 or 5 seconds but long enough that if you can get a scout in to light up the sniper then it gives you a brief window to focus it with whatever you have nearby before it re-cloaks - although you could always retreat the unit as normal once it had been spotted or attempt to soft pedal away until the cool down resets.

My reasoning is that the problem with snipers at the moment in CoH1 is that once you uncloak a sniper you can't effectively target the unit if it is defended. The only way to adequately kill a sniper with infantry (assuming it's mid game and scout vehicles are no longer viable) is to basically run on top of them which is not possible if they are defended by MGs, mines, etc.

This change is only a small de-buff so the sniper meta is not completely destroyed and it wouldn't effect how scout vehicles interact with snipers since they decloak them anyway. However it would keep scout vehicles more relevant into the mid game (you can dash in to light them up and run away again) and make it a little more difficult to create the roving bands of snipers you see a lot in CoH1.

Thoughts?

In CoH 2 snipers can only cloak in cover.

Another significant change they made with them imo is that you can't A-Move with snipers, you have to click on the target to shoot.

Edited italics

Really? (Assuming you meant to type you can't A-move with them.) That sounds really interesting! It's not much of a change/nerf for good players, who pretty much always have their snipers on hold fire, so either it's a way to force all players to use snipers the right way (which is neat) or it's a nerf to snipers for people who aren't great with them (which is... dunno about that).

That would also explain why my snipers in the alpha never seemed to do anything...

yeah I meant Can't a-move

snipers where interesting in coh2, couldnt really play them that much to figure out how good they are. But hopefully the beta will start soon, so we can hop into the action!

The thing about snipers in CoH is that a good player can get too much out of them without ever exposing them to risk, because it's so easy to just keep your sniper in a spot where it's hard to flank or rush it down. Removing the ability to cloak outside of cover and the ability to attack move with them should hopefully remove both of those aspects, and what we're left with is a high-risk high-reward unit that requires spot on micro to use properly, rather than the braindead spacing we see with them in a lot of vCoH builds.

I like it. I really do. Introducing these weaknesses should allow you to realistically counter snipers with other units than other snipers while still leaving snipers very strong in the right hands.

Ah Okay, that's an interesting change. Although don't you still face the same problem? The problem I have with snipers in VCoh is not so much where they can cloak, it's that even when you reveal them (often suicide-ing a scout vehicle in the process) you can't effectively target them from range with anything but your own insta-kill sniper. Even if you have a tank nearby you usually have to just attack-ground roughly where they are or drive right on top of them.

Attack move will be enabled on Snipers 99.9 percent sure.

And if not ... well then I will simply not buy the game. One should not balance things by giving less control options to a unit. Especially since that button has been there since the start of RTS gaming.

Well, THAT won't stop me from buying the game, but I do agree with 12ocky that it's very poor to balance a unit by simply making it harder to control. That's like them deciding tanks are too strong, and so they remove the reverse-move hotkey.

CoH has such low CPM requirements that I actually would not mind them adding some (arguably arbitrary) extra mouse clicks. I can understand how people who struggle to keep up with the minimum required APM in CoH wouldn't like it.

It's not attack-move that's the problem per say. It's attack-move cloaked. I hope that attack-move stays as I agree it's silly to downgrade the control options for a unit. But the fact that you can only cloak in cover will change attack-move dramatically.

I agree with Ami, attack move on a sniper is okey as long as sniper is uncloacked.

per say

per se

and i agree that removing a-move from ANY unit would be stupid.

No attack move on snipers? How about this: mouse is disabled, you can only move your sniper using WSAD or arrows keys. That should nerf enough.

Why not just simply increase weapon cooldown or reduce weapon max range.

No attack move on snipers? How about this: mouse is disabled, you can only move your sniper using WSAD or arrows keys. That should nerf enough.

Snipers must be controlled using WSAD along with the mouse. Also, you can only control them first person and must manually reload the gun with 'r'. On top of that, you're only allowed to sprint around and no scope people or knife them... and kill streaks. Also the game is now called Company of Duty: Call of Hero.

I think that if they just increased the % chance to miss on moving units, snipers wouldn't be as OP.

simple solution would be just increase the time sniper stays uncloaked/cant move after the shot and/or increase reload time between the shots, messing with attack move is silly

I still think a cool down on camouflage ability after they have been spotted is the solution. I like the sniper and everything it does, but once you have spotted it then it should become very vulnerable for at least the next 3-5 seconds.

Attack dogs. effectively replace the jeep - but have a much less % chance to be hit by rifle fire (except from MG's). They should not be insta-kill (i.e a furry panzerfaust) but should prevent a sniper from firing by mauling them/him/her and eventually kill them.

Red Alert had it spot on.

I still think a cool down on camouflage ability after they have been spotted is the solution. I like the sniper and everything it does, but once you have spotted it then it should become very vulnerable for at least the next 3-5 seconds.

Something like that would be interesting. I'd like to have it so that snipers have to shift position instead of holding a single good position. Shifting position takes more micro and also makes it easier to outplay and counter (compared to now where you essentially need the right counter or run through a defensive line to catch the bastard)