The Sniper:

Either a defensive specialist or promotes from Sentry.

Ranged Effect: If an enemy specialist is inside the Sniper's sonar range for 6 hours, it is shot dead. The target is chosen by priority: queen, then promoted specs, then non-promoted specs. If there is a tie, target is chosen randomly.
Revered Elder is immune, as is any specialist traveling with her. If the Martyr is shot, she will still detonate.
Range: 50% of stationed outpost sonar range.

"Just one man can change the world...with a bullet in the right place."

mm1menace wrote:The Sniper:

Either a defensive specialist or promotes from Sentry.

Ranged Effect: If an enemy specialist is inside the Sniper's sonar range for 6 hours, it is shot dead. The target is chosen by priority: queen, then promoted specs, then non-promoted specs. If there is a tie, target is chosen randomly.
Revered Elder is immune, as is any specialist traveling with her. If the Martyr is shot, she will still detonate.
Range: 50% of stationed outpost sonar range.

"Just one man can change the world...with a bullet in the right place."

I think reducing the 6 hour shot time and instead fixing the range of the Sniper by the standard outpost sonar range (I don't know how much percent) would be better. But I like the idea.

I think this may be a bit too OP. You're opponent would basically be forced to send revered elders, which isn't always available when needed. Imagine a sniper covering half the screen?
Also, I think priority should be Queen, Promoted Specs, Non-Promoted Specs, Specs that come in 2. If it is a tie then the closest one is shot.

Sounds awesome! I'm curious to what his picture might look like..or hers (:

While I like this idea I think that there are some problems. First off it eliminates the usefulness of assassins by doing their job with amazing efficiency. The only counter is a revered elder. I feel like he has no drawbacks and is to powerful. Maybe if he triggered every 12 hours I would like this more.

Seems a little powerful when combined with any vision specs. I say increase the time it takes to be triggered, and maybe have a cool down so it isn't just a reneged assassin.

Excellent feedback!

If the Sniper is too strong, perhaps a speed limitation would help balance it?
Say, due to the time required to set up, he always moves at 0.75x speed, and cannot be boosted by speed specialists?

chariot rider wrote:First off it eliminates the usefulness of assassins by doing their job with amazing efficiency.

I like the assassin, and I certainly do not want to replace it.
In my experience, assassins are only sometimes used defensively and that is typically against specific types of attacks - nearby Helmsman, Generals + specs, etc. I have seen them used in a much more offensive fashion, usually in combination with pirates and/or navigators, but also attacking outposts heavily defended outposts or turtles.
What I wanted to do was create a sentry like deterrent against specialists.

niverio wrote:fixing the range of the Sniper by the standard outpost sonar range

This is probably a good idea. If you can kill an opponent with it, you should never get too big a range.

nojo34 wrote:I say increase the time it takes to be triggered

Do you still think that 6 hours is too short, if we take Niv's idea and don't increase the Sniper range? At 50% range, any speed sub could get through without being hit, so the Helmsman would be the perfect counter.

tw2000 wrote:I think priority should be Queen, Promoted Specs, Non-Promoted Specs, Specs that come in 2. If it is a tie then the closest one is shot.

I agree, Assassins and Saboteurs should be last in priority. And I like the change you propose - with a tie, the closest spec is targeted. That gives an attacking player some options on how to best attack a sniper, as well. Good thinking.

thekorfballer wrote:Sounds awesome! I'm curious to what his picture might look like..or hers (:

Something like this?

I think the icon is actually too wide to be able to fit in a circle lol

This idea is actually very interesting to me. I think more needs to be done to weaken the power of this though. Firstly, prioritising the queen is way too powerful, it should fire at the nearest specialists first, tie-breaking by random selection from an outpost, no priorities based on specialist ranks.

I also think that there needs to be a driller cost to the owner. Like the sniper only fires when there are more than 50 drillers at the outpost and 50 drillers are destroyed each shot taken. This would make the sniper a harder decision to make since it will decimate a small army very quickly. I feel that would bring it more in line with the King where you get a huge combat advantage but at the cost of pretty much all your shields.

I can personally see this being used equally offensively too--setting up a Sniper in range of an enemy outpost could potentially block specialists' retreats and force them to fight, especially if target is chosen according to proposed priorities.

Proposed change: instead of increasing the cooldown timer, the Sniper fires on enemy specialists in a reversed priority list. Dual-hires>Single-hires>Promotables>Promoted>Queen with tiebreaker resolving by closest sub or Combat Effect>Local Outpost Effect>Global Effect>Sub Effect (includes speedboosts) if on the same sub.

This way, isolated specialists still cannot escape but it is easier to counter as Assassin/Saboteur can be effectively used as meatshields, and Queens aren't completely screwed if they wind up next to a Sniper.

Alternative proposed change: Sniper fires with a _-hour cooldown (don't think 6 would still work) starting ready to fire as soon as they are able to (just promoted or enemy just came in range) but instead of Sentry-like free laser shots, the Sniper only fires when a friendly sub in range is in combat.

This way, attackers can send in a specialist-less sub with lots of drillers to block 1-driller subs like they would for a Martyr, but doing so would nullify the point of sending combat specialists in the first place.