| Snipers |
| On the Move The more you sit in one place, the more and more likely you will be killed. I've been progressively more convinced of that fact since the first time I played multiplayer Doom II. Unfortunately that strikes a dilemma for snipers. No sniper wants to leave a great sniping nest once he's settled in. Even I often disregard the need to move when I get into sniping mode. All I can say is that you need to move before your position becomes a permanent living quarters (in normal situations) or you'll eventually be found and killed. I've sat in the same place for 45 minutes on occasion however (e.g. when I'm guarding he last flag) and never been killed. So consider your situation first and how important it is that you avoid being killed before deciding on whether or not you need to be on the move. Sniper Positioning for Minimal Detection A good sniping position entails a small but crucial window of visibility. You need to get into a position such that you can only see a little and conversely very little of your body is exposed to gunfire, and you need to position yourself such that the little you can see is the crucial area that you want to snipe. Less is more. It's much better to be covering a small sniping area effectively than expose yourself and be able to see across the entire battlefield. Believe me, you'll become a more efficient sniper when you learn to discipline yourself like this. Your body sticks out like a sore thumb when you try to inch your way over the top of a mound or a mountain in order to snipe. Always crawl into a position on the side of the mound or mountain, because then 1) your body doesn't stick out in contrast to the horizon. 2) people's eyes naturally are attracted to peaks. They'll spot you much sooner when you're sitting on a peak than if you're sitting somewhere to the side. 3) The backdrop when you're on the side of a mountain... is more mountains! Nice! Try to pick an area that suits the color of your clothes. Its even better if the area behind you is the same color as your clothes. From the typical good sniping nest, less than 50% of any hotzone (place where a lot of fighting is going on) or battlefield should be visible on your screen. The other 50% (or more) of the screen should be the dirt of the side of some mountain. As a disclaimer though, notice that you can sometimes be shot by someone that you can't even see; Sometime's people are lucky and can just catch the sliver of your body exposed, or gravity can pull bullets down to land on top of you. Player Animations Never underestimate the level of detail in DF. All enemies's bodies move exactly as the person is commanding it to. People strafing will appear with their legs running one way and their body facing another. If an enemy is on his belly and he turns around 360 degrees, his body will really rotate. In light of this, it is imperative to remain motionlessness when sniping, or as much so as possible. Never EVER look around for fun. Restrict your looking around to 30 or 40 degrees to each side of the focal point of your sniping area. This way you remain as small a target as possible. For anyone that is a veteran submarine simulation player, they know the easiest and largest target to hit with torpedos is a ship exposing its broadside, i.e. sideways. A ship can reduce its chance of being hit by traveling parallel to a torpedo and thus creating less of a target for the torpedo. The same goes for DF in terms of detection. The smaller a target you are, the less people are likely to notice you lying there. Detection of Enemies There are three major things that give enemies away: 1) Tracers 2) Discolored terrain. Often its hard for people to tell if they blend in with their surroundings. Use this to your advantage. Especially on snow levels, a lot of people attempting to hide stick out like sore thumbs. 3) Motion. Because the pixels on your screen can only be so small, if ANYONE moves (assuming they're in your field of view), your computer reacts by animating the pixels. So no matter how small an enemy is, you can easily spot moving enemies by the displacement of pixels on your screen. You can even cheat (big time) by setting your resolution to the lowest setting. Then any motion shows up like a big spastic blob. But don't get too comfortable, low resolution will really detract from your other detection skills. The Tracer Sweetspot I don't know why, but I've noticed if a sniper shoots you from the the right angle, you just can't see his bullets! I don't know why or how, but I'll investigate more. If you know anything about this, please email me and I'll give you full credit for it if you wish for me to post up the information. Houses and Bunkers and Trees and Cactii Snipers really shouldn't use houses or trees or cactii for cover when sniping. Not only do they fail to provide real cover, people scanning the terrain for snipers tend to look for things sticking out like cactii or trees. I've only seen the tree camoflage thing work once in the instance where an assault player blew a tree in half and used the leaves for cover. Generally though, it just doesn't work. If you saw tracer fire coming out of a tree, it doesn't take much brain power to figure out that someone's hiding behind/under it. If you are going to use a house or bunker for a sniper nest, don't be an idiot and shoot from the window. Scary to say, but I actually read a little of a real USMC Sniper's Handbook, and it offered a good tip; position yourself some distance from an open window and sit in the shadows, and fire through the window from there. Not only are you less of a target, you have the shadows to hide you. Neat, eh? Thank the United States military for that one. � Copyright 1998 Stanley Lin. Duplication without author's consent is prohibited. |