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In this CoD4 Strategy and Tactics article, BASHandSlash.com asked "Prank'", member of Team Pandemic's illustrious CoD team, and one of the world's best FPS snipers, to discuss the CoD4 Sniper class and the changes to the ACOG-sights brought about by Infinity Ward's v1.3 patch.
Looking out through the cross-hairs of the ACOG sight, you see the tan colors of the enemy's cammo come to rest. The target has finally stopped rushing-about and is now catching his breath behind that car. He thinks he's safe. But you've spotted him from two hundred yards away. Your Ghillie suit makes you invisible and you fade right into the tall grass that you are lying in. The target doesn't suspect a thing. You hold your breath. Gently, you squeeze the trigger and ...
Miss.
You're an experienced professional, but this happens to everyone from time to time. You reload. Re-steady your aim. Your breathing stops. Fire!
Good Lord! Another miss.
Certain that the enemy knows where you are, you de-scope to get situational awareness. And just as you are about to make a dash for it, you see the glint of a shiny object to your right. It's a knife.
It's the last thing you see.
The Sniper Slaughter
For all you CoD4 sniping-zealots out there who have spent the last month looking at your prey through the ACOG sights of your trusty rifle, only to squeeze the trigger in vain, round after round...salvation is at hand. Many of you tried out all those fancy new sniper rifles in CoD4 but were punished for it. If it wasn't the new sprinting feature keeping your speedy enemy just outside your reticle, it was the cramped maps. And if it wasn't the maps...it was the broken ACOG sights and their inaccurate aiming.
I have a secret...all us mg'ers have secretly pitied you folks - albeit, just after knifing you in the back.
Apparently, the programmers at CoD4 developer Infinity Ward, pitied you also...to the point of action. After witnessing the terrible "Sniper Slaughter" that occurred during the month of November, IW finally came out with Patch v1.3 to fix what was obvious to anyone who bothered to look down an ACOG scope. It wasn't just that the Sniper rifles were broken in CoD4 - anyone using the ACOG sights found it difficult register hits. For the Snipers, this problem was simply more acute, due to the ranges they could aim out to.
The way it was
In CoD2 tournament play (5v5 S&D), the sniper had become the prestige weapon's "class". Snipers played a large role in whether a team won or lost a match. Great teams therefore have great snipers and Team Pandemic have a doozy in Justin "Prank'" DeMara. Prank' is a stalwart with the team that is the undisputed best CoD team in North America.
It was a great shock therefore, to listen to Team Pandemic leader Joe Amorosa (Nabore) mention in BASH 44, that TP's five-man CoD4 roster would NOT feature a sniper.
The player that wrote the book on sniping in Call of Duty would be handed an MP4 and told to run.
Paraphrasing Garetjax (from Episode 44),
"...you don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that if a great champion, and BASHandSlash.com CoD Hall of Famer, like Prank', puts his scoped weapon aside...there's something wrong."
The fact that Sniper issues went apparently unnoticed for so long was really due to the fact that the Xbox was the beta-testing platform of choice for IW - not the PC. Sniping on the PC is crude at best due to the inherent inaccuracy of the console I/O devices. It took the full release of the game on PC for the ACOG aiming problem to rear its head.
Prank' speaks out
To discuss the effects of this "sniper snafu" in the CoD world, we asked the legendary Prank himself to weigh in with his opinions.
BS: Up until patch v1.3, most people considered that the sniping in CoD4 was broken. I know that you and your team thought so too...in fact, you hung up the sniper rifle for a while. How long did you play CoD4 before you realized the ACOG scopes were bad?
Prank': First off, ACOG scopes are disabled for competition, but from what i noticed while pubbing, the ACOG scopes actually lowered the range on the guns so I saw absolutely no reason to use it.
BS: After all the hype surrounding CoD4, emotionally, did you feel let down by IW?
Prank': Yes I did, I knew It was coming after I played the Single Player demo so it wasn't as much of a shock to me as it would have been. IW really hyped up the game and tried to push the fact they were "listening to the competitive community". Out of the box the game simply felt like a heavily modded CoD2 and required no learning of any new skills. What does impress me though is the fact that IW has been pumping out patches like there is no tomorrow.
BS: How difficult was it to change over to a different gun. Did you make that decision, or was it a team decision?
Prank': It was not difficult at all to switch to an MG-only play-style. Snipers pick up an MG at least 6-7 times a half during competitive play so it is not like I was unfamiliar with how to use one. I actually enjoy MGing as much as I do sniping in this game. When the game first came out we tried the usual, me scope, everyone else MG but as we scrimmed more and I noticed it wasn't working so I decided to take an MG. We eventually decided to just throw the idea away of having a scope simply because it was actually a dangerous idea for us to use one because it was more of a liability then a helpful addition like it was in CoD2.
With the sniping community in CoD up-in-arms, IW quickly reacted by releasing the v1.3 patch. Amongst other things, version 1.3 fixes the registration of the sniper rifles. That is, you can hit things with it downrange. The fix made some tweaks to the properties in the game start-up, which are now set so that Anti-lag is always
enabled upon map-loads. This is an optimization for Sniper Rifle accuracy at
certain distances. Registration has been vastly improved and snipers have tentatively made their return in CoD servers around the world.
Introduction of Antilag has come at a price. Those with very low pings will see that their advantage has now been removed. Regardless of ping, the winner of 1v1 battles now will tend to go to the person with better reaction time - in essence, antilag resolves combat based on relative reactions to on-screen events. With no Antilag, the server waited for the first "shoot" command to come in - those with lower pings could beat out folks with quick reactions. Not any more. Read more about Anti-Lag here .
BS: Now with v1.3 out, what is your general impression of the patch?
Prank: I am loving the patch so far, after playing these few weeks without the scope and now all of sudden having a reliable distance gun it has made the game 10x more enjoyable for me.
BS: Here's the big question...will you return to sniping?
Prank': Short answer, yes. But it all depends on what map we are playing, some maps such as backlot, district and crash you don't really need a scope to be successful on so I will probably just stick with the M4 on those maps. Other maps such as strike and pipeline having a reliable scope can do nothing but benefit the team so you will definitely see me using a scope full time on those maps.
BS: In an incredible turn around...folks around the net are actually saying that it is NOW too easy to snipe. Do you feel the same way?
Prank': Somewhat, it feels the same as CoD2 to me. I think everyone is in shock that it actually hits now so of course it seems "too easy to snipe". I think its more balanced than it was because you really cannot have the confidence to take a shotgunner on 1v1 and have a chance at winning, you actually have to think about where you play and make sure you are in the position to pick people at a distance and not fight up close like you could in CoD2.
BS: The pace of the game has not been slowed...what do you do to counter the speed of the players?
Prank': This game is definitely faster than CoD2, the best way we (Pandemic) find to slow people down is to take out 1-2 players early in the round to let them know that they aren't going to rush right in and run over us. Getting early grenade kills or having a scope or m16 pick a few players off the start to slow down the 5 man rush is important.
BS: Can you compare the v1.3 sniping with CoD2's sniper systems. Pro's and cons? Which one would you prefer playing with?
Prank': The one main difference that sticks out to me is definitely the way the
open scope works. The crosshair is HUGE now and you stand no chance to
rely on being able to kill someone close range like you could in
CoD2. Another big thing I have noticed is when you aren't holding your
breath while scoped in the sniper seems almost too accurate. I really
miss CoD2's snipers but they were always way overpowered, if I had to
pick for me which one was better I would definitely say CoD2 just
because it was fun being able to clutch simply by jumping corners and
no scoping
everyone. I think it is better for our game for the snipers to be the way it is set up now after the 1.3 patch.
BS: While v1.3 addressed aim and registration, the maps haven't changed. Are the CoD4 maps too small for sniping?
Prank': Some are yes, and others are way too big to not have a sniper. I think
it is a good balance, some maps you will see teams thats rely a lot on
their ability to pick from a distance excel. The closer maps the more
MG heavy teams will be the more dominant. This will boil down to teams
needing well balanced players that can do anything the map requires
them to adjust to.
BS: Which ones favor the sniper (for S&D)?
Prank': Strike, Pipeline, and Crossfire.
With R700 in hand, Main Street in Strike becomes a killing zone
Sniping in the hills above the warehouses in Pipeline
A clear shot down the wide avenue in Crossfire
BS: What rifle will *you* be using in tournament play?
Prank': I am still going through and testing the two available ones for
competitive play (M40A3 and R700), but I am leaning towards the M40A3.
BS: What perks will you be playing with?
Prank': When I snipe I will being using stopping power and steady aim. And when I M4 will be using stopping power and deep impact.
Perk 2:
Perk 3
Prank's responses to our questions are intriguing:
First, it is interesting to note how Prank' dispenses with the Perks that IW purposely made class-specific to the Snipers, for example: Dead Silence, Iron Lungs and UAV Jammer.
Also interesting is that Prank's sniper Perks, Steady Aim and
Stopping Power, are both offensive in nature. If this does not give you a glimpse into a Sniper's tactical mindset, "It's about the offence, stupid", I do not know what does. IW's notion of what Snipers might want is diametrically opposite to what they truly desire: accurate, long-distance fragging power. UAV Jammers and Dead Silence are pointless perks if you cannot shoot across the map and put the enemy down with one round.
Prank's comparison of CoD4 sniping versus the CoD2 variant is also interesting. No surprise that I think Prank leans towards CoD2 as having the better sniper system. The Snipers were the kings of the CoD2 battlefield; but, was that situation a good thing for the game overall?
In BF2, another great FPS that is still played competitively, the snipers seemed to be better balanced as a whole than they were in CoD2. BF2's snipers were lethal - but they were easily detected and could be removed with artillery fairly quickly. The sound of the round leaving their chamber, and the muzzle flash were excellent aids at finding them. CoD2 snipers were not found as easily. In addition, many good CoD2 snipers - Prank amongst them - could run'n'gun with their rifle and frag you firing from their hip (a very unrealistic capability that seems to have been corrected in CoD4). Which leads us to our final question....
BS: Can the sniper retain the dominant position in CoD4 that it had in CoD2?
Prank':
I feel it could on certain maps (like I mentioned before), but I feel
this game is more MG dominated and I think that the snipers are going
to have to take M4's on certain maps so they don't become useless.
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