Hey UBER, are the Sniper bots broken?

Can they shoot "through" enemy units as well? Or do they still apply damage to the first target in line? I mean, do they perform a raycast, or are they actually instant hit?

As far as I can tell, they insta hit, otherwise objects like mountains would actually block the shot like any unit would.

It would have to use special physics otherwise. Because the planet curvature and random terrain lumps would literally lead them, like it did before, to shoot directly into the ground when their life is in desperate peril as dox approach them.

Sniper bots take a while to build. Counter with bombers.

Ah well.. if there's nothing that can be done it's a shame really. Inferno with AA and occasional scout and sniper bots laugh at anything ;D

Artillery somewhat can counter it but since sniper with some cannon fodder mixed in can just walk into range and take it out its not really effective.

I'm talking team games rather than 1v1 mind you - i guess in 1v1 you can put pressure while the other guy makes those snipers.

Still.. haven't used them for a while and I was astonished how easy i can push through with them. Can't say it goes well with WYSIWYG design

I think this is a confirmed bug.

me as well

Didn't they us to be able to shoot air too?

I don't see a problem with them. Polish them a bit, but they're overly balanced and can be countered.

The devs said it was a bug.

It's actually a setting in the ammo json.
"collision_check": "target"
"collision_response": "impact"
Those keys are the ones which tell the engine to ignore collisions with everything except units. I am pretty sure other units block the shots, based on some modding experiments that I did, but I could be wrong.

I think that's just redundant code. Could be wrong.

If you remove it the projectile hits the ground.

Correction: To ignore collisions with anything except for the actual target.

So yes, sniper bots can even shoot through(!!!) enemy walls.


EDIT: Confirmed by test in PTE. Sniper bots definitely ignore walls.

Oh wait, so the real question is not if the physics simulation is broken, but whether snipers are too powerful?
And I would agree, at least a bit. But I think it is better now with the new graphics effect of their shots, since the opposing player now clearly sees why his troops are melting.

On the topic of sniper bots, it only seems logical that they can shoot at air. But I guess balance comes first. What I am worried now is that I cannot think of an explanation for the sniper bot's inability to shoot at air. I NEED AN ANSWER

I noticed this before but didn't say anything about it as I assumed it was common knowledge - devs have gone on record saying that walls are supposed to stop snipers.

I originally thought it could be done so that snipers are just less effective on small planets, but that seems like it could be confusing and inconsistent.

I just think it looks weird that most of the time they are shooting in to the ground.

The same reason most units cannot shoot down planes.

Balance.

The either it should be made to look somehow different and be explained in the unit description ("this is a high tech sniper that shoots phase shifted projectiles that travel through another dimension and always hit") or remove that ability. As it stands it isn't obvious at all and looks like a bug.

Am I the only one that thinks that even sniper fire should not be hitscan but rather a very fast simulated projectile?

It was, and it made the sniper bots bad at anything but nonexistantly ideal situations.

Terrain over height 20? doesn't work across lumps. Sometimes even less height planets.

The thing moves? Bots have a really thin frame so they miss and it is a really big impact to waste that much damage with a low fire rate.

It will also aim oddly and not correctly, miss, and if the object is stationary and so is the sniper, it will not change its aim and continue missing.

Really, they work with less unrealistic issues now, than they did with simulated projectiles. I mean, the same reasons flak isn't simulated but rather beam.