I need help to learn how to snipe properly

[Michael Withstand 10]

@NoRailGunner

I'll still buy OA but I hope that they port whatever improvement in OA as they could to ArmA 2. OA is afterall basically an expansion albeit being a standalone expansion.:)

[CarlGustaffa 4]

@Evil_Echo: Well, as you said yourself, we differ in a lot of things :D I see no harm in engaging a chopper with a tank, nor employing good marksmanship with an M4. Snipers needs to be exceptionally good marksmen, no question about that. But I see sniping, that of being a sniper, cover a lot more ground than shooting at targets beyond their engagement distance.

In my little dream world, especially if AI is the opponent, there should be as few snipers as possible. This because the confusion element for AI is completely nonexistant. With many snipers around, you get a turkey shoot, and I just don't find that particularly fun.

[Evil_Echo 11]

Agree with you totally on those points CarlGustaffa.

Sniping does require other skill sets besides good markmanship , especially fieldcraft, concealment and fire discipline. A mob camping outside a town with unsilenced .50 caliber weapons blazing away is not my idea of sniping either. If you did that in one of my designed missions the AI's response via mortar fire on your location would be most impressive.

My little group IS little - just a couple of players. When you have 2-5 players taking on entire towns of opposing forces ( like Domination ), you cannot play stupid. You pick off a few select opponents, like gunners on Shilkas or perimeter guards using silenced weapons just to open a gap in the defenses so your demolition/AT team can slip in safely. Then you relocate and provide overwatch - mostly using your optics to provide intel for the others. It's slow methodical work and very different than how most 40-player sessions are run.

[frederf 0]

The job of a true, full-on sniper can really be broken down into 3 basic categories of ability. These categories are almost completely independent of each other.

1. Movement - The art of avoiding detection and achieving ideal shooter-target-terrain geometry. This is by far the most difficult, deepest, boring-est and most often ignored subject in the field. Everything from effective ranges of weapons, colors of camouflage, sunlight, shadows, to escape corridors, opsec, target movement axes, and much much more.

2. Measurement - This is all methods of collecting data for the purposes of shooting. Here you'll want to know some light trigonometry, mills, MOA, laser rangefinding tools, typical dimensions of objects. Wind measurement is important too. This also includes methods of acquiring targets in the first place. This is moderately difficult.

3. Marksmanship - By far the easiest part of sniping. The goal is simply to use the measurement-acquired data along with familiarity with the weapon to put the bullet where you want it. There's not a lot too it. For every shooter-target geometry there is one aiming adjustment setting and a limited set of techniques for improving marksmanship.

There are some ideas that don't readily fall within those three categories like tactical considerations (do I target the squad leader or the machine gunner?) but most ideas are covered by those three.