Sniping 408 - Advanced techniques - Enemy Territory

[unlawfulsniper]

Part III - Countersniping and Relocation

 

Vasilli Zaitsev, famed Russian sniper of WWII made his name in the streets of Stalingrad thwarting the German attackers from the east and became mother Russia's most fearsome sniper. He had over 500 confirmed kills, yes you did not hear incorrectly, 500 confirmed kills and 11 of those were enemy snipers themselves. The bombed out streets of Stalingrad were his home and he made his way through the rubble piles, dilapidated buildings and sewer systems whilst stalking and selecting his enemies, his prey. Countersniping was easily his most dangerous mission and the one that required the most planning. Countersniping in ET is much easier for all the obvious reasons one can think of, including the biggest... ET is a game, Stalingrad was real life. Still, if one respects the art of sniping, one treats their own ET life when acting as a sniper as real life, or as real as one can sitting in an air conditioned room picking their nose (okay maybe just me, but it was itchy I swear! ). Sometimes we get lax and too daring and fire 3 or 4 shots in a row in rapid succession without relocating even two steps to the right or two steps to the left. This is the luxury we have since its only a game after all, but this part of the tutorial will focus on survival above all costs and treat ET sniping as a life and death experience.

 

 

Countersniping:

 

There are a few techniques that will help one find that elusive enemy sniper in the first place. To set the stage we will use the new map MLB Temple as an example and begin under the assumption that you are an allied sniper and the map is in the first phase where the tank must cross the bridge.

 

Finding them: Before you visually scan the horizon from enemy snipers, I would suggest perhaps you bring up your map by pressing 'g'. This will show you the location of all the axis enemies as seen from everyone of your allied brothers' eyeballs. Talk about situational awareness. Real life snipers should be so lucky. If you are even vaguely familiar with the MLB Temple map you will know there are perhaps 5 common axis sniper positions during this 'tank crossing the bridge' phase of the map. Use this preset knowledge overlaid with what you see on your map, to work out exactly where the axis snipers are. True, not every axis sniper will be 'mapped' even with the aid of your teammates' 15+ eyeballs, but my estimate is that about 80% of the time they will in fact appear on the map. Since bringing up the map and scanning it takes under a second, this is time well spent and valuable information easily earned. And what's more you are covered the whole time!

 

Now we want to find a specific axis sniper to target so we intensify our 'rekki' (short for reconnaissance, not be be confused with 'brekki', short for breakfast lol). For this example lets assume we know that the axis sniper in question has seen us bolt into our position behind a building wall and is waiting for us to pop out on either side of the wall but he doesn't know which side for certain. We first want to see exactly where the axis sniper is so we want to get 'eyes on', but we don't want to be seen and we don't want to expose even a finger to his deathly gaze, forget about a whole torso! So what do you do? SImple. In the crouched or standing position, sidestep to the edge of the wall you are using for cover, say the right edge, and use the under utilized 'r' (right look) to quickly see the enemy's exact position.

 

Engaging them: The key to this technique is to barely tap the 'r' button, so that in one fluid motion you look out to the right and just as quickly as you looked out, you return to the left behind the safety and goodness of steel reinforced concrete. Also, don't overlook it. Meaning, be far enough back from the right edge, so that when you use the 'r' button to sneak a peak, your whole upper torso doesn't become exposed, even if just for a split second. Ok, so we've found him and he's looking right at us! Any decent axis sniper will have a huge advantage over you at this point because he doesn't have to move to 'train' his gun on where you will be, but for you to aim a shot at him, you first have to move into an exposed position and then aim and then shoot. Bad news for you, good news for him, so how to equalize this situation you find yourself in? Distraction. Using smoke we can focus our enemies attention away from your next move. Throw a smoke grenade just beyond the left edge of the builiding and then step out and fire from the right. Many enemy snipers will be thinking that the smoke on the left edge is to conceal your movement away from the building to another spot, but you know better A good sniper will know this is just a distraction and will still be trained on the right edge of the building. BUT, and this is a big but (think Oprah), there is always a split second when even a good sniper will look at the smoke on the left, before refocussing on the right. Sure his gun might always be trained on the right side, but his mind, for a split second will be thinking about the possibility that you pop out on the smoke side. This is the point when the iron is hottest for you my friend and you must strike! You must calculate what this smoke would look like to the axis sniper from his vantage point and decide just how big in size the smoke has to grow, before the axis sniper will be able to initially see it. Usually about half a second for this part of MLB Temple. So almost right after you throw the smoke, pop out to the right, aim, fire and kill. You can replace the smoke with a grenade if you like since the effect is about the same, but I prefer smoke because its more distracting, although it can be a bullet magnet from would be covertkillers too.

 

Understanding them: One important point I'd like to make about this technique is this... It is literally impossible for the axis sniper to be undistracted by your diversion. Even the best axis sniper must redirect his attention to your smoke distraction for a split second. The human brain is hardwired to pay attention to these things until the conscious enters and accesses the situation. After all, our caveman ancestors had to detect and avoid alot of animals that were mal intentioned and well enough equipped to claw them to pieces. To prove this point consider a simple experiment you can do while reading this. Turn your right speaker off or set your speaker balance all the way to the left. Queue up your favorite Celine Dion song (haha just kidding, queue up your favorite Led Zeppelin song) and focus on the period at the end of this sentence. Now without removing your gaze from this dot, play the song and try to keep completely focussed on the dot. You will find that your eyes move minutely to the left as your focus is ever so slightly shifted to the sounds coming out of the left speaker. This experienced shift in your focus, may be no more than a few pixels in total, say 5 or less, but its a shift nonetheless. This uncontrollable temporary loss of focus on the dot is an inate response by your brain. It occurs because your senses compete with one another for your brain's attention, or more specifically, your brain has a limited number of pathways in which your sensory information can be processed and your senses often compete for the same pathway. Therefore one sense must suppress another, even if only from a fraction of a second. There is also intersensory competition as anyone who has been to a restaurant knows, since at any given time there are a dozen loud conversations going on but at any given time you can only focus on one, maybe two, but one of the two's fidelity will suffer greatly. The same thing goes for the visual process and this is why the smoke distraction works every time. The skill is in timing your 'pop out, aim and fire' sequence to coincide with your enemy sniper's moment of distraction. This may be 1/5th of a second or less, but rarely more. But hey, this is alot of time for a sniper. After all there is the sniper saying about shooting moving targets at range, which goes, 'Death can come a millisecond too early or a millisecond too late.'

 

 

@everyone thanks again for the nice comments and interest. Part III is not done yet but I'm a bit out of time for right now, so I'll pick it up and finish it soon, cheers.

 

@phantasm - thanks man, all those spots are awesome, I've never tried that axis spot on Fueldepot, I'll take your advice and give her a whirl.

"here is your free headshot, go try to find some health". Hahahahaha funny stuff.

 

@acme - thanks for the kind words, my mouse is an optical corded logitech w scroll, that's all you really need and I think they're like $15 bucks these days, computers are so darn cheap now its awesome.

 

 

Part III -Countersniping and Relocation..... the art of survival... (continued next post)

[SuicidalManiac]

good to mention the command map. I use it every 4 secs at least. Smoke will confuse noobs so good idea on that. I personally dont bother as its really useless against pros (command map defeats that tactic as u still show in same spot and even the direction u are facing).

[LanceR]

wow you must be pretty good at snipping then.

 

great buddy. keep it up. hope to see you soon in sever.

 

this is a great thread.

[SuicidalManiac]

wow you must be pretty good at snipping then.

 

great buddy. keep it up. hope to see you soon in sever.

 

this is a great thread.

 

Unlawful is a decent reg sniper. He has the basics down pretty good and most of these techniques will take you a step above noob snipers. Me, um u really don't wanna know.

[unlawfulsniper]

wow you must be pretty good at snipping then.

 

great buddy. keep it up. hope to see you soon in sever.

 

this is a great thread.

 

Unlawful is a decent reg sniper. He has the basics down pretty good and most of these techniques will take you a step above noob snipers. Me, um u really don't wanna know.

 

Did I do something to you maniac? You keep insulting my posts by calling them basic and then alluding to how great you are. I'm not understanding why you feel so threatened by me. Oh wait, yes I do. Please keep it positive. There is enough thunder for all of us, no need to steal mine. I've put well over an hour into this thread, so its frustrating to see a comment that is putting me down, for no reason I might add.

 

You are loved.

[LanceR]

wow you must be pretty good at snipping then.

 

great buddy. keep it up. hope to see you soon in sever.

 

this is a great thread.

 

Unlawful is a decent reg sniper. He has the basics down pretty good and most of these techniques will take you a step above noob snipers. Me, um u really don't wanna know.

 

Did I do something to you maniac? You keep insulting my posts by calling them basic and then alluding to how great you are. I'm not understanding why you feel so threatened by me. Oh wait, yes I do. Please keep it positive. There is enough thunder for all of us, no need to steal mine. I've put well over an hour into this thread, so its frustrating to see a comment that is putting me down, for no reason I might add.

 

lol guys i dont know if it is what he says. but if so, why take it on a thread.

 

Server is the best place to show who is the best. BTW we all do this for fun. so have fun. be friends.

[SuicidalManiac]

nah I'm not trying to put ya down, I think your a decent sniper and everything you posted would be a great help for those learning the game. I thought I said that, oh well, I'm hungover and everything is a bit vague. I personally shouldn't be allowed to type while drunk. Sorry if your insulted, wasn't my intent.

[fred&cova]

But in all honesty Suicidal is the best sniper I ever seen in my years of ET! Show us your secrets

[unlawfulsniper]

nah I'm not trying to put ya down, I think your a decent sniper and everything you posted would be a great help for those learning the game. I thought I said that, oh well, I'm hungover and everything is a bit vague. I personally shouldn't be allowed to type while drunk. Sorry if your insulted, wasn't my intent.

 

Ok buddy cheers. Ya, when this is done, I'm planning maybe 2 more parts, it would be awesome if you could supplement some of the gaps I miss. Cheers.

[LanceR]

nah I'm not trying to put ya down, I think your a decent sniper and everything you posted would be a great help for those learning the game. I thought I said that, oh well, I'm hungover and everything is a bit vague. I personally shouldn't be allowed to type while drunk. Sorry if your insulted, wasn't my intent.

 

Ok buddy cheers. Ya, when this is done, I'm planning maybe 2 more parts, it would be awesome if you could supplement some of the gaps I miss. Cheers.

 

Sweeet !!! now that is what i am talking about.

 

we got two great silent assassins.. any one wanna challenge....??? yea i know you dont.

[Lightning Count]

That technique you described for seawall of going in front of the rocks instead of behind is actually a tactic I utilize in real life when I'm deer hunting.

 

They don't see color, so the purpose is to "break" your silhouette by sitting in front of a tree or brush pile, and sort of just blend in.

[Yama310]

Very interesting tutorial unlawfulsniper !

 

Thanks for this advices. I am going to try to apply them .

[unlawfulsniper]

That technique you described for seawall of going in front of the rocks instead of behind is actually a tactic I utilize in real life when I'm deer hunting.

 

They don't see color, so the purpose is to "break" your silhouette by sitting in front of a tree or brush pile, and sort of just blend in.

 

Interesting, I did not know that. What kind of camo do you wear?

[unlawfulsniper]

Very interesting tutorial unlawfulsniper !

 

Thanks for this advices. I am going to try to apply them .

 

no probs yama,

 

I'm gonna try and do the next part soon, talk to you then, peace.

[unlawfulsniper]

regardless of who is the better sniper, this is a good thread, fun to read and unlawful gives good replies. suicidal maniac, personally i think his style sucks at sniping. "best sniper in ET" LOL. more like best quick shot spammer, poor acc and poor finesse, and poor ratios. nothing personal, but hey he put his neck out there by slamming these posts. ^^

 

anyway, keep up the good work in this thread.

 

lol tetra you are stirring up a wasp's nest my friend. Me and suicidal, suicidal and I, we both called a truce. As men we are very competitive and we challenge ourselves against our personal bests and the best of others. We should be happy when meet a challenge, a player who snipes better than us or an opponent who plays poker more cleverly. These are the people we learn from and feed off of and they inspire us to evolve our technique by incorporating their particular trick into our body of knowledge. In my opinion that's what its all about, evolving the body of knowledge and making it more complex, more overarching, more all encompassing.

 

i remember a battle with suicidal on minas tirith where he popped me at the end of a 40 second sniper 'pop-up shoot n duck' battle. What a great battle it was.