I noticed this as well as I was used to the XCOM EU Snap Shot and did some googling. Apparently we both have misunderstood how Snap Shot works. This is taken directly from the Long War Studios forum: "It's always on -- it fundamentally changes your sniper into someone who can move and shoot with the rifle, but suffer severe range penalties beyond 5 tiles of squadsight range. This isn't EU Snap Shot, but more like the marksman's Rifles from Long War."

This is sadly not how I want my Sharpshooter now and I am trying to find a way to change the skill of my soldier or maybe change the penalties on Snap Shot itself. I just find that -20 accuracy PER TILE after 5 Squadsight tiles is just too much. Maybe 5 per tile had been better?

Originally posted by Bunisher:

I noticed this as well as I was used to the XCOM EU Snap Shot and did some googling. Apparently we both have misunderstood how Snap Shot works. This is taken directly from the Long War Studios forum: "It's always on -- it fundamentally changes your sniper into someone who can move and shoot with the rifle, but suffer severe range penalties beyond 5 tiles of squadsight range. This isn't EU Snap Shot, but more like the marksman's Rifles from Long War."

This is sadly not how I want my Sharpshooter now and I am trying to find a way to change the skill of my soldier or maybe change the penalties on Snap Shot itself. I just find that -20 accuracy PER TILE after 5 Squadsight tiles is just too much. Maybe 5 per tile had been better?

The way the perk is actually described, though, doesn't clearly state it being always on, it only seems to imply it's in effect *after* making a blue "half move".

Yeah, I know. I've gone through the code and just basically removed the accuracy penalty. My sniper is OP as hell now but at least I can do what I wanted to do with Snap Shot. Move and Shoot (even though I dont get any acc penalty even after moving) and still being able to sit back and actually be a sniper.

I didn't bother trying to make Snap Shot only be a thing after you've moved since I'm not 100% sure how modding in this game works (and I really can't be bothered learning =p). But this works for me and from now on I know that I shouldn't pick Snap Shot on my snipers.

Edit: Then again, if you press the little yellow questionmark on the skill itself you get the full info on the skill and this is what it says: "This skill significantly changes the way the Sharpshooter operates: The Soldier may now use the Sniper Rifle for Standard shots and Overwatch, but suffers extreme aim pentalties on targets beyond 22 tiles range on all shots, regardless of wether the soldier has moved or not."

Here it actually says this. Guess we cant trust the tooltips on the skills anymore =p

This is the only way the skill makes sense. In EU/EW you could go either Squad Sight or Snap Shot, here you automatically get Squad Sight right off the bat, so Snap Shot instead limits its effectiveness. There is also no movement accuracy penalty with Snap Shot now. So moving and shooting is just as accurate as standing and shooting (baring steady hands). So I'd say Snap Shot is already a lot better than it was in EU.

I totally disagree with the "breaking". The gameplay is based TO NOT be stationary or being the usual sniper long watch build. And its a pretty good and fun build if you ask me.

Still, does anyone know how to make it so that snap shot only applies after moving? I mean balance-wise you're forgoing the other two very good perks that dont have penalties or negative effects associated with them.

I essentially cannot play a sniper with it how it currently is, I am 100% sure there were two types of marksmen a month ago when I was playing. One that had squadsight and one that had Long Watch at Corporal.

I'd always choose that one because Snapshot in essentially worthless if you are attempting to do anything more than keep your sniper with your squad, which makes him more of a Designated Marksman than a Sniper. I have alot of Advent Snipers in my missions and it's nearly impossible to countersnipe a Sniper with a sharpshooter because they are typically in squadsight range and thus my sniper can't hit them.

Originally posted by Forvet:

I essentially cannot play a sniper with it how it currently is, I am 100% sure there were two types of marksmen a month ago when I was playing. One that had squadsight and one that had Long Watch at Corporal.

I'd always choose that one because Snapshot in essentially worthless if you are attempting to do anything more than keep your sniper with your squad, which makes him more of a Designated Marksman than a Sniper. I have alot of Advent Snipers in my missions and it's nearly impossible to countersnipe a Sniper with a sharpshooter because they are typically in squadsight range and thus my sniper can't hit them.

This mod wasn't available a month ago...
And Snap Shot isn't in the base game...

working as intended

It's not Snapshot that breaks the Snipers, it's Snapshot+Death From Above, possibly with Damn Good Ground in between. :-D

You can essentially go 3 way with a Sniper:

-Sniper with lots Sniping abilities, but it's really static, so it's not very versatile. Low risk, medium payoff IMO.
-Gunslinger with few Sniping abilities and lots of Pistol abilities, it's very dynamic, versatile, but the Sniper itself is in danger - although he can defend himself, high risk, mediocre payoff I would say.
-Marksman with lots of Sniping abilities and a few/no Pistol abilities at all. It's very dynamic, medium versatility since you can only fully use it if you have high ground, but the Sniper himself is rarely in danger. Low risk, high payoff at the very least.

Also, the power curve kicks in at earliest for the Marksman (when you get Damn Good Ground), then Gunslinger, and then Sniper. I would say go for Marksman every time at early game, and retrain your Sniper in late game, if you want to try out the other types of Sniper.

Marksman also climbs levels like hell anyways - so you can retrain him early, killing all the weak trooper archetypes in a shot reliably.

Just dont forget to reload first if you are not on full ammo from last round. :-D

If that's how it's intended, then the perk description 100% needs to indicate that snap shot replaces normal shot.

So instead of 'fixing' the Snap Shot aim penalty, why not add the Marksman Rifle that will restrain the usage of full Squadsight with Snap Shot? That way you can have the long range standard sniper or skirmisher at middle range that can still benefit from small squadsight?

Because then it would be much too easy to have a sniper do everything you ever wanted.