VSSM Is a Joke: Drop Forced Subsonic, Boost Velocity, Add Extended Suppressor

What in the absolute hell were you thinking when you designed the VSSM? You took an iconic marksman rifle with legendary special forces pedigree, strapped it to a boulder of forced subsonic rounds, and then handed it to us like a gift-wrapped insult. Right now, the VSSM isn’t a weapon — it’s a liability. It fires projectiles so laughably slow that enemies can sidestep your bullets in real time, and you’ve shackled it to that misery by making subsonic ammunition mandatory. There is no fix. There is no alternative. You just decided this rifle should shoot regret, and we should like it. We don’t. We resent it. Fix it.

First — Kill the forced subsonic ammo and give the VSSM actual bullet velocity.
The current state is a joke. You forced every single VSSM user to lob slow, ghostly spitballs while every other DMR is sending rounds downrange at velocities that actually connect. The weapon’s identity doesn’t have to be “the gun where you have to lead a target standing 20 meters away.” Subsonic ammunition should be a tactical choice for stealth — not a straitjacket you bolt onto the weapon out of some misguided realism fetish. If I want to run suppressed with quiet rounds, let me choose it. But for the love of everything explosive in Battlefield, let me swap to supersonic, high-velocity ammunition that makes this rifle lethal beyond spitting distance. Increase the base muzzle velocity significantly so the VSSM can compete with the SVK, the svdm, the M39 — instead of being the cursed option everyone levels once and abandons to rot in the armory. A marksman rifle that can’t reliably hit a moving target at 30 meters isn’t a marksman rifle. It’s a broken concept. Fix it.

Second — Give the VSSM the Extended Suppressor that costs 25 points and reduces recoil, the one almost every other weapon gets to enjoy.
Why does this attachment not exist for the VSSM? You’ve handed that beautiful, recoil-taming Extended Suppressor to assault rifles, SMGs, LMGs — even other DMRs — and yet the VSSM, a gun that practically screams for a long, heavy suppressor to balance its kick, is locked out of the club. Its integrated suppressor is, frankly, inadequate for the violent muzzle climb you’ve inflicted on it with the forced “penetration rounds” garbage. Let us spend 25 attachment points to slap an Extended Suppressor on this thing, tame the vertical climb, and actually land follow-up shots without fighting the gun like a bucking animal. The part already exists in your sandbox; you just arbitrarily walled it off from the VSSM as if it might somehow break your precious “balance.” The only thing breaking balance right now is the VSSM’s laughable performance. Add the Extended Suppressor. This isn’t a request — it’s common sense.

Third — Make the 5-point Standard Penetration Ammo the default ammunition type, and relegate that monstrous, high-recoil “Penetration Round” to an optional slot where it belongs.
Who made the call to ship the VSSM with those brutal, shoulder-dislocating high-recoil penetration rounds as the only starting ammunition? That one decision poisoned the gun from the first trigger pull. New players pick up the VSSM, fire two shots, watch their reticle climb into the stratosphere, and instantly switch back to literally anything else. The default ammunition for this rifle should be the 5-point Standard Penetration Ammo — manageable, versatile, and capable of engaging infantry without feeling like you’re firing a cannon with a broken stock. If someone wants to run the heavy penetration rounds for anti-materiel memes, let them unlock that misery and pay the price. Don’t force that punishing, niche ammunition as the mandatory starter experience. It’s self-sabotage. You’re presenting the VSSM with its worst foot forward and then wondering why nobody uses it. Reset the starting ammunition to Standard Penetration. Let the base gun feel competent, and let players choose to trade controllability for extra punch — not the other way around.

The VSSM has the bones of a truly great, atmospheric rifle. It oozes style. It should be the thinking flanker’s dream — a fast-firing, suppressed precision tool that rewards positioning and stealth. Instead, you’ve buried it under a mountain of idiotic design constraints: forced subsonic velocity that loses every ranged duel, a missing Extended Suppressor that leaves its recoil management artificially painful, and a default ammo type that actively punishes the user for equipping the weapon. This is not balance. This is neglect.

So here’s the clean, no-nonsense prescription. Unbind the subsonic requirement. Boost that bullet velocity to respectable DMR standards. Add the 25-point Extended Suppressor with recoil reduction — the one the rest of the arsenal gets — and give it to the VSSM immediately. And swap the default ammo to the 5-point Standard Penetration round so the weapon actually feels functional out of the gate. Do these things, and the VSSM transforms from a cautionary tale into a contender. Ignore this, and you’ll have once again designed a beautiful, atmospheric paperweight that nobody touches except completionists grinding attachments in sheer agony.

You have the tools. You have the assets. Now have the nerve to fix your mistake. Give us a VSSM worthy of its legend, not a suppressed slingshot that insults anyone who equips it.