Community Manager
A few remarks on the sniping side of recon (and understanding recon is not just the sniping class, I regularly play spec op myself):
I really feel most snipers are not encouraged enough to support the team. A good sniper is mobile, they don't just find a perch and stay there. They ensure they are always covering a useful area: either an obj that is being assaulted or defended, or the lane between two opposing objs. And they are willing to throw their body alongside the team on an obj despite being heavily unfavored in CQC.
But the game does not pushes for this style of gameplay. For one thing, it's more risky than staying in a safe spot: moving to a better position means the risk of meeting someone with a big gun along the way... And the game still heavily favors kdr over other actions when it comes to scoring, so staying put and sniping random targets can feel genuinely rewarding, especially considering how easy sniping is in this iteration. The game tells you you are contributing, so why do any different?
So how can you design in a way that pushes players along a better path? For me, it is not necessarily about changes to the class itself, but more about making the better play more rewarding across the board. Make offensive and defensive kills earn more points than they do now while lowering the reward for the random ones outside of objs; show only or at least emphasize offensive and defensive kills in the scoreboards rather than the overall one; make captured flags the first stat in the scoreboard rather than the last, and heck, make it bold or a flashy color. And have kills made from HQ count for nil: no points, no stats. They're still kills (there are times when shooting from HQ is alas a necessity), but provide no rewards.
This would apply to everyone, but I do think the effect would be stronger on the "lone wolf" aspect of the sniping recon. They should be on their own, but they should be looking where their squamates are and be rewarded when they give a helping hand.
