I, for one, have fully embraced Hawkeye as an exceedingly useful positive quality assuming you haven't yet scooped out your eyeballs.

A stock Ares Desert Strike sees the following ranges.... 165/385/880/1650 with the following penalties 0/0/-1/-3 rather than 0/-1/-3/-6

Now yes, using Take Aim completely eliminates that -6 but Take Aim is a simple action. So you can take two 1,000 meter shots at -3/-4 respectively, or you can take one shot at no penalty. Personally, I think the former is better since you get to put more rounds down range and -3/-4 dice may not matter too much.

I've also came to the conclusion that the dice pool benefit to perception acts as a reduction of the not nearby and far away penalties rather than trying to figure out if the Hawkeye bonus applies....

I guess I'm confused: when did any of this become about what the *sniper* can see? I thought this was about seeing the sniper. Was he saying that you can't hide (as effectively) and have LOS at the same time?

I'm pretty sure a sniper wearing ruthenium can stand in the middle of a street 1,000 m from the target and the target would probably fail to beat the disguise check (assuming the sniper is at least moderately skilled in disguise and has a good intuition).

Okay? But the thread has been about Infiltration and Disguise. I was just really confused about the change to 'what can the sniper see?'.

Post #197:

Right, I saw that. I didn't read that as related to the shooter's view, and there's no previous context to suggest I should have. What do you think he was saying the GM should adjust, for example? Like I said: Was he saying that you can't hide (as effectively) and have LOS at the same time?

I don't know what he expected to adjust, exactly. The impression I got was, some test or other that the shooter might make. *shrug* It was a legitimate observation/aside, IMO.

Shrug indeed, I was confused. My read was he meant other people have a limited view of those soldiers, which directly affects Perception against them. :/ Irion, what were you saying?

While true about the infiltration, this is actually "sharpshooting," or marksmanship. Sniping is defined by the approach and angle, not the shooting.

Wiki
A sniper is a highly trained marksman who operates in one- to two-man teams which maintain close visual contact with the enemy and engages targets from concealed positions or physical distances exceeding the detection capabilities of the enemy personnel, without being detected
Web definitions:
a marksman who shoots at people from a concealed place. wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Poking around a corner and ducking back is not concealment either. It's cover, and they are rule distinctive.

As per the topic, and sniping in general, a perception test is required to locate said shooter. GM thresholds will determine the amount of info available to your players, as to whether they could "bomb" the general area for a marginal success, or pinpoint him with a great success, is in the dice. Failing the perception threshold, including modifiers (silencer, subsonic ammo, etc) WILL mean that they cannot return fire. Even narrowing down where the shots "could" be coming from requires perception in some regard. The team that fails this test simply knows they are under fire, and should be told nothing more.