Sniper Rifles

I thought Zeram made some good observations concerning the sniper rifles in Star Frontiersman #8. He said:<br /><br />[quote=Zeram]<a href="http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/2858#comment-4789">March 23rd, 2008 - 11:43am</a><br />I had a big problem with the sniper rifles (laser and gauss). Both of
these are just long-range, low rate of fire versions of their regular
cousins (except the gauss sniper rifle somehow gets an extra 1d10 to
damage). Neither of these rifles would be suitable for a character
trying to be a sniper. Both give tell-tale signs of where the shots
originate and thereby making it suicidal for the would-be sniper. Once
you fire they know where you are since the laser is either a beam or a
pulse of light easily seen and the gauss rifle's projectile &quot;leaves a
short red or blue streak trailing the projectile&quot;.<br />Continuing with
the sniper rifles, the note about allowing a sniper to multiply the
damage by their weapon skill level is way too far out there in balance
IMO. At least with the sniper rifle in Issue 4 you were looking at a
maximum of 60 points of damage. The damage output of the rifles in
Issue 8 just made this a real problem to look at. Maybe lessen the
bonus to adding an extra 1d5 or 1d10 per level of the sniper's weapon
skill instead?<br />Just to touch back on the regular gauss rifle a
moment, I would probably back off on it being able to fire a burst. But
that's just me personally.[/quote]<br />So I see the following points:<br /><br />1. The shot path should not be traceable<br />2. Single shots will be more important (goes back to traceable).<br />3. Damage management. (One shot, one kill should be able to be upheld.)<br />4. weapons skill. (Should there be a Sniper Rifle weapons skill?)