How to snipe an alien?

[Nightbringer]

I'm little bit confused on this part. I got a recon marine. I got him a sniper rifle. I'm on a second mission. I see alien incoming and before being detected, I pause the game, press on Precision Shot, left click an alien. Of course recon marine has a line of sight. My recon marine starts making a shot. It can land a shot, but my marines then immediately open fire on alien and alert the hive as that alien dies. WTF is this? Another bug or I'm doing something wrong?

[Nightbringer]

I think that a second mission in Dead Hills is bugged. When I go into the mines, Aliens seem to detect me without realising that I'm here. I just saw how I was detected by an Alien without his awareness meter going nowhere near full.

[Nightbringer]

Here is a example of this bug:
https://youtu.be/BgTgAD4osYI

It really annoyed me. Sniping only works some of the time. Half of the time, I get detected anyways.

I got mines. Hopefully, those won't get me detected. Though, I could had used them in a previous mission. When I was carrying a survivor, I went to top corner of a map to hide. Unfortunately, alien popped out at a very unfortunate timing. Same happened in a Queen chamber. Two aliens just came out of a vent and re-spotted me right after hunt was over.

[Nikas Zekeval]

Originally posted by Nightbringer:

It really annoyed me. Sniping only works some of the time. Half of the time, I get detected anyways.

Let me ask a question. Did you buy the silencer for your recon marine? It is one of the marine upgrade slots. Because the firing sound for your sniper rifle does not sound like the one I got for my shots with a silencer.

[Nightbringer]

No, I did not. It is only the second mission.

I thought about that, but Precision Shot is supposed to kill alien before it reacts. They are not faster than bullet after all. Other aliens coming to investigate sound or getting insta detected from its bro when in direct line of sight is a fair game.

Also, Precision Shot only sometimes successfully snipes the alien. It seems that detection is bugged and you can get instant detected due to your generated sound.

[Nikas Zekeval]

Originally posted by Nightbringer:

No, I did not. It is only the second mission.

I thought about that, but Precision Shot is supposed to kill alien before it reacts. They are not faster than bullet after all. Other aliens coming to investigate sound or getting insta detected from its bro when in direct line of sight is a fair game.

Also, Precision Shot only sometimes successfully snipes the alien. It seems that detection is bugged and you can get instant detected due to your generated sound.

Probably another alien in detection range of the one you killed. If you want reliable stealth kills you need to buy that silencer. With it I've picked drones out of clusters without the other reacting to the shot.

It isn't impossible, but more difficult and up to chance to kill an alien before it detects you without a silenced rifle. I got that achievement with a grenade shot of all things.

[Nightbringer]

There is nothing detected on the radar and no other alien came quickly afterwards.

[Paladestar]

If there's nothing else on the radar what are your marines shooting at? The sniper shot will kill the normal aliens in one shot, leaving nothing else to shoot at. Did you sniper shot a Crusher, Praetorian or Queen? They won't die from it.

[C-zom]

Your squad detects using a non-silenced sniper shot as opening fire; like if you flamethrower an egg nest improperly or dismember but not kill an alien with a grenade. The AI instantly snaps into combat mode on both sides.

Stealth is very, very touchy in this game. I've only ever had consistent results with the annoying "sleeping" alien rooms you're supposed to sneak through. And that was, again, with a silencer.

[Nightbringer]

Eh, that is disappointing to hear.

[Nightbringer]

Originally posted by Paladestar:

If there's nothing else on the radar what are your marines shooting at? The sniper shot will kill the normal aliens in one shot, leaving nothing else to shoot at. Did you sniper shot a Crusher, Praetorian or Queen? They won't die from it.

You can see in a video that there isn't anything else. In game, I had to wait until Aliens finally came into this room to attack me.

This issue seems to be related to using non-silenced version of a sniper rifle. It breaks the stealth mechanic half of the time and makes base upgrade nearly useless without a silencer.

I'm not sure, it is almost like a bug, but such deep mechanical issues likely won't get fixed.

[C-zom]

Yeah, it's a bummer. A non-silenced sniper is basically just opening up a fight on the enemy. I don't know the exact numbers for sound detection but in my tests, firing a grenade or sniper rifle at an alien has about the same noise radius as the motion tracker being detonated. Take that as you will. That drone might be alone in the huge room you're in but next door the wall guy out of your sensor range can and will hear it.

In essence, a non-silenced sniper rifle should be used to prioritize targets during a fight or to open up a fight (e.g: on the blue human enemies or a warrior roaming around). You shouldn't be using it to sneak or stealth whatsoever until you get the silencer upgrade. Then it turns rather OP, you can even pick apart squads with it if you keep cycling back into green cover.