Long range combat gameplay [Sniper]

I don't think that the game will let you do that.
I think that enemies will spawn in the area once you've reached the game's allowed "combat distance".

I mean if you're approaching an enemy settlement and use your sniper's scope from a very long distance to see what's going on, I believe that you'll see no enemies.
The enemies will be revealed only when you've reached a distance in which they can react and shoot you back or charge towards you.

I find there are generally mechanics within games to prevent that type of behavior, even if it is just hordes of enemies that you wouldn't be able to kill all of them before they get to you.

I'm hoping it works like ME1 where you could get into sniping battles. Shooting at distance and then moving to another sniping point always felt like doing it properly. Got to the point where I'd do the shoreline on Virmire on foot with a sniper rifle and feel badass about it.

How it could be:

- limited Ammo for Sniper Rifles: in ME2/3 the more powerful a weapon was the less shots you usually had.
- enemy AI: it could be that if you attack a base from range that enemies that need to be closer just go for cover and break line of sight or close the distance. Maybe they even have vehicles of their own they can use? At least the Mech seen in one of the trailers had a pilot who ejected upon destruction.
- spawns: either endless spawning until you close the distance/press a button to prevent that or at least a part of the enemies only spawn when you get close (like guards leaving a building).
- Kinetic Barriers: maybe all bases are protected by strong kinetic barriers, that prevent long range sniping.

Apart from that, if I remember correctly, trailers have shown, Ryder take on enemies as far out as 200 meters, so while I doubt you'd be able to engage enemies at extreme distances, engagement distances are more like ME1 than ME2/3.

Probably you will able to snipe lookouts, but not conquering a zone just pot shooting from afar. I think the head honchos of enemies' encampments will spawn only when you enter them: a little like we’ve seen in the first trailers, where the two mechs plummeted from orbit only after the combat started.
I would also think that only them will reward the player with loot.

The sniper will have a range limit one that will force Ryder to get closer before the sniper will be able to reach the enemy but also one that keeps you in range of the enemy shooting distance.

Honestly this kind of annoys me. A ton of games out there allow people to cheese through combat by standing on something and shooting creatures that are out of reach, sure, but why would you do that? If you honestly look at that and call it a severe downside...then why don't you just NOT do it? Why would you make the combat laughably easy like that? Yeah it'd be cool if the AI took it into account and took cover or hid when you were in an unreachable place but even if they didn't, why would you go out of your way to cheese the combat? Id much rather have fun by enjoying the challenge that the combat presented me with.

I've no doubt you could do that to random spawned enemies roaming the landscape, but I'm sure a lot of scripted encounters only activate when you're within a certain range. Take Peebee's mission for example. It was mostly a sequence of "arena" style encounters. There wasn't the real estate to get any significant range going on.

Because some people like range/stealth based combat tactics instead of bogus JRPG-style "combos?"
I don't know about taking down an entire squad of enemies via sniper, but picking off a few to weaken the overall force before moving in is pretty in-line with how I like to play.

What would be *awesome* is if different long-range rifles had different ranges based on the planet you were on and it's actual gravity/atmospheric conditions (i.e. since you normally have to compensate for these things when shooting at a great distance). It would add a new element of challenge (and, dare I say, realism) to the gameplay.

I wouldn't say the latter is such a limitation: there are no place to hide if you have a Widow/Black Widow /Javelin after all. You can try to run or hide, but you would only die tired or scared. The silencer also is… well silent, but it doesn’t really deliver that much by comparison.