waywardOne said:
You don't just deploy snipers because you feel like it. JCD had full military training and wouldn't hit shit from any height at LI because his skill still sucks. What makes people think the NSF is some kind of elite merc group? There's evidence all around they're merely yokels and good ol' boys and zero evidence to think they'd have any kind of sniper marksman training. Just because he's carrying a sniper rifle doesn't mean he's awesome with it, anymore than thinking all those guys with a knife are awesome chefs (LOL WHY CAN'T THEY COOK A PERFECT STEAK, THEY HAVE A FIRE LOL).
The real explanation, of course, is that it is a tutorial level, and one that is already somewhat unforgiving compared to Doom/Quake's early game (remember - despite the prior System Shock games, neither were big hits, so Deus Ex was made with Doom/Quake players in mind, as well as Thief and crpg gamers - it's why I keep saying that a Deus Ex style game could easily be marketed to modern Mass Effect and FO3 fans, as it has a very simple base, with level design and slowly introduced features (the slow doling out of augs) providing most of the complexity). As it is, they had the problem of Quake players wondering why their accuracy was off, or trying to run and gun and getting quickly owned. Of course, once you get the hang of it, the level is laughably easy - and that's exactly how a first combat level SHOULD be, i.e. a few reloads as you make obvious mistakes in your approach, but then easy once you get the right feel for it, letting you know how to approach the game in general.
A sniper with actual sniping skill at the top of the tower would have made it a challenging level. Fine if it was a bit later in the game, but not when you're easing players into the game, where those players might be Quake fans unused to the realistic accuracy, or crpg players who have zero FPS skills. You MIGHT have put a sniper in the tower, given him low-to-zero skill, and have one of the UNATCO guys say 'reports say there's at least one sniper in that tower, but these guys are strictly amateurs, even by NSF standards - just don't stay too long in the open and you'll be fine'. A sniper with zero-to-low skill would be unlikely to hit the player, but might pepper around and occasionally take off damage if you stay completely still. But then I'm guessing it wasn't worth the engine difficulties to have a non-effective sniper (I doubt the engine could handle the sniper being up the top of the tower - he'd have to be just one floor up, perhaps covering the climable boxes).
As for the AI generally (lack of awareness despite oncoming invasion), we DO get nostalgic sometimes - DE does many things better than DE:HR, but AI is certainly not one of them.
If you want an in-game explanation for the NSF's crapness, it's made clear that they're an amateur rabble, and that the ones you encounter early are amateur even by their standards - the 'leader' under the subway even says as much, and says that he's an accountant in his day-job.
In the game's intro, Simons doesn't even mention the NSF (and if that guy was running things instead of page, the Dentons would have been wtfpwned - EVERY SINGLE THING that goes the player's way is foreseen by Simons and blown off as needless paranoia by Page :D ) - he's worried about X51, the illuminati, Paul Denton, the Triads, even the Paris resistance fighters, but not the NSF.
One neat detail comes up later in the game, which I always liked as a nice little attention to detail. When you're fighting the NSF, they're allied with Tracer Tong (through Paul). VERY late in the piece, once Helios has started to make its move and taken over government of China/Hong Kong, the US Military has officially defied UNATCO and its pawns in the US government to take the fight to MI-5 (showing that Page's dream of a quiet take over would never have worked anyway - when it comes to silent takeovers, he's really just an amateur compared to the illuminati) etc....you can find a stored communication revealing that the Illuminati has actually infiltrated and taken over the NSF in Paul's absence, and sometime during the Area 51 events has started to trigger them as their 'cover army'. Always liked that bit - all shows that Page's plans were always going to fail. He might have succeeded in taking over the world, but it was always going to be through a war against 2 or 3 formidable opponents (Illuminati, Helios and US Government) - i.e. he was going to cause WW3 (one based on viral warfare and genetically modified terrors) and destroy the world, not be its 'god and saviour'. Actually makes me wonder whether MCA took inspiration from that for AP.
the sniper on the underwater base is probably the only NPC that can normally from such a high distance
