I can confirm this. The first several times that I played FO3, I did this quest fairly early where I either didn't or couldn't sneak very well, Arkansas spotted me, cars got "sniped" when I approached them and blew up while he tried taking my head off directly as well.

Eventually one of the last times I did it at a much higher level at night when my sneak was maxed out. I was pretty much a ghost. Took my normal way in... and much to my confusion, cars start getting "sniped" and exploded. I make my way up to him without being shot at once, and find he's asleep. At that point I realized that the car sniping was indeed a scripted event. Personally I wasn't too bothered by it being scripted though since it added a clever little thing to the quest.

Agreed to snipers being fun to fight against. The challenge is figuring out where they are and all the time your heart is racing wondering if you're about to get your head shot off. More fun if you can resist the urge to suicide scout the guy out (save - run in the open - try to see where he kills you from - if you don't see him, repeat...)

I'd hope that they could include snipers in a way where you weren't instantly killed when your health is fairly high and your in an area that isn't too far above your level.

However if there are such limitations, then I'd be fairly disappointed and hope that snipers would be quite rare. Common insta-death isn't my cup of tea either.

Helmets/armor could also help. If there are areas where there are likely insta-kill snipers, it would be nice if there were some indicator that you were entering that type of territory or if the locals warn you: "stay away from the Fiend Territory, snipers are killing everything that moves up there..." so that you know upon entering "Fiend Territory" or upon seeing whatever other indicator they provide, that you are going to have to keep an eye out and stay away from windows.

Honestly though, I'm among the minority that wouldn't mind if every gun could kill me in one hit, as long as the environment remained credible. I enjoy painfully tough enemies, but I hate painfully unbelievable enemies (swarms of bandits with daedric weapons for example). Anyway, I don't think Bethesda likes to frustrate their players with overly challenging enemies so I don't think anyone has anything to worry about.

I hated that sniper just because of that stupid, scripted car that blew up...

I always thought it was a rigged trap, never even considered that it was a script simulating the sniper shooting cars.

There were rigged mailboxes and mines all over the place... doesn't make sense that there would be rigged cars as well?

Lets talk enemy Sniper AI. I have no idea what goes into programming AI in any game, much less one like Fallout 4. How would they program an enemy to act like a sniper instead of any other enemy? Just increase the distance that particular type of enemy will detect you?

It would be annoying for melee play styles if they added a enemy snipers that scale in level, that stay at a certain distance and back pedal when you close on them. If Bethesda wanted to add high level enemy snipers in the game that kept at a certain distance from player and back pedaled when you closed on them people would complain. I wouldn't mind it personally because if I ever play a melee centric character he is going to have stealth.

But ultimately yes, I think it would be cool to have snipers definitely that are on the level list, that are not just part of a quest. Rare to come across in the open world, but I think it would be cool to have them, especially with the verticality of the game. With the dense open tall buildings, I think snipers would be really cool to have honestly.

Snipers would be a welcomed addition to the enemy roster as in FO3 and even FONV you come across more than one overrunned sniper nest with either a long decayed corpse or a recent kill and signs of combat. As for melee centric builds vs. snipers I think so long as the sniper is in a location that is reachable to the player or get automatic insta kills it should be fine.

Someguy had a sniper in one of his mods. I thought that was fun but you do get advance warning that someone is going to try and pop your head now.

pfffftt...details....

Well, i always use Arkansas' faked trick in New Vegas.

The Repconn test site, a silenced rifle hitting the car, ghouls going to investigate... BOOM!

Also works on the Vipers on the Nipton road

I like fighting the cloacked Dragoon snipers in Operation Anchorage. More enemies should use stealth boys. It's cheating that i'm the only one with stealth and silenced sniper rifle


Laser sights work both ways too