I hardly think that minigun and jetpack-sniper combo are the same, Altus.
Of course I reduced it to absurdum, by that I just wanted to state that the time doesn't matter when we're talking about mere possibility of existance of imbalanced strategies on our server. I understand the opinion that overpowered things for VIPs are fine if they are temporary, but I cannot agree with that. Just put yourself of non-VIPs place, and you'll understand. Should they cease playing for these 3 weeks?..
And as far as I got it, everyone has access to jetpacks, so you can kinda run away at any time.
Only civilians have access to it. The bug when you could pick up your jetpack after reclassing is hopefully fixed.
I don't see how this will affect your experience permanently.
Oh, Spectre... I have stated that twice already. But I don't mind repeating if I am replied nicely.
It doesn't affect our (mine & Mia's) experience that much. Yes, this could be annoying, but in comparison with the other challenges we face while playing... It is like waving off wasps while fighting a tiger. We have sniper rifles, we can shoot back, our opponent would likely escape as it is much easier than to catch him, but we won't likely die too.
But it would noticeably affect non-VIPs' gameplay as they literally have no tools to fight such sniper. Country rifle's range is maybe half as much as sniper rifle. If you have no aircraft, your only option is to run away (or hide). And it's not due to great efforts of the shooter. No, he just picked a jetpack and paid for sniper rifle, and you've got no options against him. That's too favourable for VIPs. And, as for me, it is very unfair to the people who don't want (or cannot) pay.
This is an interesting suggestion, but is it really worth the hassle? (not a rhetorical question, I'd like to know) To put that kind of effort for something that's not even going to be permanent?
That should be very easy. In the very basic case you need an array of flags for each player. The flag is set when a player picks up a jetpack, and dropped when he respawns or disconnects. If the flag is being set, you don't receive a sniper rifle when using /sniper or /vipme. Instead you can be given country rifle (for example).
And if the idea of adding jetpacks and holiday temporary objects was worth the time spent, a fix of the overpowered strategy should be worth it as well.
P.S. I am really glad to read you replies, Fini.
Probably everything is not that bad. Indeed, all of us must learn to respect each other and to tolerate any points of view, even if they come across our personal opinions or interests.