Ghost fire

[Der Kuenstler]

Has anyone noticed when two enemy snipers meet up close in the woods, they don't actually kill each other? They engage in what I would call "Ghost" fire - you hear a shot from each every once in a while and they each duck and come back up, but neither is actually hurt or using up any ammo.

This is also seen when a sniper comes up close to an enemy truck - if he's too close he won't actually fire on the truck, only a firing sound and the truck will move away. The ammo counter remains the same. I've also heard this ghost fire come from gun crews and FOs - just a sound of a shot and usually no damage is done.

According to JasonC over at Battlefront, this ghost fire is "self defense fire, which is modeled as a pistol, aka 5 fp at range 40 meters and 1 fp at range 100 meters. A sniper won't actually use the sniper rifle inside 100 meters range. It will avoid firing at all if not detected, considering stealth the right way to deal with a close enemy approach. They will only go to self defense fire if the enemy is within 100 meters and they know they are already spotted."

So gun crews (attached to their guns) and snipers (possibly FOs and other "unarmed" units?) carry ghost pistols that are not shown in the game. This self defense or ghost fire can and does cause casualties if conditions are right, but usually doesn't do anything much. Just interesting to learn it is in the game and has no ammo counter or restrictions.

"A sniper won't actually use the sniper rifle inside 100 meters range." A nice tip to remember before you get the bright idea to sneak up close behind an enemy gun crew with your sniper and he does nothing but make ghost fire while the gun slowly turns around to blow him away. Best to use TH teams for that job - they carry smgs.