I don't think they're encouraged, they simply have actual use. If it was blood gulch...everyone would use snipers. All of the maps have huge sniping lanes, they're just rightfully somewhat limited, sniper rifles are extremely dominant weapons map control wise. I think the balance is fine map wise. It's more an issue of the amount and occurrence of special ammo imo. I think special weapons should be treated similar to heavy. ammo drops maybe 3x for every 1 heavy ammo drop and contains enough for possibly 2 reloads. Something like that.