So, first off, this is my first post on this forum. If I'm breaking any rules, sorry.
Second off, this isn't meant to devolve into a Paizo/Starfinder sucks tirade. I very much like both of those. (Except the store.)
Third off, this isn't a discussion on the merits of far-range sniping in TTRPGs. I've seen it done well in other systems, but I am not clamoring for Paizo to include it.
With that out of the way - how did the Operative's Sniper specialisation make it through playtesting? The Operative, due to Aim, is already a very action-hungry class. So, naturally, a weapon which needs to be reloaded after every shot is a problem for them, especially since they lack any reload compression abilities.
This leads to a very strict and inflexible action rotation of Aim => Strike => Reload at lower levels. They get explicitly and directly outdone by Sniper Gunslingers at these levels, but surely as soon as the Reactive Strike feats like Hair Trigger and Kill Steal - oh.
They can't use those. Without giving up Aim, there simply aren't enough actions to reload. That's an enormous loss of power.
Well, at least at level 9, they get a very powerful Advanced Exploit that allows them to reload and then shoot agai- oh
You can pretty much only properly use this once every two misses.
Aim => Strike (Miss) => Reload (Free) => Strike
Aim => Reload => Strike (Miss) => Reload (Free)
Quicklock alleviates some of the issues - at level 16 - but an unquickened Sniper Operative simply feels bad.
Is that really intended? Is all of that really intended? Just to balance the extra damage Snipers occasionally get? Operative seems like a genuinely terrible choice to use Snipers with, which would be an acceptable, if odd, decision, but the inclusion of an entire Specialisation dedicated to the Sniper weapon will assure that plenty of people fall for this trap choice.
I suppose I should have participated in the Playtest and complained about this much earlier, since it's unlikely that Paizo will completely errata everything that would be needed to fix this.
Personally, I might simply include a Sniper with fewer damage traits and a larger magazine in my homegames.
The Operative Subclasses just don't have design any space left.
The class already has Fighter Proficiency for all Ranged Weapons (so better then the Fighter and Gunslinger combined) and Aim (Ranged Sneak Attack).
We can kinda ignore the extra Skill feats, not that impactfull.That doesn't leave much design space for Subclass Features.
That's not the problem though, the problem is that you'd probably be genuinely better off grabbing a Plasma Caster and the Sniper Specialisation solely for the mediocre free feat rather than actually using a Sniper with the Specialisation made for it.
Operative is uniquely bad at Snipers, the whole class seemingly made to clash with Magazine 1 weapons.