Right I play once or twice one month then don't play at all the next. Its to do with my other half's shift pattern 28 days on 28 off. She has a fantastic job, if you don't count the 28 on could be 14 hr days no breaks etc but that's besides the point. I only play when she is working.
I got chatting with a sites Anti-team team about their kit choices between games as they seemed to have almost every base covered, snipers, support gunners, assaulters, DMRs and we bonded mostly over a mutual love of pyro! They have become pretty much my only friends outside of my work ( awww sad aren't I) because I had to move away for the job. I missed out on GZ last year but was invited to join them, I made it this year and it was a damn good laugh. Now I will meet up with at least one other member of the team every time I go for a game day.
Moral of my long winded story. Get stuck in, chat to people, don't be afraid to get creative on the field, sometimes that hair brained scheme might pay off and you'll be seen as a bit of a hero. Don't be afraid to have a damn good laugh at your own expense. I stacked it this weekend at the bottom of some stairs, luckily it looked a bit like I was commando rolling so I jumped up doing that very fake "I'm ok, meant to do that, did it look ok? Anyone get it on video?". A couple of guys were laughing so much they almost did the same thing
As for sniping, many people say this but - I'd leave it for a bit, I've been playing a year and a half before I got a sniper, its a totally different way of playing and it is relatively limited. Most normal skirmishes are too fast paced for a sniper to be properly effective. Once you have a primary AEG that is set up just the way you want it play an entire day on semi auto and take 5 to 10 seconds between shots. If someone gets within 30m you must switch to your secondary (normally a pistol), that is the MED minimum engagement distance for a sniper. If you can hack it then sniping might be for you.
