Quirks about the M14 (M21?) Sniper Rifle

[XinSavior]

I have a few quirks about the M14 (or M21)...

1. Accuracy
-I know this has been talked about a lot, but I just have to reiterate it because of how weird it is to me. I had an M14 deployed in prone position and took a whole magazine's worth of shots in 5 second intervals an enemy I'd say around 200 yards away. Every single shot missed and yet I was getting hit by the enemy who was either an Automatic Rifleman or a Rifleman. Later on I continued to get involved in a firefight with another enemy at around 100 yards and again I wasn't able to get a single shot on him while I was prone and deployed, taking shots at around a 4 second interval. Lastly was an enemy that was only about 20 yards from my position. The enemy hadn't noticed me yet and was stationary and crouched and I was prone, deployed and waited 5 seconds before taking my first shot and took shots at a 2 second interval until he ran away. Every single shot missed by at least a yard from his body. This was kind of ridiculous to me and maybe it was just me, but it was really weird to see none of the bullets hit their mark, even when I factored in ballistics...

2. Vertical marker on scope
-This is a big quirk for me, the fact that when I use the deployed scope on any sniper rifle, the vertical line that intersects with the horizontal line on the scope most of the time though at certain times you can see the vertical line. This really threw off my aim at times and made me take guesses as to where to aim.

[Dev1200]

Go on a local server with bots. You'll find you'll have "better accuracy" because you have 0 ping.


Ping plays an important role if your going to hit or not. It may LOOK like your hitting, but your not. Remember that the 7.62 fired from the M14 isn't a one shot kill unless you hit them in the head.


Also realize that every weapon has near perfect accuracy. Deviation, however, does not. Aiming quickly with your mouse will cause your deviation to increase.

[XinSavior]

That's the thing, I'd keep the mouse still on a target's body for at least two seconds, and then fire from a prone, deployed position. And when I was firing at the 20 yard enemy I saw the bullets miss around him, which really made no sense especially because they were only 20 yards away..

[Ford_Jam]

Go on a local server with bots. You'll find you'll have "better accuracy" because you have 0 ping.

Myth. Especially in BF2 imo.
I'm assuming OP is playing on US servers then he should have no problem getting 30ish ping and hitting things fine.
Hell I play on US servers and get around 250 ping and can kill guys fine, I don't have to change how I aim at all.

As for the M14, I've only used it maybe half a dozen times but I have had trouble with it compared to say another DMR such as the SVD. I dunno though, I'll request it more often and have a play.

[Arnoldio]

Yeah i dont get it too... undeployed works kinda better.

[XinSavior]

I haven't really tried undeployed since I put myself in situations where I don't need to worry about moving often unless I'm spotted while taking shots at enemies but then I don't need to fire. I'm really trying my hardest not to just make this a beat down on the sniper rifles, but yeah. I really hope that the next patch fixes the aim

[Oskar]

Huh. I just really can't relate. I have no problem whatsoever hitting with any of the marksman rifles to be honest. I haven't played much with them since like...0.87 I guess, but I've managed to kill people at 700 m deployed and settled in nicely without any real trouble in this current patch.

[XinSavior]

I think I've hit some people at VERY far distances (the character models running from my fire were about a cm tall with the deployed scope) with the insurgent sniper's sniper rifle and I've hit two people out of about 20 people that passed by my fire. THAT I can understand since it's so far away, but the close fire should have been much accurate, yet it was still as inaccurate as when people were hundreds of yards away...

[=]H[=[Amish]Kommando]

I honestly believe that most players that complain about the M21 beeing inaccurate are doing something to reset deviation before firing. I have done this inadvertedly many times ... something like:

1. Sprint into position, go prone, get into position with WSAD movement, deploy bipod, do a quick scan with the rifle scope, spot target, lead target, fire, miss

instead of

2. Sprint into position, go prone, get into position with WSAD movement, scan with binoculars, spot target, CEASE ALL WSAD MOVEMENT, deploy marksman rifle /w bipod, DONT TOUCH WSAD keys, move reticle VERY SLOOOOOOWLY (think of a HAT kit), hold scope on target for 5 SECONDS (COUNT FROM 1 TO 5), fire, profit (dont bother with moving targets though)

[XinSavior]

I have stayed stationary without moving my aim at all and simply waited for the enemy to pass my sights since it was the only path up to a high point on a mountain. Still missed often. haha

[killonsight95]

you have to wait 8 seconds to fthe rilfe to be accurate at 600 meters, for close combat i advise using undeployed (for ranges under 250 meters).
also lead the target.

[Truism]

The problem lies primarily with shifting your aimpoint screwing with deviation. This combined with shocking netcode, poor tickrate syncing, serverside hitreg and serverside deviation calculation results in some serious randomness in aiming. I've been experimenting with how the BF2 engine handles deviation for quite a while now and it's fair to say it's not only a horribly designed system, but that PR accentuates its flaws with some of its features.

[OkitaMakoto]

you have to wait 8 seconds to fthe rilfe to be accurate at 600 meters, for close combat i advise using undeployed (for ranges under 250 meters).
also lead the target.

And if, say, you fired before 8 seconds, then your deviation cone bounces out a bit and will take a bit more to settle again. So if you fired the first shot before being adequately settled, the other following shots will as well... unless you wait enough to let it settle from "bouncing out" from the previous shot.

Agree its hard. Just takes a lot of practice. Most people dont realize that they arent waiting as long as they think they are. one one thousand two one thousand three one thousand becomes one two three, fire, wtf?! Not saying youre in that boat, but its a common thing.

[XinSavior]

Well, I still feel like the deviation's a bit overly exaggerated in my opinion.. I'll try practicing with it more and see if I get better results.

[[SMAK]Potatohead]

And if, say, you fired before 8 seconds, then your deviation cone bounces out a bit and will take a bit more to settle again. So if you fired the first shot before being adequately settled, the other following shots will as well... unless you wait enough to let it settle from "bouncing out" from the previous shot.

Agree its hard. Just takes a lot of practice. Most people dont realize that they arent waiting as long as they think they are. one one thousand two one thousand three one thousand becomes one two three, fire, wtf?! Not saying youre in that boat, but its a common thing.

This is why we need some form of deviation indicator. Its such a complicated system (I have no problem with the system itself) that you really have no idea sometimes as to where your deviation is at. Realistically if you were unsteady and looking down a scope, you'd be able to tell that you were unsteady. However in game, you have no idea, you just have to guess that you've waited long enough....

[shribey22]

Look this is just something that we have to deal with because we are still playing with a suuuper old game. Until we get PR2, deviation will be the bane of our existence. Just the other day I was pinned down as an insurgent and I just popped up and sprayed a full mag at a guy who was suppressing me from 150m away.... I killed him using this blind fire... In the same, but opposite way, you can spend all the time in the world waiting for your deviation to settle, but still not hit a ridiculously close target. If the m14 is giving you this much trouble, just give up on it until the next patch... or just use the regular rifleman's kit. Its accurate enough by itself lol

[XinSavior]

Regular rifleman kit it is then! haha

[Stealth Clobber]

Potatohead;1405958']This is why we need some form of deviation indicator. Its such a complicated system (I have no problem with the system itself) that you really have no idea sometimes as to where your deviation is at. Realistically if you were unsteady and looking down a scope, you'd be able to tell that you were unsteady. However in game, you have no idea, you just have to guess that you've waited long enough....

Deviation Indicator has been coded by Mosquill, but who knows if it will ever be in PR.