Real life weapon characteristics (and other suggestions)
Posted: 2005-07-11 20:52
1. Remove crosshairs, this forces the use of iron sights for any kind of aimed firing. Unsighted firing would only be used during close combat situations where sighting your weapon would take too long.
2. Guns are much more accurate AND deadly in real life. Most guns in games have highly decreased accuracy and damage values to help make the firefights longer and make things more fun for the players. This is because the lack of other realistic factors would make it far far too easy get kills if they didn't handicap the players a bit. In real life guns are dangerous, even pistols will almost always kill if not handicap an opponent with a single shot.
3. In real life bullets do not hit randomly, they hit where the barrel is pointed. If my rifle is pointed directly at a spot and I fire, the bullets should hit the same mark regardless of the number of times I fire. In real life the only inconsistencies in a firing pattern comes from the instability of the weapon being held by a person. This is why IRL if you rest your rifle on a tree stump or something you can greatly increase your accuracy as opposed to standing. Most games try to simulate this inconsistency by having shots land in a random area of probability based on the various factors. This should be changed and instead weapon sway should be added to all the weapons. (which leads me to my next item)
4. Add weapon sway to all weapons in all stances. When moving your sway should be HUGE, bascily unmanageable, just like in real life. (which leads into the next item)
5. People do not fire while in movement. Just try it yourself, try firing while walking, running, jumping, falling, etc.. It's impossible to do so with any accuracy. In real life the first thing someone does when firing their weapon is STOP and stabalize yourself in order to make an accurate shot. The weapon sway should be adjusted appropriately, firing with any kind of accuracy while running should be impossible, and IRL soldiers who waste ammo do not last very long. (which leads to the next item...)
6. Add the correct timing and inertia. People do not run, stop on a dime, and instantly sight their weapon with perfect stability. It takes time to do each of the actions. The faster your running the more time it takes to come to a full stop and stabalize yourself before you can lift your weapon and begin to take aim. In the game you can do all these things almost instantaneously, which is why you get people running around in circles and jumping spasmatically to avoid being shot; in real life if you did this it would be so much easier to track that it would be the near equivalent of committing suicide. A real soldiers responce to a surprise attack should be to hit the dirt and crawl for cover or drop to one knee and open fire on the attackers position. Also, the heavier/larger your weapon the longer it should take to turn/stabalize your weapon. This is one of the reasons why pistols and compact weapons are prefered for close combat situations
6. At least simulate some of the ballistics of real firearms. In real life a pistol is rarely used for combat situations over 20 meters, the reasons for this include barrel length, bullet velocity, etc.. The end result should be a weapon that closely simulates the behavior of a real life hand held firearm, one that is great for close range/secondary utility purposes but which can't "snipe" people from long ranges like in the current BF2.
7. Minor physical details. This may be nitpicky but sometimes these details make a difference in gameplay:
- Try holding a rifle and run up to a wall, you can only get so close to the wall before the gun gets in the way. It'd be neat to see a system where if you stand facing a wall from that close you autmatically lift the weapon up and are unable to fire it until you back up. This is one of the things that makes compact arms so much more favorable in extreme close quarters combat like inside a hotel, etc..
- If you use a parachute it usually takes a minute or two to cut it off and/or get out of it. I think an addition like this would greatly discourage the abuse of the parachute. Right now people have absolutely no fear of using planes as ferry's to fly over a combat area and just jump out and begin fighting.
8. Some other nice communication additions:
- Add localized MIC chat. You can only hear people who are reasonably close to you, and you can hear ANYONE who is reasonably close to you, not just your squad members. Just imagine the thrill of walking behind an enemy player to hear him talking over his radio to his teammates just before you take him out with your silenced pistol.
- Add hand signals. I'm not sure how practical it is but this would definitely be realistic for those stealth sitations or during the middle of combat when it's too loud for normal communication.
2. Guns are much more accurate AND deadly in real life. Most guns in games have highly decreased accuracy and damage values to help make the firefights longer and make things more fun for the players. This is because the lack of other realistic factors would make it far far too easy get kills if they didn't handicap the players a bit. In real life guns are dangerous, even pistols will almost always kill if not handicap an opponent with a single shot.
3. In real life bullets do not hit randomly, they hit where the barrel is pointed. If my rifle is pointed directly at a spot and I fire, the bullets should hit the same mark regardless of the number of times I fire. In real life the only inconsistencies in a firing pattern comes from the instability of the weapon being held by a person. This is why IRL if you rest your rifle on a tree stump or something you can greatly increase your accuracy as opposed to standing. Most games try to simulate this inconsistency by having shots land in a random area of probability based on the various factors. This should be changed and instead weapon sway should be added to all the weapons. (which leads me to my next item)
4. Add weapon sway to all weapons in all stances. When moving your sway should be HUGE, bascily unmanageable, just like in real life. (which leads into the next item)
5. People do not fire while in movement. Just try it yourself, try firing while walking, running, jumping, falling, etc.. It's impossible to do so with any accuracy. In real life the first thing someone does when firing their weapon is STOP and stabalize yourself in order to make an accurate shot. The weapon sway should be adjusted appropriately, firing with any kind of accuracy while running should be impossible, and IRL soldiers who waste ammo do not last very long. (which leads to the next item...)
6. Add the correct timing and inertia. People do not run, stop on a dime, and instantly sight their weapon with perfect stability. It takes time to do each of the actions. The faster your running the more time it takes to come to a full stop and stabalize yourself before you can lift your weapon and begin to take aim. In the game you can do all these things almost instantaneously, which is why you get people running around in circles and jumping spasmatically to avoid being shot; in real life if you did this it would be so much easier to track that it would be the near equivalent of committing suicide. A real soldiers responce to a surprise attack should be to hit the dirt and crawl for cover or drop to one knee and open fire on the attackers position. Also, the heavier/larger your weapon the longer it should take to turn/stabalize your weapon. This is one of the reasons why pistols and compact weapons are prefered for close combat situations
6. At least simulate some of the ballistics of real firearms. In real life a pistol is rarely used for combat situations over 20 meters, the reasons for this include barrel length, bullet velocity, etc.. The end result should be a weapon that closely simulates the behavior of a real life hand held firearm, one that is great for close range/secondary utility purposes but which can't "snipe" people from long ranges like in the current BF2.
7. Minor physical details. This may be nitpicky but sometimes these details make a difference in gameplay:
- Try holding a rifle and run up to a wall, you can only get so close to the wall before the gun gets in the way. It'd be neat to see a system where if you stand facing a wall from that close you autmatically lift the weapon up and are unable to fire it until you back up. This is one of the things that makes compact arms so much more favorable in extreme close quarters combat like inside a hotel, etc..
- If you use a parachute it usually takes a minute or two to cut it off and/or get out of it. I think an addition like this would greatly discourage the abuse of the parachute. Right now people have absolutely no fear of using planes as ferry's to fly over a combat area and just jump out and begin fighting.
8. Some other nice communication additions:
- Add localized MIC chat. You can only hear people who are reasonably close to you, and you can hear ANYONE who is reasonably close to you, not just your squad members. Just imagine the thrill of walking behind an enemy player to hear him talking over his radio to his teammates just before you take him out with your silenced pistol.
- Add hand signals. I'm not sure how practical it is but this would definitely be realistic for those stealth sitations or during the middle of combat when it's too loud for normal communication.
