It’s been a while since I last played and I’m on a recent nightly. Guns seemed to have gone from mostly pointless to completely useless. Even shotguns have become virtually useless against any enemy that isn’t a hulk.
My marksmanship is 1 and I can’t seem to raise it at all, while my shotgun and pistol skills are both at 3. Pistols, which previously I could rely on to hit an enemy at point blank, now miss 90% of the time against regular zombies and 100% of the time against giant spiders, regardless of range. Shotguns also miss 100% of the time against spiders and also about ~90% against dogs.
Has there been a major change to accuracy calculations or am I severely misunderstanding something? What exactly are pistols useful for, if anything?
Are you aiming? (Spending time settling your aim) or are you repeatedly firing with no break in between?
If you’re firing continuously and have low skills, this is expected, if not, please describe your actions in more detail. Snap shots vs aimed shots? Guns used? Pain and/or encumbrance?
I did some testing, and gun accuracy does seem to be overall very low. Using an “average professional” character with 5 marksman and 5 rifle skill, an unmodified m14, and 10 dex and 10 perception, it takes around 8 shots to kill a basic zombie when exclusively firing at a range of 10 meters with max stability and no mitigating factors. A bit over a third of shots at that range hit, with half of those being grazing. With this setup, hitting anything past 10 meters with anything less than a precise aim is a very iffy proposition.
Even taking into account that CDDA prioritizes close-range engagements, I feel like a professional-grade rifleman should be able to reliably hit a man-sized, slowly moving target at 10 meters when taking as much time between shots as they can benefit from.
Since when did gun accuracy get nerfed? I’m playing on the experimentals with gun range capped to 30 tiles, and guns are pretty damn accurate if you use precision aim. I can even take out turrets without missing 95% of my shots using precision aim.
[quote=“Kevin Granade, post:2, topic:13779”]Are you aiming? (Spending time settling your aim) or are you repeatedly firing with no break in between?
If you’re firing continuously and have low skills, this is expected, if not, please describe your actions in more detail. Snap shots vs aimed shots? Guns used? Pain and/or encumbrance?[/quote]
In the case of pistols, I’m not aiming but in the past it wasn’t necessary to aim to hit a target at point blank with my first couple of shots. Same with shotguns, although shotguns seem to have better accuracy than pistols at point blank.
I understand that firing wildly and continuously should have severe accuracy penalties, but with pistols I’m missing on first 2-3 shots every time guaranteed at point blank where previously this is only happened with skeletons specifically because the bullets passed through them. Nothing I do is increasing my marksmanship either so I’m stuck in a chicken and egg scenario. I can’t hit anything cos my stats are low and I can’t raise my stats because I can’t hit anything.
Also, on a positive note, I’m really surprised at the shitton of UI improvements since I last played. I especially like the brief description of actions when 'a’ctivating an item and the abstraction of vehicle containers so it’s easier and less tedious to siphon or refill vehicle liquids.
If someone could explain to me how to shoot straight or what I’m doing wrong with pistols, I’d appreciate it.
I came back from not playing for around 6 month. I notice that the confidence matters a lot regardless of range.
And raising marksmanship is “easy”, I just need to land hits on a far off target. Granted that the range needed is more or less the maximum of my weapon, and that having said target stay in place while I aim is not quite that “easy”.
[quote=“Alec White, post:8, topic:13779”]I came back from not playing for around 6 month. I notice that the confidence matters a lot regardless of range.
And raising marksmanship is “easy”, I just need to land hits on a far off target. Granted that the range needed is more or less the maximum of my weapon, and that having said target stay in place while I aim is not quite that “easy”.[/quote]
Can you practice on something that isn’t an enemy? Like, can you raise marksmanship by shooting cans or targets?
What experimental? The gun range cap was removed as of build #6446. Ive also noticed a notable nerf in accuracy, but i assumed it was because i was underwater shooting a handgun i had no skill with.
What experimental? The gun range cap was removed as of build #6446. Ive also noticed a notable nerf in accuracy, but i assumed it was because i was underwater shooting a handgun i had no skill with.[/quote]
Not sure the exact build number, but I downloaded it fresh around Sunday.
As I said, I’ve used pistols in the past and they were only ever a last-ditch or something to plink away from a distance of 6-7 tiles, but missing when I’m standing next to an enemy is kind bad. I’ve also never seen my marksmanship increase since I started on the rare occasion when I do land a hit, so I’m not sure what I need to do to remedy the situation except cheat and mod my skill up.
Maybe this have something to do. But it doesn’t count throwing which is what I’m using most these days, I haven’t noticed such a big change.
Guess I’ll have to play with guns enable.
Not sure how busted this is, but you can raise marksmanship pretty easily by crafting a bow and firing at targets that are far away. Arrows are cheap to make, and most enemies will take awhile to actually get aggressive if you keep grazing them with 2-3 damage shots. Blobs and ants and stuff are good for this.
I’ve been playing around a bit more and now I’m getting the hang of aiming and backing away from enemies, I find that it is much easier to hit. Think I might try running about with a longbow for a while and bump my marksmanship. It seems certain enemies, namely dogs and spiders, are still ridiculously difficult to hit, even for melee. In the case of spiders, it’s not such an issue as a firefighters outfit seems to be enough to pretty much prevent all damage, but dogs are still an issue.
A question on steadiness: Does running or moving hit your steadiness and does waiting in place (but not aiming) increase it? I’m curious if sprinting from point A to B and immediately attempting to aim has an effect on my steadiness.
Waiting during firing mode does gradually increase steadiness. Just waiting in place without pressing f first won’t. As I recall, moving and running will reset your steadiness, or slowly get it back to default if you’re feeling the effects of recoil.
Anyways, tried the firing on the recent version. Random character, no gun skills to speak of, then debugged a rifle and a revolver. There’s definitely a drop in accuracy, though it’s still manageable. Careful and precise aim takes too long at no skill; from one end of an evac shelter basement to another a zombie can get close enough to attack and interfere with aiming. Just firing is too inaccurate, but the simple aim and fire can still do damage.
And again at no skill hitting something at more than 10 tiles away can miss, but not all the time.
In comparison, my current non-test run survivor with high guns and marksmanship skills can still kill a ton of zombies easily. 30-40 tiles away deals consistent high damage. Hitting things at max range is very inaccurate, though. On the other hand, this’ll allow my survivor to reach the level 20 marksmanship skill if she keeps spamming bullets at targets 60 tiles away.
The drop in accuracy is notable even for a character with extremely high gun skills (8 marksmanship, 11 SMG).
Whereas before I could rely on hitting almost every single single-fired shot with a modified MP5, now it hits only about ~70% of the time. With other weapons that I have less skill in the change is even more noticeable, I have significant struggles hitting things with a modified Mosin-Nagant M44-EBR at ranges I was able to manage well before. Ranges like the parking lot of a motel are now almost impossible to hit things across whereas before it was difficult.
Well it seems throwing is still useful.
I’m currently playing with a crossbow, if a zombie is getting too near and the shot doesn’t finish it, I throw the crossbow which usually finishes the job.
Sometimes I have some darts in my backpack just in case.