PSA - Regarding Gun Aiming Rework
As everyone here probably knows, we've rebuilt the aiming system from the ground up. However, we've done a really bad job of explaining how the new system works in-game, as well as there been a few issues still remaining such as us needing to lower the frequency of jams, and there are a few bugs hampering point blank shots accuracy unfairly.
I thought I'd write a little about what the new system is, with the hope that people who may currently not be keen may appreciate it more and even if they feel it needs changes still, will be excited about where its going.
Then
The old aiming system was a colossal fudge that was made back in the first ever release of Zomboid back in 2011. Guns were not really guns per se, but long range melee weapons. Like literally, with extra code to use and require ammo, the guns worked in a near identical way to melee weapons. You'd aim in a broad direction, and the code would pick the appropriate zombie targets based on the character's facing. Nothing is really fired, you're pretty much hitting zombies with a big long invisible stick that makes a bang noise and deducts some ammo from itself.
Now
Now we have a full 3d physics ballistic model where each bullet projectile is emitted from the end of the character's 3d gun model, and will travel in 3d space through the same physics simulation the cars inhabit. The reticule on your mouse pointer is also cast into this 3d representation of the game world, intersecting with the zombies or whatever else that the mouse is over.
This will define what you're aiming at, so quite literally if you hold the mouse reticule over a zombies head, you will be aiming at that zombies head in the same way you would be in an FPS shooter game. The bullet will attempt to travel between the gun and that point on the zombies head, and will potentially hit anything else that's in its path.
The four aiming spread lines around the reticule represent the potential bullet spread from the shots at the target you have your reticule over. That is to say, the deviation in angle any bullet shot will potentially have, from lack of character skill, the character moving, or being affected by negative moodles will increase this spread.
The goal is to not only make the shooting model more realistic, and more satisfying to engage with, but to also add a skill element to the gunplay to make it more interesting to engage with, especially ultimately in multiplayer once that's reintroduced.
We still need to explore controller solutions and have some ideas for allowing controllers to utilize the aiming system but with some aids to make it feasible without the accuracy of a mouse.
There are also some other cool things planned to arrive during unstable that we've yet to talk about that centre around this new ballistics model, one of these is to make arrows and crossbows feasible, as they can use actual physics based projectiles to model the arrow or bolt's path. We'll also be able to improve throwing to use physics, as well as making molotovs and so on feel less weird and floaty, but potentially allow for distractions to be made by throwing stones or other items, throwing a rock at a window to smash it, or bouncing a pebble off a wall around a corner would all be feasible things within this new physics model.
But hopefully people will appreciate what this will bring to the game more and will be more interested to learn and engage with it, as well as help us improve it, instead of writing it off or wishing for the old system to be rentroduced.
Perhaps there are unknown bugs that are impacting aiming in ways we have not yet discovered, and your experience doesn't feel like any of the above, but we'll fix up any issues and I hope you'll agree the new system is a lot more interesting and engaging with more possibilities than the old. We just need to tune and bug fix it until it's where we want it, as well as the community needing to learn how to make the most of it.
Known issues
- Jamming frequency feels a little high at the moment and we're hoping to ease that a bit.
- As stated above, there are some calculations that are not factoring in close range properly, resulting in slightly unfair amounts of inaccuracy at point blank leading to players missing more than they should at ranges that make it seem silly.
- Generally we need to go further with balancing stuff like the skills and moodle effect on shooting.
- Currently the aiming deviation shown on the reticule lines is not tuned, as well as is not impacted by the zoom level meaning it doesn't correlate to the isometric world's space 1 to 1. Ultimately this spread shown between lines should act as a visual indicator of how inaccurate a shot would be within the world's space, allowing you to gauge broadly the area a bullet could miss by if fired, rather than arbitrary spread that vaguely say 'accurate' or 'inaccurate' but offers no more concrete information.
- Our zombie damage model is deceptively simple due to the conceit that only destroying the brain should kill a zombie. In melee combat, if you kill a zombie then it follows from the premise that you must have hit it in the head. This is an assumption made. The only time this logic is actually factored in explicitly is when stomping or hitting a zombie on the floor. As such, the game quite simply plays the head squish sound and spawns the brain gibs when a zombie dies by default, as this is the only way a zombie in the lore can be killed. At the same time, zombies lose health when hit in the legs by a bullet from the new ballistics system. This leads to weird situations where you'll shoot a zombie in the leg and its brains will explode and it dies. We will need to implement a deeper zombie damage and hit reaction system to accompany the new ballistics model which we plan during unstable, to further provide fun feeling of satisfying feedback from shooting at zombies, allowing you to shoot them in the legs to make them stumble or turn into crawlers for example.
Tips
The main tip is to not instinctively do what you have done previously in b41 when using firearms of using the mouse merely to aim the character in the appropriate direction to shoot, and to make sure you're using the mouse cursor reticule in the same way you would inside an FPS, you are literally aiming, so need to literally aim for a zombie's head.
Standing still while firing, not moving the mouse sharply, not shooting at a zombie at point blank range until fixes go in, trying to get a few points of skill in the firearm preferably in character creation, and once you get a feel for it you can do some pretty satisfying rick grimes moments of popping a few zombie skulls with bullets in a row. It's pretty damn satisfying once you get the hang.
- Moodles such as tiredness, panic, stress and drunkenness have a serious effect on accuracy. The farther the target, the more this is noticed. Bad moodles will straight out screw you, especially at lower levels.
- Bad weather and low lighting also have negative effects on accuracy. Outdoorsman and skill level can help counter the wind and rain. Flashlights can counter the darkness. Like moodles: the farther the target, the higher the effect of the environmental factor.
- It now takes time to raise and aim your gun and time to reset the aim after firing. Firing again too fast can cause you to miss. The skill level offsets this, while dexterous/all-thumbs effects shouldering time.
- Strength and skill level effect recoil, which can cause muscle fatigue
- A weapons built-in sights and mounted scopes are intended to be used within a certain range. Outside of this range aiming becomes more difficult.
- While shooting out a vehicle's window, the more extreme the angle the harder the shot. Targets directly to the side or slightly forward are easier to hit.
- Bulky helmets and headgear also have a huge impact on accuracy
It's worth trying to spec into shooting on debug to experiment and get a feel for it, and hopefully people will start to get a feel of what we're going for and hopefully help us polish, fix and improve it to the point gunplay in PZ becomes a core strength of the game.