[SUGGESTION] Remove ammo counter entirely

[thekillergreece]

I don't think it's necessarily for the player to be aware how many PRECISELY ammo they got on them and how many ammo their gun got. For example, if you pull out your rifle on your hands and if you look up on the left corner, a HUD of ammo counter would appear: You got # bullets in your rifle AND # in your backpack.

The same happens for flare guns and arrows. I mean, these are entirely PRECISELY. Lately, the "About # hours left for daytime" was removed and was implemented into more realistic and better system: Sun icon between the line. If it's up, it's sunny. If the sun icon is not visible, it's night.

Same can go for the ammo counter system. Remove it entirely and add a new system where your character will open the chamber and count the bullets or state how he feels like. Is it very heavy? Then the rifle most likely have between 8 to 10 bullets. Average weight? Maybe 5 bullets. Light? 1 to 4 bullets. If chamber is empty, then the rifle is empty. This mechanic is SIMILARLY done to Red Orchestra 2 (Where there isnt ammo counter HUD system but your character can check the magazine of your weapon to determine ABOUT how much bullets you got.)

But for the flare gun? The character should open the flare gun and check if the bullet is inside or not and that's it. Want to know how many flares you got left? Stop and open your backpack and count. SAME goes for the arrows. 

This suggestion aims for realism and avoids the "precisely" like the day/night system from "About 9 hours left until darkness" to Sun icon between the line. Same can happen for weapons.

[Mroz4k]

Isn't there an option to remove HUD entirely? I think there is, in the settings in main menu. I mean, it also means you lose the reticule for aiming, but it kind of feels like you would like that.

I personally don't mind it that much - what is the difference? I think most people would first load their gun, and since you rarely shoot off more than one bullet if someone starts charging you, it really makes little difference. It helps newbies which is fine by me, and experienced player doesn't really pay attention to it anyways, so as far as I am concerned, it can stay.

[JAFO]

I think the counter simply fills in for the awareness a person would (or should) have in real life, of how many shots they have remaining.

Sort of like the way other icons fill in for the innate awareness you have of your own body in real life.

[Mroz4k]

3 minutes ago, JAFO said:

I think the counter simply fills in for the awareness a person would (or should) have in real life, of how many shots they have remaining.

Sort of like the way other icons fill in for the innate awareness you have of your own body in real life.

This is an excellent point. In real life, we are aware of many "sensible" factors which the game can't replicate, for example, how "cold" we are in the game. Can't make the player playing feel the cold weather of the game with the current PC technology. So the counter can be a sort of "notification" of which would be supplied by the person´s memory of simply holding a rifle. If I was holding a rifle in-game, the "touch" memory would make me aware that I have a full clip because I manually pushed 10 bullets in half an hour ago. You can't replicate that "touch" memory inside of the game which is why the HUD is there.