Steadfast Ranger's UNREALISTIC rifle overhaul - Feedback

[ArcherAC3]

 

Hello. I decided to create this thread so I can give some feedback - mainly negative - about the new aiming mechanic that came with Steadfast Ranger and comparing it to the old mechanic. I'll also point some of the points that I liked about it and what could be changed a bit after the main text; and will finish with some video examples.

So although pretty much every new feature added with Steadfast Ranger has been great, the new "overhaul" for the rifle aiming mechanic was a serious downgrade in my opinion, both in terms of realism and because it took away the lovely, challenging and iconic The Long Dark feeling we used to have when employing firearms.

The problem with the overhaul is that it simply lowers the complexity of aiming a rifle with ironsights to a very dull and unrealistic level, coming close to how ironsights tend to "work" in every other arcade shooter out there.

In real life your head does NOT sway perfectly with the weapon like if it was fixed to it (in fact, the head/viewpoint shouldn't even sway AT ALL) but only the weapon itself sways (due to involuntary muscle contractions, breathing, heartrate, and so on). Therefore, not only the aimpoint won't always be the center of the screen/your field of view, but the rear and forward sights WON'T always be aligned as well (perfectly exemplified by how it used to work before this update), requiring you to wait (and in real life "align" the weapon's front and rear sides) until you have a proper "sight picture".

Now what we have with the "overhaul" is a always perfectly aligned sights (sight picture is always present even when the character is extremely tired) and an artificial, rather predictable and absolutely unrealistic sway that moves the weapon as a whole across the screen while your head magically and slightly sways with it.

Before the video examples I'll leave below, I must say that there has been some pretty good additions to the aiming mechanic though. When the character is tired and heavily breaths out we can feel the effect it does on the aim, sharply swaying it vertically; and the fatigue that builds up while aiming the weapon is also pretty interesting - although I'd like the timer to be longer, as a person in real life could hold a rifle for a lot longer before tiring out, and also for the players to feel the fatigue building up and decide for themselves to let the character relax before being forced to do so. 

Now, for a visual example of a more realistic sway mechanic, especially when tired/under pressure - notice how the sights aren't always aligned, how the viewpoint seems to be stable and how even though the weapon feels very close to the character, we can feel it swaying around; while the background is in focus and the rear sight out of focus: 

For a reminder, notice how it used to work in TLD before the update - also notice how he waits for a sight picture to take the shot and how it feels only the weapon is swaying again. Indeed this could be improved, especially by implementing the breathing into the sway, but in general this felt a lot better and more realistic: 

 

The new aiming mechanic - notice how even when tired/shivering the character never loses sight picture, only the sway gets worse. It's like if his front arm is always in perfect synchrony with the rear one never allowing the sights to get unaligned: 

 

Edited July 16, 2019 by ArcherAC3

[ArcherAC3]

4 hours ago, Hawk said:

I agree. I don't like the new rifle sight at all. I don't know why they decided to fix something that didn't need fixing, and then borked it in the process.

Oh well! That's game developers for ya'

It's annoying when they do these so called "overhauls" or "improvements" but only end up making it worse - just like they done when they changed the searching progress-bar mechanic and the UI.

With every update we seem to lose something iconic that differentiates TLD from every other game out there - making it become more of the dull same.