Awkward rifle handling

[octavian]

That concave part of the stock is where the right hand and cheek would be, and the eye would be right behind and above the cocking piece. So it seems to me that when firing you wouldn't see even the cocking piece, let alone the stock. It looks as if the player is holding the rifle by the butt instead of having it against his shoulder and it looks terribly funny.

Wouldn't it be better if, for one, the rifle wasn't centered on the screen but more to the right and the player's head would be further up the rifle?

[Majales]

That "cocking piece" is bolt. You don't have head and eye above bolt. Search for some pictures on Google with search term "rifle position".

Aiming with one eye close or open depends on more factors. Like precise or defensive shooting, eye dominance, rifle/handgun, skill etc. This is game, so there is some simplification.

[Boston123]

I wouldn't close my opposite eye when aiming with a rifle. That makes you lose all depth perception

[octavian]

Looking around I found this picture online. Wouldn't looking down the sights be more like this picture rather than how it's the game right now?

[German4XXX]

Not being one to discourage ideas I have to say that half the screen going black is something no one would like.

[elloco999]

Actually, showing less of the rifle would mean the rifle would also block less of the screen...

I agree with octavian_os that the rifle should be somewhat lowered, moved back and to the right from it's current position. The way it is displayed now does make it seem like the player is holding the rifle by the stock at the center of his shoulders/ high upon his/ her chest.

[toebar]

I don't know if it could be lowered--- the sights need to be at the center of the screen, or aiming would become very odd. Similarly,moving it to the right would make it difficult to use the sights. IE you need to be looking down the rifle to properly line up the sights, as it is now.

Perhaps it could be brought 'closer' to the player, but I suspect the amount of area obscured by the rifle in that case will stay about the same. I do agree that it feels like the rifle is a bit 'far' away when aiming, so something like the second picture above would be more accurate.

As to whether Will has shot a rifle before, I suspect there's a very good chance he has, as a bush pilot in the north.

[Shanti]

I agree with Toebar - I think the rifle should stay centered, and maybe move closer. My experience shooting is that the focus goes beyond the sights, so most of the rifle goes out of focus to my eye - only the post and the target are actually in focus. This might be hard to represent in a game, and I actually think the current rifle look / animations are pretty good.

I guess if there were "awkward rifle handling" changes, I would ask for this - a player wearing mittens should take longer to bring the rifle up and / or suffer an accuracy penalty, and maybe a reloading speed reduction. Finally, actually shooting while wearing mittens might cause the rifle to "pull" in a random direction. All of these things sound horribly frustrating, so I would hope the Devs would implement some way to remove mittens / add a trigger finger to the mittens before implementing it.

[octavian]

I'm not saying the rifle should be lowered. The player's "head" should simply be, as it were, further up the rifle. There is absolutely no way you would see the stock. This is atypical of any game that I know of. Here's an example from Metro LL.

metro2.jpg[/attachment]

Of course, it's not as simple as this. You would not have a black patch in your field of vision, it would simply get smaller and be offset to the right, because your right eye isn't in the middle of your face. But this is a good enough illustration of the fact that you would lose field of vision on the left side relative to the direction you are looking in.

There is no game, at least that I know of, that implements a) iron sights with "true" both eyes open, stereopsis, double image, weapon offset to the right or b) iron sights with "true", one eye open, centered weapon, no double image, no stereopsis, field of vision loss relative to the left of your viewing direction.

I imagine a) would simply not work because it would be impossible to aim in the case of a projection of 3D space on a plane. Also, it would scare pretty much everybody away as being way to alien and "unrealistic". b) could be implemented but, at this point, I see no reason. You don't need peripheral vision in TLD. I think the costs of implementation and it being "too" different still outweigh the gains.

As for other mechanics concerning the handling of the rifle itself or ballistics I suppose it all depends on if the rifle will ever be crucial to your guaranteed survival. If left as is, I doubt there will be any point to add complexity to it.

[AmericanSteel]

I think an honest sight picture, as Octavian has shown, is the realistic way to go. You will see "less" because you are focused down barrel to get a clear sight picture. You still have peripheral vision, but most people have to close their non-firing eye. Especially if they are shooting with their non-dominant eye. For instance, I am right handed but left eye dominant. Made for a hell of a time learning to fire an M-16 in basic. So using a rifle, I have to close my non-firing eye or my sight picture goes all out of wack. I don't have to do this with a pistol, because I just turn my head so my dominate eye can see correctly. Which allows me to keep my peripheral vision intact.

I don't know how experienced the "bush pilot" is with the weapon. But he can repair it with a chunk of fir and the parts from a can opener. Mr. or Mrs. McGyver can't be to bad.

[JErosion]

since the new update i have been dropping critters with no trouble, i dropped a Mystery Lake bear in one shot, I feel proud