Rifle's iron sights or wolf hitboxes are off?

[Farmerbob]

It's been a few years since I last served in the Army, but I qualified expert at the range on several occasions. Not every time, I'm not some rifle prodigy. That being said, I can consistently hit a man-sized target at 100 yards with an M16 using iron sights.

Even with the rifle at 90+ percent, and I've repaired up to 100% to be sure, I miss almost every shot.

I don't try head shots. I do chest cavity shots. And I never try long shots, shooting when the animal is at most 30 yards or so away.

My hit ratio is somewhere around 1 of 4 shots, which is absolutely horrible. That's combining both instant kills and blood trail hits.

Something else that bothers me is that it's impossible to get a proper sight picture. The front iron is always too high when the rifle is at rest and stable. I have found no way to adjust this broken sight picture. I have tried compensating for the broken sight picture, by aiming a little low at close range, but it makes no difference.

Are there plans to fix the iron sights and/or the hitbox for wolves, or am I missing some sort of undocumented zeroing mechanism for the rifle?

[octavian]

Both, and more. This is how you can guarantee a wolf kill, so basically imagine the rifle a sawed-off shotgun in terms of effective distance.

https://youtu.be/leq2OaI3SmU?t=17m45s

[Farmerbob]

Eh, I gave up on stalker mode, so I can only get wolves that close if I go sit in a fishing hut with decoy meat right outside the door. Melee combat with wolves is way too clickspastic right now. I started 20 games and didn't find a single rifle in Stalker mode.

After I started my first Pilgrim mode game, I found a rifle in the second building I checked. *sigh*

I suppose it's better this way. Wolves generally do avoid humans, so I'm playing a more realistic simulator in Pilgrim mode.

[wyrdsmyth]

Crazy, I just started my first Stalker session (I've only played either Pilgrim or Voyageur so far) and picked up a rifle in the open box car at The Derailment in Mystery Lake about 10 minutes in. I only have one bullet, so for now I've been crouching to avoid the wolves and the bear that wanders the lake. I also only have sneakers for outer foot-wear, and no gloves or mittens, so it doesn't take much to get my cold to spiral out of control. I have yet to see a single deer, but I'm still on Day 2 at this point, and just finished scavenging from the cabins on the far side of the lake. My next point of interest (if I survive that long) will be the Trapper's Homestead, in the hopes that I'll be able to find some more ammo.

I don't fire the rifle at a wolf unless it's almost on top of me, slowed to a walk due to a lure drop (I no longer wait for wolves to start eating the lure, too risky), or standing still over a downed deer, eating. I always go for the head shot, and try to aim between the eyes if facing the wolf, otherwise the rear part of the skull if from the side or back. But like octavian said, the rifle's accuracy decreases dramatically with range. The bow's accuracy is even worse, and you can't fire it while crouching.

One possibility is that the game is purposely nerfed on distance shooting, because while you may be a good rifleman/archer, that doesn't mean the protagonist is. That's just me theorizing however, so don't take it too much to heart.

[teapot156]

...

I'm having the same troubles so I was going to post the same thing in bug reporting section. I aim for center mass on a wolf feeding at about 25 meters away and the round impacts on the ground in front of it. The rifle is a doorstop or firewood at best now. This also must be problem with just that gun because a bow is very effective and consistent.

The gun got me killed in a stalker run I was doing fine in, because I chased another wolf I missed previously into a patch of trees in PV only to run into two consecutive wolf attacks where I missed both charging wolves at ~15 meters. I was then stuck in one of those "flash" blizzards and lost the way home.

[calmheart]

I've just done some testing. With a rifle repaired to 94% and aiming using the aiming method outlined here, I achieved 7 hits from 33 shots when aiming for boiler shots, with long aiming time and at close to medium range on a clear evening. This seemed curious to me so I decided to perform another test.

I made my way over to the gas station to shoot the nice flat blue side at similar distances. Shots which hit show clear sparks and then a tiny puff of smoke emerging from where the shot lands. Over 100 shots later and checking back on my video recordings I noticed that not a single shot hit above the central post. Rather, the shots fall down and swing between left and right.

The shots appeared to hit within the range of a point at or just below the tip of the post to about the black bar at the center bottom of the rear bracket and swinging between center and left or right of that within the same height range.

Is this realistic? I don't care. Is this reasonable for the game? In my opinion, no. It's unintuitive to have to ignore the iron-sight's actual purpose, for a start. And accuracy-wise, a boiler shot on a profile wolf with this plot means you need the wolf at 5 meters or less moving slowly or remaining stationary. This doesn't seem reasonable to me.

TLDR / Summary; I have included a picture for illustration. Line up the part of the world you want a hole put into it inside that half-circle.

[nicko]

Over 100 shots later and checking back on my video recordings I noticed that not a single shot hit above the central post.

I'm just wondering where you got so much bullets? and what game version are you using atm

I have used the gun in 257 it seems to shoot pretty decent. I even shot a rabbit. though that might of taken a few shots.

[Majales]

Over 100 shots later and checking back on my video recordings I noticed that not a single shot hit above the central post.

I'm just wondering where you got so much bullets? and what game version are you using atm

I have used the gun in 257 it seems to shoot pretty decent. I even shot a rabbit. though that might of taken a few shots.

You can reload saved game, if you are out of bullets.

[calmheart]

My tests were done with the .257 version of the game, which is the latest version on Steam if I am not mistaken.

[Diamondz]

Anyone know why you cant kill deer at long range with the rifle? I've always aimed directly at the deer's torso and every time I shoot the deer runs away, is there something I am missing?

[kaynesyduin]

I've never hit an animal, except for using flares to entrance wolves... My brother swears that you use the barrel, rather than the iron sights to hunt... but I've never stayed alive long enough to test it--generally, if I'm on Stalker, I spawn near hungry bears [and never see the sunset--which, doesn't detract from the fun I have].

[kaynesyduin]

Oh... and rabbits... rabbits explode.

[SteveP]

The game is not very realistic when it comes to rifle shots. Normally one aim's centre of chest cavity however this never consistently provides a kill shot, even within a few metres. A head shot is the way to go on the wolf.

I haven't had much luck with deer either since they seem able to run away even after having a hole punched in their chest with a high powered rifle. At other times, I've gotten a quick kill on deer but it's a moving shot so maybe I'm just hitting the invisible hit box near the head. Being closer seems to help but it's impossible to infer the exact mechanics by observation alone.

The developers seem reticent to give us more information; it is frustrating. >:[

Perhaps they use a pseudo-random dice roll; I don't know. That's also possible.

To make the game realistic, we should be making deer shots from 50 to 200 metres. It's completely unrealistic to crawl up to within 10 metres of a deer as it is in the game. In reality, you could only ever get that close to a deer by sitting in a blind and probably using something to mask your scent.

[SteveP]

Normally the rear sights are adjustable for range. If the front sight is correctly aligned, the point of impact is exactly where you put the sights. With a high power rifle zeroed at either 150 or 200 metres, your shot will be only an inch or so high at closer than 100. At 50 metres, the shot could be 1-2 inches high depending on your load. Magnum shoots flatter.

If one were shooting with a scope beyond 200 metres, then you start to get into the ballistics and the experts know exactly how much to adjust the scope. They also have laser range finders.

Misaligning the aiming point of these iron sights does not, in my opinion, improve the game. The shot should be dead on at the aiming point at 200 and maybe a trifle high closer. When aiming centre of mass chest, that is adequate for a kill shot.

If you want to improve the game, I would suggest you let the player select the range to zero the rifle at, which is a quick adjustment of the rear sight. It should not be necessary to 'sight in' a rifle with iron sights. A scope is different.

[[FIN]PuG]

Eh, I gave up on stalker mode, so I can only get wolves that close if I go sit in a fishing hut with decoy meat right outside the door. Melee combat with wolves is way too clickspastic right now. I started 20 games and didn't find a single rifle in Stalker mode.

After I started my first Pilgrim mode game, I found a rifle in the second building I checked. *sigh*

I suppose it's better this way. Wolves generally do avoid humans, so I'm playing a more realistic simulator in Pilgrim mode.

Same here, I hate when wolves attacking every time when in reality they are afraid of people.

Another problem is in the eating, stalker mode is hungry all the time and it will ruin the joy of the game, but pilgrim mode is too easy. Pilgrim mode wolves might be able to attack, but rarely and intimidation would be easier (shouting etc.). Frost should also be a worse threat than now but eating and hungry is fine pilgrim mode.

[Scyzara]

Anyone know why you cant kill deer at long range with the rifle? I've always aimed directly at the deer's torso and every time I shoot the deer runs away, is there something I am missing?

You actually can one-shot deer, it's just damn difficult to hit either the head or heart hitboxes from far distances due to the inaccuracy of rifle and bow. (Aim behind the front legs for the heart hitbox). I recently had a lucky shot with the bow in this area and the deer dropped dead instantly. Never seriously tried to kill them with the rifle, but I assume it works pretty much the same.