Aiming Leveling Feels Really Broken

[uberevan]

Using all the ammunition I can even find doesn't even bring me to level 1, so what exactly is the purpose of having 10 levels?  Are there like books you can read to become accurate? (even though that doesn't make sense) Even with XP boosters from traits it's not enough.  I don't really get how guns can ever be practical unless you start with the professions that give you the bonuses right away...

[Magic Mark]

You get the experience for hits, so if you go and find some random horde in the least opportune of circumstances (i.e. if you are panicking, you will be missing and won't learn anything), you have failed and need to try again later.

 

Even without the XP boost I found getting to the first two levels rather easy. I'd travel far out, get a meter away from a zed, and shoot. Miss, move back, try again.

 

If I start to panic, I wait until I can calm myself, then I'll come back.

 

Hand and arm injuries affect the chance as well.

 

If you have a hard time getting hits, using a shotgun is a great way to get XP early. Not only will you almost always hit something with a close range blast, you can get even more XP for having the spread hit multiple things.

 

And the best part is that once you get your skill up, you are more likely to hit, therefore getting more XP from more hits and leveling faster.

 

If you don't pick a trait that will help you get to 10, strive for 5, because 5 is very achievable and will give you a high enough of a hit chance to make regular defense use of firearms. And once you hit five, it is easier to get to six if you can lay out a good training session. At the top-tier you can get double kills with the rifles. Obviously it will take some time to get there, but by the time you reach 3-4 you will be good enough that you can use the pistol to practice your aim.

 

IMO levels 6-10 are reserved for people who want to be as effective as possible with rifles and PVP... the .223 and .308 become very great zombie killers when you can afford to use them. By far the best thing to kill zed all the way down the street with when you have 8 aiming, shoot several times, move and shoot again. 

[King Kitteh]

Getting more experience in aiming from using a shotgun sounds really... Counter intuitive.

[Kelefane]

It would be cool if the game had a tiny crosshair appear in the middle of the screen or something only when a firearm is equipped.  And you can move the crosshair around with some button or even the mouse or something.

[uberevan]

16 hours ago, Kim Jong Un said:

Snippity Snip Snip

No, see, that's the issue.  I went out and shot up a horde using all of my shotgun ammo, which was like 3 boxes.  I killed about 2-3 per shot, and yet gained little to no XP at all.

[wanderinbilly]

11 hours ago, King Kitteh said:

Getting more experience in aiming from using a shotgun sounds really... Counter intuitive.

Bahahaha! Yeah, it certainly does.   I just remembered, though, that you use a shotgun for skeet shooting. I went shooting w/ my brother in law one day. At one point I'm all "Cool, did I get that one!?" He replied "No, that was *my* shot: see where those branches over there are shaking? That's your shot." So, you actually can gain aiming skill w/ a shotgun, but we're not shooting at small disks zipping through the air, are we. I used to be able to get to level 2+ but not lately. I just took out a horde blocking me from the Isolated Forest House and didn't get many points for it.

[Magic Mark]

3 hours ago, uberevan said:

No, see, that's the issue.  I went out and shot up a horde using all of my shotgun ammo, which was like 3 boxes.  I killed about 2-3 per shot, and yet gained little to no XP at all.

Ah, I see. I think it's something in the game that takes time to learn. I had the trait quick-learner when I tried taking it on.

 

(Edit: I should note that I had doubled the XP modifier in that save as well. So forget most of that post)

[uberevan]

2 hours ago, Kim Jong Un said:

Ah, I see. I think it's something in the game that takes time to learn. I had the trait quick-learner when I tried taking it on.

 

(Edit: I should note that I had doubled the XP modifier in that save as well. So forget most of that post)

I'm trying it again with a new character (my other got bitten)

I have twice as much ammunition, so we'll see how quickly he learns this time...

Really I'm only using the shotgun so the pistol is actually a viable weapon

[Necromatic_Corgi]

I hate the aiming system in the game SO much, It's a dice roll if you will hit anything, I remember shooting an entire mag into a horde and not a single kill, It's cancerous. One of my very few gripes with the game.

[DresdenBBQ]

Yeah the aiming system is pretty broken, i remember playing on a server against a guy with lv 10 aiming skill and 5k zombie kills and he instantly headshot my buddy and i ran for the hills and then said screw it and went back and fire two glock shots and caught him in the neck and he sprayed me down... i killed him though the fact that i killed him with my 1 random glock shot with level 1 aiming is a miracle. (ORGM mod is pretty good for getting lots of guns and ammo to level up aiming)

[Kelefane]

11 hours ago, xXSly_WolfyXx said:

I hate the aiming system in the game SO much, It's a dice roll if you will hit anything, I remember shooting an entire mag into a horde and not a single kill, It's cancerous. One of my very few gripes with the game.

 

THIS is why I wish the game had a movable crosshair appear on the screen when a firearm is equipped.

[EnigmaGrey]

8 hours ago, Kelefane said:

 

THIS is why I wish the game had a movable crosshair appear on the screen when a firearm is equipped.

A crosshair that'd be useless because the game uses directional aiming between two points for target selection, with priority being on the closest target.

 

There is no vector / ray-cast / projectiles involved. Maybe that'll change in the future, but for now it's not as simple as adding a crosshair. You have a chance to hit a target within that zone and it boils down to about 1/5 at level 0 while panicked. Though, I don't know how ORGM affects this, from experience on Redboid it seems to provide a much higher level of accuracy for all guns.

 

RPG-esque games tend to rely on RNG and character skill / state for aiming. PZ is no exception and is unlikely to change in that regard. If you have a streak of bad luck,  you'll miss. If the RNG god favors you, however, you'll hit targets exceedingly well. Rathlord provides ways to make the RNG God favor you below.

 

The shotgun is meant to be the first gun the player uses -- due to its ability to hit multiple targets, you should be able to level aim quickly to level 2-3 and start playing around with pistols.

[Rathlord]

A lot of the issue is that people just don't understand how the aiming works, also. There's several hidden systems that aren't explained in-game.

 

First (which has been mentioned), panic effects aim quite a lot. Take beta blockers or traits to reduce panic and have a much better time.

 

Second, moving and shooting reduces accuracy. Even shooting right after you've stopped moving. Wait a moment before firing after you've moved to have a better time.

 

Third, firing repeatedly reduces accuracy (it takes time to draw a bead after a gun has been fired). Wait a moment before firing again after you've fired to have a better time.

 

Good luck and don't let the zombies bite.

[Necromatic_Corgi]

18 minutes ago, Rathlord said:

A lot of the issue is that people just don't understand how the aiming works, also. There's several hidden systems that aren't explained in-game.

 

First (which has been mentioned), panic effects aim quite a lot. Take beta blockers or traits to reduce panic and have a much better time.

 

Second, moving and shooting reduces accuracy. Even shooting right after you've stopped moving. Wait a moment before firing after you've moved to have a better time.

 

Third, firing repeatedly reduces accuracy (it takes time to draw a bead after a gun has been fired). Wait a moment before firing again after you've fired to have a better time.

 

Good luck and don't let the zombies bite.

I had no idea those were things (except panic), Thanks for the info.

[uberevan]

2 hours ago, Rathlord said:

A lot of the issue is that people just don't understand how the aiming works, also. There's several hidden systems that aren't explained in-game.

 

First (which has been mentioned), panic effects aim quite a lot. Take beta blockers or traits to reduce panic and have a much better time.

 

Second, moving and shooting reduces accuracy. Even shooting right after you've stopped moving. Wait a moment before firing after you've moved to have a better time.

 

Third, firing repeatedly reduces accuracy (it takes time to draw a bead after a gun has been fired). Wait a moment before firing again after you've fired to have a better time.

 

Good luck and don't let the zombies bite.

I did know moving and firing repeatedly lowered accuracy, but I didn't know panic finally affected us.  Quick question, does Panic also decrease your XP gains?  I was still hitting them and killing them with shotgun shells but I wasn't getting hardly any XP from it.

 

Overall, the advice people are giving me makes it sound like they think I am not hitting the zombies...that isn't the issue.  The issue is that I AM hitting the zombies, and hardly getting any XP from it.  I am using the shotgun, standing still and waiting between shots.  I just don't get why I gained little to no experience from around 120 kills.

[Rathlord]

16 hours ago, uberevan said:

I did know moving and firing repeatedly lowered accuracy, but I didn't know panic finally affected us.  Quick question, does Panic also decrease your XP gains?  I was still hitting them and killing them with shotgun shells but I wasn't getting hardly any XP from it.

 

Overall, the advice people are giving me makes it sound like they think I am not hitting the zombies...that isn't the issue.  The issue is that I AM hitting the zombies, and hardly getting any XP from it.  I am using the shotgun, standing still and waiting between shots.  I just don't get why I gained little to no experience from around 120 kills.

 

If you've gotten 120 kills from it then what's the problem @.@

[uberevan]

1 hour ago, Rathlord said:

 

If you've gotten 120 kills from it then what's the problem @.@

The whole point of using the shotgun wasn't to kill a horde, it was to boost my XP so that using a Pistol was actually feasible if I were ever in a pinch.  But even after all those kills I couldn't get hardly any XP

[King Kitteh]

16 minutes ago, uberevan said:

The whole point of using the shotgun wasn't to kill a horde, it was to boost my XP so that using a Pistol was actually feasible if I were ever in a pinch.  But even after all those kills I couldn't get hardly any XP

You don't need to aim barely as much with pipe bombs.

[Millitron]

It'd be kinda nice to have different skills for pistols and long guns.  They really are two different skills; the only thing that's the same is sight alignment.  Stance and grip vary quite a bit between rifles and pistols.