How can you tell how many rounds you have left in a gun?

[benmat81]

I'm a big fan of how the game is set up right now regarding the ammo system. I love the fact the pistol does not display the current mag as well how many I have in my equipped bag and my main inventory. Just running through the streets and popping off rounds here and there, you have to keep a mental reminder of how many spent and how many stored. I like rummaging through my bags looking for the other clips and in most cases panicking looking for the last half mag I have stored. I really don't think this game needs an ammo display, takes away from the game just the way I think about it.

I gotta agree with you on this one. I think it's a little more realistic to not have an ammo count on screen, and just keep track in your mind and count your shots.

I think it would be cool if they added the ability to count the bullet stack in the gun by "expanding" the pistol; so you could actually see the bullet stack within the gun itself. It would be like stopping and dropping out the mag to count the rounds/checking the ammo etching on the magazine.

I dunno if the game can handle sub-stacks though. it would probably screw up the pistol stacking all-together.

[American Steel]

Blood pumping. Seems like a bit of a under-exaggeration. Hats off to you sir for the cool head.

 

First time I was shot at, cool head I did not have   However, once you have been shot at and live... it kinda changes your perspective.  I am not saying I am any sort of Barnes (ahem, Platoon) or love to spout out phrases like "I love the smell of naphalm in the morning."  You just have to swallow it and drive on with the mission/job.

[Aardman55]

 

was thinkin of making a mod for this. much like the coordinates mod. instead it's just on the side of your primary or secondary icon, depending on which you have your gun equipped, tells you how many bullets are in weapon and how many mags you have for it.  altho it sorta kills that realism side of it  of having to check your inventory and how many shots you have fired etc

Can you explain the logic behind this thought?

 

I don't know of a single gun or mag in rl that tells you how many bullets are left.  but i haven't fired any high tech guns.

 

 

The P90 kinda does, it has a transparent magazine on top of it and it lets you see how many bullets you fired. It doesnt give you the exact count, but you can see if its half or quarter full and such.

 

However, I think with the cop trait (or later if they add it, (ex) military) you should be able to "feel" the amount of bullets left, so after a while of shooting and reloading and loading guns and all that, your character gets a feel of what weight the magazine has and like that be able to say something like "Magazine's half full!" or "Got a quarter left" or something like that, you get the idea, no exact amounts of bullets but rather just a... less exact one. I never really fired magazine-using gun myself, but I heard alot that after awhile you get a hang of the gun you use alot and just feel the weight.

[American Steel]

War Story for the kiddies out there...  Here is the set up.

 

I am in British Hondo down in Central America.  We were attached to an engineering company who was rebuilding a local hospital.  More "Feel Good" diplomacy for the locals since we really shook some nerves by jumping into Panama and taking Noregia out of office.  Anyway, the hospital that was in place was some wooden sided structures with tent tops and wood floors, like a M.A.S.H. tent.  Anyway, they were having the problem that people were coming in for treatment and getting all sorts of nasty infections.  I mean, who would have though rotting wood in a tropical environment would hold bacteria?!  I mean, really! 

 

So, the engineers come in and doze the place.  They then doze the woodline back to about 500m and they burned the lot.  There was some highland about a 550 to 800m which let the locals watch what we were doing.  We asked the engineers to dig us some deflades for our hummers and we spend out time filling sand bags and lifting weights (I kid you not).  Now the locals just see us come in, round up all the docs and truck them off.  We then clear the place slick and burn it.  I bet you can guess what they thought we were doing.  Engineers start off by laying a foundation and then the foundation for four rain cisterns.  They start building up the cisterns first and you know what they look like after about a day?  Pill boxes.  Now I bet you can really guess what the locals think we are doing.

 

Anyway, I was part of a medium MP platoon 2 squads with 9 soldiers each (six, three man fire teams) + LT, Plt Sgt and the Lts Driver.  Seven trucks total.  Now my Sergeant, (I was a PFC at this time) did not like tents.  He was a very train like you fight kinda guy... so we slept in/on our truck.  I was in our deflade, laying with my feet dangling in the turret (sporting a .50 cal).  I was wearing unlaced boot, boxers and my harness.  I hear a "twack!" nearby and look around.  Nothing.  I lay myself back down and work on my tan some more.  "Twack!"  I look around, nothing.  I lay back down again and hear a "Twack!  Pingggg!"  I get up and look around and holy smokes, the five gallon water can in the back of the truck is leaking.  And look there, you can see daylight though that hole...and two more holes?!?!  It then sinks in to my PFC brain someone is shooting at me.  I jump into the truck and pull my kelvar on when the rounds start to fall.  I am not talking like The Godfather.  About 10 to 30 rounds a minute.  I get on the radio and call for support.  I stand up and then it starts falling a bit harder.  My Sgt and Driver are not nearby.  The driver is about a truck over playing spades and the Sgt is in the platoon leaders tent doing whatever.  The driver start shouting, shoot!  Shoot!  SHOOT!  I spin the 50 around (unlaced boots, boxes, harness and kevlar) and go back into truck to pull out a box of ammo.  The Sgt starts running out of the tent yelling all sorts of color phrases that if I fire that weapon I will be digging a hole with a bayonet to China.  Rounds start to fall more.  Tempo is increasing.  I put the can up into the rig and start loading.  Sgt starts yelling at me as he runs I will be all day Private and his B!tch for ever if I load that weapon.  Slap!  Ammo is in the throat of the M2.  Driver is yelling and running, shoot!  The rounds then start falling into the compound from a few different directions (still from on high).

 

Rounds land in front of my Sgt's feet and he dives for cover, taking a mouthful of sand for his trouble.  He spits sand and shouts at me "What th f!@k are you waiting for, shoot!"  I pull back on the charging handle, point the .50 up and press the butterflys.  Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!   The effective range of a M2 is 1800m and I start walking rounds into the last flash I saw, 600 to 700m out.  This is not a chain gun at close range, I am not chopping down trees.  BUT, I would not want to be on the receiving end either.  I spin out the last of my box when the driver arrives with a smoke in his mouth and a smile, laughing at my load out and hands me a box of ammo.  I load up and start spending more ammo downrange.  Sgt shows up and starts to comment on my wardrobe malfunction when the other 50s in the platoon come on line.  Next thing you know, six 50 cals are setting the side of this hill on fire.  I spend out the rest of that box and go fo another with my driver cackling like a hen and wanting to get in on the gun.  Then the Lts Mk-19 HE rounds start to dance around the hill side.  It is like the Chariots of Fire theme song went off in my head, with the runners going in slow mo.  I swear they bloomed like flowers before our eyes.  We then get the cease fire.

 

Our Female Lt walks up to our truck and then stops dead.  Me in my "beach uniform" and her acting all West Point like, mouth open so wide you could drive a truck in it.  She barks for a sitrip and before anyone can say a thing my driver blurts out, "Brief enounter Ma'am!"  Dead silence for about a second and then we were all on out @ss laughing... even the Lt.  We got out act together, put out a patrol and went into the woodline to see what we could see.  We found nothing.  Narry a soul.  I guarentee we just spent 1500 .50 rounds and at least 20 Mk-19 rounds into the side of a hill and found some blood traces here and there.

 

Two weeks go by and we get a few more pot shots, but the locals know we are not going to tollerate any non-sense like the first time.  The building goes up with cinder block wall, tin roof and a gap between the roof and the wall with some mesh to keep the bugs out.  They then bring the docs back and set up the surgical ward in box in one room.  Next day, Red Cross flag goes up.  Engineers move out to do some road improvement and we are slated to go for the ride.  Folk come down out of the hills and tell us they think we were going to invade.  Some of them were tore up bad, lots of 2nd and 3rd degree burns.  They said it was all a misunderstanding and were happy the docs came back with a new hospital.  I never found out if we killed any of them.

 

I we stayed in Hondo for another week and then deployed stateside to prepare for NTC.  First day back, received my Specialist... blooded in.  Top said Boxers and briefs was funny but made from a crappy call sign, renamed Shorts.  Kept that moniker the entire time I was at Ft Carson.  When I went to other duty stations and saw old platoon bugs from Ft Carson, Shorts was the first thing to come out of there mouth.  However, they were the only one who had the right to use it.  Can't have some wet nose private call me Shorts like he had been there.  Pfft!  Good times. 

[ander01se]

How about a key that briefly displays remaining ammo?

[Saemunder]

Reminds me of work at the airport. It's not as dangerous but has those moments when you think really?

 

We had a plane leaving and were short on time to get it turned around, so I'm the ramp guy dealing in getting stuff to where it needs to be when it needs to be so that the plane can start taking on new passengers. So given the issues I grab the car drive it down to the baggage section to help tow the remaining 2 bins. Get there and no one is about which is kinda odd but you figure the pricks just got lazy and left, wouldn't be the first time. I check the tags on the bags to make sure I've got the right bins, happy with everything climb back in the car and head to the plane. As they are busy loading up I get a call from inside asking if I'm alright and I'm thinking "Is this really the time for some trivial phonecall". All this time I'm looking at a hole in the car near the back trying to figure out what the hell that's from. Turns out 3 parking bays over a gun fight broke out while they were robbing the plane right at the section where the baggage bins came out from. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Oh and in case you think I'm deaf, you have 2 planes with their engines going and see if you can hear anything that isn't yelled in your ear.

[WalrusKing]

I will mention that there are some models of magazines with numberings and small punches through the metal on the rear side allowing the user to see the number of rounds remaining in the magazine.  Hit or miss, depending on model, however; Plus it would still require momentary ejection of the magazine.

[harakka]

Jagged Alliance 1.13 mod has a fairly nice system for this. Your knowledge of how many rounds you have left depends on your general skill with guns, and your familiarity with the particular firearm. I think the type of the firearm (eg. revolver vs MMG) has an effect too. When your skill and knowledge of the gun is low, you only have an approximate number, and checking the exact count requires spending time on it. When firing single shots your approximation stays better even with low skill, on full auto you never have an exact count. It probably isn't trivial to implement but it is very intuitive to to the player.

[rorschach]

War Story for the kiddies out there...  Here is the set up.

 

I am in British Hondo down in Central America. 

 

Just curious about this, since it was nagging me since last night.

Are you saying that you were in British Honduras back in the days before it became Belize?

[Sieben]

Jagged Alliance 1.13 mod has a fairly nice system for this. Your knowledge of how many rounds you have left depends on your general skill with guns, and your familiarity with the particular firearm. I think the type of the firearm (eg. revolver vs MMG) has an effect too. When your skill and knowledge of the gun is low, you only have an approximate number, and checking the exact count requires spending time on it. When firing single shots your approximation stays better even with low skill, on full auto you never have an exact count. It probably isn't trivial to implement but it is very intuitive to to the player.

 

Hmm, like "better well stolen than badly homemade"? I like it (I love JA2). With better Skilllevel (3-5) the Munition will be shown.

 

I like the idea with ammoclips (could be found) to reduce the weight of the loose bullets maybe. Like the ammocarts.

Edit: After a gunfight you have to fill the empty clips of course with loose bullets