In continuum to my previous work in the highly abstract world of hitcodes, I've set up a server to experiment out the effects of such an idealised game. It is my hope that this column will help to explain and debate on the following list of changes:
-Spread
-Screen Shake
-Knockback
The server has been running for a few days without these and many players were skeptic, to say the least, whether removing such "features" would change the feel of the game. It undoubtedly feels different but it ain't for the worse. We can break down the gameplay and analyse each segment in relation to these changes.
Of these, aiming comes to mind first and how it's any different. The point in aiming is to have your crosshair on your enemy and press fire. This should come to no surprise for even the simplest of games. Point and shoot or the more elaborate track and shoot. To this concept, comes two key aspects which are accuracy and precision. Accuracy is what makes your shots land close to the target while precision is what makes your shots land close to where you aimed at. These are very important in that you would rather play on LAN where the accuracy is higher than play on the internet while having a good mouse or lower sensitivity helps with precision.
Now, let's consider spread in relation to aiming. In wolfenstein, weapons have spread which grows in scale as you either look around or fires and this reduces your precision the same way a bad mouse will. The end result is that even by having your crosshair on target, you have a probability of not hitting a single shot. Think of an extreme case, a 100 percent spread weapon, where bullets fly over in all directions no matter where you are pointing at. Some people might argue that there is some skill involved but the truth is, it's all up to some random code. Anyone is as good an aimer as any other. Second case, a 50 percent spread weapon, where bullets will shoot randomly within 90 degrees to your weapon and requires that you have the skill to get your target in that range in order to hit. This also increases the precision of the weapon. Third case, a 25 percent spread weapon, where bullets will land within 45 degrees to your weapon and yet again requires more skill and increases the weapon's precision. As you can see, both skill and precision are inversely proportional to spread. The more the spread and the less the precision and skill. Whether you want it or not, these three are related. Lower spread equals higher precision which requires more skill.
Screen shaking is the next on the list and offers a completely different problem. While being shot, your screen will shake in some pseudo-random direction and even if this doesn't directly affect your precision, it will affect your accuracy in the same way that having a high ping without antilag does. You have your crosshair on target but still misses because the view is being offsetted. Some will argue that it requires some skill to "know" how to deal with shakes but let me correct this. The one and only occasion where dealing with shakes requires skill is on flat ground where you don't move your mouse vertically while strafing. Shakes do interfere with accuracy and have no place in a competitive game. Knockback is somewhat similar to screen shakes, in that it also offsets your aim and thus reduces your accuracy.
How does this all affect your aim? It's quite simple actually. In the best of cases, you will want a zero spread weapon with no screen shakes so that your bullets land exactly where you are aiming at. This in turn reflects your true accuracy and increases the game skill gap which is needed in a competitive game. Without spread, screen shakes and knockback, you are now able to aim at crouchers, proners, leaners, campers, backshooters, etc... to name a few since they no longer have the first bullet advantage.
Note: For those of you wanting to check these settings for themselves, you can try them out on: 85.17.39.194
Updated Server
-Rifles are now affected by damage falloff (less damage from far)
-FG42 does less damage (12 instead of 15)
-Sten does more damage (18 instead of 14)
This should fix some balancing issues due to zero spread.
-Spread
-Screen Shake
-Knockback
The server has been running for a few days without these and many players were skeptic, to say the least, whether removing such "features" would change the feel of the game. It undoubtedly feels different but it ain't for the worse. We can break down the gameplay and analyse each segment in relation to these changes.
Of these, aiming comes to mind first and how it's any different. The point in aiming is to have your crosshair on your enemy and press fire. This should come to no surprise for even the simplest of games. Point and shoot or the more elaborate track and shoot. To this concept, comes two key aspects which are accuracy and precision. Accuracy is what makes your shots land close to the target while precision is what makes your shots land close to where you aimed at. These are very important in that you would rather play on LAN where the accuracy is higher than play on the internet while having a good mouse or lower sensitivity helps with precision.
Now, let's consider spread in relation to aiming. In wolfenstein, weapons have spread which grows in scale as you either look around or fires and this reduces your precision the same way a bad mouse will. The end result is that even by having your crosshair on target, you have a probability of not hitting a single shot. Think of an extreme case, a 100 percent spread weapon, where bullets fly over in all directions no matter where you are pointing at. Some people might argue that there is some skill involved but the truth is, it's all up to some random code. Anyone is as good an aimer as any other. Second case, a 50 percent spread weapon, where bullets will shoot randomly within 90 degrees to your weapon and requires that you have the skill to get your target in that range in order to hit. This also increases the precision of the weapon. Third case, a 25 percent spread weapon, where bullets will land within 45 degrees to your weapon and yet again requires more skill and increases the weapon's precision. As you can see, both skill and precision are inversely proportional to spread. The more the spread and the less the precision and skill. Whether you want it or not, these three are related. Lower spread equals higher precision which requires more skill.
Screen shaking is the next on the list and offers a completely different problem. While being shot, your screen will shake in some pseudo-random direction and even if this doesn't directly affect your precision, it will affect your accuracy in the same way that having a high ping without antilag does. You have your crosshair on target but still misses because the view is being offsetted. Some will argue that it requires some skill to "know" how to deal with shakes but let me correct this. The one and only occasion where dealing with shakes requires skill is on flat ground where you don't move your mouse vertically while strafing. Shakes do interfere with accuracy and have no place in a competitive game. Knockback is somewhat similar to screen shakes, in that it also offsets your aim and thus reduces your accuracy.
How does this all affect your aim? It's quite simple actually. In the best of cases, you will want a zero spread weapon with no screen shakes so that your bullets land exactly where you are aiming at. This in turn reflects your true accuracy and increases the game skill gap which is needed in a competitive game. Without spread, screen shakes and knockback, you are now able to aim at crouchers, proners, leaners, campers, backshooters, etc... to name a few since they no longer have the first bullet advantage.
Note: For those of you wanting to check these settings for themselves, you can try them out on: 85.17.39.194
Updated Server
-Rifles are now affected by damage falloff (less damage from far)
-FG42 does less damage (12 instead of 15)
-Sten does more damage (18 instead of 14)
This should fix some balancing issues due to zero spread.
