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Collector321's avatar
Collector321
Seasoned Adventurer
11 months ago

Bullet sometimes goes far off course from where it was aimed. What causes this?

Hi,

I've noticed that when firing a sniper rifle, such as the Sentinel, occasionally my shot will fire significantly off course of where it was aimed. I'm trying to better understand what causes this so I can hopefully avoid it in future. I've attached an example .GIF for reference. 


Notice that the crosshair is directly on the target player, but the bullet flies far above where it was aimed.  

Is it because, while moving side to side, I stepped over some uneven terrain? I would love to have clarity on what causes this.


PS - In this case, the bullet missed directly upwards, but I've also seen it fly off to the side or diagonally from where I was aiming.

discussion

7 Replies

  • reconzero's avatar
    reconzero
    Seasoned Ace
    11 months ago
    @Collector321

    This is the eternal mystery of the first person shooter. Although it's really no mystery at all. It's any one of a dozen different things. Most commonly, your connection to the server is compromised at exactly the wrong time and Respawn's error correction is trying to help. For better or worse, who can say?

    Not sure about the video, but it looks as if the bullet landed where you put it, although it seemed to take an odd detour along the way. But that could just be my bad eyesight.
  • Collector321's avatar
    Collector321
    Seasoned Adventurer
    11 months ago

    Hey @reconzero,


    Thank you for your response 😀.

    About the shot placement - if you zoom in, the scope is placed over the middle of a moss-covered rock in the background, which has a metal panel above it. The shot rises up above the rock, striking the bottom of the metal panel - definitely not where I was expecting it to go.

    My best guess I may have walked over some non-flat terrain - I've heard there are a number of subtle interactions like this that can affect bullet spread. Though I've heard these factors exist, I haven't been able to find a detailed guide; that's what I'm hoping I can find here. 

    I'll try to dig up one of the other clips I have of this happening, maybe that will help.

    Thanks again for your reply 😀

  • Collector321's avatar
    Collector321
    Seasoned Adventurer
    11 months ago

    Here's a better quality clip. It seems like the rest of the mag was okay, just that one specific shot had a lot of spread.

    I may have taken a step forward as I fired that shot, maybe that's what it was?

  • reconzero's avatar
    reconzero
    Seasoned Ace
    11 months ago
    @Collector321

    My hat is off to you for being that good with that weapon and that scope at that range. I won't even pick up a sentinel because 30k matches in and I still can't make head or tail of that gun. It never hits the things I shoot at, and yet with a tripletake I have insane accuracy. Is the sentinel a delayed-fired weapon? I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but it always feels like to me. Completely disconnected from my inputs or the outcomes that I expect. At any rate, you put your guy down so there's that!

    Nevertheless, I stand by what I said about connection issues. Others on these forums would elaborate on that concerning the low tick rate servers this game runs on. That's beyond my area of expertise, but when they describe any one of a dozen different symptoms, some identical to what you're experiencing, they sound very plausible and not unlike some of the weird things that I see happening in my own matches.

    So here we are twenty plus years on from the advent of online multiplayer gaming and the sad truth is that the internet just isn't up to the task of rendering in real time the degree of precision that these kinds of games require. Thankfully for me I'm too old, slow, and blind for it to be a problem, but if I was you I'd be frustrated.
  • Collector321's avatar
    Collector321
    Seasoned Adventurer
    11 months ago

    @reconzero 

    Thank you, I appreciate the compliment 😀 🙌 I waited for him to jump, to make the shots easier...

    I think the sentinel is not a delayed-fire weapon - but the longbow is. One nice thing is that charging up the sentinel increases the bullet size.

    Thank you for following up and sharing your viewpoint, I appreciate your input 🙂

  • NN-LeTooth's avatar
    NN-LeTooth
    11 months ago

    The kill cam I have experienced shows the opposite to be true. Many times the guy who shoots me doesn't have his sites on me and suddenly it snaps to me and kills me... very strange...

  • reconzero's avatar
    reconzero
    Seasoned Ace
    11 months ago
    @NN-LeTooth

    Killcam in Halo was notorious for not showing you what happened, instead showing something sort of kind of like what may or may not have actually happened. People hated it for that and took it as proof of cheating or of the game simply giving kills arbitrarily to whoever it wanted to give kills to. Which wasn't what was happening at all, but it did prove you can't just give people a rough sketch in games with insane degrees of precision. This game, this killcam... exactly the same.

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