Bug BF4 PC (SR338 incorrect damage)

Well, the issue isn't so much with the damage that the SR338 does as it does with how Battlelog presents the information to the user. The "Damage" bar in Battlelog is DICE's attempt to simplify the data presented to the player; however, it glosses over the nuances of how the weapons actually perform. In so doing, the performance may appear to be out of line with the expectations given by the Battlelog ratings, so my main recommendation is to generally disregard the Battlelog ratings. In short, the issue is with misrepresentation due to oversimplification. A more detailed explanation follows below.

The SR338 has a damage rating of 88 according to Battlelog, which is the same score assigned to most of the bolt-action sniper rifles (excluding the FY-JS and Scout Elite at 76); however, the actual performance is very different, as the SR338 is essentially a class-locked DMR. For balance purposes, it would not be prudent to have a semi-auto sniper rifle dealing bolt-action damage, so using information from Symthic.com (a great site to get some under the hood numbers for BF4, Hardline, et cetera), the SR338's damage model works out as such:

SR338 on Symthic: http://symthic.com/bf4-weapon-info?w=SR338

The bullet deals 50 damage maximum, with a drop in damage occurring between the ranges of 15m (drop start) and 150m (drop end), where it deals its minimum damage of 38. For the purposes of headshots, the damage multiplier (for this particular weapon/class) is 2.13 * bullet damage at the range of impact, yielding a maximum damage potential of 106.5 (<15m) and minimum of 80.9 (>150m). From the video, the engagement range for the closer targets was ~34m, which means that the bullet would deal ~48.311 damage base (hits to the torso; hits to the limbs deal 93% of base damage), multiplied by the 2.13 headshot multiplier yields a damage to target of 102.903. Since that exceeds the 100 that a player has (in normal; hardcore is 60), the target goes down. The more distant targets looked like 81m and 118m (I'm not sure about that second one, but for practical purposes, it will be lower than the numbers for 81m) so the respective damage dealt to those targets would be [headshot in parentheses] 44.133 (94.004) and 40.844 (86.999). Since the headshot damage at those ranges is less than 100, it requires a follow-up shot to drop the target; furthermore, the base damage at those ranges is less than 50, so it requires 3 hits to the center mass/torso to drop the more distant targets.

I hope this has been helpful. The people at Symthic can probably explain it more clearly, so if you're interested in the underlying mechanics, check them out some time.

Regards,

Aaron