Request: Sniping Mod?

[Lukkas]

I find the sniping in Fallout3 to be a little frustrating, due to the fact that the maximum hit range for the rifles is extremely limited, and the view distance scale is massive.

 

So, I would like to make a request for a mod that either changes the maximum distance of the vanilla sniper rifles, or creates a unique one with considerably more distance. (However, you can do whatever you like, I'd just like the final outcome to ultimately being able to shoot what I can see.)

 

if you have any questions feel free to post here.

 

:thanks:

 

-Lukas.

[dasqoot]

I'm checking through a couple game settings to try to figure this out. Someone here probably knows which one it is, but I'll tell you if I get it to work.

[Rapier_21]

Hokay. Projectile distance is listed under the Special Effects --> Projectiles tab; the snipers use SniperRifleBulletProjectile.

 

Now, you can increase the zoom factor on the rifle scope by going to your weapon and changing either sight usage or sight FOV, I forget which.

 

You're still limited by the number of cells that the game loads at once; the default is 5. I turned mine up to 7 and was okay, it chugs a little in some outdoor areas but not too bad.

 

I tried 9 and it became very sluggish and would crash at random, so be careful with that.

 

You can change that setting in the Fallout.ini.

 

You can copy/paste the range data for the hunting rifle, which is what I ended up doing, because I'm not entirely sure how big an in game "cell" is, across, in real-world terms.

 

I should probably write a FAQ or something for all this stuff. :/

[dasqoot]

Yeah I tried setting the sniper rifle bullets to 30k units, but couldn't see a difference in hits. The cells are probably the major problem so I wont be able to fix this on my machine at least. I'll probably end up making a shooting range just to make this process easier.

 

Although I noticed something strange: http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/6388/sniper2testaj8.th.jpg

 

Under my reticle there is a mirelurk I had fired about 150 rounds at hit not once, about 20 feet farther out and to the left is a set of cars (where the grey smoke is) which I could hit just fine and cause to explode. Closer to the foreground is a headless mirelurk king that is at the absolute max range for my sniper rifle hitting a NPC. IDK what that means, but it seems like objects are tracked in a far away cell even if NPCs aren't for the purpose of bullets hitting.

 

I also tried playing around with stuff like fCombatMaxRangeOptimumMult and fCombatIronSitesDistance, but I think this has more to do with AI combat decisions than deciding whether or not to track a bullet out of a cell.

 

Anyway, thanks rapier, gave me a couple good ideas at least.

[Rapier_21]

Yeah, it's probably out of your cell distance.

 

The sniper rifle is weird, in that you have to aim somewhat below what you actually want to hit, even at massive ranges. Something about mid-torso to score a headshot.

 

Technically this would be correct procedure for hitting a target that is closer than what your sight are zeroed for, but in game it occurs at any distance.

 

If you wanted a more dramatic way to test your sniper's max distance, in the projectile properties change it to have an explosion of the "Fatmannuke" type.

 

You'll definitely be able to tell what is and isn't in range, and get a general idea of how far out you're reaching.

 

You can also adjust the round speed as well, which can give it arc.

 

There's a couple functions of the projectiles that I haven't messed with, namely the gravity and passing through small transparent stuff.

 

Also, make sure your min and max spread is 0.0000 if you really want to shoot far out; at that distance even 0.01 spread can be far enough to miss.

[Rapier_21]

 

 

THis sort of shows problems with increasing your zoom distance, too.

 

This shot was taken from the top step of the museum subway stairs, and shows how far my sniper rifles zoom in.

 

Problem being, you have serious LOD and draw-in issues at this point.

[ThisLamer]

Edit: Misread the topic I fear.

[spineynorman]

It makes a big difference if you install the no-autoaim mod. Sniping will still kind of suck, but you'll generally hit what your aiming at. The fact that you were completely missing one target but you killed another you couldn't see suggests that the built-in aim is the issue.