I’ve always been big into the ballistics of Unturned. Even if it was just the general gunplay or intricate details regarding range and damage, there’s always been room to improve upon. Hell, I even had an abandoned Mod Concept that I pitched to the Modject and other independent modders. It sadly never took off, but with the 4.0 systems becoming more defined and realistic, I feel that splicing a bit of it with this new iteration could greatly improve gunplay.
Rangefinding and zeroing in
This is going to serve as my base for ballistics due to the fact that it’s all in the sights and not the actual gun mechanics. Essentially this means building the World and Playermodels in tandem with the scopes so there’s an accurate and realistic way to find out how far away a target is without the use of a rangefinder, but nonetheless slower than looking in the corner and seeing a number directly. It takes work and skill.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about bullet penetration. Arma does this and there’s not a lot of good visual guides to display this so I’ll leave you with a comprehensive video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cix07R1vlhI
For Bullet Trajectory and Muzzle Velocity, they’ll need to be developed in tandem due to the fact that they’re interdependent. Every ammunition type will have a different speed and weight, which will affect bullet fly time and bullet drop respectively. Here are some nice infographics that show what I’m talking about visually:
What the Coriolis Effect jpg shows is that the rotation of the earth will affect projectiles in the air. Say you’re aiming at a tree from more than 500 meters. It’s such a far distance that it’ll be in the air so long that the spin of the earth, albeit slow, will affect what the bullet hits. Say there are a Gunman and a Hostage next to each other. You take aim and zero in on the Gunman without taking into account that you’re 750 meters away in the northern hemisphere. Bang You’ve just killed an innocent person because you didn’t take in the Coriolus Effect and aim slightly the right. It’s a big gamechanger for sniping but it’ll make it more skill and memory based instead of just fire and forget.
(Sorry for the Polish overlay I couldn’t find a good large image without it)
This is just a pure bullet drop guide, to show how zeroing in a sight or scope works. Basic stuff that shows Hitscan sucks and there shouldn’t be a linear bullet, but more of a volley effect.
The Magnus Effect says that if the wind is faster above the bullet and slower below, it’ll cause the air to raise the bullet due to how it spins and either speeds up or slows down air flowing around it. Basically don’t fire when it’s too windy or your bullet will counteract bullet drop by a significant margin, and make your shot hit too high.
Bullets. The meat of this meat and potatoes. Not only does more differentiated ammo spawns make Killing on Sight harder by reducing the # of compatible ammo you have but it also means that different guns will excel in different things and balances the game. Common ammo (75% of what you’ll find): .22 LR
9x19mm Parabellum
10mm
.45 ACP
5.7x28mm
.30 Carbine
.50 BMG (Rifles and LMGs)
5.56x45 aka .223
7.62x51 aka .308
7.62x54
.30-06
12 gauge
.40 S&W
.357
5.45x29mm
7.62x39mm
.44
7.62x54r Specialty ammunition (Rare spawns for more powerful guns): 300 Blackout
408 Soccom
.50 AE (Pistols)
.50 Beowulf (Rifles)
.410
28, 20, 16, 10, 8 and 4 gauge
9x39 mm
All bullets would have a multitude of variations including Tracers (All standard Unturned Colors: red, yellow, green, blue, black, white, purple and orange).
It’d be a lot of work, but overall it’d make 4.0 the gritty realistic survival game Nelson wants it to be.
Just remember this is a suggestion, much less a concept. Everything here is just a list of ideas to implement.
Suggestion: 10/10
Me understanding wtf is going on in most of the pictures: 1/10
Idk why, but i had a sense that you were trying to also include horizontal ballistics since the pictures of the scopes had a bit of that, unless I’m seeing things.
In my opinion, i believe bullet drop should be slightly decreased for some guns because because sometimes i feel like it’s an airsoft gun. Along with increasing the range of 80% of the weapons
10/10 man
You did some good ressearch and spent a lot of time for this ton of information.
I love the idea, it would make snipers and marksmen not to be just a 12 yr old spamming a grizzly across a bay. The only thing I personally don’t like is the name of the bullet calibers, but I guess it’s just something I’d get used to
Keep up these ideas man
What you didn’t include.
Is that some cartridges can be reloaded.
Most of the cartridges you suggested can be reloaded, with two notable exceptions. .22 Long Rifle and 7.62x54mmR are rimmed cartridges, and you also forgot to type the ‘R’ in the 7.62, indicating that it is, in fact, a rimmed cartridge.
Also, you did not say anything about 5.45x29mm or 7.62x39mm, which are the cartridges used in the AK-74 and AKM, respectively.
In fact, there are several cartridges which you neglected to include, including 9x18mm Makarov, 20-gauge, etc.
When listing cartridges, you must either type either the full name, or the abbreviation. By 9mm I assume that you meant the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge, and it can either be written as so or as simple ‘9x19mm’ or ‘9mm Parabellum.’
Overall, a good post, just fix your formatting.
I’ll totally do this and put some more detail into proper ammo names and horizontal ballistics. When I get home ofc since typing all that on a phone is gonna kill me haha.
Lots of detailed info here! Saving a link to refer to later.
Zeroing scopes will guaranteed be in the game, not sure about the Coriolis effect and Magnus effect - since they add so much extra complexity they might be confusing like “Unturned is broken the bullets sometimes don’t act predictably”. I like the idea of the realistic scope distances, might be tricky with different FoV but I think the scopes might use primitive line drawing rather than images for the reticules to make sure they’re pixel perfect.
You thought this out really well, but it’s kind of too complicated for most players in Unturned, and given that Unturned 4.0 is going to be more focused on survival, and not finding a Maplestrike and suddenly becoming an M1 Abrams, they should be dumbed down a bit, i think.
I do support you, but for the sake of the game still being a little arcade and more user-friendly for most of the audience here, i think they should be dumbed down a bit. I dig the Coriolis effect though, i think that this is going to be great when it’s included in the balistics for longer range engagements, especially with a sniper.
Scopes definitely need more details on them so you can actually rangefind propperly, without having to find a Rare item so you know the meters and where the bullet would go.
Other than that, your suggestions are great, i hope Nelson sees this and thinks of something!
Eh, I only meant this as a concept, taking nothing for granted when I posted it. I’d even go as far as saying I’m just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks among the community and Nelson. I’m pretty glad he even took the time to read through this, and over the moon at the fact that he at least liked something within here so much to save a link to come back to later.
It’s meant for 4.0, which is the grittier, more realistic new iteration Nelson is working on. Advanced ballistics in penetration and bullets behaving differently is completely possible with the engine overhaul.
You totally forgot 9x39 SP5 and SP6 (This one is an AP round) rounds which is the special ammo the VSS Vintorez, Groza, AS VAL, and SR-3 take. For shame!
Cries while shoveling Frosted Flakes into mouth
Will rework and expand on Bullet Penetration and velocities tomorrow I guess. By the time I’m done with this damn thing the edits are going to be in the HUNDREDS xd
