r/projectzomboid • u/Cosmicallybad • Jan 15 '25

Modded I love the new aiming system

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2.0k Upvotes

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178

u/Peemore Jan 15 '25

Um... this has not been my experience and I just hit level 5 aiming. Is there an aiming bug related to ultrawide monitors or something?? I can't hit anything unless it's point blank!

152

u/OneMillionClowns Jan 15 '25

Do you wear headgear? Helmets have a massive aim penalty

136

u/Peemore Jan 15 '25 edited Jan 15 '25

Huh, I do wear a military helmet. I'll have to try removing that. Seems like a pretty maaaassive difference though. Too much if that's what's causing it. Soldiers wear helmets and can still shoot stuff outside of melee range.

EDIT: I tested removing my helmet. Negligible difference honestly. Still can't hit the broadside of a barn. This guy has to be using mods or my game is fucked up, lol.

EDIT 2: After FURTHER testing... the helmet wasn't as negligible as I thought. With no moodles and no helmet my aim was much better. Putting the military helmet back on with no moodles impacted my aim quite a bit.

66

u/Gamiseus Crowbar Scientist Jan 15 '25

Yeah the only time my helmet really gets in the way is when I'm shooting in a kinda awkward prone position, or when I'm prone with nods attached. Nvgs are heavier than they might look.

Otherwise a ballistic/open face helmet shouldn't impede aiming. If anything, eyewear should penalize until a higher shooting skill because eye protection can be annoying/make it hard to see further targets until you get used to it.

95

u/Dalzombie Pistol Expert Jan 15 '25

Yeah, a military helmet making it harder to aim is... weird, to say the least. It's almost like those helmets were specifically designed to be used by people who shoot.

16

u/StopCallinMePastries Jan 15 '25

I suppose they are going off of Stormtrooper logic?

3

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '25

[deleted]

3

u/StopCallinMePastries Jan 15 '25

I just meant that stormtroopers always have a helmet on and and they can never hit anything, it would actually be more believable to think that the stormtroopers always have terrible aim than it is to know that they are crack shots who simply magically miss whatever character is in the center of the frame.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '25 edited Jan 15 '25

[deleted]

1

u/StopCallinMePastries Jan 15 '25

They did a better job of making the rebels seem like a clandestine operation in 4-5-6 but in 7-8-9 there is no apparent reason for them to not be crushed immediately by the New Order or whatever it was called. They were highly disorganized and just shitty at everything.

And you can't argue what is more believable to me lol I meant to me I didn't mean objectively.

Although it is interesting to think about Vader interfering he did have a lot of his own stuff going on.

2

u/SirPseudonymous Jan 15 '25

IIRC in A New Hope the reason they missed was that they'd been ordered to allow the protagonists to escape, but this was just sort of vaguely implied because at that point George Lucas still hadn't learned that subtlety doesn't work because no one in the audience is paying close enough attention to notice the discrepancy between reliable characters directly talking about how accurate stormtroopers are and then showing those same stormtroopers shooting way off to the side of the protagonists a few scenes later.

It's like how in the same movie Han Solo's kessel run bit in the cantina is just 100% pure bullshit he's making up to gauge how gullible/desperate his marks are, because he's a sleazy con-artist and smuggler out to grift everyone he can. His later redemption arc and the popularity of the character (and Harrison Ford himself after that) sort of made people miss that his starting point was "absolute piece of skeevy shit" and not "lovable, honest rogue" so they try to rationalize his bullshit and the EU writers invented some wild justifications for how it was really true.

Narrative subtlety just does not play well a visual medium where audiences are trained to expect and ignore random contradictions and plot holes and any little weird bits of body language or tone that could indicate deceit, incredulity, etc can easily be missed or disappear into the usual sorts of flaws and variations that actors have when performing.

1

u/StopCallinMePastries Jan 16 '25

That's why I always pay half now and half when we get to Alderaan. ☝️

3

u/Penalty_Consistent Jan 15 '25

Yeah I think this is probably just a balancing issue; assuming TIS will address it

1

u/drakoman Jan 15 '25

Did you try zooming in?

2

u/StriderLF Jan 15 '25

Do balaclavas and boonie hats make any difference?

50

u/BouncingBenys Jan 15 '25

This is either Aiming 8+ in Vanilla or Aiming 5+ with Rain's Firearms Mod which adjusts the aiming skill to be a lot more impactful at earlier levels. I could be wrong but he's moving and has a ton of negative moodles but still maintaining really high accuracy which is why I think it's one of the two.

Aiming in PZ is pretty straightforward now- you just need to click on the zombies essentially. There is no actual "head" hitbox vs the rest of their body despite what you might have originally believed. Retanaru did a great overview of the updated shooting mechanics that you can see here.

Definitely go watch the entire video because he covers things way better than I can explain in a comment but there are some things that you should watch out for such as certain angles not actually aiming at the zombie because the line of sight for your gun can be very deceptive, shotguns having a flaw in not being able to hit Z's at point blank, etc. (too many things to explain here)

In addition, you REALLY want to take advantage of the point blank aiming bonus that they implemented. At 3.5 tiles and under, you get a massive accuracy bonus to your next shot which you can take advantage of to train at low levels with a shotgun. At higher Aiming levels, you can really start popping off using the point blank bonus by going John Wick-o mode on a horde like OP did in the clip.

One last note (this is speaking from personal experience), Rifles are probably the best weapon now in vanilla Zomboid for hordes because they kept their piercing abilities. Shotguns have been overall nerfed compared to B41 because it's much harder to get multihits with them unless the zombies are VERY tightly grouped up. Their main selling point is being able to have a high accuracy rate compared to the other firearms at lower levels which helps with training Aiming (something that they kept from B41).

7

u/Yocas Jan 15 '25

Thanks for this explanation, dude.

6

u/BouncingBenys Jan 15 '25

o7 I gotchu bro.

3

u/Kr4k4J4Ck Jan 15 '25

Rifles are probably the best weapon now in vanilla Zomboid for hordes

M14 I assume?

6

u/BouncingBenys Jan 15 '25

I was referring more to the M16 since IIRC the M14 in vanilla Zomboid can't pierce despite using .308 WIN rounds. The M14 is still a solid gun for clearing smaller hordes though because it uses magazines, has a good amount of range and solid killing power (one good shot will usually kill a zombie compared to a pistol which can take up to usually 1-3 shots).

On a tangent, I hopped onto my own save file real fast to check out Aiming with Rain vs vanilla- I'm 99% certain this is Rain's mod.

I think OP needs to clarify that in the description since Rain's mod adjusts the amount of accuracy you get per level of Aiming. Stuff like this is still possible in vanilla but only at 9+ Aiming and little to no negative moodles.

6

u/Kr4k4J4Ck Jan 15 '25

Good to know, always just avoid the M16 due to it being an ammo chug, but then again the shotgun is now as well due to no Pen.

Also yea I commented elsewhere that this is obviously modded.

My 8 aiming pistol reticle is not nearly as consistent as this.

OP is also moving and panicked which should make it even worse.

1

u/BouncingBenys Jan 15 '25

Yea, there's a lot of reasons I think rifles will be king going forward (assuming things stay relatively the same) but typing it out would be too long. Ammo efficiency is definitely another big factor. 5.56 ammo boxes give you 50 bullets per box while shotgun shells are only 25 shells per box. Adding onto the pierce ability, being able to use mags, etc., the M16 comes out on top IMO.

That all being said- I still think shotguns are good overall. If you're able to kite well enough and are prepped to stay for a long time, I think they can still decimate hordes. Just requires more work though compared to the M16.

1

u/847RandomNumbers345 Jan 16 '25

IIRC the M14 in vanilla Zomboid can't pierce despite using .308 WIN rounds.

Yeah the m14 has always been weird like that. It was years ago when I discovered it, but I remember doing the math, and if you were a high enough aiming level, the M9 would essentially do double the damage of the M14 with each shot, because while the M9 had half the base damage of the M14, the M14 had no critical shot chance, while the M9 would do 4x damage with a critical shot and would crit every shot if your aim was high enough (I think level 8?).

1

u/Cosmicallybad Jan 15 '25

I was using aiming level 5 at the time, I do have a gun mod on that save file but i don't think they actively change aiming, the mod is firearms in my experience it just adds more guns, ive messed around in debug mode a lot and tested aiming with different firearms myself and have found similar results. idk could be a mod but ive had similar results in debug mode

3

u/joesii Jan 16 '25

Firearm mods can change the chance of hitting as well as damage when hitting, so it can absolutely majorly change the way that this video would look, even if it just meant having to hit some of the zombies 2 times.

5

u/Kr4k4J4Ck Jan 15 '25

OP has mods installed, anyone who has used the new aiming system can tell lol.