9 hours ago
The first bullet always misses - or not Everyone has heard the story that in shooters the enemy always misses
The first bullet always misses - or not
Everyone has heard the story that in shooters the enemy always misses with the first shot.And this is not a story at all!But there are nuances.
In 2017, game designer Jennifer Scheurle asked the developers on Twitter: what mechanics do you hide from the player in order to control their emotions?There was a breakthrough - the thread turned into a collective recognition, some of the revelations were funny.Among others, Ken Levine noted, he confirmed that in BioShock the first shot of the splicer always goes into milk.For what?To intimidate the player, but not kill him ahead of time, so that it is action-packed.
But then it gets more interesting.BioShock's AI designer immediately clarified: there is not just one polite miss, but a whole accuracy curve.The enemy starts the battle almost blind and shoots more and more accurately every second.That is, any firefight is a timer that is ticking against you.The game hints: don’t sit back, act while the extras are shooting.
And BioShock is not alone here - in Assassin's Creed, shooters also deliberately miss the first shot.And in Spec Ops: The Line, enemies cannot throw grenades at all - the game will simply spawn them next to you when you sit in cover for too long.In F.E.A.R.bullets are slightly attracted to the red barrels so that there will be more banging around you.
However, not all shooters work like this.“Serious” military simulations sell the opposite feeling—vulnerability.There the AI is already cheating against you.In Operation Flashpoint and ArmA, bots shoot you with the first bullet from 200 meters - even lie under a bush.In Halo 2, on Legendary difficulty, jackal snipers can kill you with one shot even to the little toe.I’m generally silent about Escape from Tarkov.Although over time they slowed down the aiming of bots and prohibited them from aiming at the head if they do not see the player for at least 15 seconds.Not just like that, of course.And where is it more fun? #game
Everyone has heard the story that in shooters the enemy always misses with the first shot.And this is not a story at all!But there are nuances.
In 2017, game designer Jennifer Scheurle asked the developers on Twitter: what mechanics do you hide from the player in order to control their emotions?There was a breakthrough - the thread turned into a collective recognition, some of the revelations were funny.Among others, Ken Levine noted, he confirmed that in BioShock the first shot of the splicer always goes into milk.For what?To intimidate the player, but not kill him ahead of time, so that it is action-packed.
But then it gets more interesting.BioShock's AI designer immediately clarified: there is not just one polite miss, but a whole accuracy curve.The enemy starts the battle almost blind and shoots more and more accurately every second.That is, any firefight is a timer that is ticking against you.The game hints: don’t sit back, act while the extras are shooting.
And BioShock is not alone here - in Assassin's Creed, shooters also deliberately miss the first shot.And in Spec Ops: The Line, enemies cannot throw grenades at all - the game will simply spawn them next to you when you sit in cover for too long.In F.E.A.R.bullets are slightly attracted to the red barrels so that there will be more banging around you.
However, not all shooters work like this.“Serious” military simulations sell the opposite feeling—vulnerability.There the AI is already cheating against you.In Operation Flashpoint and ArmA, bots shoot you with the first bullet from 200 meters - even lie under a bush.In Halo 2, on Legendary difficulty, jackal snipers can kill you with one shot even to the little toe.I’m generally silent about Escape from Tarkov.Although over time they slowed down the aiming of bots and prohibited them from aiming at the head if they do not see the player for at least 15 seconds.Not just like that, of course.And where is it more fun? #game