Sniper rifle comparison

[-Gews- 7443]

Ah, sniper rifles, a bandit's best friend. I love sniper rifles.

A couple things worth noting before we begin:

1. In-game, the M40A3 is identical to the M24. The only difference is the appearance (and the spawn rate).

2. The SVD Camo is also identical to the normal SVD (which is not in DayZ) in case you were wondering.

3. Not doing .50-caliber rifles in this comparison... maybe later.

HANDLING

First up, weapon handling (dexterity). Again, I don't think this is very important and it isn't very noticeable without big changes. From most sprightly to most cumbersome:

SVD Camo: 1.57

DMR: 1.55

M24 and M40A3: 1.24

CZ550: 1.24

RECOIL

This doesn't matter too much in the bolt-action rifles that take 2 seconds to chamber a new round. It matters much more in the semi-automatic rifles.

DMR:

3/10 standing

3/10 prone

M24 and M40A3:

6/10 standing

5/10 prone

CZ550:

6/10 standing

5/10 prone

SVD Camo:

7/10 standing

6/10 prone

RATE OF FIRE

The CZ550, M24, and M40A3 all can fire 1 shot every two seconds, or 30 rpm.

The DMR could theoretically fire 10 rounds per second, or 600 rpm... however, at most you'll probably manage 8 per second. The DMR easily has the best effective fire rate - the fairly low recoil helps a lot.

The SVD could theoretically fire 6.66 rounds per second, or 400 rpm... however, again, you'll probably only be able to get off about 6 per second.

OPTICS

Ah, I consider this the most important factor with these rifles. The scopes.

SVD CAMO:

The SVD's scope has a low level of zoom. It's 4x magnification. That's really not a good thing if you're going for long-range kills. Bullet impacts become hard to see and so do targets. It's also harder to aim when the target is tiny. The scope limits this rifle's effective range to... say somewhere from 500-700 meters.

550 meter target in a 10x scope, compared to the 4x scope.

On the other hand, this scope has a nice built-in rangefinder (which actually works decently). The scope in-game is a bullet drop compensation type, although the ranges it works at are somewhat random.

The following graph explains the scope markings. It is zeroed at 200 meters (the very center of the screen should correspond to 200 meters).

I like this rifle's scope - it's a character - but subjectively, it's just not great, mostly because of the 4x zoom level.

CZ550:

This scope has a fixed magnification of 10x. It also has no easy method of ranging (you can try makeshift methods yourself) and it has an orange chevron (which I'm not a huge fan of). Knowing the range solves the problem since this scope zeroes from 100-800 meters.

The lack of a proper rangefinding method is pretty much the only problem with this scope. I've heard people say point of impact is slightly under the chevron at long ranges - I don't believe this. I think they were unknowingly experiencing this rifle's relative inaccuracy.

M24 and M40A3:

A fixed 10x zoom scope, with mil dots. To estimate range, this formula is used:

Target size (in meters) x 1000 / Target Size (in mil dots)

A standing man is about 1.8 meters tall, a crouching man about 1.3 m, and a prone man about 0.5 m. Therefore a man standing 3 mil dots high would be 1.8 * 1000 / 3 = 600 meters away.

These scopes are nice. They zero from 100-800 meters and the mil dots can be used for bullet drop compensation as well.

DMR:

The DMR has a 3.5-10x scope (3.5x zoomed out, 10x zoomed in). However, this scope's limitation is a fixed zero range.

When it's zoomed out, the zero range is 120 meters, suitable for close range shooting. When it's fully zoomed in, the zero range increases to 400 meters. Therefore, at close ranges... don't fully zoom in.

Due to the fixed zero, you'll have to use this as a bullet drop compensation reticle, much like the SVD. Here are the (approximate) places to hold over (or under) when shooting at various ranges.

ACCURACY:

Another very important factor at long ranges. Accuracy of these rifles is as follows:

CZ550: 0.45 mils

DMR: 0.45 mils

SVD: 0.25 mils

M24 and M40A3: 0.12 mils

Here are the spreads at 300, 600, and 800 meters:

As you can see, the accuracy of the DMR and CZ550 start to become an issue when nearing their maximum effective ranges.

RARITY

This part I'm most "iffy" about. I'm not sure how loot works yet. Consider these numbers as relative to each other rather than actual percentage values... also note some buildings have more loot spots (this is per loot spot) and therefore a higher chance of finding a certain item. As well, magazines are loot and can spawn in piles rather than all by themselves like weapons do.

CZ550

Farms: 0.3% chance / magazine 0.28% chance

Deerstands: 4% chance / magazine 150% chance (wat)

M24:

Military: 0.4% chance / magazine 1% chance

Barracks: 0.4% chance / magazine 2% chance

M40A3:

Barracks: 0.8% chance / magazine as above.

(the nice thing about the M24 and M40A3 is that you can make four M24 magazines out of each DMR magazine you find)

DMR:

Military: 0.4% chance / magazine 4% chance.

Barracks: 0.8% chance / magazine 8% chance.

Heli crash: 3% chance / magazine 4% chance.

SVD Camo:

Barracks: 0.4% chance / ammo only appears to spawn with the rifle itself.

DAMAGE

All the snipers compared here do very similar damage, so much so that comparing them to each other is somewhat pointless. Still, this is useful for other purposes:

Damage for the DMR, M24 and M40A3:

000m: 8,000

200m: 6,627

400m: 5,490

600m: 4,548

800m: 3,768

Damage for the CZ550:

000m: 7,733

200m: 6,406

400m: 5,307

600m: 4,397

800m: 3,642

Damage for the SVD:

000m: 8,000

200m: 6,590

400m: 5,429

600m: 4,472

800m: 3,684

SUMMARY

The rifle I'd choose depends on what I'd want it to do.

Specifically for long-range sniping, I'd take an M40A3 or an M24 (dibs on the M40A3 because it will match my ghillie). They're by far the most accurate rifles (in all of ArmA, actually) and they have adjustable zeroing.

For everything else, I'd take a DMR. Two levels of zoom, a large magazine capacity, common ammunition, semi-automatic, powerful, effective out to 700-800 meters... it's hard to beat for versatility, it's the ideal jack-of-all-trades, which is probably why so many players seem to favor it.

The SVD I would take to be different. I've never been too impressed with its actual capabilities, but it does have a very high cool factor due to its rarity.

The CZ550 is the one I'd take if it was my only choice... (I actually do like the CZ, but that's somewhat irrational to be honest).

Closing comment: I think DayZ really needs to add the standard SVD. The "authenticity" reason should be obvious, and I think it makes sense from a gameplay perspective as well (IMO it's not as good as the other snipers so "balancing" isn't an issue).

It should be much more common than all the North American sniper rifles we currently see - instead of all the DMR-equipped bandits we should be seeing "all these SVD-equipped bandits".

  

[Walking Wounded 199]

Nice post. I agree about the SVD.

[TheCreeper (DayZ) 3565]

Gews, how do you find time to put this all together?

Pro work, my Brony =)

[dgeesio 1034]

basically just take a dmr

easy to use and fast and best sniper for hip fire which is very important if you get caught up in short range fast battle type scenario.

[jackghnnm78@gmail.com 23]

Great post, something very constructive! :)

[Dreams_Of_Cheese (DayZ) 71]

Loving these posts. Can you do one for the AKM and SA-58s soon?

[-Gews- 7443]

Loving these posts. Can you do one for the AKM and SA-58s soon?

Sure... if there are sufficient differences, that is. Haven't thoroughly checked.

[fluxley 2228]

Here's a pretty good explanation of how loot is weighted

http://opendayz.net/...ge-9#post-39557

As far as magazines are concerned things get a little more complex as you have a loot table referencing another loot table.

e.g

The Hunting loot table

itemType

{"ItemMap","weapon"},

{"ItemFlashlight","generic"},

{"ItemKnife","generic"},

{"ItemMatchbox","generic"},

{"Crossbow_DZ","weapon"},

{"","military"},

{"WeaponHolder_ItemMachete", "object"},

{"huntingrifle","weapon"},

{"","hunter"}

itemChance

0.08,

0.05,

0.04,

0.06,

0.03,

2.00,

0.03,

0.04,

3.00

contains this {"","military"},

which is where you will find most ammo

military

"TrashTinCan",

"ItemSodaEmpty",

"ItemSodaCoke",

"ItemSodaPepsi",

"ItemBandage",

"ItemAntibiotic",

"ItemPainkiller",

"ItemMorphine",

"30Rnd_556x45_Stanag",

"20Rnd_762x51_DMR",

"17Rnd_9x19_glock17",

"15Rnd_9x19_M9SD",

"15Rnd_9x19_M9",

"30Rnd_762x39_AK47",

"30Rnd_545x39_AK",

"5Rnd_762x51_M24",

"10Rnd_127x99_m107",

"8Rnd_B_Beneli_74Slug",

"1Rnd_HE_M203",

"FlareWhite_M203",

"FlareGreen_M203",

"1Rnd_Smoke_M203",

"200Rnd_556x45_M249",

"HandGrenade_west",

"SmokeShell",

"SmokeShellRed",

"SmokeShellGreen",

"8Rnd_B_Beneli_Pellets",

"30Rnd_556x45_StanagSD",

"64Rnd_9x19_Bizon",

"30Rnd_9x19_MP5SD",

"100Rnd_762x51_M240",

"HandChemGreen",

"HandChemBlue",

"HandChemRed",

"ItemHeatPack",

"FoodMRE",

"20Rnd_B_765x17_Ball"

0.18,

0.09,

0.01,

0.01,

0.04,

0.02,

0.04,

0.01,

0.04,

0.01,

0.05,

0.01,

0.02,

0.04,

0.04,

0.04,

0.005,

0.04,

0.01,

0.01,

0.01,

0.01,

0.01,

0.01,

0.04,

0.02,

0.02,

0.04,

0.01,

0.02,

0.01,

0.01,

0.02,

0.02,

0.02,

0.04,

0.03,

0.05

}

These are outdated loot tables by the way, but you get the idea.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Fluxley

[RJTurneR 112]

Very well put together. I take the DMR purely because how adaptive it is, can use it in any situation. But i have to agree, the M24/M40 are the two best long range snipers. Had a lot of success when using them. The SVD is fun to use, the inbuilt range finder is very useful (And works if you know how), and you can just about make out targets at long distances.

Glad you didn't include the .50 weapons. Insanenly easy to use, no thinking about anything with those, pretty much point-shoot.