Return of the Long Range Scope?

[-Gews- 7443]

I was trying to see why certain scopes in the stress test were magnifying more than they were supposed to when I saw something mildly interesting concerning the LRS...

The devs have attempted to corrected the scope magnifications. Previously none of the numbers were correct and many seemed like placeholders. For example, the LRS and PSO-1 had suspiciously round minFoV values of = 0.05 and =0.1, respectively.

They've now done it like this, should be a big improvement:

4x ACOG = 0.3926/4
3.5x PU = 0.3926/3.5
2.8x Kashtan = 0.3926/2.8

But for some reason it didn't seem to produce the intended results in game...





About the Long Range Scope...

The Long Range Scope and its replacement the Hunting Scope have always had the same zoom (FoV) values from introduction until 0.62:

Minimum = 0.05
Initial = 0.12
Maximum = 0.18

However, eye zoom has been constantly altered. It's fluctuated all the way from an initial value of 0.25 up to 0.65! Since scope magnification is calculated relative to eye zoom, so this meant that what you see through the scope stays the same, but the nominal 'zoom' is always changing.

In DayZ 0.44, the eye zoom was changed to 0.375 which at the time, IIRC, matched ARMA 3. This value stayed until DayZ 0.55 when it increased to 0.525.


So from patch 0.44 until patch 0.55, the Long Range Scope had a theoretical zoom range of:

eye FoV / scope FoV = 0.375/0.05 (min FOV) and 0.375/0.18 (max FOV) = 7.5x to 2.08x.


At some point, this information was entered in the DayZ Wiki:






But as soon as patch 0.55 dropped and eye minFov was increased to 0.525, zoom becomes 0.525/0.18 to 0.525/0.05 = 2.92x - 10.5x.

Eye zoom in 0.62 is 0.4143, so the same scope then becomes 0.4143/0.18 to 0.4143/0.05 = 2.30x-8.29x.

The scope never changed. Only eyes. So DayZ Wiki is way outdated there and only correct for 0.44-0.55.





As mentioned above most of the optics now have proper zoom. For example, the hunting scope is modeled on a Zeiss 4-12x, and now it looks like this:

minimum FOV = 0.3926/4
maximum FOV = 0.3926/12



But I was surprised to see the long-gone Long Range Scope was also altered. It now looks like this:

minimum FOV = 0.3926/2.08
maximum FOV = 0.3926/7.5



I'm imagining someone putting in new values for optics, wondering what to put for the LRS, Googling the Long Range Scope, finding DayZ Wiki or a similar source listing "2.08-7.5x", and ending up copying the old placeholder nominal magnification values as calculated relative to the 0.44 eye zoom... which I find amusing. Heh.


Anyways, the real life scope the LRS is modeled after is actually a 3-15x. If added to the game it should also have zeroing to a full kilometer and a mil dot reticle. 





(Whereas the hunting scope should really have its zeroing limited to a max 600 m as it doesn't have much elevation, or even fixed to one range, as it's capped turrets weren't intended to be used to dial elevation in the field).

It might not make a return, for various reasons, but someone going to the effort of changing the zoom values makes me wonder a bit.

Edited August 14, 2018 by -Gews-

[Parazight 1594]

How would you propose to approach the balancing of the LRS or Hunting Scope?  

Would you make it realistic and maybe nerf the spawn rarity?  Or would you nerf eye/scope zoom and make it abundant?  How would you make it not overpowered?

[-Gews- 7443]

16 hours ago, Parazight said:

How would you propose to approach the balancing of the LRS or Hunting Scope?  

Would you make it realistic and maybe nerf the spawn rarity?  Or would you nerf eye/scope zoom and make it abundant?  How would you make it not overpowered?

In a wishlist I'd make a LRS rare, and a hunting scope more common but fixed zero to 200 m or less. Also no popping it off to engage in close combat unless you have the proper tools and time. No unrealistic zoom-nerfing, if it comes to that, make it rare or make half of them spawn broken.

Increased eye zoom helps balance scopes a little as well IMO. If you increase the eye zoom you must increase the scope zoom to keep the magnification ratio correct, but given ballistics, there's a limit to how far you can be effective regardless of the zoom, so increased zoom helps iron sight weapons more than it helps scoped weapons.

For reference right now we're zooming to min fov of about ~0.4 whereas in ARMA 2 / DayZ mod (and in ARMA 3 as well IIRC) it is 0.25. 

Edited August 16, 2018 by -Gews-

[svisketyggeren 662]

Gews...everything u said is wrong. I joined before u, so I would know this.