Battlefield 4 has pretty decent ballistic modeling, however, the trick to getting the most out of your favourite guns is to understand a bit about the stats of the weapons you use the most. Then if you miss or get killed in a fire fight, where you went head to head with someone using a similar gun that you felt you should have won, you might have a better idea of why you ended up back in the deployment screen and they didn't.
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| One of the tricks to poker is only to play your opponent on your terms. It's the same in Battlefield. |
Good poker players know the game and can maybe read people, the best poker players play the numbers. It's the same in BF4 to a great extent. But unlike poker you don't have to play the hand you're dealt, in BF4 you can stack the deck in your favour by playing to a particular weapon's best qualities.
The game features a number of different scores for various weapon attributes*, in this post I will be explaining just 5 of them; Bullet Drop, ROF & DPS, Bullet Spread, Recoil and Muzzle Velocity.
No.1
Bullet Drop
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| Lower bullet drop is preferable especially when shooting at range because it requires you to adjust less for elevation, meaning that you can aim more directly at your target. |
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| Close target; no real consideration needed for bullet drop |
Measured in meters per-second per second (m/s^2). Basically a variable in-game gravitational force. Although often given as a positive number like 15m/s^2 it is actually a negative figure; -15m/s^2 because it is pulling the bullet downwards at that rate. Simply speaking the lower the figure the less downward force is acting on the bullet - the further it will fly straight.
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| Far target; Aim needs to adjusted to account for bullet drop |
No. 2
Rate of Fire (ROF) &
Damage per-Second (DPS)
Damage per-Second (DPS)
Rate of Fire and Damage per-Second are different things that are intrinsically related. ROF is how fast the gun will fire, whether that be automatically like an assault rifle, semi-automatically like a DMR or manually like a bolt action sniper rifle; it is the rate at which you can discharge the weapon. More accurately described as rounds per-minute (RPM).
DPS is the damage you can do to your enemy each second (assuming all your shots land) and is related to ROF. So a gun can have high base damage but a pretty average DPS thanks to a low ROF or fairly average base damage but a high DPS because of a higher ROF.
Take the SAR-21 and the FN P90 for instance.
The SAR has a higher max damage but a lower ROF - which gives it a maximum DPS of 245 (600rds / 60 seconds = 10rds/sec: 10rds x 24.5dmg = 245 Dps).
While the FN P90 boasts a DPS of 315 despite its lower max damage. (900rds / 60seconds = 15rds/sec: 15rds x 21dmg = 315 Dps)
So what does that mean in real terms?
Well naturally a higher DPS is usually preferable for close quarters battle (CQB); engagements at <20-30m. This is the engagement range where you need to do the most damage in the shortest amount of time because targets will move through your line of sight very quickly or come up on you fast. So in this comparison the FN P90 is favourable.
However there are usually trade-offs to high DPS weapons like the FN P90 - these are things like accuracy over range and max/min damage. With these things considered the slower firing SAR-21 would much more preferable for shooting at medium to longer ranges with it's higher velocity and longer damage-drop end range and higher max/min damage.
So picking the SAR-21 for CQB wouldn't be great idea just as choosing the FN P90 for longer range shooting also wouldn't do you any favours. Considering a gun's effective DPS is key to picking a good weapon for CQB specifically but a high ROF won't be ideal for all engagements. Simply put - high ROF; better in CQB (usually), lower ROF typically more accurate over longer ranges.
No.3
Spread
One of the key attributes that can affect your shots-on-target percentage is bullet spread. This is easy to imagine as a cone that the bullets make coming from the muzzle towards the target; smaller the cone = less bullet spread.
Bullet spread is typically given as a rating in degrees; smaller the number the tighter the spread hence why it helps to think about it as a cone as degrees of variance over range creates a cone shape.
What does this mean in real terms?
In CQB, not much as the closer the target is to the weapon the less you will be affected by bullet spread but equally the more accurate you have to be as if your target moves you will be forced to readjust more at close ranges.
At medium ranges the 'cone' will be larger than in CQB, so technically you will be putting more bullets in a greater area; this works for and against you; initially this means you can be a little less accurate and still hit your your mark but equally it means your shots will be less accurate on the whole - somewhat of a paradox.
The trick is to figure out the best range for your chosen weapon and where the 'sweet spot' of the bullet spread cone is, so that it gives you the greatest forgiveness for slightly wayward aiming and the highest chance of scoring a hit - this sweet spot is regarded as the weapons most effective range and it is slightly different for all guns. The thing you have to remember is the cone expands over range and is three-dimensional; expanding across X, Y and Z axes.
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| Notice the difference between zero shot spread (top) ADS-not moving with a sniper rifle and a greater degree of variance (spread) ADS-not moving with an average assault rifle. Note also that the degrees of variance here are exaggerated to make it easier to visualise; with typical assault rifle ADS spread actually being around 0.2/3 degrees which would be hard to show. |
Understanding your weapon's shot spread is key to understanding it's most effective firing range and that is key to you putting your opponent back in the deployment screen before he puts you there.
No.4
Recoil
Recoil in a general sense is muzzle jump but in more detail it is the amount the muzzle moves in specific directions when the weapon is discharged; the directions are up, left and right (U/L/R). It is given in degrees and as with many values relating to accuracy, less is generally better as, in this case, it means the muzzle is moving away from true (zero degrees of variance) less when you fire.
Another recoil consideration is first shot multiplier (1SM) which as you can guess, multiplies the U/L/R recoil by X every first shot. The thing to remember is that recoil is a cumulative value, which means it stacks on itself if you hold the trigger down (on an automatic weapon) or fire very rapidly with a semi-automatic. So, assuming you do not counter the recoil, the gun will continue to move X amount in the three directions every time a bullet leaves the barrel creating that familiar muzzle climb.
Lets take the M416 as a pretty standard assault rifle. It's recoil values are;
Up: 0.32, Left: 0.12, Right: 0.28, 1SM: 2.2
So what does this tell us? Well firstly, if you fire rapidly the weapon will primarily pull up and to the right which means you will have to counter the recoil by steadying your aim down and to the left. The 1SM tells us that every first shot, whether you are operating it in single shot or burst firing, the recoil will be increased by x2.2 where x is the base recoil value.
Remember that recoil is given as degrees variation from true (zero). So lets say you burst the M416 for 4 shots -
Shot 1 will have the U/L/R values of 0.7, 0.26 and 0.62 degrees away from true, while the remaining 3 shots will have the base values above.
"Well, naught-point-something is barely even 1 degree" I hear you cry.
Yes, this is true but remember the spread cone? The degree of variance accumulates over range meaning the further your target the more variance you will experience; the more likely you will be to miss if you fire rapidly.
What does this mean in real terms?
In real terms you want to be looking for weapons that have lower recoil values or attachments to manage the recoil.
Of course you can just get used to a particular weapon and understanding it's recoil model is key to this. Many people find it easier to aim in a certain direction as well - target tracking - you find it more with real firearms (because of the dominant hand preference) but even on games people can develop a preference. So if you find it easier to track a target moving to the right then you'll likely find guns with higher left recoil easier to control as you're used to adjusting your aim carefully to the right. Just something to consider.
No.5
Muzzle Velocity
MV controls two very important and related things; time to target and as an extension of this; how much you need to lead a target moving across your line of sight (LoS). Why is this important? Well, higher MV makes hitting moving targets are medium ranges easier as well as hitting stationary targets at long ranges less of a waiting game.
Couple of things to note; firstly is that MVs on BF4 are not accurate - the 7.62x51mm NATO load, for instance, is stated to do 670 meters per-second (m/s) for the CS-LR4 sniper's rifle while the actual 7.62 NATO will achieve velocities in excess of 800 m/s (this is most likely simple game balancing as engagement ranges are significantly less than they are in real life). Secondly; velocities are also variable dependent on the gun despite being the same cartridge; for instance the Bulldog and Mk11 Mod 0 share the same round; 7.62x51mm NATO but the Bulldog has an MV of just 450 m/s while the Mk11 has an MV of 640 m/s.
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| Time to target: This displays a basic x axis adjustment error; the aim point has not allowed for t (time) to target. |
One of the key considerations in BF4 is firing at moving targets because very few people stay still for that long. MV plays a crucial role in this as it dictates how fast your bullet will reach it's mark (t - time (to target)) subsequently this vector how much you will have to adjust your aim along the x axis (aim ahead) to compensate for t.
As an extension of this; when shooting at longer ranges at moving targets you will also have to compensate for elevation (bullet drop) y, as well adjusting for x and t. Making hitting long range moving targets a real 3-dimensional feat of marksmanship as you need to judge for your target's movement speed as well.
What does all this mean in real terms? Simply speaking it means that the further the target it away from you the more you have to adjust your aim to compensate for target movement, elevation and time to target. Which also means the further they are away from you negatively affects your probability of scoring a hit (more variable factors involved).
What this means when choosing a gun depends on the ranges you plan to use it in - at close ranges the difference in a 500 m/s MV and a 700 m/s MV are negligible at best but push that engagement range out and suddenly you'll notice a huge difference; leading a target is much easier with higher MVs as it requires less adjustment and therefore less of a margin for error if the target suddenly changes direction - with a high velocity weapon there is still at least a small probability that the shot may hit them if they change direction as it takes less time to get there.
With assault weapons this changes their most effective engagement ranges; the AUG-A3 for instance with a high MV of 670 m/s make it exceptional at close and longer ranges - put a 3/4x sight on that and you can punish people at ridiculous ranges for and assault rifle. Whereas the Bulldog, although having equivalent spread, has a much lower MV which is going to make it much harder to hit moving targets at longer ranges.
With sniper rifles it is much the same, ideally you want high MV to help you nail those sprinters but you have to couple this with the elevation adjustments you need to make when shooting at long ranges. So the ideal sniper is high MV low bullet drop as it allows you to aim more directly at a moving target - remember the more adjustment you have to make the higher the margin of error.
Unlike many other shooters BF4 has a very well balanced weapon list; there are really no 'top guns', they all have good and bad points.
It is the understanding of these small differences from gun to gun and their ballistics that will make the difference to you and also explain why some guns seem to work better for you than others even if they are the same class. With nearly 100 firearms to carry into battle you have a lot of options to consider.
The most important thing is to know what works for you, your play-style and the scenario you're going into. You want the edge in battle?
Get to know your weapon intimately.
Squad dismissed!
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*All my in-game values for the guns I discussed came from Symthic
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