Why can't FPS's get reloading right?

[JohnSmith]

On the other hand a realistic reloading system would mean throwing away whatever bullets are still in your magazine whenever you reload, or a ridiculously time consuming process of removing those bullets and saving them for a rainy day. When you would have another time consuming process of reloading a magazine.

 

[Andy_Panthro]

There is a limit to the amount of accuracy that people want in their FPS games. Wasn't that long ago that there wasn't a need for reload at all.

 

[Xan Krieger]

The weapons in games that most often get it right are the shotguns where you load one shell at a time. You can stop reloading at any time and fire what you've got. In some cases in Halo I would fire the one shell I had loaded, load another one, fire, and so forth.

 

[MarsProbe]

On the other hand a realistic reloading system would mean throwing away whatever bullets are still in your magazine whenever you reload, or a ridiculously time consuming process of removing those bullets and saving them for a rainy day. When you would have another time consuming process of reloading a magazine.

That, and it wouldn't be any fun. If I came across a reloading system more complicated than Gears of War's, I'd get fed up.

If people really want a realistic loading system, they could always just enlist...

 

[Kogarian]

....The Halo series has always been one of the best games for quick reload times.

Then he waited for the response.
Did I really say it, he asked himself pensivley.
Yes I believe I did and it feels good to tell the truth, he stubbornly reminded himself.

Halo does have good reloading style, and it works well in its games. I enjoy it in the game series, but that's also because you need massive amounts of bullets to down others on multiplayer for most weapons. On CoD4, however, you only need a few well placed shots as the weapons have a higher damage-vs-heal/defense ratio.

It depends on the game universe/setting, is what I'm trying to say.

*I edited the first sentence for content.

 

[Avatar Roku]

then Vrex paused realising that if he said what he was about to say this would offically mean he will have beaten the dead horse one too many times. His fingers shook as he reached for the keys before him, they shone an eerie glow that gave the effect of a seductive light. The thrill of knowing what he was doing he allowed to enter him,
I shouldn't be doing this, he thought frowning in frustration.
He continued to question whether or not he should say what he was about to say and if peope would even notice, after all he had been saying it for a good long while and no one payed in any more attention. The keyboard beckoned to him telling him to type away.. he could only stare in grim facination. He wanted the keyboard... he NEEDED to type those letters, now more than anything he needed to type those letters.
What the hell, he thought, a man is a fool to fight his own desires.
So after a final reflective pause he finally began typing:

....The Halo series has always been one of the best games for quick reload times.

Then he waited for the response.

A smile slowly crossed Deathsong17's face. I have been waiting for this day for a long, long time, he thought. Then, he carefully typed:
"You'r a Halo fanboy, aren't you, Vrex?"

The shock came only briefly for Vrex when he saw the response typed before him. He raised an eyebrow quizzically. The shock of the impact quickly vanished when he realised that this outcome was not entirely unexpected. So he thought for a moment about what to say next. He realised quickly that his answer would need to be brief. The question was before him, all he needed now was an answer. He stopped wondering and developed an accute sense of pride in his anwser. With no regrets Vrex turned to the keyboard and typed his answer smiling with a sense of pride.

..why yes I guess I am.

Orannis gazed over Vrex's posts with an utter lack of surprise. "I should feel angry", he thought, "I hate fanboys...but then again, I am one." He then postulated that there are two kinds of fanboys: those who simply like their game more than a normal fan, and those who are hostile to those who do not like it. He wondered how to word this to Vrex, and eventually decided on:

So what?

 

[Erana]

I have been the victim of URD on more than one occasion. Single or multi it doesn't matter. Although the devs aren't to blame for it. I should know how long it takes to reload. I should be able to keep an eye on my ammo. So how can I blame the devs when it is clearly not thier fault that I suck?

Urd is amused by your anguish. Blame her.

 

[nettkenneth]

me i don't worry about the reload sequence aqs long as i have bullets to fire until that guy with the shotgun pwns me I CARE MINIMAL

 

[Bureacreative]

" What do you think? Has reloading like this ever resulted in your untimely demise?"

The major fault with this argument is that it's not your demise, it's just dying in a video game. It really doesn't matter, and a more realistic reloading system would take ages to write. But rainbow 6 vegas 2 does do reloading pretty well: if you have a full gun you can reload and the round in the chamber will stay ther, as with the mp5n, it starts with 30 in the clip plus chamber, hit reload, you got 31.

 

[The Political Gamer]

Team Fortress 2 did it right. Most of the reload times are very fast, some never even reload, and the guns that take long times to reload are so powerful that they require that reload time to make them balanced.

 

[Da_Schwartz]

I guess.. I mean if you really wanted to analyze fps's like that then you should also make the point that it should take alot less then 6 m16 rounds to the neck or chest to bring an opponent down.

 

[not a zaar]

Most gamers aren't gun freaks who care about this sort of thing. Reloading in games exists specifically to create a momentary vulnerability and you should take that into account as part of your gaming strategy.

 

[pha kin su pah]

Reloading in games exists specifically to create a momentary vulnerability and you should take that into account as part of your gaming strategy.

 

[Ushario]

Its just a matter of the animations, they could use multiple animations for the reloading but that may result in it looking choppy and segmented.

Keeping it as one animation makes things easier, and until that animation has completed you still techincally have your ammo, you just aren't able to fire during the animation.

Its a double edged sword, it can save you or it can be your doom. I tend to reload early and often so it ends up saving me a lot.

 

[bue519]

Most gamers aren't gun freaks who care about this sort of thing. Reloading in games exists specifically to create a momentary vulnerability and you should take that into account as part of your gaming strategy.

Yeah that vulnerability does make you lean on your team a bit more. I just wish more games had a reloading system like COD4 where if you complete use up a clip it takes longer to reload than just reloading when you have more than 0 shots left. This atleast makes me reload when I have one or two shots left so I don't get caught with my pants down during a reload.

 

[fix-the-spade]

If games did reloading properly you would not be able to cancel it, you've just dropped the magazine out and unless you had a round in the chamber you are completely bloody defenceless.

Anyway, right is a subjective thing. I prefer the method TF2 and Killzone 1 took where cancelling is impossible because it's your gun's ammunition, games where your magazine magically zaps back into place strike me as utterly retarded, they may as well use the Goldeneye down up system.
If it's a game where you have to reload then it's a tactical factor and should be treated as such, reloading should equal unable to fire unless using a weapon that can be partially laoded like a shotgun.

 

[Zersy]

What's with FPS's and reloading guns? On cod4, for example, when you reload you have to do the whole process in one go instead of in a few stages. It's just annoying in multiplayer when you start to reload, realize you're not safe, have to cancel it, and then when you resume reloading you start from the beginning even if you already dropped the clip to the floor, or maybe even inserted a new clip but failed to pull the firing pin! The timing could be a matter of life or death. Is it just to hard to program clever reloading? What do you think? Has reloading like this ever resulted in your untimely demise?

I thought walking over ammo and magically absorbing was a more bigger issue ?

 

[elitecrewer]

I'm actually in agreement with the OP -> it's something that should be fairly easy, and would constitute a big improvement in FPS gaming. Imagine if the first gameplay video for COD:MW2 showed *proper* reloading, how impressed would we be? Counter Strike tends to be quite good with minutiae of things like that, one of the reasons I love it. For a 1999 mod anyway.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Ugh, because that would mean having to add variables to determine where in the stage of reloading you are and segment the animation. Its possible for developers to do it, but I'd rather they worked on something else with there time.

 

[matnatz]

Now that you've pointed this out it's really going to annoy me. Thanks alot OP.