Why can't FPS's get reloading right?

[Antiparticle]

What always surprises me about reloading in FPS games is how fast it goes. People can reload their gun consistently in one or two seconds while walking, running, even climbing up ladders... pretty amazing!

 

[Shoqiyqa]

I can't say I've ever noticed reloading to be a problem. Just make sure you always have a full clip and you'll be fine, I'm sure.

I have noticed the problem. Some games are slower than others. Some won't even let you change your mind once you start. Some will, but you have to start again from scratch. I think at least one would actually remember you taking the magazine out and let you resume from there when you switched back.

What you get in return for this awkward reloading is the amazing ability to kick the magazine out of someone's weapon and into the air, catch it in your teeth, drop the magazine out of your own weapon, transfer the ammo from the magazine in your teeth into the one in your hand in 0.01 seconds using only your tongue and then shove it back into your weapon.

By the way, a clip is a strip of metal like a miniature children's slide. You get three clips of ten rounds in each pocket of a bandolier. You have to transfer the ammunition from the clips to magazines before you can use it in most modern weapons.

Clip [http://www.gunpundit.com/2008/762_russian_clip.jpg]

Magazine [http://www.army-technology.com/contractor_images/sacil/4-Magazine-for-n30-shot-5.jpg]

Bandolier [http://www.militaryhistoryworkshop.co.uk/shop/images/uploads/mhw_03-01-08_006.JPG]

You can see people loading weapons with clips in Enemy at the Gates and Saving Private Ryan, and see the empty clip ejected from the fixed magazine in SPR and Full Metal Jacket, but modern stuff is generally loaded with magazines, belts or single rounds.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

If magazine >0 then you only need to replace the magazine because there's still 1 bullet in the chamber. If magazine = 0 then you need to replace the mag AND pull the firing pin because, since it was empty, you have to chamber the 1st bullet. The only game's I've played that get this right are the Call of Duty series, Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 and Crysis.

In the firing routine:

*weapon=>chambered = 0;
animate_bolt_back(weapon_type);

if ( *weapon=>magazine )
{
if ( *weapon=>mag_ammo )
{
*weapon=>mag_ammo--;
animate_bolt_forward(weapon_type);
*weapon=>chambered = 1;
}
}
else animate_bolt_forward();

In reload:

if ( *weapon=>magazine )
{
animate_remove_mag(weapon_type);
*weapon=>magazine = 0;
*ammo_pool=>ammo_type += *weapon=>mag_ammo;
}
if ( !*weapon=>magazine )
{
animate_fit_mag(weapon_type);
*weapon=>magazine = 1;
*weapon=>mag_ammo = *next_mag=>ammo_type;
if ( *ammo_pool=>ammo_type > mag_capacity=>ammo_type )
{
*next_mag=>ammo_type = mag_capacity=>ammo_type;
}
else
{
*next_mag=>ammo_type = *ammo_pool=>ammo_type;
}
*ammo_pool=>ammo_type -= *next_mag=>ammo_type;
}

Okay, so it's a little more complicated than that if you don't want the whole game-world to freeze up while you reload, but that's pretty much it. Work out your own timing issues, damn you. I'm not getting paid for this, you know!

Ducked into cover, you should be able to load one round per second from a heap into a magazine, so if you wanted to programme multiple magazines and transfer ammo from emptiest to fullest to fill them when your pool (boxes and bandoliers) ran out, that'd be a reasonable rate.

From bandolier clips to magazines, you can use a speed-loader (until it breaks) and shove thirty rounds into a mag and change mag in maybe eight seconds.

 

[nick4118]

I understand your complaint but I don't mind losing a tiny bit of realism in exchange for not constantly losing ammo from dropping clips when you have to cancel a reload.

 

[Gunn01]

I think it would be realistic if it was done the way you said. It would be a nice touch, but the fact that we don't have it doesn't bother me.

 

[Wadders]

Well I think what Op suggested would work in more realistic games because, well, it's realistic.

As far as more mainstream shooters go (CoD series etc.) I think the system that they use is much more preferable. Its a case of if it aint broke, don't fix it.

If you put some kind of ultra realistic reload sequence, that varied to allow for any of the events Op mentions, then it would just end up being unnecessary, as the people who don't understand guns wouldn't really care about it, and would just whine about how their reload animations were always fucking about.

 

[sneak_copter]

Maybe its just not that big of a deal?

He's right.