Guns Are Broken AF

[ScoXander]

I've played Zomboid for over 200 hours and I've never used guns. Yesterday one of my best runs ended because I tried to get some Gun Experience.

Why is it that anything other than a shotgun is completely freaking useless. I've never fired a gun in real life, but this game can't convince it impossible for a rookie to headshot a slow moving not dodging zombie that is right in front of the barrel of a rifle.

Are the devs planning on fixing guns in Build 42, I haven't heard anything about that so I don't think so. My guess is that the coding for guns was modeled after Diablo 2's Attack Rating system because it is the same amount of broken.

I had 20 bullets and there was only 1 zombie and I died.

[★Rainmaker★]

If your character has Aiming 0 which by your post he/she absolutely does, that means that your character has never in their life even held a firearm, let alone dealt with safety, aiming, correct posture, how to even hold the weapon, or have zero recoil flinching.

That translates perfectly well to a real life situation too. Even if you take a full minute to put your sights exactly on where you want your bullet to go, if you've never experienced shooting a firearm, you'll miss 9 times out of 10.

I always use firearms and very early too in PZ, and here's how. Get a shotgun, saw it off, and grind Aiming up to at least skill level 6. After that point you can keep on grinding all the way to 10 or use any gun that you want instead.

And since so many players complain about guns being "underpowered" at literally skill ZERO, why is no one complaining about every single other weapon that's also ridiculously bad at skill ZERO?

What's funny is that I do remember someone crying about not being able to oneshot zombies with an underweight character with Axe 0, just because they themselves "like totally could bro".

It's not that complicated. Short answer is git gud.

[ScoXander]

You think PZ is real to life? Just explain to me, how you can miss your target when you have the barrel right on it?

That's what I'm talking about, this zombie was literally 1 inch away from the barrel and the character missed not once but 21 times. That has nothing to do with being a rookie that is RPG Attack Rating, some fake invisible die is cast and says you've missed.

Because if I get a gun and stand an inch from the target with a rifle looking through the scope, I will hit it because that is called physics.

The Devs effed up with gun coding, because like you said the only way a player is ever going to get good with guns is via shotgun. And that ain't a freaking starter weapon for rookies who even thinks that

[★Rainmaker★]

I did mention why but you decided to either ignore it or don't know what it means. Recoil flinching. It's an involuntary reaction that happens before the gun fires and the bullet leaves the barrel. It's the person shooting anticipating recoil and therefore "flinching" just before the trigger is completely pulled.

Another reason why is very simple. A Romero style zombie is not a stationary target. They move constantly, and their heads aren't stationary. I don't care if you're quite literally making muzzle contact with a target like that, if you've never in your life held a firearm, you can still miss, and easily too.

The game represents Aiming 0 exactly as an RPG should. Zero means none, nothing, never even tried. So if at Carpentry 0 you can't build a treehouse, then at Aiming 0 you're absolutely hopeless with firearms.

The only gun that has a hit chance of 100 at Aiming 0 is a sawn-off shotgun, and that makes perfect sense too. Even if you flinch at the recoil that hasn't happened yet, one of those pellets will likely strike the target.

Also shotguns are exceptionally easy to find. They spawn in every single possible firearm location, and police zombies often have a pump action on their back slots.

Instead of complaining about having a character with Aiming 0, you ought to just train your character's Aiming to something higher than 0 and then figure out how easy guns really are in PZ.

[Hannibalingus]

Just need to skill up first bro. It gets better quickly.

[Neskess]

I see that you also did low INT build

[kod77]

Originally posted by ScoXander:

You think PZ is real to life? Just explain to me, how you can miss your target when you have the barrel right on it?

That's what I'm talking about, this zombie was literally 1 inch away from the barrel and the character missed not once but 21 times. That has nothing to do with being a rookie that is RPG Attack Rating, some fake invisible die is cast and says you've missed.

Because if I get a gun and stand an inch from the target with a rifle looking through the scope, I will hit it because that is called physics.

The Devs effed up with gun coding, because like you said the only way a player is ever going to get good with guns is via shotgun. And that ain't a freaking starter weapon for rookies who even thinks that

Same, I don't think someone can be THAT MUCH DUMB-SS to miss a shot from a rifle or a gun 1 inch away from a zombie.

And the "Romero zombies arent a stationary target" - they aren't WWZ or Busan's zombies who can twitch twice crazier than any epileptic patient would, they're slow enough for ANYBODY to aim if not at their head, then at least in their body, and not miss even one shot, and this could be useful to slow the zombie's movement down a little for example.

But no, my character has IQ lower than zero so they miss a shot in the head in a slow ahh reanimated corpse' head wich stands literally half step away from my character's location.


If someone considers the fact that you can miss at least 3 shots in a zombie wich's inch away from you, then we're talking about some real dumb characters, because it's not relaistic at all and doesn't make any sence.
There's a mod called "Advanced Trajectory: Realistic Overhaul", wich lets you do headshots, BUT unlike in the original version of the mod, this one also counts in your character stats like panic level, anxiousness, ect., wich doesn't make the headshots too OP now, and at the same time, you'll finally play as an actual average human vahing hands and enough brains to shoot a targer an inch away from their position...

Don't need practice to do that, it's not a big distance at all, and the zombies, again, aren't that much twitchy.

[★Rainmaker★]

It's still pretty simple. Aiming 0 means what every other skill at 0 means.

So get that skill higher than 0 and watch your character become proficient with pistols and rifles as well.

Or yeah, use a gun mod. I made one because I don't like vanilla guns and I didn't find a good balance with any gun mod that was available.

Another tip would be to use mods that give Traits and Occupations that have Aiming bonuses. Start off at level 1 or 2 and you'll get really good really fast if you use shotguns for some XP grinding.

And it really is a good idea to use shotguns or sawn-off shotguns because PZ has this silly mechanic where you get a lot more XP with them since you can hit 3-4 zombies with one blast.

[FinalPhaseKiller]

Originally posted by ScoXander:

I've played Zomboid for over 200 hours and I've never used guns. Yesterday one of my best runs ended because I tried to get some Gun Experience.

Why is it that anything other than a shotgun is completely freaking useless. I've never fired a gun in real life, but this game can't convince it impossible for a rookie to headshot a slow moving not dodging zombie that is right in front of the barrel of a rifle.

Are the devs planning on fixing guns in Build 42, I haven't heard anything about that so I don't think so. My guess is that the coding for guns was modeled after Diablo 2's Attack Rating system because it is the same amount of broken.

I had 20 bullets and there was only 1 zombie and I died.

try this mod, i felt the same way as you when i started playing ans used this mod. The vanilla system has grown on me however and i dont use the mod anymore. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3036878362

[FinalPhaseKiller]

correction: this is the mod i used, idk the difference https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895102994

[fluxtorrent]

"You can't miss something an inch away"

Yes, you absolutely can, especially if your barrel is longer than an inch.

The irony of "I've never used guns but it can't be THAT hard" idiocy...

[hardy_conrad]

This again... Okay, aiming zero is the same as every other skill at zero? It really isn't because if long blunt zero functioned the same way as aiming, any time you tried taking a swing at a zombie with a baseball bat you'd end up bashing yourself in the head. Every other weapon skill at zero means less damage. Aiming is unique in that at level zero (and indeed, even higher levels depending) you don't do less damage. You do zilch.

I've said it before but not recently so I don't mind repeating myself. What's going on is there's a subset of firearms enthusiasts who get a kick from declaring "in the real world, this skill is so unbelievably difficult and demanding that unless you've spent ten years in military training (like me!) merely looking at a gun will cause your head to explode". It's an ego thing. Now, this is an assertion on my part because I haven't provided evidence. So I will now provide some evidence, transforming it from an assertion into an argument.

If firearms are SO demanding, how the heck are there so many headlines about toddlers killing people when ma and pa leave the loaded glock lying next to the crib?

[FinalPhaseKiller]

Originally posted by hardy_conrad:

If firearms are SO demanding, how the heck are there so many headlines about toddlers killing people when ma and pa leave the loaded glock lying next to the crib?

it's those video games the kids play.

[★Rainmaker★]

Same reason as to why someone who doesn't have a driver's license and has never driven a car before is fully capable of running someone over and unaliving them.

Not the fault of the car, nor a huge endorsement on how cars are extremely effective weapons against human beings, even though they are.

Or maybe you're seriously arguing that those toddlers were actively taking aim with those guns instead of them being accidents?

[fluxtorrent]

"someone didnt miss once, so guns are easy"

[★Rainmaker★]

"Rambo one-arm hip fired an M60 and hit every target so my Aiming 0 character should be headshotting fools with the first varmint rifle he finds!"