Why I'm so bad with guns?

[RoséOzma]

I point at the zombie and just, shoot the pistol. Shooted 8 times, missed 7. I can't fail a shot with a zombie at 3cm from me, this is not XCOM (I THINK). I'm doing something wrong, what it is?

[Shurenai]

It's XCOM, but with player involvement.

With low aiming levels, You're going to miss. A lot. The only gun you'll be able to reliably hit the broad side of a barn with is a shotgun.

Beyond that, Plant your feet- Don't move when you're aiming. As you're aiming at a zombie, it builds up chance to hit. If you move, chance lowers. Options->Display->Second section, "Aim Outline"; Enable it. Red is bad, green is good.

Panic also affects chance to hit- If you're extremely panicked, you're going to miss a lot. I think other moodles like pain/exhaustion/tiredness also affect it to some degree or anotehr.


At aiming 2 or less, don't bother with pistols. Till Aiming 5, don't bother with rifles. That said, you can use a pistol to some extent by knocking a zombie over and standing on top of it which pins it beneath you, you can then aim down at it and build up basically full accuracy if you have the time.

[Monkey Magic]

You are not a soldier, you are a random scrub, The closest you will get to a char with any experience in firearms is to take the Veteran, or Police base class - and even they are meh at it. You will, however improve with time - the more you aim, shoot and reload, those skills rank up in experience.

To start with, use shotguns, as those are spread shot and are mostly likely to hit at lower levels. Also, keep an eye on the colour indicator around selected targets. Red is poor, Green is good. Aim, wait and shoot when the green is vibrant and you will not miss.

Once you are confident with the shotgun, you can try out handguns. There are also some rifles and stuff, but those are rarer. Remember though, you are not a soldier, you will never be an expert, just won't suck as bad.

[Apocryphox]

I play as a police officer and i can barely shoot a zombie which is 2m in front of me, lol. It's really hard to aim sometimes, even if the silhouette is completely green.

[Hell_Ryzer]

every think your character is panicking bc if your character gets panicked they start to miss a lot more and if there hungry or thirsty it also adds up to lowering there shots more. specially if you got perks that make you panic more

[RoséOzma]

I'm learning new things here. I didn't know you had to "build" the shot aiming a few seconds. Obviusly, my flip burguers dude with depression is not an expert shooter tho! Thanks for honest feedback, I will improve for sure.

This game have a lot of stuff to learn.

[ProtecTron]

When you create a new survivor, always level up aiming skill using a shotgun, it's like the first time your character touches a gun, so it is reflexed this way in the game...

I've some real experience with guns and some people is just... dangerous... even when dissassembling a 9mm pistol. Or shooting an FN-Fal almost at their own feet...

[TheSuit]

Guns are RNG in Zomboid.
But when you hit level 5 aiming - your pistol will be amazing.

Use shotgun to level up aiming

[Multihog]

Frankly this part of the game is just poorly implemented and unrealistic. It doesn't make any sense that anyone would miss 7 out of 8 shots on a zombie right in front of them. One of the reasons guns are so strong IRL is because they're so easy to use. Anyone can use a gun, especially against a zombie that shambles towards them slowly and predictably.

[Multihog]

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

Originally posted by Multihog:

Frankly this part of the game is just poorly implemented and unrealistic. It doesn't make any sense that anyone would miss 7 out of 8 shots on a zombie right in front of them. One of the reasons guns are so strong IRL is because they're so easy to use. Anyone can use a gun, especially against a zombie that shambles towards them slowly and predictably.

You don't miss 7 of 8 shots if you just take the time to aim instead of run and gun / spray and pray. It's not a generic FPS.

You can usually hit around 3/5 at level 0 with a pistol, albeit many of those won't be brain shots.

That sounds more reasonable.

[Death]

Think of it like a survival horror game where you need to plant your feet and wait a second for the aim to focus instead of treating it like a shooter and you'll have much better results.

[dustbiter]

Originally posted by Multihog:

Frankly this part of the game is just poorly implemented and unrealistic. It doesn't make any sense that anyone would miss 7 out of 8 shots on a zombie right in front of them. One of the reasons guns are so strong IRL is because they're so easy to use. Anyone can use a gun, especially against a zombie that shambles towards them slowly and predictably.

This is true, the devs have this nonsensical idea where you have to build up lots of skill level before you can use bigger and better guns with decent accuracy. M16 IRL is a soldier's weapon and easy to achieve fair accuracy at 100 meters, but in zomboid you need to be an expert(skill 7/8) before your accuracy is decent... while shooting full targets a few meters away.

[Multihog]

Originally posted by dustbiter:

Originally posted by Multihog:

Frankly this part of the game is just poorly implemented and unrealistic. It doesn't make any sense that anyone would miss 7 out of 8 shots on a zombie right in front of them. One of the reasons guns are so strong IRL is because they're so easy to use. Anyone can use a gun, especially against a zombie that shambles towards them slowly and predictably.

This is true, the devs have this nonsensical idea where you have to build up lots of skill level before you can use bigger and better guns with decent accuracy. M16 IRL is a soldier's weapon and easy to achieve fair accuracy at 100 meters, but in zomboid you need to be an expert(skill 7/8) before your accuracy is decent... while shooting full targets a few meters away.

Yes, it's unrealistic. Guns are point and shoot. Very easy to anyone with some degree of coordination. It's not that hard to line up the crosshairs and hit a predictably and slowly approaching target. Handguns especially should be easy to use.

Getting used to the recoil of various guns might take a while, but that's about it.

It makes no sense that a shotgun is highly reliable yet every other type of gun is hopelessly inaccurate. It's not like firing a shotgun IRL launches a 100 degree cone of pellets that blankets everything in front of the shooter. No, the spread is obviously very tight at all but long ranges. Shooting a shotgun and an assault rifle should really be no different in terms of accuracy at the ranges relevant in Zomboid most of the time.

[Multihog]

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

Expecting to 360 no scope zombies without any skill in an RPG also doesn't make sense.

The shotgun has to be the way it is for now because if the angle were made much smaller, it'd effectively be reduced to acting like a single bullet. Until the system is changed, it's going to remain wonky.

Yes, game balance is a factor, of course. It's hard to have a sense of progression if you start from a good level.

[Death]

Originally posted by Multihog:

Originally posted by dustbiter:

This is true, the devs have this nonsensical idea where you have to build up lots of skill level before you can use bigger and better guns with decent accuracy. M16 IRL is a soldier's weapon and easy to achieve fair accuracy at 100 meters, but in zomboid you need to be an expert(skill 7/8) before your accuracy is decent... while shooting full targets a few meters away.

Yes, it's unrealistic. Guns are point and shoot. Very easy to anyone with some degree of coordination. It's not that hard to line up the crosshairs and hit a predictably and slowly approaching target. Handguns especially should be easy to use.

Getting used to the recoil of various guns might take a while, but that's about it.

It makes no sense that a shotgun is highly reliable yet every other type of gun is hopelessly inaccurate. It's not like firing a shotgun IRL launches a 100 degree cone of pellets that blankets everything in front of the shooter. No, the spread is obviously very tight at all but long ranges. Shooting a shotgun and an assault rifle should really be no different in terms of accuracy at the ranges relevant in Zomboid most of the time.

So a couple of things here.

1. Landing headshots on a moving target isn't as easy as you apparently think it is. This is why military and police are trained to shoot center mass. It's a bigger target that is easier to hit even while moving.

2. In most zombie media zombies are slowly shambling in a static fashion. Their heads are bobbing and swaying and therefore isn't really all that predictable.

That's really the crux here. I think most people aren't thinking about the fact that only headshots kill zombies and headshots aren't easy targets in the best of situations, so we aren't talking about all you have to do is hit center mass and win.

Also as stated, it's an RPG, so having to build your skills should be expected.

[dustbiter]

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

Expecting to 360 no scope zombies without any skill in an RPG also doesn't make sense.

The shotgun has to be the way it is for now because if the angle were made much smaller, it'd effectively be reduced to acting like a single bullet. Until the system is changed, it's going to remain wonky.

No there isn't an expectation to breeze through zombies with guns. Why is the skill requirement for a M16 set so unrealistically high at around 7 or 8? It's so high that even if you properly hold still and charge your aim you'll still have horrible accuracy while shooting at standing zombies a few meters away while your character is in standing shoulder.

I know this is unrealistic because I have used the M16 IRL. It was easy to achieve fair accuracy at small targets at 100 meters as a total beginner to guns. And logically the military would never use it as a standard weapon if it was so hard to use and had horrible accuracy unless you were a very skilled expert.

I get that it's a game but the numbers need a lot of adjustment. When I find a shotgun in zomboid I know it's going to work like in classic doom with massive spread and damage. Meanwhile if I happen to be lucky enough to find a working M16 early in the game, I know it's going to be useless to me without expert skill level, and I have played the game enough to know that even after gunning down hundreds of zombies with a shotgun and gaining xp in the ideal way, I'd still only have around 5 or 6 aim.

See recent reddit threads like this exist:
https://www.reddit.com/r/projectzomboid/comments/w67z9m/m16_sucks/

People aren't happy with balance and numbers of the guns.